Love Him First

”Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates.” Deuteronomy 6:4-9

God has really been dealing with me as a parent lately. I read a blog the other day that was centered around this verse. Have you ever noticed that the command to love God was before the command to talk to your kids about Him? Is it because maybe we're supposed to feed our souls before we try feeding our children's souls. Maybe the training of our children should come as an overflow of what we do in our daily quiet times.

I can't effectively teach my children or even care for my children if I'm not daily connected to God in some way. Last week I posted on my own personal blog about malnourishment. The Holy Spirit convicted my heart that I wasn't spending enough time in the Word. Maybe that's why I've been so irritable to my kids lately.

God doesn't care about outward attempts at perfection, He doesn't care about promises of acting better, all He cares about is what's in our heart. Does He have our whole heart, does He have free reign to make every single decision for us even in our parenting skills. Sometimes I am guilty of hearing the word, being convicted and saying "Oh that's me, I am going to change....tomorrow...." I don't want to just promise to change, I want to make a conscious effort to change my ways, God is clearly trying to help me be a better mom am I willing to 1st admit that I need help and then embrace God's help and let Him make all the decisions.

Yes..I'm ready now.