Tuesday, December 10, 2013

The Byer Family

Listen to this Devotional.

Colossians 2:2-10

I want their hearts to be encouraged and united in love, so that they may have all the riches of assured understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I am saying this so that no one may deceive you with plausible arguments. For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, and I rejoice to see your morale and the firmness of your faith in Christ. As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority.

Devotional

Paul’s words mirror our hearts when parenting our children; we want them to keep their faith in a world where faith is often ridiculed and challenged. When talking about Paul’s words with our children, we asked them “Do you believe God loves you? Do you talk about God with your friends? Is it hard to remember your faith when you are not at home or church?” The first question our youngest son answered with a whole hearted ‘yes’. When we asked him “How do you know God loves you?” he simply answered ‘because we are His children.’ The second two questions we directed again to our oldest son and he admitted he rarely talks about God outside of home and church. We then asked ‘When you talk about Christmas with your friends, do you remember why we celebrate Christmas?’ and he honestly answered “no, we talk about what gifts we got.” It’s hard, isn’t it, to ‘see to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit…’ as Paul warns. We work and pray for our children to have a relationship with our Holy Father, in a world where homage is paid more to the ‘haves and material wants’ of the world. At nine, my oldest child already knows that the world outside of our home is not very open to his faith. The six year old has not gotten there, yet. And for our little girls, we fear their ability to ‘continue to live their lives in him’ will be tried at an even earlier age as having older siblings exposes them to ‘human tradition’ rather than our faith. In our home, we pray, we give thanks, we ask for forgiveness. As parents we want ‘their hearts to be encouraged’, but even as adults we struggle. We do not make service as much as we should, we are not as involved as others, we are not doing all we can to keep them ‘rooted and built up in Him’; we feel we are too busy. This Christmas, we pray we find our way back to Him and the knowledge of His mystery. As we wait for Christmas Day, this advent season, we pray He forgives us and guides us back. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Additional Readings

Isaiah 57:14-19; Psalm 62; John 12:27-36