My Favourite Thing to Do, Kitten Money, and Evolution Debunked

Yesterday I got to do my favourite thing in the world - speak to young moms at local church.  I was given the topic of being "priests in our homes".  I had no idea what I would say, but as I started to write, read, pray and think more about it, suddenly I had a talk that went on for at least 35 minutes. 

The main things I wanted the moms to know was that as people of the New Covenant, we no longer need a mediator, or a priest, or sacrifices offered - now we have free access to the Father through Jesus.  How does that impact our parenting?  I described how we are like Job, able to intercede on behalf of our children from the moment we find out we are pregnant through their whole lives.  We just don't have to sacrifice a lamb, thank goodness, for every time they sin.

Then I said how we must teach our children how to go to the Father as well, for themselves.  In our house there can be constant conflict between siblings.  They need to learn to call on God for help in their own conflict resolution as well as for help in developing their character.

But my main focus of the morning was to remind the women to teach their children about the High Priest, God Himself, first and foremost.  This can only be done through the reading and memorizing of Scripture.  For a young mom, that can be overwhelming, so I just walked them through things we did as a young family that have developed into habits now as an older family.

I also introduced them to the idea of family worship.  For some, this was brand new.  For others, it was happening, but they had so many questions as to how this can be practically worked out with teens and babies. 

The Old Testament talks about building an altar in the tabernacle and how the fire must be lit day and night.  It is essential the fire is never allowed to go out.  Having an "altar" in our homes is so important - be it the kitchen table or the family room.  God promised the Israelites to meet them there and that He would speak to them if they just came to the altar with their sacrifices of worship.  For us, we must simply show up at our family "altar".  We must simply open God's Word.  Worship can be singing, talking, discussing, praying, even disciplining children!  But whatever we do at the altar, making our "sacrifices" of worship, it is essential we show up.  Then God promises to show up, to speak to us.  How we all need to hear His voice.

If there were a way for me to do this every day I would.  I loved it so much.  I was surrounded by young moms, babies, toddlers.  I didn't want to leave.  Talk about firing me up.  I am so grateful for these opportunities.  This weekend I'll head off to the Ottawa homeschool conference where I'll share my "Anger" talk and a new talk on marriage and then the next weekend will be the Hamilton conference.  These are the most exciting times for me.  Oh, and a lot of our little getaway this weekend (as we're taking the kids with us for a few nights) will be at least partially covered by our little kitty business!  How amazing is that?!  Thank you Lord for kittens!

I have to share one very cool thing my son experienced yesterday...it was right out of a movie.....

My son had to take an Evolution course this year for his Biology degree.  He hated every minute of it, but got through it.  So many times he wanted to go and take his professor on, but always decided he needed his marks more, so he wouldn't.  One time, his prof showed an antiquated diagram of some embryos that "proved" evolution.  My son will often go right to the Creation Ministries website, or Answers in Genesis, to find out what creationists will say about certain things like that, right in the middle of class.  More often than not, he will discover that the prof is displaying outright lies that have been disproven over and over even on the evolution websites.  The diagrams the prof showed that day was one of those times where it had been proven wrong and a lie and yet he displayed them anyway.  My son was furious!  But said nothing....until yesterday.

He ran into the prof on campus where he had returned to sell some books.  The prof recognized him as he always sat right in the front.  He noticed my son was holding a book on how creationist debunked evolution and asked him about it.  My son said, "Yeah, I'm a creation scientist."  The prof grabbed his head as if he had a headache!  Then my son said, which I can barely believe he had the gall to do this, "You know, you showed that diagram of embryos that is completely proven false."  The prof, rather taken aback tried to explain how it wasn't.  My son insisted and said, "No, it's a lie." The prof, now with his tail between his legs, said, "Well, maybe I'll have to take that slide down."  Yeah, good idea. 

My son walked away feeling a load off his chest I think.  I couldn't believe God gave him the opportunity and the boldness (he had his marks by this point?!) to take the prof on.  I was amazed.  I can only think my son has become a grain of sand in the guy's shoe.  My prayer is that all summer that prof will be so bugged by my son's comment.  Who knows, maybe, just maybe it will be the beginning of a spiritual journey for this man.