Today's post comes from a sweet moment I had with my girls last week. Every night before bed we read from a devotional by Dannah Gresh called The One Year Mother Daughter Devo. I ordered it on Amazon Prime when I saw Dannah had written it because I absolutely LOVE all her books on raising Godly girls. We absolutely love it and my girls always remind me when it's time to read it.
One of our devotionals last week was called "No Fear". It was talking about trusting God with every step you take and the key scripture was from Acts 16:6-8:
Coming to the borders of Mysia, they headed north for the province of Bithynia, but again the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them to go there.At the end of each devotional is a section called "Girl Gab" and it gives you a topic to discuss or a project to do together. For this devotional our project was for the girls to blind fold me then give me direction to get to a destination(or room) of their choice. I had to trust them that they weren't going to run me into any walls or make me fall down the stairs. I also had to believe that the destination they chose for me was a good place and not somewhere I would rather not be. Since my oldest daughter, Ellie, got a sewing machine for Christmas she was beyond excited to put the sleep mask she had made to good use!
I have to admit that I was a little hesitant to walk at first because I was learning to understand what my daughter, Olivia(age 5), meant when she said move to certain ways. But when I was confused I simply asked her to repeat what she meant in a way I could understand. Of course the girls wanted their turn at it after I was done and we had a great deal of fun.
The coolest part was the visual illustration of how God leads us. We may sometimes feel like we are following Him blindly because we can't always see the big picture but we have to trust that He has our best interest in mind and will not lead us into harms way. Just like my girls had a destination in mind(they picked a different room to lead me to each time) God has a destination for us too. We can choose to live a life full of fear which will cause us to not take a baby step when God gives us direction. I also love the reminder that it's okay to tell God we are confused and to please make it more clear to us the direction we are to go...He loves having that personal relationship with us and confirming the things He has been speaking to our heart.
When my oldest daughter, Ellie, took a turn she held her hands up and even screamed a little. I can't help but think that is what God sees us doing when we "freak out" over certain steps we take forward. I imagine Him telling us to simply relax and enjoy the journey.
My girls even had to get Daddy to try it out the next night. I love that this illustration stuck with them and I pray they will remember it in years to come when they feel uncertain about the next step to take in life. I know I will never forget it.
I hope our fun story inspired you to trust God in moving forward even if you can't see the big picture. Do you have any fun activities you do with your kids to help them understand God and how much He cares about them? I would love to hear them!
I LOVE this! I have been trying to think of ways to spend more one on one time with my 9 year old daughter. This is great, thank you :)
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad to hear that! Let me know how it goes :)
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