Like newborn infants, desire the unadulterated [pure] spiritual milk, so that you may grow by it in your salvation.

(1 Peter 2:2)

I recently spent three months helping my daughter care for her newborn twins, and I am smiling as I recall how carefully we planned each day around Ellie and Ramsey's feeding times.

One of the first challenges we faced was attending my son-in-law's graduation from law school at a large church. The babies were only a couple of weeks old and were drinking only two ounces at a time, but their feeding times were still a little uncertain and we were concerned that their shrill cries of hunger would ruin the special ceremony. Armed with diaper bags, pacifiers, and bottles, we strategically placed ourselves on the church's pews so both sets of grandparents (each with a baby) could be prepared to exit if the ceremony went long and the babies grew hungry. The ceremony did, indeed, grow long, and as soon as Ellie gave the slightest whimper, I bounded from my seat and quieted her with a bottle in the church's lobby.

For the next several weeks, we fed babies in parking lots, in Target, in restaurants, one at a time, at the same time propped on Boppy pillows, late at night, in the wee hours of the morning, and later with newfangled little pillows that fit under their chins with bottles strapped onto the pillows. Every doctor appointment, nap, and afternoon walk was scheduled around feeding times. Meals grew cold, a photo session was nearly ruined, and two-year-old Parker learned to wait as our worlds revolved around the next bottle.

My grandbabies were no different from every other newborn. The truth is, infants have a voracious, persistent and demanding thirst that only a bottle of milk will satisfy. What new mother hasn't learned the hard way that a pacifier won't pacify a truly hungry baby!

That's the kind of thirst the writer (Peter) is talking about in the verse above. He's encouraging us to long for the Word of God with a passionate, voracious desire that cannot be quenched by anything else.

I think a lot of us have that kind of thirst, but we're too easily pacified by substitutes. The unadulterated spiritual milk means the whole, true gospel. Not a verse snipped here and there so we can assign it whatever meaning is attractive at the time. Not ideas about the Bible. Not just short devotions read from a book. And not spiritual-sounding talk gathered from friends, a sermon, or Facebook. The real deal. The Bible: studied, meditated on, and applied to the heart.

The idea here is to experience growth. My twin grandbabies have outgrown their Preemie-sized clothes. They're still small since they arrived five weeks early, but they are growing, smiling, and even turning over now.

Apart from the scriptures, we will not grow in faith, godliness, and righteousness. Over the past three decades, there have been many times when my faith has waned, moments when my doubts and insecurities threatened to overtake me, and dry periods when I felt far from God. Without exception, I can honestly say those were the times I had taken a break from being “in the Word,” meaning reading, studying, meditating, and making it my aim to obey the scriptures. The Word of God is our spiritual nourishment, and without it we may change physically, but our strength and power as believers will be puny.

As Christians, we often try to fool ourselves into believing that if we stay away from the immorality of the world, we are pleasing God. But Peter isn't calling Christians to just stay away from obvious immoral behavior; in the preceding verse he tells us to get rid of the wickedness, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander in our hearts. Then he goes on to imply that we do that not by removing things from our lives, but by taking something in: the Word of God…reading, meditating, loving, and obeying God's Truth.

Had my daughter, son-in-law, young grandson, and I not been willing to arrange our lives around the persistent cries of my newborn grandbabies for the milk that satisfied and nourished them, they would, at best, be sickly and frail; at worst, they would have died. It is no different for us. We MUST arrange our lives so we can take in the Word of God, or we will be powerless Christians with faith that is weak, joy that is depleted, and knowledge that is false and dangerous.

Arrange your life. Find time to satisfy the longing God has placed in you for His Word, and through it fall more deeply in love with Him.

DOES MY CHILD MEASURE UP?

**Cindy posted this a couple of years ago...always a good reminder.**

"I wonder why my 8-week-old doesn't smile as much as hers." "My little girl started talking months before other children her age." Comparisons. They are dangerous and unrealistic, yet the temptation to indulge in comparing our children to others is generations old.

Consider Abraham. He and his wife Sarah had two sons, Issac and Ishmael. Sarah's favoritism of Isaac caused Abraham to banish his firstborn son from his home forever, with repercussions that last even today. All of that did not stop Isaac from comparing his own sons, Jacob and Esau, which also resulted in a broken home. And then Jacob, as a father himself, made a colorful coat for the son he favored over all his twelve children. And we know what kind of pit that carved for Joseph.

At our Play Group last week, we were all quick to agree that comparing our children (either to siblings or to other children) breeds insecurity, anxiety, and unrealistic pressures for both child and parent. Why, then, are we still tempted to match our children up to others? Here are our thoughts:

• Pride. Basically, we want to “win.” We want our child to be smarter, bigger, brighter, more pleasant, as though he or she were not a unique little being, molded by the perfect hands of Almighty God. Our children are not our creation. They are His. And they have been given to us for a short time, not to enter into a game or race, but to guide and nurture and teach them to love the Lord.

• We see our children as extensions of ourselves. We wrongly think we are evaluating ourselves! As though a child who sits up a little later than his peers gives us an F on our performance report cards, or a child who gets an early tooth earns us an A! It’s crazy, but it’s true. If we have fallen for the “performance trap,” our children will expose our insecurities. Perhaps that is God’s way of allowing us to discover that it's not what we do but who He is that gives us hope. We'll never be secure until we come to the realization that it is His grace that saves us, “not our works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8).

• Concerns and fears. With all the information at our fingertips via physicians’ advice, countless websites, and well-meaning family and friends, we can be overwhelmed with charts and formulas that tell us what our children “should be doing.” So, we may try to gauge our child’s progress according to other children who appear normal or average.

What is a mom to do?

Relax. Understand that your child is “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:13-14) by the Creator of the Universe, who knows and is willing to guide both you and your child. Enjoy your child and get to know him or her, and you will find yourself becoming more comfortable with your own child’s individual development. You will also be able to express a more pure form of unconditional love.

Let go of The Ideal. There is none. Your child is miraculously one-of-a-kind. Exclusive. Distinct. Matchless. Rare. Special. Enjoy and appreciate your child as God created him or her.

Give yourself permission to do what is right for your own child. As you relax, get to know your own child, and learn to appreciate his or her uniqueness, your confidence will build and you will know what your child needs or wants, regardless of how that compares to someone else’s child. One of our Play Group moms shared how she had decided to do some things the “old-fashioned way” rather than fall for all the latest gadgets or trends. Not only did she find a lot of things that work, but she may have started her own trend! Trust yourself as you entrust yourself to the One who is the Source of all wisdom.

How and when do we begin teaching our children about God?

It’s a question many parents ask, and I believe Moses spoke the answer when he tried to make the Israelites understand how they could live God-exalting lives day by day:

Memorize these laws and think about them. Write down copies and tie them to your wrists and your foreheads to help you obey them. Teach them to your children. Talk about them all the time, whether you're at home or walking along the road or going to bed at night, or getting up in the morning.

(Deuteronomy 11:18-19)

These verse give us two important steps to follow.

Step One: Make sure you know and love the God of the Bible.

An ineffective teacher is one who tries to teach what she does not know. If we are going to impart spiritual truths to our children, we must first know the Truth. Not just in our heads, but in our hearts.

There is absolutely no substitute for reading and meditating on the scriptures. I love KSBJ (God Listens!), our wonderful Christian radio station here in Houston. But listening to praise and worship songs all day is not a substitute for reading and understanding the Bible, because in the scriptures is where we encounter God Himself. That is our purpose as we read and study: to encounter the Living God of the Universe, who is revealed to us in Christ Jesus, The Living Word.

It is impossible to over-emphasize this: READ YOUR BIBLE. Study it. Think about it. Memorize it. Write down verses and tape them to the mirror, the refrigerator, and any other places you frequent during the day. Ask God to give you a hunger for His Word, so that you develop a love for Him that will consume your life.

As a mom, finding time for the Bible can seem impossible. But it’s only impossible if you’re not intentional. One thing is for certain: it won’t just happen. Our natural tendency is to find a million excuses and distractions that will keep us away from the scriptures, and the enemy of our souls will supply plenty of other temptations to do anything other than open our Bibles. That’s why it’s so important to ask God for the desire and discipline to read His Word. It takes a supernatural work that comes from God to get us in the right frame of mind and heart to make the Bible a priority.

If the Bible is going to be a priority, that means other things will have to be secondary. For some moms, that means extra sleep takes a back seat. Giving up a few moments before the rest of the family is awake or after they have gone to bed is a sacrifice that will pay huge dividends in your spiritual growth. But it will not happen unless an intentional decision is made to either wake up or stay up in order to read God’s Word. As a young mom, I looked forward to Wednesday afternoons, when my two preschoolers spent two hours at a supervised playtime. I remember struggling more than once before choosing to skip lunch dates with friends on those days so I could sit alone and read my Bible, reasoning that I was choosing a date with the Author of Life Himself.

For others, making the Bible a priority may require a change in reading habits. If the only extra time you have during the day is spent reading books or magazines, by all means toss them. No other reading material will change your life and enrich your relationships like the scriptures. Remember, we’re talking about being intentional. On an even more critical note, turn the television off if it competes with your time for Bible study. With gentleness and affection, I would point out that if you have time to watch television, you have time for the scriptures.

When the Bible is a priority in your life, the truth of the scriptures will begin to permeate your decisions, your desires, your behaviors, your relationships, and your plans. In short, God (through His Spirit) will use the scriptures to change your heart, and you will fall in love with Him and hunger for Him like you never have before.

Step Two: Teaching our Children

The more we begin to fall in love with the Author of the Bible, the more effortless it will become to teach the scriptures to our children.

I remember taking walks with my daughters and talking about God as we saw Him in His gifts we encountered along the way: the clouds, the trees, the bugs. As it became more and more of a desire of my own heart to please God, I spent more time encouraging my children to do the same thing. I was careful to never use God as a tool of manipulation (“God will not be happy if you don’t listen to Mommy”) but talked about what God was like and what pleased Him. I wanted them to know Him so they, too, would develop a love for Him.

As my children grew older, I tried very hard to make sure the rules I established in our home were God-ordained. I let them know we were choosing those rules so God would be honored and obeyed. Even when my daughters were teenagers, they understood the reason they were to dress modestly was because that is what honored and glorified God. We never argued in a store dressing room about what styles I did or did not like, because it had already been made clear to them that we would dress in a way that pleased God.

The battle for a child’s heart begins when he is two or three years old, when telling a lie becomes an opportunity to teach about the God of the Bible who loves us and has a better way for us to live. Children love to hear about God. As a young mom, some of my first introductions to people in the Bible came when I read a preschool edition of the Bible to my firstborn before she went to sleep at night. My son-in-law tells my two-year-old grandson stories about great hymn-writers and then sings the hymns before my grandson nods off to sleep.

When God is the supreme love of our lives, it will feel natural and right to share His truths with our children. If talking about Him does not feel comfortable, then I would encourage you to begin with Step One. Start by asking God to give you a love and a hunger for Him that would cause you to go out of your way to want to spend time with Him in His Word. Then, open your Bible and begin an adventure with God that will cause your children to want to get on board and join you in a lifelong quest of loving and glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ.