From Tots to Teens ~ A Servant

If you don’t read my personal blog – I thought you might enjoy seeing a recent photo of our family. My mom came over to celebrate her 69th birthday with us last weekend. Lilly is in front of me and next to Lexi. She is our newest daughter (12 yrs old) home from Ethiopia almost 10 weeks ago. The color matching was not planned either – except for Noah down in front and my husband. Everyone else choose orange or red, except for Jordan who matched my mom. I didn’t notice until I uploaded the photos to print one out for my mom.

“As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15

This verse has become a hot topic in our house. We have been teaching the children what it means to be a servant. What it looks like to be a servant. Why we are to live as servants and how God will bless us for humbling ourselves daily! Children naturally live to serve me, myself and I – the unholy trinity. It is our job to train them to serve the holy trinity – God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

serv·ant [sur-vuhnt]–noun: a person in the service of another.

One who is privately employed to perform domestic services.

One who is publicly employed to perform services, as for a government.

One who expresses submission, recognizance, or debt to another: your obedient servant.

Related Words for servant: retainer, handmaid, handmaiden

Last Thursday I decided to help the children understand what we have been talking about by writing our role as servant to God on the board. As you can see I put it in 6 steps…

1. The moment you confessed you were a sinner, needing to be saved by His grace and asking Jesus into your heart – you were instantly His bondservant…bought with the precious blood of Jesus. Our lives are no longer our own and we owe our very life to Him. We need to live out Romans 12:1-2 daily – it is the last we can do.
2. Serve Jesus in all you do. Every choice you make put Jesus before it and if you know it would please Him and align with His general will then you know it is the right thing to do.
3. In order to show God we love Him we must follow His commands – obey whatever He asks us to do – the 1st time He asks, with the right attitude, every time.
4. You can’t serve yourself and God – it is impossible. We must be willing to lay down whatever we want for what we know God wants from us and of us first. Even when it doesn’t make sense or feel good, that is what He is asking us – to put nothing above Him or before Him in our lives. That He will bless us for obedience and trust in Him providing the good in our lives!
5. Our only goal is to hear, “good job, well done, My faithful servant.” Anything less is missing the mark. We don’t want to live our lives knowing that we have been OK sinning against God – keeping Him as our insurance into heaven – without allowing Him full access of our hearts, lives and receiving all the glory due to Him.
6. In order to be in constant fellowship with Him – we must confess our sins so that we can bring honor and glory to God. As a servant of His we want to make sure others see His best – not what we have to offer but what He offers them.

We have explained to the children that in order to show God how much we love Him and how thankful we are for all that He has done for us and continues to do – we must live our lives to serve Him.

Obedience is the first fruit of love.

Obedience is an outworking of the state of our hearts.

If we are distant from God – it becomes all to easy to begin sinning against Him and not caring that we are doing things to please ourselves versus bringing Him glory. If we have grown comfortable in not obeying what is asked of us – it becomes easier and easier each time to disobey what our parents and God are asking us to do.

Thus our desire to hide the truth of His word in our children’s hearts…because where the heart is the mouth soon is to follow. If our hearts are filled with the truth of His love for us and desire to use us to fulfill His plan for our lives – we are much less willing to sin against Him. Psalm 15:2, Psalm 36:1, Isaiah 32:6, Luke 6:45

In the coming weeks we will be memorizing the following verses and working on serving each other by the power of His Spirit. I am teaching the children the fruits of the Spirit right now as well. You can get wonderful resources to make lapbooks from Carisa’s blog 1+1+1=1. I have several books and CD’s that teach songs to help them memorize the fruits of the Spirit as well.

Isaiah 6:8 says, Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" Then I said, "Here am I. Send me!"

Luke 1:38 And Mary said, "Behold, the bondslave (servant) of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her.

Deuteronomy 13:4 says, “It is the LORD your God you must follow, and Him you must revere. Keep His commands and obey Him; serve Him and hold fast to Him.”

Malachi 3:18 says, “And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”

Joshua 22:5 says, “But be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to obey his commands, to hold fast to him and to serve him with all your heart and all your soul."

1 Samuel 12:24 says, “But be sure to fear the LORD and serve Him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things He has done for you.”

Matthew 6:24 says, "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”

Mark 10:45 says, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many."

Luke 22:26-27 says, “But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.”

John 12:26 says, “Whoever serves Me must follow Me; and where I am, My servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves Me.”

Romans 7:6 says, “But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.”

Romans 12:11 says, “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.”

Hebrews 9:14 says, “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!”

1 Peter 4:10 says, “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms.”

1 Peter 4:11 says, “If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.”

Galatians 5:13 says, “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.”

The greatest lessons I have learned recently about parenting are the following from my husband:

“We are parenting our grandchildren.”

“Every moment of parenting is an opportunity to reflect God’s love, grace and mercy – to teach them how to receive it and live because of it.” AMEN!

He often reminds me, “our goal is not to be their friend, nor their enemy, we are to teach them and train them, not entertain them. We are to guide them and encourage them, all while watching them fall and grow through the challenges they experience now – preparing them for the ones they will each encounter later in life (with much greater consequences). There is a time for correction and a time for love. Wisdom teaches us when to use them both. Our goal is to seek wisdom as a family.”

I have 9 beautiful reasons to become a faithful servant and do it well. They are depending on me to train them in the way they should go. They are watching me and seeing if my faith aligns with how I speak to them, discipline them, react to them and love them. They will learn much more from seeing than hearing. We must become doers of the Word. We are to walk out our faith. “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” Romans 10:17

Let our homes become living examples of Christ’s love and His only reason for doing anything – to serve His Father, all for His glory. Our family LOVES the CD’s from Seeds Family Worship – use our 20% off code: INHISGRACE.

Striving to be a faithful servant with you!