Yesterday evening Rich and I attended our annual training meeting for community group leaders at church. It was a great event with lots of good info and motivation about growing spiritually together as a church small group. I felt so equipped for a fresh new start in our group that God has gifted to us. (I love our small group and have really missed everyone during our summer break. I’ve missed getting together for fellowship, prayer, bonding, being vulnerable and letting “iron sharpen iron.” )
At the same time, what God kept whispering to my heart during the meeting was, “work harder at building your family as a spiritual small group more than you build your church small group.” Yep, in our effort to reach the world for Christ and strengthen our church, we must remember the most important spiritual group you could ever lead lives at your house!
Are you taking the time to share your prayer requests and pray together as a family? There’s a special kind of bond that happens between people when they share their deepest heart pleas, concerns, hopes, and thankfulness with one another. Not only that, but when you pray for someone with whom you’ve been having some relationship friction, all the negative feelings you have been containing in your heart about that person seems to just melt away as your pray with one another. Praying together is one of the most intimate of human experiences, creating a spiritual bond of unparalleled strength.
Are you taking the time to share with your kids what God has been showing you lately? What He’s been challenging you to change or do or stop doing? What He’s been revealing to you from His word as a believer? What you are wrestling with, trying to decide about, or regretting? What are your temptations and have you asked for some accountability for them?
Being spiritually vulnerable with someone isn’t exactly pretty, but it is impactful – to both the one who is sharing and the one who is hearing.
Certainly there are topics we can’t share with our kids, but most of the time, a discussion about what you’re spiritually wrestling with can stop your kids in their tracks and get them to ponder their own souls, reflect on their own struggles, and also, it might just help them appreciate that mom and dad are human too.
It takes time and effort to rearrange your family time and habits to incorporate spiritual growth together. But then, there’s really not anything in this entire world that could be better time or effort spent than on spiritual growth and bonding together as a family. I’m thankful for God’s faithfulness to whisper truth to us. Now I must be faithful to share truth with those whom God has gifted to me.
Love em with your soul, not just your heart.
