Theme Verse for My Family 2/12/13

I have been reading Psalm and Matthew with the kids at breakfast time. I have really been enjoying it and so have the older ones. Daniel is getting there and Sam and Caleb are a work in progress. I need to remember that they are 5 and 3. Tirzah is quiet just as long as she has something to eat and a drink. This morning we were reading Psalm 34. For anyone paying attention, I am a day behind in February. I was reading along already impressed with the amount of praise in this chapter. I mean right in verse 1 we have David saying,"I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth." Wow! Can I say that? Is his praise CONTINUALLY on my lips? Honestly, no. Sometimes, yes but always, no. I do find myself when I am in a rotten mood that if I go and put on some God honoring praise music that my soul starts to praise him and my demeanor changes. There needs to be more times in my day where I am praising him.
Like I said, I was reading along and right in the middle I stopped. In verse 13 and 14 is what I believe needs to be the theme verse of my family right now.
"Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it."
We had a good conversation about the words seek and deceit. We have gotten in the habit of speaking very badly to each other. I am always on the kids to speak kindly. Lest you think that it is just my kids having a problem I want to assure you that they get it from me. I have modeled that for them. Just a few moments ago I was speaking unkindly to one of my children about a school assignment. Confession required and made and repentance coming. Oh, how I fail at this myself. Do I really seek God's peace or do I just seek the quiet from chaos. There is a difference. I want the peace of God to invade my life so that when there is chaos that I will continue to show my children kind words and actions. I so often get frustrated with my children and then get angry. I need to truly turn away from evil and do good especially to my children and husband. After Bible reading today we were discussing a blog post about honoring your parents. It fit right in with these verses. We discussed a list of practical ways that we honor our parents and what dishonoring you parents looks like. It was very convicting for the kids and me. I told them that the list of ways to honor your parents was seeking peace and the list of dishonoring ways is what we need to turn from, the evil. It was a good discussion and I think one that Satan did not want us to have because we have been having issues this morning with attitudes and our words. Oh, how I wish I could just push a button and make the evil things go away and the good things come in. That would not make us stronger. I need to just keep reminding myself that God does not give us anything that we cannot handle. He gives us the strength to get through each and every situation that arises during the day. Even if I have to confess the same thing 20 times a day, I can have victory. God gives me His strength. I want my children to love each other and speak kind words to each and to do things for each other without me having to tell them to. I want them to serve each other because they love God and therefore look for ways to serve others. Again, this is all part of the impossible thing I am praying for my children this year, my children to walk in truth. If you are interested in reading more about that head over to my every day blog.
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