Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Shake A Leg

You'll have to forgive me for writing so many articles by way of my children. I am telling you they are teaching me more as I observe them than I ever could have imagined. Each night I read them a Bible story and I also let them choose a human authored book - Dr. Seuss, Little Golden Books, and the like.

The latest favorite is "Shake A Leg." This is a Sesame Street book where the characters move different parts of their bodies on each page. "Is everybody ready? Shake a leg! Honk your nose. Jiggle your ears. Rub your tummy..." As you read it, you follow along and do it.

When we go through the pages I do these things with Luke and Daniel. Luke is comfortable and knows how to perform all of the motions. But Daniel is still learning. So who do you think he watches and copies? I would like to think that good old dad is the man. You know, because he is cool (I wish). But Daniel has no idea what I am doing. He is too busy watching and mimicking his older brother. He waits to see how Luke does it. If the command is wiggle your fingers, and Luke decides to wiggle his fingers while turing a circle, Daniel will do the same.

We need to understand that with brothers, this is natural. We have older brothers and sisters in the kingdom of God, and younger ones. How do the newer Christians walk with God? How do they follow His commandments? They do a great bit of their activity based on their older siblings. And it is not just in the doing, they notice how it is done. The command is "sing." So when the older brother sings, how does he do it? Does he sing from his heart? Does he sing so others can hear his wonderful voice? Does he sing only when he feels like singing? The younger brethren are picking up on it as they search for Biblical Christianity.

When we act like the invitation song is a good time to leave the auditorium...When we act like the reading of the Bible is a good time to do anything else but open ours and follow along...When we act like we are ready for the preacher to shut up and sit down because it is time for dinner...When we act like the Lord's Supper is a good time to pass notes or make faces at the babies...Ok, I think we are getting the drift. It is high time that we do it right.

Is every body ready? Shake a Leg!

“But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.” ~ Hab. 2:20

1 comment:

  1. This is so true! However, when we know that we have raised our children to follow the Lord and to behave then this will always be seen by those that look up to them. I know you and Amber are doing a great job - keep up the good work!

    ReplyDelete