“Hear O Israel: the Lord our Lord, the Lord is one. Love the Lord you God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them upon your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-9).
I’m a church girl. Always have been. From the cradle to my current, church is what I do. It shapes how I live. It stands as the cornerstone of who I am. I was made for the church, and the church was made with me in mind. I believe that God knew I would love his church…even from the womb of my mother. He graced my life with parents who took his commands seriously…this impressing and implanting of his truth upon my heart from the very beginning. I want the same for my sons and for my daughter.
I see so much of myself in each one of them. Good things and some things tended toward the negative. My children are, in part, the product of my shaping. Many years ago, my young son Nick bought me a plaque that I keep at my bedside as a constant reminder of the awesome responsibility that God has entrusted to me.
“Mother, I am what I am because you are who you are.”
He couldn’t have known at his tender age how the truth of these words resonates with the truth of Scripture. He just knew that we were connected somehow and that my life shaped his. How grateful I am for this reminder as I continue to parent young hearts and minds with this old and ancient truth.
Impressing. The Hebrew transliterated word sanan meaning “to whet, to sharpen … to teach incisively. The idea here is that just as words are cut into a stone tablet with a sharp object, so the Law should be impressed on the hearts of the children of every generation.”[i]
God was serious about his Law, and he entrusted his children with the task of seriously chiseling that Law into the hearts of the generations to follow…of sharply scripting his truth onto the tablets of their hearts. There were no “maybes” or “when it’s convenient” in his directive. It was precise in its application…daily application. Whether sitting or walking. Whether at rest or at work. God’s truth was to be the topic of discussion.
It’s not always been easy for me to implement his instructions. I am prone to my wandering…to my need for control…to my unbelief. Rather than default to his teachings, I often fault the process with my children by littering their minds with my own teachings. What emerges is loosely shaped hearts molded toward earthly perspective. God meant them for so much more…for eyes and hearts fixed on eternal perspective…on things unseen and things not so easily understood.
God designed them for the journey of faith. He fashioned me for the same pilgrimage, and together we will walk this path of grace until one day our faith is made sight and we behold our covenant God…our covenant keeping God…face to face.
Nick is almost nineteen now. He is off to college and his heart belongs to God. Only by the grace of God did I have a hand in that process. But there are three others who remain under my roof this night. The shaping continues.
It is a shaping that happens every Sunday morning when we make the choice to Sabbath with our God. It happens every morning when we leave the house for school with a sleepy rendition of “This is the day!” It happens at meal time when we bow our hearts in thankfulness. It happens in the car when we sing along to the songs of faith that I have been singing for over forty years. It happens when we close our eyes at night and remember to breathe a night’s peace over a night’s sleep. It happens…
When special occasions roll around like birthdays and holidays.
When conversations turn to questions like, “Where did I come from?” or “Where does God live?”
When knees know scrapes.
When fever claims our flesh.
When mouths wound with words.
When friends shun our friendship.
When bad things happen to good people.
When mommy and daddy forget to remember God and his Word and his directive to shape.
It simply happens…these opportunities to shape and to impress the truth of my God onto the hearts of my children. Of all the things that I could give them in this life…I want to give them Jesus. I want to shape them for the journey of faith. I want them to be church boys and one little church girl who all grow up to be men and one woman who follow hard after God’s own heart.
I could do other things with my life. In fact, I have spent most of life doing these other things. But for this one thing…for this one opportunity of profound kingdom teaching…I would gladly surrender all other pursuits. Children are meant for shaping, and for some reason beyond my understanding, God has entrusted me with such a sacred gift.
Humbly I accept the gift, knowing that anything less than an “all my heart and all my soul and all my strength” kind of love toward them will leave their hearts unshaped and ill-prepared for kingdom living. I cannot deny them the splendor of a Calvary grace and of the promises from a covenant Father who fashioned them from the dust and breathed eternity into their very hearts.
And so tonight, when my little princess descends the stairs with tears in her eyes because she is afraid, I will respond with grace. I will give her the extra tuck that she needs and remind her about a God who hems her in from behind and before, and who has ordained all of her days before one of them came into being (Psalm 139). We will sing “Jesus loves me” for the thousandth time and believe that this simple melody of God’s love will soften our hearts and calm our fears for a night’s sleep.
Shaping hearts for eternity. That’s what I am doing with my life these days. And when I am weary…when I am weak with the “doing”…my God is strong. I know that he who began a good work in me and in the lives of my children is faithful to see us all through to a perfect completion. Indeed, my Jesus loves me, and I am forever indebted to such a wondrous grace.
May God continue to shape and to impress our hearts with his Word so that we might, in turn, impress our world with his love. It is the most sacred trust we have been given. Guard it well, my friends, and spend it lavishly.
peace for the journey~elaine
[i]Baker and Carpenter, The Complete Word Study Dictionary Old Testament (Chattanooga: AMG Publishers, 2003), 1179.
You put that so beautifully. It really hit home. I know God brought me home from full time work to be able to spend more quality time with the children. I lose sight of that sometimes. It has been a year already and I have loved every minute of it. It is the hardest job I have every done but it is the most rewarding. I wish more mothers could be home with their kids. I appreciate you bringing home the importance of parenting. I needed a refresher course. You are truly blessed with words. Thanks for openning up your heart. You openned up mine. Love Ya!
Taking a walk down memory lane :o)
Elaine, it is because of this sacred shaping that today I declined that 4th job offer in less than two months. I see my time as fleeting and there is so much more I long to impart.
No regrets,
Joy