Mark 4:21 “And He was saying to them, ‘A lamp is not brought to be put under a basket, is it, or under a bed? Is it not brought to be put on the lampstand?’”

What a perfect verse to share with our kids! This is a verse that is so easily played out with your children. Go into a room with a lamp and a basket (or something else) that will cover the lamp. Turn on the lamp and then turn off the room light. Now cover the lamp with the basket. They will see very quickly how dark the room gets with the lamp not being allowed to shine its light. Even if a little of the light shines through, they will get the message.

Now tell them how the light of Jesus in our lives needs to shine so others can see it. We need to let it shine brightly. We do NOT need to hide our light. Not only is it easier to see in a well lit room, but it may prevent someone from stumbling. Our “Jesus light” can also help someone in a dark world and perhaps keep them from stumbling.

After you have done this with your child, the hard part begins. YOU have to live it. YOU must let YOUR light shine. Your child needs to see YOU shining YOUR light in dark places. When you are in the store and someone is not kind to you, let your light shine. When you are in traffic and someone cuts you off, let your light shine. When you see someone asking for help, let your light shine.

You see, roleplaying is one thing, living it is so much more! Now go shine your light!

Numbers 7:89 “Now when Moses went into the tent of meeting to speak with Him, he heard the voice speaking to him from above the mercy seat that was on the ark of the testimony, from between the two cherubim, so He spoke to him.”

Can you just picture this? Moses goes into the Holy of Holies and talks to God! That must have been amazing! But also sad! Because He only spoke to Moses! The other people didn’t hear His voice. Moses told them what He said.

We have the privilege today to help our children hear God’s voice directly. Now, I don’t mean they will hear His audible voice like Moses did. But we can show them through prayer and reading of His Word how to hear Him. God is just as eager to talk to us as He was to talk to Moses – maybe more.

How do we hear Him? Well, we have to stop talking! We have to listen. My wife accuses me sometimes of having “selective hearing.” If we are watching something on TV, I literally have to pause or mute the TV and turn to her to listen to what she is saying. I could hear her with the TV blaring, but I would not be listening. So, we must teach our kids to get quiet and listen.

We also have to teach them to ask God to speak to them. One of my favorite songs our choir sings is “Speak Lord.” I literally cry singing that song because I so desire to hear His voice. I pray most days that He will speak to me and give me direction for the day. When I stop to listen (really listen) He does that. If I am open to His guidance He will lead me.

Hush! Did you hear that? Did you hear the Master? He is speaking!

Mark 3:5 “After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored.”

Parents, do you tell your kids all the time to not get angry? We tend to do that a lot. We don’t want our children to be mad at someone. We don’t want them to lash out at another person to try to hurt them. That is good parenting. We want them to love others.

But you can see from this verse that there are times when anger is justified. Jesus was angry with those who opposed Him healing this man in the story just because it was the Sabbath. The word “anger” there really means anger. But it also has the definition of anger that God has toward sin. That’s what should anger us!

We should teach our children that unrighteousness should anger us. Things done to others to harm them should anger us. Abortion should anger us. You get the picture. However, notice Jesus’ reaction. He didn’t lash out at the crowd. He simply healed the man.

We need to teach our children that we should go about doing good in the very presence of those who hate us and God. We should bless others despite their actions. We should follow the example of the Master. Be angry but sin not. Now that’s a lesson worth teaching!

Numbers 1:54 “Thus the sons of Israel did; according to all which the LORD had commanded Moses, so they did.”

Isn’t that a simple verse? God told Moses to tell the sons of Israel to do something, and they did it. Bam! Done! Obedience. Wouldn’t that had been the easy thing to do? But we know from the rest of the story that the people did not always simply obey. They rebelled and felt the consequences for their disobedience.

Aren’t our children the same? Sometimes we ask them to do something and they just do it. Heck, sometimes they do it without even being told. We are amazed and pleased. Our heart jumps a beat with pride. We think, “I’ve got this parenting thing down! What’s so hard about this?”

But then…little Gertrude rebels. She stomps her little foot and crosses her arms and says, “No! I am not going to bed! I will not clean my room!” All our parenting pride goes out the window. We don’t have a clue what we are doing. Been there? Done that?

May I encourage you today? Take pleasure in those moments of obedience. Mark them down. File that away. Because we know there will be times when our children will buck our directives. That’s okay. Those are teaching moments. Many times we can learn more about ourselves in those difficult times than we will ever teach our kids. We can reflect on how WE stomp our feet and cross our arms at God.

We are just like the Israelites in the dessert. We want our way. Our children want their way. Only by dying to self and teaching our kids to die to the flesh can we have true obedience. Hmmm? Dying to obey! That’s it!

Mark 1:35 “In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there.”

Is there a better lesson we can teach our children than this? Even Jesus, the Son of God, part of the Godhead, found time to get away to pray. It says he found a “secluded place” so no one or nothing could bother Him. If He took the time to do that, how much more do we need to do that?

Years ago I had an office which had been a dorm room at a Children’s Home. It had two closets as you walked in the door, one on the right and one on the left. I turned one of those into a Prayer Closet where I could go each morning and pray. I loved that little closet. I could literally “hide” and pray for the staff and children.

Moms and Dads, why not help your children find a spot where they can pray? It could be the corner of their room or another place in the house where it is safe and quiet. Wouldn’t you love to be like the disciples when they searched for Jesus and find your child praying in secret? That would bless my heart.

Teaching our kids to pray is so easy. We just have to model it for them. I love to hear children pray and I guarantee you God does too. Surely He smiles when their prayers reach His ears.

Leviticus 23:3 “’For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation. You shall not do any work; it is a sabbath to the Lord in all your dwellings.’”

Have your kids ever asked you, “Why do we go to church on Sunday?” Well, here’s a great verse to share with them. Now, I am not going to get into the debate about Saturday versus Sunday as the correct day to worship. My point today is that there is a command from the Father to set aside a time to rest and worship. He spends a great deal of time in Leviticus talking about how His children were to worship Him, so it must be big deal.

It seems today we have relegated Sunday to just another day. I remember the old Blue laws which didn’t allow businesses to open on Sunday. My hometown was one of those towns that had that restriction. Even today, many of the businesses in my hometown don’t open on Sunday.

I have the greatest respect for Chick-Fil-A for their stand for this. They have made the business decision to stay closed on Sundays to allow their employees to spend that day with their family AND church family. I am sure if they were open on Sundays, they would have a huge crowd. But they are honoring the Lord rather than man.

We need to teach our children the importance of the Sabbath rest (whether that be Saturday or Sunday for you). The next time you visit Chick-Fil-A with your kids why don’t you bring up this verse and tell them Truett Cathy’s story (http://www.truettcathy.com/timeline.asp ). You never know how little Elrod might just file that away for future reference when he is faced with a similar decision.

Matthew 28:16 “But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated.”

This passage continues with the much quoted verse where Jesus tells His disciples to go make disciples in all nations. We quote that verse a lot, but verse 16 caught my attention.

Jesus did not appear to them and tell them to go to Galilee. He appeared to some women (Mary Magdalene and the other Mary) and told them to tell the disciples. When the disciples heard Jesus’ command they obeyed. They just went where He said He would meet them, and then they received this “Great Commission.” This was perhaps one of the greatest thing He said to them in all the time He was with them.

Parents, your children need to learn to obey you even when you are NOT around. They need to know that the directions you are giving them are for their good. They don’t need to know the “why” every time. The disciples didn’t know why they were going to Galilee. They just know He said, “Go!”

Don’t get me wrong. We need to talk to our kids and explain things to them, but I have seen too many Parents who are too “wordy” when it comes to parenting their child. Some times the child just needs to obey because you are the Parent. This kind of goes with the fifth commandment, in which we are told to honor our parents. It’s the only commandment with a promise.

May I encourage you today to “just obey”? Don’t try to rationalize your obedience. Don’t try to understand the reasoning behind the command. Just obey! Trust the Father! Trust the Son! Trust the Holy Spirit’s leading! I promise you They will never lead you wrong.

Leviticus 19:1-2 “1Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2″Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.”

What in the world does this mean? Does God really expect us to be holy like Him? All I can tell you, Moms and Dads, is “Yes, He does.” If He says it He means it. That is ALWAYS the case. God doesn’t waste words just to hear Himself speak. He says it and expects us to follow.

So, how in the world do we 1) live holy lives and 2) teach our children to live holy lives? It’s really pretty simple. Just do what God tells us, and when we are not sure, don’t do it. The Book of Leviticus is really just that – God telling His people how to live their everyday lives. He tells them what to eat, how to prepare it, how to make wrongs right, how to handle property, etc., etc., etc.

So, if being holy is that simple, why aren’t we holy? Because we like ourselves too much and don’t want to give up “our rights.” Listen to me, Moms and Dads, when you exert your rights on the standards God has set for you, you can rest assured that your children will learn to do the same on the standards you set for them. No wonder they are unruly and disrespectful. We are doing the same thing to God when we don’t bow ourselves to His Will and let Him has His way.

“You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.” Those are His words, not mine. Will you obey? Will you point your children toward holiness?

Matthew 27:32 “As they were coming out, they found a man of Cyrene named Simon, whom they pressed into service to bear His cross.”

I bet Simon had no idea when he journeyed to Jerusalem that he would be doing this. As far as we know he had no connection to Jesus. He was just a bystander in the crowd watching Jesus and the other two criminals carry a wooden beam to Golgotha to be crucified. Perhaps he had seen this scene before on a previous trip to Jerusalem. After all, it wasn’t like this was the first time the Romans had crucified someone.

Moms and Dads, take a minute and paint the picture for your kids about this verse. They may be just minding their own business at school or play and all of a sudden they are faced with the decision – do I carry the cross of Christ or not? When someone insults their Savior what do they do? When someone questions a Biblical truth they know to be true, what do they do?

They may never be called on to carry a physical cross like Simon and feel the blood of Christ run down their face, but they will, if they take a stand for Him, feel the weight of loyalty. Our children, perhaps as no other generation thus far, will be faced with the absolute disdain for Christ and what He stands for. They will have to make that choice to carry the cross.

How are you preparing them to do that? Are you teaching them the deep truths of Scripture so they will recognize falsehood? Are you teaching them how to respond when someone questions their faith? Show them how to be strong in the face of adversity. Show them how to bear the cross.

Leviticus 14:54 “’This is the law for any mark of leprosy—even for a scale,’”

Isn’t this a riveting verse? Doesn’t it just bless your socks off? At first glance you might say, “Are you kidding me? How can a verse about leprosy have any application to me today?” Well, Moms and Dads, let’s just take a look.

When your child gets a “boo boo” aren’t you diligent to fix it? Suppose you notice a spot or mark on your child’s arm or leg, what will you do? “Ah, that’s nothing, he’ll get over that.” If you are like my wife, when she saw anything on our kids, she would examine it, clean it, bandage it and if need be, take them to the doctor. She wanted to make sure they were healthy.

That is exactly the same compassion the Lord showed His children in regards to leprosy. He didn’t want them to let things go unattended. He wanted them healthy and strong. He wanted them to be able to live long and create a great nation. He made sure they knew exactly what to do to rid themselves of this horrible disease.

So, how does this verse apply to you and me? It simply means God cares for every aspect of our life, even the smallest little spot on our skin. What a great lesson for our kids. The God of the universe knows when you are sick and need healing long before you do. He desires that we come to Him for guidance, yes even with our health. He will use doctors and medicine and hospitals. And He can even speak healing into our bodies. Teach your children that! Remember most of these verses in Leviticus are coming from the mouth of God directly. When He speaks, we should always listen.