Lessons from Moses....

Tonight's family devotion came from the story of Moses. We sort of picked up where we left off last time and jumped into Exodus 19-20 where God gives Moses the Ten Commandments.

Moses and the Israelites provide so much in the way of practical application. It has been a long time since I studied Moses so the lessons seem fresh and very applicable.

The kids and I talked about the ten commandments and I asked them to focus on a couple of the commandments that I feel like we really needed to focus on.

The first one that really spoke to me was the commandment not to make anything more important than God. Ouch. I know I struggle with this. I get so focused on "life" that my time and energy are spent on things that shouldn't matter as much as they do. I shared with the kids that any time we make something else in our life more important than God,we are not living the way God wants us to. For me, I worry about the future and I worry about being able to do all the things that I need to do financially for me and the kids. Money has become too important to me. Spending it is not the problem. I understand managing money and I think I do a good job living within a budget. I also do a good job of saving and planning for the future. The problem is that I think it is all my responsibility to assure ourselves a good future. I worry about it too much...focus on it too much...and, though I would never want to do this, I make it more important than God. How do I know I have crossed that line? I'm not sure, I just know it occupies my thoughts and worries far too much. I am doing all I can. I need to trust God with the future and quit trying to "plan" my future so much.

The second one that I chose to focus on with the kids was not taking God's name in vain. Unfortunately, my kids are of the age where they are hearing their friends take God's name in vain and they watch television shows or movies that do this far too often. So, we talked about it and this opened up lots of discussion about all the "bad" things their friends say. We chased that rabbit for a good long while as they told me stories and even asked me what some words meant. It was a very healthy conversation....for that I am grateful.

There are some great lessons from Moses....and we are enjoying studying his life....even if it is very basic stuff that we are focusing on...it's very applicable.

For family time...and the lessons from Moses...I am grateful.