Life is full of simple choices that have far greater importance than they appear to at first. It's really been on my heart to do something as a family to get and keep us on the same page. I've been absolutely astounded at the internal resistance I experience to developing simple disciplines. So today, as soon as I got home from work and the fam was home from school, we sat down to read two chapters in the Bible and pray together.
I explained to my son what devotions were and why being devoted to God was important. He tracked as well as a boy his age can as far as I could tell. When it came time to pray together, Maz got really bashful. He had this immediate resistance when I told him that we were all going to take turns praying out loud. I remembered being terrified of saying the wrong thing or somehow messing up when asked to pray when I was younger. I don't think I got over this until my junior year in high school when I started attending a daily prayer meeting before school. I don't want my son to live in fear of talking to God. I pray that he doesn't struggle with law and perfectionism the way I have.
So I pushed him.... gently.
I told him prayer was just talking to God about what was on his heart and that the only thing that mattered was that his prayer came from his heart. It could be short, the words didn't have to sound good, it just needed to be out loud and from his heart.
My son prayed for a kid at his school that has been mean and bossy to him lately. He asked God to help this other child be nice to the other kids at school.
I stumbled into a motivation for reading my Bible everyday. I look forward to many more of these simple moments with both my son and wife over the coming years.
May God have his rightful place of priority in my home.
