Every Hour I Need Thee

August 8, 2012

It has been a rough week or so. It seems my children have forgotten everything we’ve been working so hard to teach them. Fighting, whining, crying, screaming, bullying, not listening, lying, disobeying, and the list goes on. I just couldn’t figure out what was happening. We have troubles here and there with each of the areas listed above; God knows my children are not angels. But all of them, every day, for days on end?!?

Our trip to the creamery for our weekly milk run put the final nail in the coffin so to speak. It was a disastrous trip that ended with me taking all three children to the van, buckling them in, and locking the doors so I could go in and finish purchasing the milk. Normally, we get these really tasty raspberry fig bars as a treat but that certainly did not happen this trip. I returned to van two minutes later and we were on our way home. An annoyed lecture took up a portion of the 20 minute trip home, and silence took up the other portion. The question I still had to answer was, Why? I knew we had been really busy lately and Daddy hasn’t been home much, but we have gone through moments like this before and did not have this level of…whatever this was. So what changed?

Today I was determined to get us back on track. The morning did not start off as usual but by 8:30 am I had us back on our normal daily routine. When lunch time rolled around and we did not have any nastiness I knew it had to have something to do with our routine. What changed in our routine over the past couple of weeks that could have caused such a breakdown in civility? Prayer and devotions! For the past couple of weeks I have been neglecting our daily devotion and prayer time for the sake of moving on to the next thing on our busy schedules. And we were finally paying the price.

Lessoned learned? I hope so!

PRA'YER, n. In a general sense, the act of asking for a favor, and particularly with earnestness.

1. In worship, a solemn address to the Supreme Being, consisting of adoration, or an expression of our sense of God's glorious perfections, confession of our sins, supplication for mercy and forgiveness, intercession for blessings on others, and thanksgiving, or an expression of gratitude to God for his mercies and benefits. A prayer however may consist of a single petition, and it may be extemporaneous, written or printed.

2. A formula of church service, or of worship, public or private.

3. Practice of supplication.

As he is famed for mildness, peace and prayer.

4. That part of a memorial or petition to a public body, which specifies the request or thing desired to be done or granted, as distinct from the recital of facts or reasons for the grant. We say, the prayer of the petition is that the petitioner may be discharged from arrest.

I need Thee every hour, most gracious Lord; No tender voice like Thine can peace afford. I need Thee every hour, stay Thou nearby; Temptations lose their pow’r when Thou art nigh. I need Thee every hour, in joy or pain; Come quickly and abide, or life is vain. I need Thee every hour; teach me Thy will; And Thy rich promises in me fulfill. I need Thee every hour, most Holy One; Oh, make me Thine indeed, Thou blessed Son.

I need Thee, oh, I need Thee; Every hour I need Thee; Oh, bless me now, my Savior, I come to Thee.

Leaders in Training

August 6, 2012

This year we will be working through Doorposts’ Plants Grown Up study. I can’t call it a curriculum because although there are sections with activities and projects to do, we will mostly be studying God’s Word to see what He has to say on each of the characteristics. I have been excited to use this study with my children (of course the girls will use Polished Cornerstones) since I first heard about it almost two years ago. Not having been trained to be a Godly woman by my parents I felt ill-prepared to train my own, and felt I needed a little guidance from a seasoned parent (okay a lot of guidance).

Though the name comes from Psalms 144:12-15, the whole study is based on 2 Peter 1:5-8. So as I was preparing my schedule for the new “school” year I was pleased to see the first unit of study was on Leadership. We have been telling our son that he is an example for his sisters; that they watch him and imitate what he does and says; that he should be modeling proper behavior. That never seemed to register with him.

He of course would need his own Bible for all the Scripture he would be researching, so my husband and I planned a day to take the family to the local Christian bookstore to purchase one. We did our research and ran the choices by our son. After picking the Bible he wanted, all that was left was to wait for the shopping trip. That day was today.

One of the mini-studies is on Overseeing Household Duties. Today would be a busy day; in addition to our normal morning activities, I had a doctor’s appointment. Everything needed to get done before we could meet Daddy for lunch and go to the store. So I was going to exercise my managerial skills and delegate the morning routine to my son. Time to let my son exercise his Leadership muscles. I let him know that it would be his responsibility to make sure everything was done by the time I got home. I let Grandma know the children were expected to complete their tasks after breakfast and that The Little Man knew what to do. I left the house knowing I would come home to find everything in order.

Three hours later I come home to find my son still in his pajamas playing with his sisters. I hurriedly (the appointment was not supposed to take three hours – now I was running behind schedule) took a look around and decided things looked good from where I stood. I quickly got shoes on my daughter’s feet, told my son to go change, and wished my Mom a happy birthday. As we were walking out the door I asked my son if he got everything done. He assured me he made sure his sisters cleaned their room and brushed their teeth and that everything was taken care of. I should have asked for more detail but I didn’t. I was floating on the satisfaction that I had a budding leader on my hands.

As I sit here writing this my husband’s words ‘Trust but verify’ are ringing in my ears. Upon returning home with two cranky little girls and one rammy boy, I discovered that the only thing he made sure was done was that his sisters brushed their teeth. The bedrooms were and mess, the bathroom had not been wiped down and he did not do his Monday chore. Good thing we have many an activity to do to help develop the household management skill.

I thought about letting the unfinished tasks go until Tuesday but decided he would only learn to put off until tomorrow what he should have done today, so off he went to clean the rooms and complete his chore.

LE'ADER, n.

1. One that leads or conducts; a guide; a conductor.

2. A chief; a commander; a captain.

3. One who goes first.

4. The chief of a party or faction; as the leader of the whigs or of the tories; a leader of the Jacobins.

5. a performer who leads a band or choir in music.

“And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.” – 2 Peter 1:5-7