Another Summer of Devotionals

This morning on my Facebook memories there was a quote from my then 12 old daughter over morning devotionals.

Me: Why do we fold our hands when we pray?

Daughter: Because the grown-ups don’t want us to do anything naughty while their eyes are closed.

Me: (Crickets chirp in the stunned silence)

I laughed, hit the share button, and remembered that summer is almost here and it's time that we start summer devos again.  

We’ve been doing this every summer since my younger daughter was four (read about our faltering start).  It’s more than just a habit, it’s a pleasure. When school is in, we study Bible as an academic subject, but when school is out, it would be easy for Bible study to fall behind.  

This summer my girls will turn 10 and 17.  And every morning, as soon as breakfast is over, even before we clear the plates and do the dishes, we recite whatever verses we are working on memorizing, read a short passage of scripture together and talk about what comes up.  Our school year Bible study focuses on learning; our summers focus on becoming.

We’ve done Daniel and worked through Colossians (both of which are available to you free online Daniel / Colossians).  This summer we are focusing on what it means to be a woman of God. We’ll be looking at Deborah, Hannah, Jael, Miriam, Huldah, Ruth and Esther.  Then turning to the New Testament we will talk about Mary, Mary and Martha, Mary Magdalene, Lydia, Phoebe, and Priscilla.

This isn’t spiritually easy ground.  We’ll discuss the ethics of violence in Jael’s story and our own ethics as we progress in Tae Keon Do.  We’ll work on when it is right to lead and when we should submit with Deborah, Huldah, and Miriam. We’ll talk about courage from the perspective of Mary and Mary Magdalene.  And what it means to be both a female evangelist with Priscilla’s story. We’ll talk about loyalty, God’s and ours with Ruth and Esther. And we are going to learn about prayer, poetry and “reversal of fortune” with Hannah and Mary.  I hope to share some insights with you as we go along.

It’s going to be a wonderful summer.  This is my last full summer to have my eldest home.  Soon after her 17th birthday, she’ll head off to the University of Wyoming.  But for these last precious days, the three of us girls will take that 10 minutes in the morning to have devotionals.  Take the chance to listen to my girls, to hear their hearts and know their minds. To recite God’s word with them and think about His story together.  Time goes so fast and for us summer devos are priceless.

If you are looking for Bible study material for your own kids, you are welcome to use our online material on Daniel or Colossians or we have an entire semester's worth of FREE curriculum just for our subscribers!  Subscribe here!

Maggie, Aretha and Kyla-Marriages in conflict over God

Let's imagine an ordinary Monday...

You wake up with a beautiful idea, a plan, a conviction from God. And you are ready to get started.  But then you remember that the last time you had one of these brilliant ideas your husband squashed you like a bug.  He hasn't even woken up and you can feel your resentment building.  You start flipping bacon and by the time he stumbles towards his morning cup of joe, your mood has turned bitter.  You've  already had the argument with him in your head, so why say anything at all!

Is that your story? 

When I wrote last week's post about what to do when you feel your husband isn't on board with your desire to serve God, I had lots of great conversation on Facebook, on the blog and in person. These talks taught me that this is even more difficult and controversial a topic than I imagined.  

How do I obey God when my husband isn't on board?

“How do I obey God when my husband isn’t on board?”

Even through the computer I could hear the despair in her voice.  I’ve been in “women’s ministry” a very long time, basically the whole of my adult life and it’s a question I’ve heard before.  I’ve heard it whispered as a woman of God told a hard truth about her husband.  I’ve heard it wailed as an angry woman complained about a godly man that she couldn’t get to do what she wanted.  I’ve heard a baby Christian wonder out loud how she is supposed to implement what she is learning in her non-Christian home. 

Some Bible questions are easy to answer (Does God love you? Yes.  No matter your situation the answer is always yes.) but some like this one are thorny.  I can’t begin to help a woman come to an answer without knowing her, her situation, and her husband.  And dear reader, as much as I think about you and pray for you, I don’t KNOW you.  But we can talk about some principles straight from God’s word so you can apply them to your own relationship with God and your husband.

A Sacrifice of Thanksgiving

The Holiday of Thanksgiving might be over, but as Christians we know that we should have an "attitude of gratitude" all year round.  In an attempt to foster gratefulness in my children, we already say something we are thankful for every morning on the way to school.  Lately, though, I've been thinking we can do more than that.  In the Old Testament, the Israelite people made peace offerings, including offerings of thanksgiving (Leviticus 7), and out of that the term "sacrifice of thanksgiving" came into being.  While it sometimes referred to the actual offering of an animal and leavened or unleavened bread, the phrase also came to signify the many ways we can express our thankfulness to God. 

Active Submission

My congregation is doing a marriage class on Sunday mornings.  One day, our teacher said something that impacted me a lot.  He told the husbands that if they want to understand how hard it is for their wives to submit to them, they only need to think about how hard it is for they themselves to submit to God.  I appreciated his comment right off because it made me feel better about my struggles with submission.  It's not just that I'm an outspoken shrew of a woman.  I'm human, and humans have a hard time with submitting.  As time went on, I began to see the importance of the parallel between our submission to our heavenly Father and to our earthly husbands.  

Suffering and Submission

I don't celebrate Lent. For that matter I don't celebrate any holidays in a religious fashion. I have to admit to being more familiar with the casual giving up of chocolate (or some other small thing) than the more serious 40 days of limited fasting.  Nonetheless I find Lent fascinating. It's the only season of the year where people embrace the concept of suffering with Christ, an idea that permeates our New Testament.  Peter urges his diverse group of Asian Christians to accept their suffering not just as one aspect of an unfair world but as a way of following of Christ (1 Peter 2:21).

What's Best for Him

I love my husband desperately.  This became clearer than ever when he made a recent business trip overseas. Finding out that six days was going to turn into ten, I cried bitter tears.  It was foolish, but I couldn't help it.  I need him that much.  The days leading up to his return found me thinking of what I could do to make his homecoming great. Cleaning my bedroom was a monumental task. (Ask Helene; she helped). I made sure the sweet tea had the massive amount of sugar he loves.  When he finally arrived at eleven at night, I went to the car to greet him in the subfreezing temperatures.  I love my husband, and I wanted home to be a place of peace and happiness for him.  

The Other Side of Service

I loathe Vacation Bible School.  I have lots of reasons, some valid, some trivial.  I think it is a relic of a bygone era that doesn't meet the evangelistic needs of the Church today.  I think cookies and Kool-aid at eight in the evening is a really bad idea, especially since many kids are already up past their bedtime.  Loud silly songs grate on my nerves and don't seem to serve any educational purpose.  If I had my way, we would find some other way to reach the children in our neighborhoods for Christ.  So last year, I helped prepare for VBS and taught one of the classes.

Making Vows

Have you ever read something and believed that it merited further thought, but the ideas in it were just too horrific for deeper consideration?  Earlier this year I read such a story in Judges 11 concerning a man named Jephthah who makes a rash vow.  I considered writing an article about it at that time, but just couldn't do it.  Recently I was reading Proverbs 20:25 which says, "It is a trap for a man to say rashly, 'It is holy!' And after the vows to make inquiry."  When I read these words, this story came back to haunt me, and I just couldn't let it go this time.  In this blog, I'll first briefly summarize this chapter then discuss how these ideas apply to us.

When Husbands Go Wrong: Abigail

When I was in junior high, I had some friends who were not very nice.  They made fun of other people, even people who really couldn't defend themselves.  Sometimes I just stood by quietly and let the teasing go on. Sometimes I joined in.  There came a point when I realized that if I claimed to be a Christian, I could not behave that way.  I didn't want to lose my friends, so I tried to talk them out of being so mean.  I had a very lonely year.  Instead of stopping the sin, they stopped being my friends.  I could not influence them for good.  I'm sure my efforts were very immature, but sometimes a person can't be convinced to do the right thing.  What if that person is your husband? 

Her Part of the Bargain

Have you ever made a bargain with God?  Standing by a bed in a hospital, have you ever promised you would read your Bible every day or give money to a missionary if God would just make this come out right?  Have you got down on your knees and begged God for a job, a child, a marriage and laid out on the table just what you would do if He came through for you?  In the extremity of our lives we are willing to promise anything, offer anything, sacrifice anything for our heart's desire.  

Powerful Submission

In the first two parts of our series on women under authority we examined the powerful defiance of the Hebrew midwives and the hopeful faith shown by Jochebed.  Each of these stories focuses on our response to legitimate authority used in illegitimate ways.  The last tale in this trio leads us in a different direction towards submission not only to God but also to legitimate authority.   

Helpless Hope

In the first installment in our three part series on being a woman under authority, we looked at the story of Shiphrah and Puah, the Hebrew midwives who defied Pharaoh and refused to kill the baby boys they delivered.  They illustrate the power of a woman of God to challenge the Dick Dastardlys of the world.  However there are times when we find ourselves powerless rather than powerful.   

Fearless Defiance

The world lies to women all the time about what it means to be a person under authority.    A maze of confusion awaits us as we try to balance all the conflicting voices in our lives.  Elders and elderly parents, husbands and bosses, all compete for our attention and allegiance, inspiring or indulging our fear. The question of who we will listen to is a complex one. Finding the way to submit with an open heart to the proper authority while standing firm against those who pressure us to do wrong is a puzzle. However diving into the opening of Exodus, we glimpse three clear paths through this maze.  In this series we will explore three sets of women and how they interacted with the authority in their lives.