Easter Week...

I have been praying for the Lord's help....I so want my kids to know God and have a relationship with him. They are young (7 & 4), but they pray at bedtime and last night, my son wanted to "keep on going..." as we read his Children's Bible Stories. He specifically wanted to read one that had a picture with Jesus and the cross. How timely given the Easter season! My daughter has memorized the books of the bible and now knows the Our Father. I am proud but know that a challenge lays ahead...Attending church has been a HUGE asset for me in terms of raising them alone. Our church, the NorthRidge Church, has a fabulous children's program and my children LOVE attending. I think that I win half the battle when the children want to go to church. Don't you?

As I walk and grow in my faith it becomes ever clearer to me how believing in God is shadowed by the importance of living what I believe. I know too many people who say that they believe, but certainly do not live like they do. In the past you could count me in that group. But something has changed in me and I think of all of the years that I wasted...not being fully alive...going through the motions....hearing but not listening....not laying claim to what has been given to me...turning my back on God...a life filled with so much emptiness where my feelings vacillated between desperation and numbness....worshipping all of the wrong things...and making some devastatingly bad decisions. Oh how the Lord has delivered me!

Sweet Jesus, I am forever grateful for your sacrifice. Continue to guide me and be a husband to the husbandless and a father to the fatherless. We are so blessed by your presence. Oh, how you have filled the empty spaces and given meaning to each breath I take. Help me to grow closer to you, discern your voice in my life, and stay on the path you have set for me. I pray for peace in my heart, peace in my home, and peace on this earth...Amen