LIFE!!

5 years ago we left the hospital with our first baby.  I remember the feeling as we started pulling out of the hospital parking lot… “WHAT ARE THEY THINKING TRUSTING ME TO TAKE CARE OF THIS TINY HUMAN!?”  Yes I meant that to be in ALL CAPS, the voice in my head was screaming.  I felt like there should have been more prep than running through some paper work and making sure we had a car seat to secure this tiny human on the car ride home.  A year ago, we brought #2 home, and believe it or not, I had the same thoughts: “WHAT WERE THOSE DOCTORS AND NURSES THINKING!?” But in the crash course of life we have figured out how to protect these children trusted to us.  We try to catch them before they fall, we hold them up in the pool, keep them out of traffic, you know all the things that protect them and keep them kicking.

But what if there is more?  I think there is…. Deuteronomy 32:46-47 gives us a post script charge that is meant to impart life to us and our families.  After Moses had given the law we have these verses: “take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law.  They are not just idle words for you—they are your life.  By them you will live long in the land…” (emphasis mine)

The words of scripture are not just idle words, not just a means of being spiritual or good, but the words of scripture are LIFE!  We are given these words to provide life to our children, our families, and the world around us. 

This week at youth we will be studying how to memorize scripture.  This is something I struggle with, but if we read, recite, review, repeat, we can hide God’s word in our hearts.  This isn’t just a good thing to do, it is LIFE!  Psalm 119:11 says “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you (God).”  This is life, scripture imbedded in our hearts, minds, lives, not just keeping us alive, but giving us abundant life.

I hope you will join me in making the scriptures a regular part of our family’s life, one simple method: read, recite, review, repeat.  Impart life!