From Mike McCurry’s “Talk of the Town” column in The Clarendon Courier, February 18, 2016.
A Lenten Devotional
The Christian church’s Lenten season starts with Ash Wednesday and ends with Easter. I wanted to take the time during Lent to offer a devotional to mark the journey.
I often pray over my children at night, and one of the prayers is that they will become the boy or girl that God has intended them to be — that they live the lives he has in mind for them. This blanket prayer makes me feel safe that God is in control and that he ultimately knows their God-given potential. Whatever hopes and dreams I have for them might be limited to my own mind, but God’s mind has no limits.
God certainly has high hopes for us, right? He knows how we are made, how we are wired, and what great potential we have inside of us; especially since he created us in his own image. My thoughts quickly go to the hope that I am around to see these achievements in my children. I think of the old man, Simeon, to whom the Holy Spirit revealed that he would not die before he had seen the Messiah of God. My hope is that like Simeon, I can see the potential reached in my loved ones before I’m gone.
One core principle that my wife, Amy, and I agreed about when we got married was that we would raise our children to know God. The most cherished verse that we shared together at our wedding over 15 years ago was from Deuteronomy 18, which says:
Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.
We’ve learned over the years that “teaching” doesn’t necessarily mean that we make our children memorize the Old Testament. The ways of the Lord are better learned by example. Life moves very quickly, especially when you are in the thick of raising your children. It seems like yesterday when my children grew out of the diapers stage and into the “homework every night” stage of life. With four children, from first grade to sixth grade, these are the years that I would like to bottle up and store as memories for a rainy day. We try so hard to teach our children in the morning and at bedtime and in between. But sometimes life gets a little too busy, and you just need to teach by example.
Our children watch how we interact with people and how we love others. My hope is that the example we lead is a good one to follow and by teaching, they become who they are supposed to be. My prayer is that as they watch and grow, they write the word of God on their hearts and minds.
Mike is a Clarendon Hills resident; husband; Indian Princes; Indian Guide Dad; a Coach; an “old” football player and a real estate broker. Mike’s columns are usually crafted about the buzz in and around the area. It sometimes has a spin on real estate or cultural information, highlights a new business, or announces school happenings. He might include a “get-to-know” about some of our interesting residents and even a little about history. Whatever it is, it is sure to be about the “Talk of the Town”.