Short of the glory of God

As a parent I believe one of my most important jobs is to teach our kids about God. It's not enough to tote them back and forth to church but we need to have actual conversations about Him and they need to see that their mama and daddy love God. So tonight I brought out the Bible at dinner time. What better way to teach and instill Godly principles than by reading the good book? The writer of one of the blogs I love suggested doing this and I thought it was a great idea. But like all of my ideas it took me forever to remember to do it. Better late than never.

So as the children were eating their spaghetti I told them we were going to start doing something different at dinner each night. They were so excited! So I brought out my Bible and quizzed them to see if they even knew what book it was. They passed. Then I turned to Philippians and told them I was going to read a little of that chapter to them because it is one of my favorites. And Jake said, "what about Jonas and the whale? can you read that one? I know that one is for real." And I said, "well it was actually Jonah, not Jonas and everything in the Bible is real." But tonight we are going to read Philippians. And they were like "okay."

So I began to read. "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again. Rejoice!" And Jake interrupts me with "mama! I know one! listen mama!" And I'm like "what Jake?" And he says, "For all have sinned and fall off of the glory of God!" And I said "great job! You missed a couple words though. It's for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." And he's like "yeah, for all have sinned and fall off of the glory of God." Then he goes "that means everybody mama! everyone in the whole world sins! even the Spanish speaking ones!" And I was like "yes baby, even Latin Americans are not perfect. Because isn't that what that verse is all about?" And he was all "I don't know."

So then I started reading again. "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again. Rejoice! Do not worry about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God." And I said "see guys, we don't need to worry about anything but instead we need to ask God for everything." And Emma Mae said "mama! I need to pray. I need to pray now." And I was all "okay sweet baby Emma. You have been so moved by this Bible reading that you need to speak with Jesus right now. That is wonderful. Go ahead baby."

So she prayed. "Dear Jesus, I don't want to go to heaven. Please come down here and live with me in my house and play with my toys. Because me and my toys do not want to go up to heaven. Amen." And then she just looked at me beaming because now she just knew she wouldn't have to go to heaven since she asked God and all. And Jake looked at me and said, "um, mama? that is NOT going to happen."

And I realized that our first family dinner Bible reading may have been a complete failure. But I'm gonna go ahead and rejoice. Always.