One of my goals of 2016 was to be able to establish a Family Altar. A time of prayer with the family. So many times we succeeded...and so many more times we failed.
During the time of Advent, Joyce bought a book that Sandy C-mo recommended. It's a pretty lousy book in my humble opinion. The writing is convoluted and hard to read. The message is decent, but forced. And if an adult has to read it 3-4 times to grasp it, how will little kids understand? And I have to translate it to Chinese too!!
The first two nights were horrible. The kids not only disliked it... they hated it!! Both nights, we ended up scolding them. What was suppose to be a holy, sanctified time, turned out to be the exact opposite of what God finds pleasing. The third night... I literally wanted to give up. I told them... "I don't want to do this anymore. God will not like this." And it wasn't to scare them... or play mind games with them... I literally did not want to spend my time arguing with the kids.
God is faithful. After that one night... the kids have changed their attitudes. They now know... there will be 2-3 minutes of reading and daddy talking. They know that before they can advance the snowman's nose one number (before it gets to 25), that we will need to spend time as a family. They know that we will do this, every night, for the rest of the Christmas season.
I spent all year trying to establish a family altar. And guess what... a family altar has always been there. I just needed to bring my family to Jesus.
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