Wanna pick up from where we left off last blog on spiritual diet. As I am determine to provide my family stable and consistent home-cooked spiritual meals, I started with a four-course meals. In order to make it easier for you to remember, I frame it as A-B-C-D, each represents a practice that is crucial for our spiritual walk with the Lord. I will share the tools in this and coming blogs
A = Attentive Listening
B = Bonding
C = Course
D = Dialogue
At the end of last year, my girl asked me, "How do I know God is real? I never heard from Him and I cannot see Him." That is a legitimate question. I know sending our kids to Sunday school and youth program won't be enough to cultivate their personal walk with God. They need to personally experience God to confirm that we have a living God who speaks.
With that, our family starts a Saturday morning routine to help our kids learn to the art of attentive listening of the divine voice. We take turn to come up with our own devotional material. I have included here a few sessions' example for you to get a feel. Family Devotion Sample
As you can see from the sample, it's a very short devotion. I only use one verse, and it is a verse that I have been meditating and memorizing over the days of the week. So, naturally, it has a special meaning to me already. We always end our last question with an actionable task that we can do in the coming week. This way, we can keep each other accountable when we come back for next Saturday's devotion to check.
We take five-minutes quiet time to think of the last actionable question. It creates a window through which God can whisper into our hearts. At first, this practice is quite foreign to my kids and five minutes seem like a long time in their first try. But gradually, they learn to get more focus instead of letting their thoughts wander. If stillness is also your struggle, having a note pad near you to drop down thoughts would help.
I started this attentive listening practice almost a decade ago and it was not easy at the beginning. I shared my journey through a prior post. If you are interested to read, here is the link: My Journey (Part 3): Wait Upon the Lord. Below is an excerpt of that post.
The breakthrough finally came when a sister introduced this book to me: 等候神 (Wait Upon the Lord). A few key concepts taught in this book transformed my prayer life. One particular phrase made a mark in my heart. I can still recite it to this day: "等候=等待，守候 . . . 像僕人等候主人的吩附，是一種専注，隨時候命的等待” (wait upon the Lord is an active type of waiting, like a servant waiting to take orders from the master). We may not receive particular instructions from God every time when we wait upon Him, but we don’t want to miss it when He does have something to say. When those moments strike, I would like to be able to say “I am here, Lord.” I want to be fully present, fully prepare, with my heart open and my notepad ready.
If our kids receive the message directly from God that is tailor fit to the situations they are going through, it can bring transformational power. By then, walking with the Lord is not merely a concept, but a real journey they can experience. When they affirm that "our God is a real God and a real God speaks," they would run to Him in times of needs, and feel safe to let Him lead through the mountains and valleys of their lives knowing that
"In prayers, it's never the size of the mountain that matters, but the strength of the mountain mover."