What if discipleship occured?

This past weekend, for the second straight year, Sarah & I were able to get our niece & nephew (Alexis, 13 & Jordan, 11) to spend a few days with us. This is something I think we all enjoy, but I don't think the kids know how much we love this time with them.

With me having knee surgery, then Sarah being in the hospital for two weeks, I had reached a certain level of burn-out. I just wanted a day to completely relax and had not been able to achieve that at all during the Christmas holidays. I had it all planned out that Sunday would be my day. I took that day "off" from my church duties and had planned a full sabbath day of rest.

It turns out that Alexis and Jordan had gotten their own Bibles for Christmas and they brought them to our house because they wanted to take them to church. Side note, I'm glad we have a church going reputation. Once they told me this, I knew there was no-way I was going to take a sabbath day. I told Sarah that if they were anxious or hungry to go to church, then I wasn't going to stop them.

Well, as fate would have it, I got a stomach bug Sunday morning. However, thankfully, God had other plans. Sarah and I decided that we would just do a little devotional with them and share some stuff with them from our heart.

We had them read from Genesis 22 and then we discussed the story of Abraham and Isaac. We then told them that God said in Phillipians 4:19 that "God will supply all of our needs according to His riches in Glory".

We explained to them that God is rich in love, mercy, peace, joy, hope, healing, money, forgiveness, patience, and everything else we will ever need. Therefore, just as God met Abraham & Isaac's need, He will meet ours and He never disappoints.

We then explained some unique and exciting ways that God has personally met our needs. It was a great time for Sarah and I to reflect on God's blessings on our lives, but also, it was a great way to instill faith in Alexis and Jordan.

After we finished our discussion, we took the time to ask Alexis & Jordan what they wanted us to pray about. It was important to us to make sure that they knew that their needs were important to us and God. Too often, I think we ignore the "kid needs" and simply write them off as being "juvenile".

We then took turns praying out loud. It was a nice intimate time with them and the Lord. I truly felt the Lord's presence in the room with us. All of this was accomplished in 15-20 minutes.

So... the point of this post:

Later in the evening, we received a text message from the kids requesting prayer. We called them to discuss and remind them of our study. They had already opened their Bibles and were searching for the story that we had shared with them earlier in the day.

What Sarah and I, plus The Lord, had done earlier, was provide them with the tools that they needed to overcome the situation that they were facing. They were fully equipped for what they were facing. If parents would spend just thirty minutes, one evening a week doing this rather than watching their favorite sitcom, then the kids would have an incredible spiritual foundation. What is wrong with the parents? Why are we relying on Sunday school and children's church to disciple our children? Is it because some parents don't know how to disciple because they are still babies in the Lord as well?

If you are a parent, please, take the time to teach your child how to pray and how to scripturally approach their problems. I've done both and it doesn't take much effort.