In His Image

During the mother's day weekend, my family had the pleasure of going on a trip to Meme's house at the farm in Pond Creek, Oklahoma. Mom was glad to have us and the kids had a blast playing with mom's new malteese, Annabelle.

Sunday morning we joined mom and her new BF for church at First Baptist Church in Enid, Oklahoma. To honor moms, they played the infamous Anita Renfroe video in which she recounts everything a mother says in twenty four hours to the tune of the William Tell Overture. If you are the one in a million persons who has not seen the video, you should totally watch it!

Every time I see the clip, I laugh at it's apparent truth. I, just like the rest of you moms reading this right now, desperately attempt to saturate our children with a drenching of guidance, wisdom, education and love so that they can be not only good mannered children, but more importantly healthy, self sufficient, successful adults. However, our responsibility to our children's social and moral aptitude, something that is so much more important than offering 4-5 servings of veggies and saying thank you and please and brushing twice a day, is portraying to them who Christ is in our lives.

Bro. Keith Miller, pastor of FBC, Enid, spoke an inspiring and appropriate Mother's Day message. He spoke from the scripture in Genesis 1:27. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Bro. Keith's message instructed us on portraying God's image to our children. Growing up watching parent's mirror the reflection of God, makes knowing Him much easier for them as they grow into adulthood.

Fathers and mothers who follow God, who are filled with His Spirit, better reflect His nature to their children. Bro. Keith emphasized that parents are not meant to be the object of worship, but how can a child ever understand a heavenly father's love when he or she has never experienced an earthly mother or father's love.

Undoubtedly we love our children. But do our children only hear us say eat your carrots and brush your teeth? Or do they watch us worship with fervent hearts, dive into our Bibles, pray with intensity....

It's somewhat ironic that Bro Keith spoke this specific message that morning. After mom and Jessalyn had headed off to Sunday School and I was waiting to rouse the boys to get ready, I had settled into my dad's chair at the kitchen table. Every morning, you would find my dad there at the kitchen table with his worn Bible, a notebook of some sort, and a prayerful attitude. Mom and I and later on Devon and even Jessalyn all knew that dad was busy with God at that morning hour. I don't even know how long dad would sit there sometimes though I knew it would be several hours. Funny, I can't recall all the words of wisdom that my dad poured into me, but something I will never forget is the image of him sitting at the kitchen table, his head bowed in prayer and in scripture. His example, his image, reflected Christ to me. I have a long way to go in establishing that image for my children but I hope that I can leave the same legacy for them.