Some people enjoy planning as much as going!
Are you a planner who likes to take time to schedule a trip, look at all the choices of places to go, check out interesting things to do, the best restaurants to go to and the natural beauty to explore?
Or, are you spur-of-a- moment, pack a few clothes, and take off to see where you will wind up kind of person?
In life, there are times for both types of trips, probably, but some things are better not left to chance. In the journey of your life, how do you plan for the future for yourself and for your family members? How do you plan for eternity?
Why do we encourage our children and young people to get the best education possible? To prepare them for their future and hope they will be successful in a job or career that will benefit not only them but their community?
For children to succeed, it helps if their parents have planned for them to have the opportunities they will need to be successful. Saving for educational expenses in the future and teaching them life skills doesn’t just happen.
However, the most important lessons we learn are spiritual. How do you plan for yourself and your family to grow spiritually, to know the truth in a confusing, sinful world, and to find the experience of God and Salvation?
Proverbs 22:6 says: “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”
Teach your children spiritual truth and make plans to give them experiences to learn about the Bible and God. Start early teaching, guiding and instilling God’s values in your children.
Make teaching them about God and who He is, what He has done and how much He loves us a priority. Take your children to church, to Sunday school, to Vacation Bible School, to choir, every oppor-tunity you can to give them the truth of God! Have family devotions. Talk about how God has worked in your life. Explain spiritual truth. Read the Bible together. Tell Bible stories. Sing Bible songs.
I was talking to Addie about what some of the boys were saying in kindergarten.
“They call some people ‘Stinky Garbage Cans,’” she told me with a serious look on her face.
We talked about how terrible that was! I asked her, “Do you ever call anyone that?”
‘No! I don’t do bad things at school,” she assured me.
Then she looked up and with an earnest look said, “I want to be good.”
How simple, how pure, how wonderful.
May God reach in our hearts and minds and prepare us for each step in our life journey and give us a deep and abiding desire, “to be good,” knowing all good things come from Him and we can succeed through the power of the Holy Spirit as we walk in God’s will.
