What I Want To Teach My Children
I am blessed to get to be part of this crazy blog while Kari is in Uganda. We are one of those families that God has chosen and blessed to grow by adoption. Our family is currently a family of four and is growing to become a family of six. We have one homemade daughter, a son adopted from Russia, and are adopting twin girls from Uganda. Over mother’s day I was asked what is the one thing I want to teach my beautiful children? Initially that seems like a difficult question. Right now I want them to learn their ABC’s in the correct order, to shut the door when they enter the house, I want them to say yes ma’am and no ma’am, learn how to drink out of a cup without spilling it, and I would love it if they could learn how to buckle themselves into their car seats. Sounds silly, I know, but mothers of toddlers understand that these simple things have the potential to make my life a bit more pleasant. But are any of these the one thing I want my children to learn? No. When contemplating this question I remembered a piece of wall art hanging up in my grandmother’s bathroom. It is one of those that someone has cross-stitched a Bible verse onto. The verse is in 3 John 1:4, “I have no greater joy than to know that my children walk in truth.”
The one thing I want for my children to learn is to love the Lord. I want them to know Him and experience how amazing His love is for us. This makes the little things like not spilling your drink seem a bit insignificant. I have been feeling this a lot lately. The aspects of normal life have been seeming non-important or even more like distractions. Have I been allowing these little distractions to keep me from showing my children to love the Lord?
I was also drawn to the great commission when looking into this topic. Matthew 28:19 “Go and make disciples of all nations. . .” I am supposed to be teaching my children to be disciples. The one thing I want my children to become are disciples. God has been teaching me that the most important thing I can do for my children is to show them how to be disciples of Him. How can I teach them this when I am still working on learning it myself? This is not something I can teach them through words I must show them. My family and I are taking our children to Uganda with us to complete the adoption of our daughters. My prayer is that this serves as an example of discipleship to them. Now I just need to work on incorporating this into our crazy daily life. You can follow us on this journey at www.stewartsadoption.blogspot.com
