Participants:
Series Code: TDYFW
Program Code: TDYFW210013S
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00:01 I want to spend my life
00:08 Mending broken people 00:13 I want to spend my life 00:19 Removing pain 00:24 Lord, let my words 00:30 Heal a heart that hurts 00:35 I want to spend my life 00:40 Mending broken people 00:46 I want to spend my life 00:51 Mending broken people 01:09 Hello and welcome to 3ABN Family Worship. 01:12 My name is John Dinzey, and I am glad that 01:14 my wife Idalia is with me today. 01:16 And we're glad that you are also with us 01:18 so that this family can join 01:20 with your family in family worship. 01:22 That's right. 01:23 We always look forward to Friday evening, 01:26 sundown family worship to receive the Sabbath 01:30 and share experiences of the week 01:33 and grow together as a family. 01:35 When we sit and reminisce about the experiences 01:38 we've had with our children, sometimes we laugh and, 01:41 of course, we thank the Lord 01:44 for everything He has done through the ministry 01:47 of our family worship at home. 01:48 Amen. Amen. 01:50 Well, we have some members of the family that are visiting 01:53 and we have Tom and Alane Waters, welcome. 01:57 It's great to be here. Nice to be with you. 02:00 We love this topic too, family worship. 02:01 Amen. 02:02 And we want to do family worship with you. 02:04 That's right. Amen. 02:05 We're glad that you're here and we want to welcome 02:09 every one of you that are joining. 02:10 We know some of you may not be 02:12 with all the family members of your household, 02:15 but we hope that you will join in this family worship. 02:18 Before we continue, 02:19 we are going to go to the Lord in prayer 02:21 and we want to invite you to join us, 02:24 so that you can be part of the blessing. 02:27 So, Idalia, let's go to the Lord in prayer. 02:29 What if we asked the Lord to be part of this meeting? 02:34 Our loving heavenly Father, we are grateful to You, Lord, 02:38 because another week has ended, another week of challenges 02:43 or some difficulties, problems they faced. 02:47 We ask that You will help us 02:48 to put those behind us and focus in spending time 02:53 with one another and spending time with You. 02:56 We thank you, Lord, for the scriptures 02:58 that are able make us wise unto salvation. 03:00 Yes. 03:01 And we thank You that the scriptures tell us 03:03 about this special day 03:05 that you have selected to be with us. 03:08 We ask the Lord to be with every person 03:11 that is joining us wherever they may be. 03:14 May Your Holy Spirit also speak to them 03:16 and draw them close to you. 03:18 We pray that as we discuss and share, 03:21 you will guide us, guide our conversations, 03:23 bring to mind things that should be told 03:28 so that your name is honored and glorified 03:30 in your children blessed. 03:32 We thank You, Lord, for being with us in this week. 03:35 And we ask You that 03:36 You will be with us in this Sabbath day. 03:38 In Jesus' holy and blessed name, amen. 03:42 Amen. 03:44 Well, since this maybe new to some of you, 03:47 some of you have heard the word Sabbath before 03:50 and think it means this or that. 03:53 We want to go to the scriptures and show you 03:55 why we have Family Worship on 3ABN. 03:58 So, I am moving to the Book of Exodus Chapter 20, 04:03 and I'm going to read verses 8-11. 04:06 And the Bible says this, 04:09 "Remember the Sabbath day 04:12 to keep it holy. 04:14 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 04:18 but the seventh day 04:20 is the Sabbath of the Lord Your God. 04:24 In it you shall do no work: 04:27 you, nor your son, nor your daughter, 04:31 nor your male servant, 04:32 nor your female servant, 04:34 nor your cattle, nor your stranger 04:36 who is within your gates." 04:38 And then he tells us why. 04:40 "For in six days the Lord made 04:43 the heavens and the earth, the sea, 04:45 and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. 04:49 Therefore the Lord blessed 04:52 the Sabbath day and hallowed it." 04:56 This is, of course, one of the commandments, 04:58 one of the Ten Commandments. 05:00 And it's interesting that 05:01 when you read in Genesis Chapter 1 and 2, 05:04 and this is the only day 05:06 that the Lord blessed in the special sense, 05:11 He rested and blessed this day. 05:13 Sanctified it. Yes. 05:15 And it's interesting also 05:16 what is revealed in Isaiah 58:13, 05:19 I'm gonna ask Idalia to read that. 05:20 And then we're going to ask Tom and Alane to share with us 05:24 about the Sabbath day? 05:26 Isaiah 58:13, 05:30 "But first you must start respecting the Sabbath 05:33 as a joyful day of worship. 05:35 You must stop doing 05:37 and saying whatever you please on this special day." 05:41 That's a very interesting rendering of the... 05:43 what version is that one? 05:45 This is the... 05:48 Oh, this is contemporary English words. 05:50 Yes. 05:51 I'm going to go ahead and read it 05:53 from the New King James Version. 05:54 Okay. 05:55 And it says, "If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, 05:59 from doing your pleasure on my holy day 06:03 and call the Sabbath a delight 06:06 the holy day of the Lord honorable 06:09 and shall honor him 06:11 not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, 06:15 nor speaking your own words." 06:18 Verse 14, "Then you should delight yourself in the Lord. 06:22 And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth 06:27 and feed you with the heritage of Jacob, 06:29 your father, the mouth of the Lord has spoken." 06:33 Amen. Praise the Lord. Amen. 06:35 Well, we like to offer you the opportunity to share 06:39 from your heart about these verses 06:41 and how the Sabbath has been a delight 06:43 for you and your family. 06:45 Yes. 06:46 Well, it's great to be here with you 06:47 and we're delighted to be here, we do. 06:50 That's right. 06:51 So for us we both grew up Seventh-day Adventist 06:55 and that has its positives and it has its negatives. 06:59 Okay? 07:00 One of the negatives, at least during the time 07:02 that we grew up was that Sabbath was sort of, 07:05 you can't do anything. 07:06 Okay, I mean, I'll speak for myself. 07:09 You had your own experience. Right. 07:10 Well, it says not doing your own pleasures 07:12 or speaking your own words or those kinds of things. 07:14 So that was, you know, but it was never replaced. 07:18 That was the missing, you know, 07:20 we call it the replacement principle. 07:22 If God's asking us not to do something 07:24 or our parents are asking us not to do something. 07:26 Yeah. 07:27 Then, okay, there's a good reason for that. 07:30 But then can we fill in the gap here? 07:33 So unfortunately for me, again, 07:35 a little differently than my wife 07:37 I kind of went the other way sometimes 07:40 and did my own thing. 07:42 It wasn't the right thing, but for our children 07:47 we wanted to make sure that by God's grace, 07:50 that could be different, that they would look forward. 07:53 Yes. 07:54 They looked forward to family worship. 07:56 Free to be in delight. Yes. 07:58 And for Sabbath, we wanted it to be a delight. 08:01 So we worked to make it special. 08:03 You know, it wasn't that way. 08:04 At first, when our children come along 08:06 and that was by the time we got to Sabbath, 08:08 I was so exhausted from the week 08:10 'cause I still had my nursing profession. 08:12 I was raising two little ones and I was exhausted. 08:15 And then you clean the house and you get your food ready 08:17 and all these kinds of things 08:19 that you feel this pressure for. 08:20 Yes. 08:22 And by the time this holy sacred hours entered, 08:24 I was exhausted. 08:26 I was impatient. 08:27 I was, you know, the tension in the home 08:29 was the worst of the week 08:31 and on Sabbath mornings hurry-scurry, 08:33 get everybody ready for this. 08:35 And, you know, God spoke to our hearts 08:38 because this was the path we were on that 08:40 we had to turn that around. 08:43 So one of the things we did to turn it around is 08:46 that we began to start 08:47 implementing family worship every day. 08:50 And that was such a big help for us. 08:54 It helped us also in training our children 08:56 when we went to the church 08:58 that they could learn to sit and listen. 09:00 That's right. 09:01 Because we're listening, 09:02 we're having worship every day at home. 09:04 Now, that's something I wanted to do. 09:05 And I told my husband, you know, 09:07 you need to lead out in this 09:09 because you're the head of the home. 09:10 And he kept saying, no, that's your job. 09:12 You know, you're the mom, 09:13 be too little, I got to get to work. 09:15 And so we kind of had this back and forth for a while. 09:18 And then finally, one day I kept, 09:20 I won't say I did it the right way. 09:22 I nagged. 09:24 Wives, if you nag, 09:25 you're not going to get the results 09:27 that you're looking for. 09:28 We need to pray and not nag 09:30 because God has better power than we. 09:32 Boy, I shall start a loud amen from a gentleman out there. 09:37 But anyway, God gave him the cup 09:39 with the burden you have. 09:41 The beauty of it is that God began to work 09:43 in my wife's heart for your approach. 09:46 Yes. Yes. 09:47 And what didn't work by nagging 09:49 because I remember the first day 09:50 that I did family worship my way, 09:55 that I got halfway through it and she said, 09:59 "No, you don't do it that way, honey." 10:01 So I took, one, it wasn't the Bible. 10:06 I took the book that I was reading out of. 10:09 And I, she said, I threw it at her, 10:11 but I just went to her. 10:12 Okay. 10:14 And so she, she started praying for me. 10:19 And the amazing thing is, 10:21 I'm not saying this was the only approach, 10:23 but for me, she started praying for me, 10:26 and God started reaching into my heart 10:28 and He started giving me a burden. 10:32 Let me ask you a question because I want to make sure 10:34 I'm understanding what you're saying. 10:36 You said, she started praying for you. 10:38 Are you saying that 10:39 you were hearing her pray for you 10:40 or she told you she was praying? 10:42 That's a good question 10:43 because I didn't know she was praying. 10:45 I didn't tell him I was praying. 10:46 Never said anything, but this is looking back. 10:48 Okay. 10:49 Because I started develop, 10:50 literally I never had a burden and I... 10:53 For you guys out there, we need this burden. 10:56 Get it from God. 10:57 Your wife won't do a good job of giving you the burden. 10:59 But we don't often, we guys are out there. 11:03 We're the providers. Yes. 11:05 We're supposed to be the ones 11:06 to take care of everything out there. 11:08 She takes care of everything in here. 11:09 Right. 11:10 But I started developing this in my heart and I realized, 11:15 this is God, and I started praying about it. 11:18 And then I said to her, one Friday evening, 11:20 I said, "Are you praying for me 11:24 that God will put this in my heart?" 11:25 And she's, she got this 11:27 big smile on her face, you know? 11:28 And she said, "Yes, I've been praying 11:30 because it's better than nagging." 11:32 Amen. 11:33 Well, and there's a difference how we pray too. 11:35 We can tell God what He needs to do, right? 11:37 Oh God, You need to fix this. 11:40 That's me. 11:42 It's not us, are nagging. No, it's them. 11:46 But it's really, it's a submission on my part 11:49 to put my husband in the hands of God. 11:51 Yes. 11:52 God can do what He needs to do 11:54 in my husband's heart. 11:56 And God, I need You to do something in my heart. 11:58 Help me to be thankful for where I am. 12:00 I have a husband who loves me. He loves his kids. 12:03 So that's something to be thankful for right there. 12:05 If he doesn't have the burden 12:07 help me to do it in a sweet spirit 12:09 and to represent to our children that 12:12 this is still family worship 12:13 even though daddy can't be here. 12:15 Yes. I'm doing it in behalf of him. 12:17 This is such a different message 12:19 that our children need to get. 12:20 Then when he entered in the picture, 12:21 the little girls were already, 12:23 oh, goodie, daddy can be here today. 12:24 Like, this is all, 12:26 daddy's been a part of this all the time, 12:27 but now his presence is actually there. 12:28 That's right. Amen. 12:30 I think that's an important piece 12:31 to bring out. 12:32 But anyway, so yeah, we started switching, 12:34 preparing for the Sabbath 12:36 started during the week. 12:37 And that was huge 12:39 that we started looking forward to 12:41 and planning for the Sabbath. 12:43 Yes. 12:45 You know, this is new to people 12:46 because you're, you mentioned 12:48 something a moment ago, 12:49 you said sacred hours of the Sabbath 12:54 and the Bible says, 12:55 God says that the Sabbath is holy. 12:58 He sanctified it solely. 13:00 It is, they are sacred hours. 13:02 And so we want to make sure that 13:04 you're understanding what we're saying, 13:06 because we are accustomed nowadays 13:08 to recognizing the beginning of a day at midnight. 13:11 That's right. 13:12 Midnight begins a new day, but the Bible does not make, 13:16 or does not state that the days begin that way, 13:18 the days begin at sunset. 13:21 If you notice in Genesis Chapter 1, 13:23 it says that it was the evening and the morning, 13:27 one day, evening and the morning, 13:28 second day and so on. 13:30 So when we're talking about a Sabbath, 13:34 we're talking about when the sun sets on Friday, 13:37 the Sabbath begins. 13:39 And so the sunset Friday to sunset Saturday, 13:42 that's the Sabbath. 13:44 Those are the sacred hours of the day 13:46 that we're talking about. 13:47 And you said preparing for the Sabbath 13:48 because, you know, the Lord says, 13:50 "In it you shall not do any work." 13:51 So we want to keep those things away 13:55 from the Sabbath hours that distract us 13:57 from having that communion with God 14:00 in such a special way. 14:01 And you've mentioned also very powerful that 14:05 you had your family worship every day, 14:09 but the Sabbath became special. 14:11 And that was the process for you, I'm sure. 14:13 It was. It was a process. 14:15 So this is marvelous. 14:17 Praise the Lord, and I liked the fact 14:20 that you said, have you been praying for me? 14:23 You noticed a change. 14:26 And God does that in such a marvelous way. 14:28 He helps us. He leads us, 14:30 so that our thoughts can identify 14:32 with His thoughts and we can come 14:34 into harmony with Him and with one another. 14:37 And so this is great. 14:38 This is great the way it happens, so. 14:40 Yeah, so we, we also, one of the things 14:42 that I really appreciated was that we noticed 14:45 not just with our little children, 14:47 but with the other children in church, 14:50 that the kids aren't used to sitting 14:54 at 11 o'clock in the morning on Sabbath morning, 14:57 'cause that hasn't been what they're trained in. 14:59 So she had this idea which I thought was great. 15:02 She said, "I'm going to start." 15:03 Yeah, the Lord put it in her heart, 15:05 but I'm going to start reading them a story 15:07 and have them sit quietly at that time of the every day. 15:12 And so, the next Sabbath, 15:14 just one Sabbath, we went to church 15:17 and they were totally connected, 15:19 not totally connected with the preacher 15:20 'cause they're little, you know, 15:22 they're two, three years old, 15:23 but they had the little quiet. 15:25 We had these little quiet books, felt books. 15:27 Oh, yes. They were totally quiet. 15:29 It didn't have to be me or her taking them out 15:33 because they're screaming. 15:35 And the people started saying, "What is going on here? 15:38 How did you get them to do that?" 15:40 Praise the Lord. 15:41 That way everyone can enjoy 15:43 the Sabbath program at church or any other. 15:46 And if they're used to sitting for 30 minutes, 15:49 just hearing a story, I would speak softly 15:52 and then I'd ask questions and involve them. 15:53 When they're little I'd point to that 15:55 where's such and such in the picture, 15:56 did you see this? 15:58 Do you see that? 15:59 And it started training their ear to listen. 16:01 And I think this is also another important part 16:04 because we need to train our ears to listen to God. 16:06 And He doesn't always shout at us. 16:08 Lot of times He speaks to us in that 16:10 still small voice to conscience, right? 16:11 Yes. 16:13 And so training that, that ear to listen for 16:16 what is being said is very important. 16:19 And that was remarkable. 16:20 I mean, it's like, because actually I didn't, 16:24 Sabbath was not a delight for me 16:25 when I had young children, because it was just the, 16:28 getting it all ready and exhausted 16:30 and then getting impatient, feeling guilty. 16:32 And just, this will struggle between child and mom... 16:36 That's right. So we, it is a journey. 16:40 It doesn't happen in a week or two weeks, 16:42 but it happens quicker than we recognize the transition. 16:46 And that's the encouraging thing 16:47 because God's working alongside of us. 16:48 Amen. Amen. Amen. 16:50 Well, when I was a young my mom did have worship 16:55 and to her husband he had to leave early for work. 17:00 So he would, we... 17:02 She would wake us up at five in the morning 17:04 and we would have our family worship. 17:06 So at five in the morning, we will have that worship. 17:09 And then in the evening 17:10 we would have another family worship, 17:12 but we dreaded Sabbath to come 17:14 because we couldn't do anything. 17:15 It was so legalistic, you know, 17:17 like you're just going to sit there 17:19 and you're just gonna read 17:21 and sing and that's it, you know? 17:23 We're going to go door-to-door. 17:24 Well, we enjoyed going door-to-door 17:26 because we're out in a Baldwin. 17:28 We're with a group of young people 17:30 and we're doing something. 17:32 But we're doing a program that the church put out for us. 17:36 But as a family to say that 17:39 we had the opportunity to sit with mom 17:41 and really enjoy your Sabbath. 17:44 No, you know, that didn't happen. 17:46 You know, it's interesting 17:48 because it appears that the way parents present 17:52 the Sabbath to children is that 17:56 maybe some parents didn't learn the delight that 17:59 the Sabbath is, 18:00 and they were not able to communicate that 18:02 to their children. 18:03 So we are hoping that as we are discussing here, 18:06 some parents will begin to see that 18:08 the Sabbath is a delight, 18:10 and how can we make a delightful for our children 18:11 that they look forward to the Sabbath. 18:13 So perhaps you can share some ideas as to how you, 18:18 how that process developed for you 18:22 and ideas that the Lord gave you to work 18:26 with the children, for your family? 18:27 Yeah, definitely. 18:29 I mean, we have so many ideas, 18:30 but one of the things that we wanted to... 18:32 First of all, I'll just say it again to the guys out there. 18:37 I worked hard all week 18:38 and I would come to Friday night 18:41 and I was... 18:43 It was a Sabbath. Okay? 18:45 And I really, I love the Sabbath, 18:47 but when I would get in my chair 18:49 and start to read the Word... 18:52 Or after church. 18:53 Or Sabbath afternoon after lunch, 18:56 I had good intentions, but I tell you that 18:59 I was out like a light in about two minutes. 19:02 Well, his chair was a La-Z Boy chair 19:04 and it's named that way for a reason. 19:06 Wrong chare to sit on. 19:08 Because when he put that feet up 19:10 and the head tilted back, 19:12 that 30 to 45 seconds of Bible reading 19:16 soon faded into oblivion. 19:17 That communicates to the body, 19:20 this is the position I normally get after dinner. 19:22 Talk about Sabbath rest, right? 19:23 It was, I'm speaking to guys, because one of the things that 19:30 God put in my heart again, 19:31 was that I needed to be 19:33 a part of my family on the Sabbath 19:35 and make it a really delightful day 19:39 that was directed because a lot of my issues 19:42 when I was younger was there wasn't, 19:44 there wasn't the necessarily proper the direction. 19:47 That'd be fair. 19:48 My family, we went to the nursing home, 19:50 the old people's home on Sabbath and sang, 19:53 and that was good. 19:55 I didn't always like it, but it was good. 19:56 It was good direction. 19:58 And so I got up out of my La-Z-Boy chair, 20:03 which made me very lazy, got up out of my chair. 20:06 And I was determined, we're going to do some things 20:08 that are really enjoyable on the Sabbath. 20:12 And so, one of the things that we did just, you know, 20:16 you can take a Walmart bag or, you know, 20:18 any little shopping bag. 20:19 And we would go out as a family. 20:21 If we had someone for dinner, we would take them out, 20:23 their family, we would have direction. 20:25 And that is we're going to go out 20:26 and we're going to do a treasure hunt, 20:28 and we'd done this in Los Angeles. 20:30 So you can do it anywhere. Wow. 20:32 We're going to do, 20:33 we did a backyard treasure hunt in Los Angeles, 20:35 but, you know, unfortunately we... 20:36 Talking about the walk with the bag. 20:38 Yeah. 20:39 So we'll take, we take these bags 20:40 and we go on a little walk in nature 20:42 and we pick up little things and put it into the bag. 20:45 Nobody sees it. 20:46 And we come and we do a little activity 20:49 where we're going to, you know, 20:51 somebody's going to volunteer 20:52 to take something out of the bag. 20:54 Somebody's going to volunteer to sit 20:55 and have, you know, in a chair and then... 20:57 Be blindfolded. 20:59 Then be blindfolded, person who volunteers 21:00 or sit in the chair is blindfolded. 21:02 And then the other person takes something out of the bag 21:04 and puts it into their hand. 21:05 Oh. 21:07 And then you have to use your senses. 21:08 We don't recommend taste 'cause... 21:10 You can't have sight. 21:12 You can't see it, but you can smell it, feel it. 21:14 And then they guess what's in their hand. 21:18 Once they guess that, the next thing is, 21:21 'cause it's all nature. 21:22 Okay? It's... 21:23 And my wife. We got him Bible. 21:25 My wife made the rule that you can't have anything 21:28 that creeps or crawls. 21:30 That's a good role, mom. Good role. 21:32 Right. 21:34 So our son, you know, he tried to figure out a way, 21:36 so he would get something that was dead 21:38 that had been crawling and put it in there. 21:41 Only in mom's hand. Yeah. 21:45 So she had to revise the rules that doesn't, 21:47 it never creeped at all. 21:50 Okay. 21:51 So then once they guess what it is. 21:52 Okay. 21:54 So we'll just use a simple example 21:55 for the little children. 21:57 So have a rock in their hand. 21:58 So, can you think of any story in the Bible 22:02 that had a stone or a rock? 22:03 Yeah, of course, 22:04 children think of David and Goliath. 22:07 So then we would take that Bible story. 22:08 Yes. 22:09 Let them share what they know about the story 22:12 and then how can we apply it to them? 22:16 Do you ever face any giants? 22:19 And, of course, they're thinking, no, I don't. 22:22 Well, what about the giants 22:24 when mommy asked you to come in 22:25 and help fold the clothes, and you want to ride your bike 22:29 'cause they would have done it. 22:30 Oh, yes, it is. I never thought of that. 22:33 So I'll make it very practical. 22:35 Everybody in the family 22:36 or if you've got a family there for lunch, 22:39 everybody participates, 22:40 everybody gets to sit in the chair 22:42 and have something put into their hand 22:44 and it turns into an hour, hour and a half and no problem. 22:49 You don't feel the time gone. No boredom. 22:51 And even three and four year olds 22:52 can participate in. 22:54 That's right. It's amazing. 22:55 We've done this with our grandchildren. 22:57 And they said, "It's the happiest Sabbath 22:58 we've ever had," 23:00 just because it's something different, right? 23:01 Something different. 23:03 So the key is, look for things that we can do, 23:06 that will spark the interest. 23:08 So we always try to use nature. 23:13 Children are curious, 23:14 we learn a lot about God through nature. 23:16 So we try in nature to the Word of God, 23:21 a story or principle from the Word of God, 23:23 and then take it to application. 23:25 How does that affect them as he illustrated with the, 23:28 you know, the giants in the life. 23:31 That's wonderful. That's wonderful. 23:34 You know, I don't know why I'm thinking about this. 23:36 It's very interesting 23:38 that God has a way of speaking to us. 23:42 I remember we were doing a youth program on, 23:44 it was a Sabbath afternoon we have these. 23:46 In the Spanish culture, the Spanish churches we have... 23:50 It's very, very looked for up 23:55 a thing of the Sabbath that you. 23:57 It's like you're closing the Sabbath together. 23:59 And the youth have the opportunity to present. 24:00 AY. They call it AY also. 24:04 But one I said, 24:06 "Well, why don't we look at the elephant 24:09 and see all the different things 24:10 the elephants do and how they do." 24:12 So I gave out little portions to kids to participate in. 24:16 And so we presented this in the church 24:20 and it was very interesting about the elephants. 24:23 You know, like for example, some people think that when, 24:26 when there's an elephant and a mouse comes in, 24:28 that the elephant gets afraid and all this, 24:30 and it's not true. 24:32 The elephants don't care whether or not 24:33 there's a mouse there, it's not true. 24:36 But anyway, after it was all over, 24:38 you know, this is one of those times 24:39 that I know the Lord said 24:41 something to me, it was all over. 24:43 And I'm thinking, wow, that was really interesting. 24:45 And the Lord said in my mind, 24:47 where was I in all of that explanation 24:50 that you did about the elephants? 24:53 And I was, wow, I was shocked. 24:58 And I said, "I'm sorry, Lord, you created the elephants. 25:02 You made the elephants, 25:03 the wonderful creatures they are." 25:05 So to bring out that 25:07 God is our creator of the Sabbath, 25:09 I think it is especially important 25:12 because remember the seventh day 25:13 to keep it holy. 25:14 See, why? 25:16 For in six days, 25:17 God created the heavens and the earth. 25:18 And so I learned a valuable lesson. 25:20 I learned a valuable lesson, so... 25:22 Amen. Yes. 25:23 So how about some other things 25:25 you have done to make family worship a delight? 25:28 The Sabbath a delight. 25:29 I think what was very helpful for us 25:32 is because we actually created a Sabbath planner. 25:36 And so Sunday morning we started planning 25:37 for the following week 25:39 and that planner is available on our website, 25:42 rionline.org 25:44 It's under the resources. 25:45 And it's, you have to scroll down 25:47 a little ways to find out the printed things 25:50 because they can print it out. 25:51 Can you mention that again 25:53 just in case somebody said, I wasn't ready? 25:54 Yes, rionline.org 25:58 and that stands for Restoration International. 26:01 And that was so helpful to us 26:03 because we created then a theme for the week in preparation. 26:06 A lot of times went along with the lesson plan 26:09 for the children, 26:10 but we wanted to try to capture all of the depth we could 26:16 from the stories in the Bible 26:18 and how it would be applied to our children, 26:21 to their ability to understand. 26:23 And what we discovered is, 26:24 is our children could understand much more 26:26 when we kept trying to dig deeper 26:28 and explain things in a simple way, 26:30 but going deep in it. 26:32 And so one, one of the things 26:34 that was very remarkable for me 26:38 was the story of Nehemiah. 26:41 I've always been fascinated with that story, 26:43 but reading it and rereading, 26:45 and then having a week on the life of Nehemiah, 26:48 because that's what the lesson was about for the children 26:50 to see how focused he was, 26:53 that in spite of all the distractions 26:56 that came in, that he would not get off that wall. 26:59 He just kept moving forward 27:00 with the purpose God had given him. 27:03 And it was very interesting to me 27:05 because I homeschooled our children 27:07 and their desks just happened to, 27:09 each of their desks they could look out a window. 27:11 Well, that's not necessarily the best classroom, you know, 27:14 notice in public schools or wherever 27:16 that the teachers in the front, right? 27:18 And the windows are on the side or on the back, 27:21 but we were doing it at home, right? 27:22 We had lots of windows in the house. 27:24 And so we had 27:25 some of the desks in the kitchen 27:26 and a desk in the office 27:28 and they all had windows to look out. 27:29 And sometimes it was challenging to keep 27:32 the children's focus right 27:34 on the schoolwork instead of the squirrels 27:36 and the birds and other things. 27:38 And so that lesson, 27:40 I remember the day I said to our son, 27:42 Josiah, remember Nehemiah, he didn't come off the wall. 27:46 So what, and we would bring this. 27:49 So what is your wall that you're building? 27:52 It's your math lesson right now. 27:54 And so, when the job is complete, 27:58 you can step off the wall. 28:00 And it was like, just remember Nehemiah. 28:03 And it was like, okay. 28:05 And just, instead of don't keep 28:06 looking out the window, you know, 28:08 we use the Bible as a teacher and as authority 28:12 so that it brings those lessons. 28:14 And it's, there's so many beautiful things 28:16 we've learned from the Bible that we need 28:19 and can use particularly everyday in life. 28:21 And we see so many examples in the Bible 28:23 of just families 28:25 that didn't have it all together, 28:27 you know, and praise the Lord that these encounters 28:31 with our children or gatherings with the family worship. 28:35 We talk about our week. How was your week? 28:38 Even though we talk about it every day really. 28:41 And so, it's good to use these samples in the Bible 28:46 so that we can grow from that. 28:48 What is the lesson in there? 28:50 Sometimes we hear a sermon, but we don't take it personal. 28:53 We don't make it a reality in our life. 28:56 There's a lesson there for me. 28:58 So as we contemplate different personalities in the Bible, 29:02 different stories we identify, 29:06 we can identify and the Bible becomes real to us. 29:10 Yes. 29:11 You look at the different families 29:12 of the Bible 29:14 and you do see that I say, wow, 29:15 that will say not a good idea for, 29:18 for Joseph to get that coat of many colors. 29:22 It didn't work out well. Favoritism, right? 29:24 Yes, and I mean, the father was happy, 29:27 proud of his son 29:29 and he wanted to give him a special gift, 29:32 but he had not given that gift to the others. 29:34 So I was like, Hey, why did he get that? 29:37 You know? So he creates a problem. 29:39 So... Yes, Idalia. 29:43 What I wanted to say is, it's okay. 29:45 What about Adam? 29:47 Any of, because we're talking about, 29:49 okay, Nehemiah, we're talking about, 29:51 um, the people that you just mentioned right now? 29:55 Joseph, yes, the coat of many colors. 29:57 Many colors, but we're longing to have this perfect home, 30:02 this perfect family. 30:03 I want my family to be happy, 30:05 but you know, it's just that 30:06 we sacrifice to do a good job at work. 30:09 Men, they do a good job in providing. 30:13 We want to do a good job in uniting the family 30:16 and what we can give our children is 30:19 the love of Jesus. 30:20 Amen. 30:21 So that their salvation, that they will embrace that 30:23 and they will not want to lose it. 30:25 So we look at Adam and Eve, they had the perfect home, 30:29 they had the perfect home, 30:30 but something happened there, you know? 30:33 And so sin entered 30:35 and now families struggle every day. 30:39 There's a single parent. 30:41 Uh, I'm not gonna say just single moms 30:44 because there are single fathers out there 30:46 and we are praying for your home. 30:49 And as a single parent, 30:51 you have all the responsibilities of working 30:54 and providing not only material, 30:56 physical things to your family, but also the spiritual needs. 31:00 So how can we connect Adam and Eve 31:05 and Abraham and Isaac, 31:07 and Sarah and all these stories 31:11 so that our viewers at home can say, you know what? 31:14 Which family do I identify with? 31:16 Which one do I identify with? 31:18 Well, it's interesting, you know, 31:20 our water bottles here, they've restored, 31:24 and this is something 31:26 that's been a growing desire in our hearts 31:30 in the ministry of Restoration International, 31:32 which grew out of the ministry in our own home. 31:35 And this idea of living restored 31:37 is God's ideal for us. 31:40 Seeing the family restored back to the relationship with God. 31:44 And so being honest, 31:47 okay, is very important in our families being honest. 31:51 One of the things we did, to come back to your question. 31:55 In the evenings every day, 31:58 we had family talk time 32:00 and it was really family transparency time. 32:03 It was family time together to talk about anything. 32:06 And we started it 32:07 when our children were fairly young. 32:09 Yeah. Early school age. 32:10 Yeah. Early school age. 32:11 And that proved to be such a blessing. 32:13 We did that a half an hour before the evening worship, 32:17 and it was a time to open up their hearts 32:19 and really talk, you know, our son, some of our, 32:25 some of the viewers know our story 32:28 from being on here before. 32:30 But, our son took some detours, some sad detours. 32:35 Okay? 32:36 Which, you know, he's back with the Lord. 32:39 We're very thankful. 32:41 We never doubted that he would come back to the Lord. 32:44 And I think one of the things 32:45 that we need is to be as parents, 32:47 as anchors for our children, 32:49 that starts the younger the better that 32:52 in those family talk times that we had together, 32:55 we told our children, you can tell us anything. 33:00 You can tell us whatever you're going through, 33:02 whatever is bad. 33:04 And it's not going to change our love for you. 33:06 That's right. 33:07 It's not going to change the way we relate to you. 33:10 And we're thankful for that 33:11 because when he went through this, you know, 33:15 I'm going to say tragic, tragic detour. 33:18 Okay? 33:19 When he went through that, 33:21 he never lost the hope 33:25 in us as his parents. 33:27 Amen. Good, good. Praise the Lord. 33:28 He said, I knew, of course, 33:30 now we've had so many conversations. 33:32 But he said, I knew that you would never give up on me. 33:36 So never give up. 33:38 If some of you, I know that 33:39 there are people out there that are going through 33:42 these things, never give up. 33:44 Jesus says, "I will never leave you or forsake you." 33:47 Okay? 33:49 Josiah said, "I knew you would never stop believing in me. 33:53 I knew you would never stop loving me." 33:56 And so, we need to develop the communication. 34:01 And this is one of our, 34:02 our, again, passions is that parents 34:06 develop young, the connection, 34:09 we call it, winning the heart. 34:12 So if you know out there as viewers, 34:14 if you know right now, 34:16 cause it'll be a spontaneous thought. 34:17 If you don't have the heart of your child, 34:19 don't beat yourself up, but don't give up. 34:22 Look for ways to reach. 34:23 Each of our children are individual. 34:25 They're very different. 34:27 And we want to, we wanted 34:28 to win the hearts of our children. 34:30 And even through the hardest times 34:32 that he went through, 34:35 he still had a heart connection with us. 34:37 That's great. 34:39 He wouldn't talk to his mother because he said, 34:40 "I break her heart." 34:41 He would say, "Father, 34:43 I won't talk to mother 'cause I'm breaking her heart." 34:45 But he said, I know you, you can hear me. 34:47 And I know it's hurting you too. 34:50 But you know, when we actually gave him 34:54 to the Lord in a way we'd never had. 34:56 I did a little bit earlier than she did. 34:59 He called and he said, I can talk to mother now 35:02 because he says, 35:03 "I know she's given me to the Lord." 35:05 Wow. 35:07 I said, "How did you know that?" 35:08 And he said, "Well, I think God 35:09 just put that in my heart even though 35:11 I'm doing these things I'm doing." 35:12 Because it was the day after she made that decision. 35:15 He called me, said, "I can talk to mom. 35:16 I can talk to mother now." 35:18 Amen. Wow. 35:19 We are not our children's saviors. 35:20 That's right. 35:22 We can be examples, encourage or instruction, 35:24 give instructions. 35:26 But we cannot save them, only God can save. 35:29 That's right. 35:30 And so, you know, for a parent it's challenging 35:34 when we see a child making 35:36 or a young adult making choices 35:38 that we know are going to 35:40 cause them pain and agony, you know, in their life 35:45 and obviously to the Lord as well. 35:48 We have to let the Lord, we have to trust the Lord, 35:51 the life of that child to the Lord 35:53 and trust the Lord with that. 35:55 And I think that's, that's really been powerful, 35:57 but it's so important to develop this foundation. 35:59 And I appreciate what you were saying because, 36:03 it doesn't matter what our family structure is. 36:06 If it's a two parent, if it's a blended family, 36:08 if it's a single parent, we all have the opportunity 36:13 to develop family worship in our homes, 36:16 especially to bring in the Sabbath hours. 36:19 It's so important 36:20 because God says it's a delight. 36:23 And that when we delight in that, 36:24 then we will ride 36:26 on the high places of the earth. 36:27 In other words, 36:28 we're going to have an experience. 36:30 And really it's talking about the rewards of eternity 36:32 as well in this scripture. 36:35 And so having, making Sabbath 36:38 and family worship 36:40 a high priority is so important. 36:43 And if it's a joy for us, it'll be a joy for them. 36:47 You know, I've often said to our children early on, 36:51 now this is going to be really hard. 36:52 And I know you're not going to like it. 36:54 I've already prepared their mind to reject 36:56 what I'm going to say to them. 36:57 That's right. 36:58 But if I say this is going to be fun, 37:01 and you're going to learn something new today in school, 37:03 or we're going to learn a new task today, 37:05 and we're going to have fun doing it together. 37:07 I have already enlisted their will to engage. 37:12 And this is why it's so important 37:14 when we talk about 37:15 spiritual principles in the Bible 37:17 is that this is going to be, bring us our greatest joy 37:20 because God has promised it, right? 37:23 And this is going to be something fun we do. 37:24 And so, on our website, 37:26 not only do we have that Sabbath planner, 37:29 but we also have and it's free, 37:30 it's under the resources in the audio section, 37:33 a whole series called Remember the Sabbath Day. 37:36 It has four one hour presentations of things 37:40 we can do in our homes as families, 37:42 whether they're little biddies, 37:43 you know, toddlers to grade schoolers, 37:45 or whether they're young adults in our home, 37:47 things we can do to bring a special feature 37:51 into our Sabbaths. 37:53 And that has been 37:55 some of the highlights for our family 37:57 and other families as well. 37:58 It's like breaking the monotony, right? 38:00 Yes. 38:01 Because we become a routine traditional followers 38:05 of this is how we do it every Sabbath in, Sabbath out, 38:09 this is always what we do, 38:11 but throwing in those different surprises, 38:15 the kids start looking forward to it, even as adults. 38:18 I mean, when you have 38:19 a special activity at the church 38:21 that also, you're excited, like what are we doing? 38:26 Something different? Looking forward to it. 38:28 I look forward to Sabbaths. Sabbath is a delight. 38:33 Sabbath is a time that we don't have to think about 38:36 what the cares of this world is. 38:39 We just focus into, you know, Lord, 38:41 I cast all my cares on you. 38:44 You know, I lay all of my burden, 38:46 just like the Bible says, 38:49 we want to just lay everything aside 38:51 and connect with heaven. 38:53 We need to learn to put separate our mind 38:58 or turn off our minds. 38:59 How do you say it? 39:01 You know, it's this what we have to do? 39:03 Because sometimes we're trying to worship or pray 39:05 and your mind is like, 39:06 oh, I need to do this, and then I need to do that. 39:09 You know, that is true. 39:11 When you look at the Sabbath the way God, 39:13 and I'm glad the way it's worded the way it is, 39:15 the way, we read Exodus 20:8-11. 39:18 Thank you, Lord, for the details, 39:21 because it talks about to remember the Sabbath day 39:25 to keep it holy, you shall not do any work. 39:27 And then you can say, 39:29 well, I don't have to do any work. 39:30 My son and my daughter will do all the work, 39:31 but notice it says that 39:33 neither nor your son or your daughter. 39:34 And even, even goes down to the animals. 39:37 They also need rest, you know? 39:38 And so it's marvelous, 39:40 it's marvelous to read God's Word 39:42 and God tells us, what? 39:44 You mean, the Sabbath is supposed to be a delight. 39:47 And people look at the commandments 39:48 it's don't do this, don't do that. 39:49 Don't do that. 39:51 But they are expressions of God's desire for us 39:55 to be happy. 39:56 You want, I want you to be happy. 39:57 I love you. So do not steal, do not. 40:01 These things are going to hurt you. 40:03 And so the Sabbath day is like, it's different. 40:06 It's worded differently. 40:07 It doesn't say do not forget, but he says, 40:11 remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. 40:15 It has a, like a more delightful expression 40:19 if I could say, 40:21 because people nowadays take the commandments, 40:23 thou shalt not, thou shalt not. 40:25 And the Sabbath commandment begins different. 40:28 So the Sabbath becoming a delight, 40:30 I liked the way you're making expressions 40:33 that prepares the mind. 40:34 The Lord does that with us as well, 40:37 prepares the mind for what you're about to say. 40:39 And too often, as parents, you know what, 40:45 the 90 something percent of that 40:47 comes out of our mouth to the children, 40:49 perhaps it's, don't do this. 40:51 Why did you do that? 40:52 And if it's negative, negative, negative, negative, 40:55 they need to hear some positive things as well. 40:57 And some words that 40:59 encourage their cooperation, 41:02 encourage them to feel, my dad really cares about me. 41:06 My mom really cares about me. 41:08 That is so important because, 41:10 we do naturally default in real life, 41:13 especially in our homes. 41:15 We see the things that need to be done, 41:18 the things that aren't getting done right. 41:20 And we had a, kind of a thing between us kind of quietly, 41:25 that if we started noticing that 41:28 we're having to do more correcting 41:30 and maybe this will, you know, be for you as our viewers. 41:35 If you find yourself, you're correcting more, 41:38 one of us would say to the other, 41:40 we're getting back to the correcting. 41:43 Let's get back to the positive encouragement. 41:47 Let's encourage every good choice 41:49 our children make. 41:51 And when we did that, okay, within a day, 41:57 the energy of doing what was right 42:00 overcame the energy of doing 42:03 what's pushing back because we were encouraging it. 42:07 And so we began to encourage more and more 42:09 of what you're doing right. 42:11 And had less and less of what you're doing wrong. 42:13 Yes. Yes. And if this is positive. 42:16 It's very, very common that we forgot to praise, 42:21 you know, the good. 42:22 We always explain out the baddest, 42:24 you messed up again, 42:25 fix that up or get this done or that done. 42:28 But what it's done, of course, we need to recognize that. 42:32 That's what God does. 42:33 In His Word, 42:35 He continually brings us do this 42:37 and thou shall live, right? 42:39 He gives us all the positives, but He knows our weakness. 42:42 And He also has to show us that 42:43 the way of the transgressors a hard way. 42:45 So if you choose not, then there are things 42:48 that are going to bring you sadness and unhappiness. 42:50 Yes. 42:52 I wanted to bring out this example 42:53 from Genesis Chapter 4, because I find it interesting. 42:57 In Genesis Chapter 4, 42:58 we have the story of Cain and Abel. 43:00 And this, what I'm talking about now is after Cain offered 43:04 what he was not supposed to offer, 43:06 and God approaches him. 43:08 And in verse 6, the Lord approaches Cain. 43:13 So the Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry? 43:16 And why has your countenance fallen?" 43:19 You know, it wasn't like, what's wrong with you? 43:21 Why, why, why, why are you that way? 43:23 What's wrong with you? 43:25 No, He approached him in a fatherly way. 43:28 Why are you angry? 43:30 And why has your countenance fallen? 43:32 God notices these things. Yes, He does. 43:35 And so as parents also, 43:37 we should notice the demeanor of our children. 43:40 So that boy easy, 43:42 he or she doesn't seem to be happy right now. 43:44 I wonder what's going on 43:46 and approach them instead of just, 43:48 you know, put a smile on your face. 43:51 I really liked that 43:53 because God's approach to the very first sin 43:58 was asking questions. 43:59 Yes. 44:00 And we tend to jump in and say, I know what you did. 44:04 I saw that. Why did... 44:06 And instead God be all knowing, all loving comes in and says, 44:12 "Where are you?" 44:14 Did He know where they were hiding? 44:15 Of course, He did. 44:17 We often jump in 44:18 and we need to ask more questions. 44:21 When we started taking that approach 44:23 'cause he asked a lot of questions 44:24 in the beginning. 44:26 Yes. Yes. 44:27 When we ask questions, we give our young people 44:31 the opportunity to open their heart. 44:33 Because when we ask, the spirit brings conviction. 44:36 That's right. 44:37 And when we jump in with our mouth wide open 44:40 or with our wrong spirit... 44:42 That's right. We shut them down. 44:44 Yes. 44:45 And so I really appreciate you bringing that up. 44:47 You know, you said something earlier, 44:49 that is it's marvelous. 44:51 You were talking about your son and that he felt comfortable. 44:55 And he said, I knew that, how did you express it? 45:00 I knew... 45:01 I knew you'd never give up on me, 45:03 and you'd never stop loving me. 45:04 So that was a... That took... 45:07 It was a process. 45:09 And so as parents, you know, 45:10 what you're saying is what I understand 45:12 you're saying is that we should be communicating 45:15 with our children 45:16 so that they will feel comfortable 45:18 to express to us 45:20 whatever's in their heart, you know? 45:22 And even if you have to say, 45:27 you do this, you say, let's go. 45:29 Son, I want to take a walk with you, 45:31 and you just go on a walk with your son, your daughter, 45:33 and you start talking to them, tell me, how's it going? 45:36 You know? 45:37 And if they share something that you find something, 45:40 I need to correct them on this one. 45:43 Ask the Lord for guidance, you know, 45:44 because the Bible says, 45:46 let your words be seasoned with grace. 45:50 Yes. 45:52 And so, if we ask the Lord for wisdom 45:54 because, you know, we can speak a lot of poison. 45:57 We can speak a lot of poison. 45:58 There was a, we call them PSA, 46:02 which is a Public Service Announcement. 46:04 We used to have this many years ago on 3ABN 46:07 where it shows a child that is tastes down. 46:12 And in the background, 46:14 you hear you'll never amount to anything. 46:17 You're not like your father. 46:18 You're not like me at all, you know, 46:20 and different things 46:21 that parents say that are negative. 46:24 And then the announcer says, words are like a fist. 46:29 And it's true. 46:30 The things that we say has an effect on people 46:34 and on our children as well. 46:36 And so it's a challenge sometimes, 46:41 but we should make that a matter of prayer 46:43 to be able to sit, 46:45 to speak to our children in such a way that 46:47 it has the right effect upon them. 46:49 And you were mentioning that God ask questions, 46:52 instead of saying. 46:54 Accusations. Accusations right away. 46:56 And I am guilty of, you know, like something is missing 47:02 or say, honey, why did you move. 47:05 And it wasn't her. 47:08 Maybe I forgot I did it 47:09 or maybe one of the children did it. 47:10 And we have to stop and ask us, wait a minute. 47:14 Or maybe you did it and you forgot. 47:17 That's possible. 47:19 You know, the beauty of this is, 47:21 and if we will take advantage, 47:23 all of us will take advantage of this. 47:24 It's not even just the Sabbath. 47:26 The Sabbath is a special and beautiful holy day, 47:29 but it's the interactions that 47:31 we have all through the week 47:32 that also can make the Sabbath a delight. 47:35 And that it isn't just on Sabbath 47:38 that we all of a sudden switch on. 47:40 And now we're super, super dads or super moms. 47:44 Okay? That's right. 47:45 Or super Christians. Exactly. 47:47 That we gain the connection. 47:50 So that on the Sabbath that, 47:53 and this is one of the tragedies 47:54 we've seen in our own family. 47:56 But in ministry is we often 48:00 are so busy on the Sabbath 48:03 that our family is going different directions 48:06 worse than any other day. 48:09 This is true. 48:10 And we made it a focus and a commitment, 48:12 and God has blessed us. 48:14 We made it a commitment that, 48:16 that our home truly is our first mission field. 48:21 Now we know, we might know that as Christians. 48:23 Okay? 48:25 But to live it takes a higher level of commitment. 48:29 That's true. 48:30 And I said to my wife, 48:32 after praying about this, you know, 48:34 we're the people in the church that are taking, 48:37 you know, we were in a 1300 member church, 48:40 you know, working at Hinsdale Hospital 48:41 back in our medical careers. 48:43 And it's this way everywhere, 48:46 20% or less are doing 80% of the work in the church. 48:51 And the other 80% are saying happy for you to do it. 48:54 Thank you. 48:56 I said, I've got to learn to say no 49:00 more to what everybody. 49:02 And I can remember making this commitment 49:03 to my wife and to the Lord 49:06 that the next time the nominating committee 49:09 asked me to do something, I'm going to tell them, 49:12 I need to check with the Lord and with my wife. 49:16 And the first time that happened, 49:18 it had a predictable response. 49:20 It was shock because I always said yes, 49:24 she always said yes. 49:26 And we said, it's time that we start saying selectively no. 49:31 Yes. 49:33 When it means that we're adding more on, 49:35 because we don't get any more hours in the day. 49:37 When you add more on, it subtracts somewhere else. 49:41 And it usually subtracts 49:42 from our marriage and our family. 49:45 And that's not a good subtraction. 49:46 Right. 49:47 We don't want to, want our children to see 49:50 a whole totally different person Sabbath hours, 49:52 like, are you still my mother? 49:54 What happened to my mother? You know, I... 49:56 Super dad and super mom. 49:58 I don't know if I've shared this story on 3ABN 50:01 and family worships before, 50:03 or it's just the Latino network. 50:05 But when our children were small, 50:09 they were supposed to shine their shoes by Thursday. 50:12 Everything has to be, you know, in order. 50:15 So one Sabbath morning, 50:17 one of my sons, our sons did not find their shoes. 50:23 It's like, what on earth is wrong with you kid, 50:26 find the shoes, we got to go to church. 50:29 They're your Sabbath shoes, you know? 50:31 So anyway, I told him, just go ahead. 50:35 And I'm dealing with this child at home 50:37 and I am so mad at this kid. 50:40 It's like, you're going to make a slates. 50:41 And, you know, you should have had that. 50:43 I told you a blank, nagging, nagging, nagging, nagging. 50:46 And the kid finally found his shoes. 50:49 I was not about to go find them. 50:51 I'm like, you are responsible for that. 50:53 You deal with it. 50:54 So anyway, I yelled at this kid, my son, 50:57 and by the time when we walked into church 51:00 where some people in the foyer, 51:02 and they were like, "Oh, hi, Idalia, happy Sabbath." 51:05 I'm like, "Oh, how are you?" 51:08 And all loving and hugging and all this stuffy and happy. 51:12 And it's like, the Lord gave me a good holy slap. 51:16 You know, those thick slaps, you know? 51:19 I'm like what did I just do to my son. 51:22 I put him through, you know, bad, steaming comments. 51:28 You put him on the oven. 51:30 So, and here I am sitting or walking in and being so nice 51:35 and friendly to people that don't live with me, 51:38 but my child, his spirit is, you know, broken. 51:42 So I then, you know, the Lord convicted my heart 51:46 and I was broken and I apologized to my son, 51:48 but I will never do. 51:50 I said, I am not going to be fighting over any shoes, 51:54 go with your gym shoes or go barefoot, I don't care. 51:56 We're going to make it, you know, 51:58 we're going to go to the church. 51:59 So, or maybe some folks at home are saying, 52:01 Idalia, that was mean. 52:03 Go help him find the shoes. 52:04 But I would be like, you know what? 52:07 Whatever you need, 52:09 let me know when you're ready, 52:10 so we can go. 52:11 So, but I don't want to put my kids or my family 52:15 through all this stress before going to church 52:19 and then sit like a saint and say, amen, sister 52:22 or amen, greetings pastor, you know? 52:26 That's very real. Thank you. 52:28 'Cause we've all experienced it. 52:30 If we're honest and we just want to make sure 52:33 we're all good. 52:34 We've all been social Christians, right? 52:36 Yes, you're out there. 52:39 Yeah, but our children need to enjoy the peace 52:44 that is within the Sabbath hours, 52:47 Friday sundown to Sabbath sundown 52:49 and the activities and coming in 52:52 and going at the church or activities, 52:54 going to the park, going into nature, you know, 52:56 that is attendants that we have. 52:59 These are ideas that are great for the Sabbath, 53:01 you know, and the Lord, the Lord has infinite wisdom. 53:05 He can give us ideas how to make the Sabbath 53:08 a delight for the family, for the children, 53:11 that the whole family will look forward 53:13 to the Sabbath instead of, 53:16 oh no, here's the Sabbath again. 53:18 And we can't do this and we can't do that 53:20 because, how many kinds of fruits 53:24 did the Lord make? 53:26 There are many kinds of fruits out there, 53:28 you're so just like that. 53:29 We can find there are many things 53:31 that we can do on the Sabbath that is a delight. 53:33 And really the Lord is keeping us 53:36 away from things that interrupt our communion with Him 53:41 and are not, are beneficial to us in some way, 53:46 because the Sabbath is supposed to be 53:47 a special time for families 53:49 and for us to spend with the Lord. 53:51 I'd like to expand that just a little bit too, 53:53 because I don't want 53:55 any of our viewers to think that 53:56 we're only talking about, if you have children at home 53:59 that you need to be having these family worships, 54:03 or you need to be making Sabbath a delight 54:05 because all of us are God's children 54:08 and heaven in eternity 54:10 is going to be full of delight, right? 54:12 And every Sabbath will be a high day. 54:15 And so for us as adults and maybe, you know, 54:18 our children are grown and gone. 54:19 That's our situation. 54:21 We're kind of empty nesters now. 54:22 And we still look for ways to make Sabbath 54:26 extremely special in our relationship. 54:28 And some of our greatest, you know, 54:32 Sabbath experiences has been with adults, 54:35 our young adults, right? 54:37 And us, and then even a grandfather, 54:39 you know, who was present. 54:41 And he said to us, 54:42 this is the best Sabbath I've ever had. 54:44 He wasn't our grandfather, but he was grandfatherly age. 54:47 And he said, "I never knew that 54:49 all these blessings we could have on the Sabbath." 54:51 So it's not just for children, it's for all of us. 54:55 And to have all of us are given this opportunity 54:58 to call the day of delight 55:00 and to ride on the high places that God has for us. 55:02 That's what whets our appetite to continue that relationship 55:06 through the next week. 55:07 If Sabbath is a drudgery, 55:09 then we're not motivated to commune with God 55:11 during the week. 55:13 And the Christian experience 55:14 is just continually going downhill and declining. 55:17 So by having worship daily and in our home, 55:21 we went from daily worship to morning and evening worship, 55:26 just begin the day and end the day with God. 55:28 And then Friday evening worship 55:29 was always the climax of the week. 55:32 Yes. 55:34 Well, our time is gone as to say. 55:37 I would like to ask, Tom, 55:39 if you could say a few words, 55:41 the fathers that are with us, you know, 45 seconds 55:45 and then we'll give Alane 45 seconds. 55:46 Yeah. 55:48 So, men, fathers, husbands, 55:51 it's a privilege to be the house band. 55:55 Okay? 55:56 The husband is the house band 55:58 that holds the family together under God. 56:00 And he's called each of our hearts. 56:03 And I know as we've shared together, 56:05 that He wants you to be 56:07 all that you can be through Him. 56:10 He wants us as men to recognize that 56:14 that our homes 56:15 is where our hearts need to be first, 56:18 it's with our, it's our marriage. 56:20 It's our, if we're having, 56:22 if we have children in our home, 56:24 that we are with them, that we are leading the way 56:27 by example that when we make a mistake, 56:30 we confess, we make no excuses that 56:33 we tell them, we're sorry, and that they can respect us. 56:36 Thank you so much. 56:38 And for all the ladies, 56:40 and this is really for everyone. 56:43 We just want to have that right relationship with God. 56:46 And so taking time every day in His Word, 56:48 spending time in prayer with Him, 56:50 looking for the things that He has for us 56:52 to experience in life. 56:54 And when those trials come, 56:56 don't think that God has abandoned us, 56:58 but those are opportunities 56:59 He's giving us right at that moment 57:01 to grow our relationship with Him, to trust Him more. 57:05 And then to learn to be the Proverbs 31 woman 57:07 that has the grace of God on her tongue. 57:11 Thank you so much. Well, Idalia, time is over. 57:15 So we hope that you have been blessed 57:17 by this family worship. 57:19 We encourage you to talk to the Lord 57:22 about how you can make the Sabbath 57:23 a delight for yourself and your family. 57:26 Thank you for being with us. God bless you till next time. 57:28 Happy Sabbath. Happy Sabbath. |
Revised 2021-05-13