Understanding the Fear of the Lord

This week, we had the girls make scones for our snack. 

Several people wanted to stir... 

Tea and snacks by candlelight, while listening to a chapter of our biography. 

Jael's lesson

[in monotone voice] The topic this week is The Fear of the Lord. This is a very exciting and important topic...one that we all need to take to heart and obey. I have to tell you, though, that I could only think of one story that fit this topic. I hope you do not mind. However, the Fear of the Lord is a topic that appears all throughout Scripture, and so, this week, I did a Bible Study on The Fear of the Lord. You'll be amazed at what I found. Now, the first verse I looked up was...[look surprised to see slight boredom or distraction on their faces] Hmmm. How can I make this a little more interesting? [pretend to think] Aha! [look as if random idea has come into my head, but then look doubtful] Who here wants to be wise? Who wants to be understanding? Insightful? Well, I have just the thing for you! In this house (the three main rooms here), I have hidden some wisdom, some insight, and some understanding. Well, I've hidden pieces of cardboard with Bible verses on them that talk about wisdom, insight and understanding. So, who want to look for them? Okay! Here are the directions to your virtue. [hand out pieces of paper] Now, go find them! [wait while the girls find their pieces of cardboard]  Has everyone found their treasure? Good! Now, come and sit down. [pick a random girl] What does yours say? [She reads a Bible verse about the fear of the Lord] Hmm. You? [ask another girl, and she also read a Bible verse about the fear of the Lord] Does anyone have anything different? No? Well, what do they say? [wait for a few girls to answer] Ah! So all of them talk about how the Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and insight and all? Hmmm. I'm seeing a common thread here. :-)

Before I go on, we might want to define "Fear of the Lord." "Fear" in this sense isn't "afraid"...necessarily. ... Oh, what can I compare it to? [think] Well, how many of you are afraid of your parents? Like, if you see them coming, you'll run away? (ALL the time!) Okay. Now, how many of you would flat out call your parent a name, or boss them around? Hmm. Why not? [wait for girls to answer] So, you aren't afraid of them...unless you do something wrong? [wait for agreement] So you love your parents, but they can punish you, and so you're always afraid to do wrong, because then they'll get mad at you, right? It's the same way with God. He loves us like nobody's business, but, if we do something wrong, He will punish us. So, in a way, the Fear of the Lord is the same thing as the Fear of the Parents. :-P Except God is even better than our parents. Understand?

Now, I'm sure you all can think of many times in the Bible when God smashed the bad guys for doing bad things, so I don't think any of you would disagree when I say that we should fear the Lord. But there are some specific Bible verses that tell us to fear the Lord. 1 Chronicles 16:25 says "For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods." (Kinda like, "Duh!" there! He's the only real God, so obviously He should be feared more than any other! But, sometimes we stupid humans need something that simple to ensure comprehension!) And...Psalm 96:4 tells us, "For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; He is to be feared above all gods." So we fear Him 'cause He's totally awesome and mighty and everything. And yet, as Christians, He's our Daddy!

One quick Bible story - as I mention early on, I did a word study on "Fear of the Lord," and the one Bible story I found (I think it was the only actual Bible story that actually used the term "the Fear of the Lord" in the midst of the narrative) was in Jonah. You know how Jonah was trying to run away from God, and he got on the boat, and tried to sail to Tarsheesh? Well, when the big storm came up, and the men on the ship were so scared, Jonah 'fessed up, and told the sailors to throw him overboard. They didn't want to do it, but he told them that, if they did, his God would stop the storm. So they pitched him overboard, and the sea grew calm. Then Jonah 1:16 records: "At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him." I just thought that was an interesting demonstration of God's power (His spanking for Jonah, if you will) that brought unbelieving pagans to a healthy fear of the Lord!

You'll hear about other Bible characters later, but first, let's do some fun stuff. Well, if you like words and English, it should be fun. :-P Remember how we were talking earlier about how the Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and understanding and everything? [take out small stack of cardboard pieces] Well, I don't know how many of you noticed, but each of your pieces is the beginning half of a word. Here's the other half. See if you can find yours. [wait while they do that] Now, look on the back of the piece you just received. What word is written in purple/magenta back there? [wait for girls to shout out "wisdom", "life", "avoidance of evil", "humility", "pure", and "enduring". One girl will not have spoken] Hmm. Random. Is there anything else written? It'll be in red or black. [They'll all say "yes - it's a Bible verse!”] Okay. Can you look those up? [wait for them to look their verses up, and then have them read them out loud. They will be Job 28:28, Proverbs 14:27, Proverbs 10:27, Proverbs 16:6, Proverbs 22:4, Psalm 19:9, and Psalm 19:9 again] Wow! The Fear of the Lord is a lot of things! But [girl who hasn't read yet], why haven't you said anything? [she'll say that what she has isn't in purple or red.] Then what do you have? Just read it out. [She'll say, "The Key" and she'll read, "He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure. Isaiah 33:6"]

Hmm. So the Fear of the Lord is the key to treasure. [think] Sylvia, would you happen to have a box containing some of God's treasure? [she does, and she hands it to me.] Awesome! Now! Within this box are some treasures, but [I try to open the box] the box is locked. To access these treasures, I need the Fear of the Lord. Do you have that, too, Sylvia? [she hands me a small key that has a tag that says "The Fear of the Lord"] Ah! Now I have the tool to open the box. [I open it] Ooh! Look at it all! [the box is full of coins] Hmm. Sylvia, aren't there some Bible verses in here taped onto quarters? [she nods] Well then. I need a volunteer to come forward and find a quarter. [a girl comes up, searches through the box, and finds a quarter] Great! Now, go sit down and find that Bible verse. [she goes and sits] I need another person to come. There are eight quarters with eight verses, so we better get moving! [the girls each come up, find a quarter, go sit down and look it up. Once this is done, I ask...] Okay! Now, what's your verse? [point at the first girl. She'll read her verse, and on down the line. The verses will be Psalm 33:18, Psalm 34:7, Psalm 111:10, Proverbs 9:10, Proverbs 15:33, Psalm 128:1, Proverbs 14:27, and Proverbs 19:23] Each of these verses talk about one of four things: God's protection, God's Blessing, Wisdom, and Life. Four very good things to have, wouldn't you say?

But how do you get them? Aha! Believe it or not, the Bible has something to say about that, too!
There are TWO ways that I saw that God installs his fear in us...other than having us toss a disobedient passenger overboard, as in the case of Jonah.

Mentoring and through His Spirit.

I would like one of you to look up 2 Chronicles 26:5, another to look up Psalm 34:11, and a third to find Isaiah 11:1-3. I'll wait till you've found them. [short pause]

Okay. In 2 Chronicles, you'll read about a 16-year-old king named Uzziah. (All of you who have been memorizing the various kings are like, "Ooh! Ooh!") Uzziah was the son of Amaziah the son of the boy king Joash (once he grew up!). Now, Uzziah wasn't exactly a bad king, but he wasn't exactly "on fire" for the Lord. Kinda like a lot of Christians today. But, Uzziah was more fortunate than a lot of kings back then, because he had a mentor named Zechariah who loved God. The Bible records that...[I tell the girl with the first verse to read]. I wish I could say that Zechariah's work stuck, but Uzziah had some pride issues later on, and was afflicted with leprosy, which he eventually died from. BUT, the important thing is, he had a mentor.

Now, your verse [referring to the girl with the second verse] is along those same lines. Why don't you read it for us. [she reads it] So David worked on teaching his children the fear of the Lord.

Before we read the last verse, I want to mention something. Both David and Zechariah had problems implanting the fear of the Lord in the people they mentored. Uzziah fell away. David's sons had issues (think of Absalom), and even Solomon stumbled later on in life. This doesn't mean that mentoring is bad, but it's not enough. Thankfully, though, God has given another way. Now you can read your verse. [she reads it] As you all know, this passage is talking about Jesus. But take a closer look at the last part of verse 2: "The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord." GOD GIVES US HIS SPIRIT!!! His Spirit will implant a lasting "fear of the Lord" within our hearts, just like He did with Jesus! Isn't that fantastic!?

Now, topic change time. Remember the box over here? I had to use the key "Fear of the Lord" in order to open it. What is the opposite of "Fear of the Lord?" ["Fear of man!"] Exactly. If I were to try to open this box with the "fear of man" [I produce a key with "fear of man" tied on], the box won't open. [I try to open box] I'm sure most of you have notice the alarming lack of stories in this lesson. That is because I've been focusing on what happens when you fear the Lord as you should. Unfortunately, I'm not good at Fearing the Lord, yet. But I do have a story to tell here. A couple months ago, I was sitting in the car at a store, waiting for Mom to come out. I noticed some people sitting in the car next to me with their doors open, obviously doing the same thing I was. I could tell, by looking at them, that they weren't Christians. Now, in the car next to me, was a Gideon's New Testament. All of a sudden, I felt God telling me, "Get out, and give that New Testament to them." I thought, "No way, God! What would they think - and random girl walking up to them and giving them an orange New Testament! Besides! What would I say!? They don't look particularly friendly!" I still felt God urging me, but I did the stupid thing, and stayed in my seat. I was never so glad to see Mom come out!

But that incident annoyed me. I don't know WHY I remembered it, but I have, and I got tired to remembering it. So, a few weeks ago, I ordered some tracts, and I have been faithfully "sowing" them in various spots near us. I've not outright given them to a person yet, but I'm working towards that, and I'm sure that, when the time comes, God will give me grace.

Basically, I'm trying to say, "Don't let the fear of man out-fear your Fear of God."
I'm sure at least one of you has thought, "Why do I need the fear of the Lord? What can I do with it."
Since I'm sure you're all tired of hearing me jabber on and on, so I'll let God's word make my last point for me. I need someone to look up Acts 9:31, someone to look up 2 Chronicles 19:9, and someone to look up Malachai 3:16.

As Christian girls, we have a responsibility to live the way God wants us to live. So, Acts 9:31. [girl reads it] What does that mean? ["The church grew in numbers while they were living in the fear of the Lord."] Can you imagine if the churches today really lived in the fear of the Lord?

2 Chronicles 19:9. [girl reads it] Jehoshaphat, one of the godliest kings after King David, is telling the Levites - the men who served God at his temple! - that, in order to serve properly, they must live their lives in the fear of the Lord.

Finally, Malachai 3:16. [girl reads this] Think about what this verse says! Those who feared God talked among themselves and prayed, and God headed them and recorded it in His records! Can you imagine!?
So, I want to take 5 minutes or so. And I want you to divide up into groups [I name the groups], and I want you to pray together. For each other. For yourselves. For Christians around the world. I want you to pray for God to give us his Spirit, that we may know what it means to properly fear the Lord.

Developing a Disciplined Walk With God

As the title says, the lesson tonight was about developing a disciplined walk with God. 

No one really likes the word "discipline", whether it means punishment or forcing yourself to do something unpleasant. But Scripture tells us in Psalm 2:12 to embrace discipline. The definition of embrace, according to Webster's 1828 dictionary, is "to seize eagerly, to lay hold on, to receive or take with willingness that which is offered". (emphasis mine) 

Developing a disciplined walk with God means embracing discipline eagerly and willingly, and even more, embracing Christ eagerly and willingly. 

Consistent Bible reading and prayer is very important. Just as it's important to eat every day so we don't starve to death, it's also important to feed ourselves spiritually so that we don't starve our relationships with God to death. 

As Jael said last meeting, in the weeks before presenting a lesson, we have to be living it out. Last month Jael and I challenged ourselves to spend an hour with God each day for the rest of the month. I missed a couple days, but other than that, I did it... but then in October, I stopped. I'd finished my "goal time", right? Then I looked at the topic of the lesson I was supposed to be presenting (hmm, does this sound familiar?) and realized that this was a bad time to quit! 

Both last month and this month, it hasn't been nearly as hard as I thought it would be. God's been helping me in many ways! One night I knew I should be doing devotions, but I started to mess around online instead... the only problem was, for "some strange reason", my Internet browser wasn't working properly. The one site it would load was the one my Bible reading plan was on! Strange, huh? ;) 

Another night, I decided not to do my full hour of devotions because I was too sleepy. 

Guess what happened that night. 

Right... I didn't sleep! I was tossing and turning, coughing, sneezing, anything but sleeping! In the morning I was exhausted... and Psalm 127:2 kept running through my head. It seems that God puts high emphasis on having himself as number one priority! 

When you look at the lives of Christian "heroes" of the past, just about all of them practiced incredible discipline: George Mueller, Jesus (the ultimate example!), and Fanny Crosby are a few examples. 

But Bible reading and prayer are not the only things we need to discipline... our thoughts, words, and actions must be disciplined as well. Our thought life is very difficult to tame, but we are commanded to "take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ"! (2 Corinthians 10:5) 

The activity tonight was making paper snowflakes! It was supposed to go along with the lesson on God's design, but we got a little mixed up in our lesson order, so we did them this week instead. ;)

Jael brought her violin this week, and will be bringing it to every meeting in the future, due to popular request. ;) It added sooo much to our singing time, and was a lot of fun at the end when she started playing fiddle tunes for us! 

Gaining a Clear Conscience

I am ashamed to say that I forgot to take any pictures this week. :(

Jael's lesson:

This lesson may be one of the most difficult lessons ever to hear and apply. Ever since Sylvia and I were planning to start this group, we've been rather apprehensive of this lesson. Well, let me explain. To become an official Bright Lights leader, Sylvia and I had to watch some DVD's. As just it so happened, the FIRST DVD (drawn at random from the stack) was the one of maintaining a clear conscience. We watched to it together, and when it was done, we BOTH sat back and groaned, "Why that one first!?" Our consciences (the Holy Spirit in disguise) were telling us that we didn't have a clear conscience. Then, as we were looking at the lessons in set one, we saw this one, and we're like, "Oh boy," because one of the "requirements" to teach a lesson is that we have to apply it in OUR lives in the two weeks preceding. Anyway, as it just happened to turn out (frankly, I think it was malicious planning on Sylvia's part :-P), I got this lesson. And so I've been trying to live it out these past weeks. And so let me tell you some of the stuff I've learned, and that the Lord has brought to mind.

The first thing I am going to say something so important that I need you to pay extra close attention. I'm sure you've heard it before, but I'm still gonna say it again. You all paying attention? As I said, this is REALLY important. It's so important that I gave it a slide all to itself! Ready? NETSIL OT RUOY ECNEICSNOC!!! [look impressive until the girls start to react] Oops. How's this: "LISTEN TO YOUR CONSCIENCE!" (Haha! Now you'll never be able to forget it, will you? :-P) Listen to your conscience. I don't care if it's uncomfortable. Just DO it. The Bible says in Ephesians 4:30, "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." So listen to your conscience. It will always guide you aright.

You know, I don't know if anyone else has this problem, but I sometimes try to reason with my conscience.
• "It wasn't really that bad!"
• "I never said anything. I just THOUGHT it." (My favorite one)
• "I was too little to know better. (Especially useful if you're trying to not apologize for someone you did in your past)
• "They probably don't even remember it."
• "I already apologized to God - why do I need to tell anyone else?" (said when trying to avoid telling your parents about thoughts that you know you wouldn't be thinking.)
Let me just tell you. It never works. Even if your conscience retreats for a while, it will come back. It's very annoying. But let me tell you a little story.

As I mentioned, I'd been dreading this lesson for several months. But last week, when I knew that I was definitely assigned this lesson, I figured I might as well bite the bullet. In the past, I've really struggled with my thoughts, and thinking about things I probably shouldn't be thinking about. But I had always THOUGHT them. I had never said anything that would betray that I was thinking them. I had never DONE anything in public that would show that I was thinking them. Everything relating to this subject had just been between me and God. About six months ago, I had repented of everything, and asked God to help get rid of any bad effects on my mind. But my conscience kept telling me, "You need to tell Mom or Dad." I'm like, "But I already repented to God! Mom and Dad weren't even involved!" "You still need to tell Mom and Dad." "But I didn't really DO anything!" This went on for quite a while. I was constantly arguing with myself, and my conscience kept retorting. So finally, one Wednesday (I think it was the Wednesday after our last meeting), I was talking with my Mom late at night ('cause neither of us could sleep), and I sensed that "now" would be a great time to tell her. I still didn't want to, but God was really getting on me via my conscience, saying, "Now's a great time to do it. You wanted a testimony for your lesson. Here you go! The time is right!! Do it! Get it over with! You know you need to do it for Bright Lights!!" I kept getting more and more uncomfortable, and finally I said, "Mom? I really need to tell you something." And I did. I just blurted it all out. Without fluff or apologies. And when I was done, I felt so much better! Mom totally understood - apparently she had struggled with some of the same things when she was my age!

But I literally felt freer. I wasn't trying to hide anything. I felt like I was walking in a bubble without a care in the world. My shoulders felt lighter. I don't know how to explain it. It felt SO good! (Also, if you do this, your relationship will your parents will probably improve. The more you confide in them, the closer you will get. So this idea relates to last week's too.)

Sometimes your conscience pricks you before you've done whatever it is. For example, I do almost all of my studying online nowadays, and so there's great temptation to talk with friends via Skype when I should be studying, or going to the "forum" where a lot of other CollegePlus (that's what I'm doing for college right now) students also hang out. These two activities aren't "bad" in and of themselves, but my parents know that they, especially the forum, can be addicting, AND they aren't school. So my parents prefer if I don't do the forum for longer than 15 minutes a day. Now, this 15-minutes-a-day ruling came after I had been doing it without their approval for a while. So, before, if they came in while I was doing the forum, and asked, "Jael, what are you doing?" I would gulp and say, "Oh, working on Western Civ. II" (or whatever I had been working on BEFORE I had started interacting on the forum.) I would reason with myself, "Well, I was working on Western Civ. before. Just when they came in I wasn't, but I was before." I was really lying. Now, whenever I'm tempted to do that (like, if I go over my 15 minutes, which I am struggling to NOT do - mainly, I just avoid the forum altogether, now), I pause a moment before I reply, and I say, "Oh, I'm doing forum." And if I've gone over and they know it, I just take whatever consequences come. But my conscience is clear. I told the truth. I confessed wrongdoing. (And if you guys want to pray for me, ask God to help me to, not only tell the truth, but to also not do anything wrong, so I don't have any hesitation telling the truth.) Of course, it's easiest for me to tell the truth when I've not been doing something that my conscience tells me is wrong. :-) So in this area, there are two ways to keep your conscience clear: don't do the bad thing in the first place, and admit when you did it when you are discovered. Of course, if you aren't discovered, then it's a bit trickier.

Now, I want to address what to do if you need to apologize for something you did in the past. As I've been thinking about that problem (because I've had a couple conscience pricks myself!), I realized one of the biggest excuses people make is, "What if they don't remember? I'll just be humbling myself past the point of endurance!" I understand. BELIEVE ME! I had a situation like this a few years ago. Wen I was around 6, I liked drawing. And this one time, I drew a really grizzly picture. I don't know WHY, I just did. Well, my dad heard about this picture, and he asked me to tell him what I had drawn. I told him everything but one small (important) element that I was particularly ashamed of. Well, several years later (I'd guess I was about 13 or 14) my conscience started pricking me. "Jael. You didn't tell your dad the whole truth. You need to tell him about that last element." We'll, I tried to reason it away using the excuse I mentioned above, but it didn't really work. So, finally, one day, I cornered my Dad and told him about that. I briefly summarized the situation (to refresh his memory), and then I told him about that last element. He was very understanding, and my conscience was clear! It felt so good! It was hard to admit it, but it felt so good afterwards.

Now, you may be thinking, "Why did that bothering her? I wouldn't even remember the incident. Well, let me give you a couple scenarios.

Imagine that someone was trying to kill you. They had chased you all over the state. Now, they were in the same building as you, fast asleep. Would it be wrong for you to go up, and cut off the sleeve of their coat that is slung over the back of the chair behind them? Really! They had been trying to kill you, and yet when you were close enough to kill them, all you did was cut off their coat sleeve! What a way to turn the other cheek, right?

Okay. What about if you and some friends enjoyed playing with stuffed animals together. You had never really cared how many stuffed animals you had, but suddenly, one day, you decide to count them, just for fun. "I just want to know how many I have," you reason with yourself. "I won't tell the others or anything." (Deep down, of course, you know that you will, but you try to ignore that) So you count them. Is that really wrong? Even if you do tell the others, how wrong is that?

Well, remember King David, "the man after God's own heart"? David was king of Israel, a brave warrior, yet he had a conscience that was very finely tuned to the Lord's leading. Remember the first example I gave you, about the guy who wanted to kill you? Well, David had that happen, with King Saul. And David cut off a corner of Saul's robe. Then the Bible says, "Afterward, David was conscience-stricken for have cut off a corner of his robe." We may look at David in scorn for regretting such a small thing, but God had so firmly instilled within him a respect for the crown of Israel, that he felt guilty for having done any damage to anything belonging to the king of Israel!

Again, in 2 Samuel 24, David told his army captain Joab to count all the fighting men in Israel. Joab told him not to, but David wanted to anyway, and so Joab had to obey. The Bible never says WHY David wanted to count the fighting men, but I like to think that David was susceptible to pride, and that knowing how many guys he had in his army would either cause him to take pride in the size of his army, or to start relying on them rather than God. But for whatever the reason, God didn't like the idea, and soon, David didn't either. 2 Samuel 24:10 records that "David was conscience-stricken after he had counted the fighting men, and he said to The Lord, 'I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, O Lord, I beg you, take away he guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.'"

In fact, after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba, he was convicted of sin, and wrote the ultimate "conscience psalm" - Psalm 51. (I could do a whole lesson on Psalm 51!) But I want to just read it together. [read the psalm]

Now, with that on your mind, I'd like each of you to fill out this clear conscience sheet. [hand out sheets] You have several minutes to fill it out. But do think and pray over them. [pause for the girls to fill out the sheets]

Good. Now, when you get home, and in the two weeks between now and the next meeting, I'd like you to try to fix these.

If you think you'll have trouble talking with the people, let me give you quick tip I found useful when admitting my faults: "don't look the person in the eye when you're talking." Now, I know that sounds terrible, but there is logic behind it. Looking someone in the eye while trying to admit a fault or offense may make the confession next to impossible, so just don't look at them while you're talking. They (especially your parents) will understand. You can even tell them, "I need to tell you something, but I may not be able to look at you while I say it." The important thing is to tell them.

Now, one last thought.

[turn off lights. Bring in lamp. Light a match, and put globe on it.] This lamp globe is like you. You have the light of Jesus burning inside of you, but your conscience isn't totally clear. Just like this lamp globe has spots that shine the light of Jesus perfectly, you also have parts that radiate God's love. But other areas are clouded and dim. They represent the things that your conscience says need to be repented of. So, you need to ask Jesus to take you [take off globe] and cleanse you by giving you the strength to clear your conscience. [clean globe] Now, [put globe back on] Jesus' light can shine through. Nothing is dimming His light. I've heard it said that "Bright Eyes" are the surest sign of a clear conscience. I don't know to how explain bright eyes. They just are. They sparkle. There's nothing dimming them. If you see someone with bright eyes, you know that their eyes are bright, but you can't explain HOW they are bright. So, as BRIGHT Lights, we need to pray that God would give us bright EYES. But a clear conscience will also make your testimony more bright. Peter said, "But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander." (1 Peter 3:15-16)

In a quick summery:

"NETSIL OT RUOY ECNEICSNOC - Listen to your conscience.

Arguing with your conscience isn't a good idea. You'll always lose. Just DO it.

Don't lie to get out of trouble. It'll save you the pain of a guilty conscience.

Clear your conscience even if the other person involved probably doesn't remember the incident.

Even if others don't think it's a big deal, clear your conscience! Remember David!!

If you conscience is clear, your eyes will be bright. If your conscience is clear, you'll have a stronger witness.

Action step: clear your conscience of everything listed on your CLEAR CONSCIENCE worksheet."

And, oh yes! Your memory verse! (You thought I would forget, didn't you?) I know this isn't the verse listed on your booklet, but it fit my message better than the other one did. Psalm 51:10-12. "Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me." We sang it just before.

Developing a Close Relationship With Your Parents

Our crazy group!

Lesson summary:

God has given each one of us exactly the right parents. Both Mom and Dad should be our heroes and #1 mentors, and we should strive to have an open relationship with them.

Proverbs 23:26 says,

"My son, give me your heart and let your eyes keep to my ways."

Honesty is important to a relationship with your parents, so we should purpose to keep a clear conscience with them. we should confide in them, ask them for advice, and avoid keeping secrets from them.

As Romans 13:1-2 says,

Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.

Obedience is critical, but just doing what they tell us isn't enough: we need to have both outward and inward respect for them, both when we're in public or with friends and when we're at home. We should also try to go the extra mile and take initiative for jobs that need doing.

Philippians 2:14-15:

Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe. 

Pretty self-explanatory. ;)

There are many benefits to honoring our parents and developing a close relationship with them. For one, parents are more likely to respect us, give us more freedom, and take us seriously when we respect them.

Then, there's Ephesians 6:1-3:

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— “that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”