Prayer Box Sunday - Obedience

If this is your first Prayer Box Sunday - welcome ;-) I hope you will be encouraged to make time to pray and grow together as a family as I share each Sunday what God is doing in our lives through our family's devotions and our Prayer Box Sunday time together. If you would like to participate and link up with us on Sundays to sharing what your family is doing you can read about the plan here.

We are currently working our way through a devotional/study called Character Building for Families . The first character in the study is obedience - wow what an opener! We have been doing this three times a week for several weeks now and it has been great! If you are looking for a good family study/devotional , I recommend this. We have been reading this week from 1 Samuel 15 about King Saul and how he partially obeyed God, because King Saul chose to obey the way he wanted to rather than exactly as God instructed he lost his kingdom. God values our obedience above sacrifice 1 Samuel 15:22b reads; to obey is better than to sacrifice. God wants our obedience - bottom line, no questions asked. I have mentioned previously that we are focusing on character training/building in our family on a greater level than we have in the past. As parents, it is our calling to make sure our children know right from wrong and that we lead them and guide them to be and do what pleases God. Through family time spent studying what God requires and why, we break down the barriers that the world places between us and God to destroy the relationship that God desires to have with us. Ultimately what God desires most is to be in relationship with us. If we are not obedient to His ways and laws for our lives we cannot ever have the kind of fellowship that will bring wisdom and blessing to our families. The enemy works hard to lure our focus away from God and ensnare us with worldly wants...if we can teach our children to listen to the Holy Spirit and allow him to guide them the enemy's stronghold is destroyed - PTL!

Several times this week I have heard myself reciting the same thing "son, if you will learn to be obedient in the small things, it will become much easier to be obedient in the bigger things" Stewardship is everywhere!

The other side of this obedience coin is that as parents we must be obedient to God in our actions, words and deeds if we ever hope to see the fruit in the lives of our children. I won't bore you with the conviction I have undergone as I strive to give WonderBoy a foundation in this area - there is much for us all to learn ;-) Our Pastor's wife has an expression about obedience that I loved the first time I heard it and have used many many many times since- Obey right away, all the way and in a cheerful way. Pretty simple but this is truly what God wants from all of us.

Our Prayer Box this week held the following prayers for the week ahead. As a family, we are praying that God will help us to be obedient to live in His will for our lives !! I love how He always finds a way to let us know there are no accidents ;-) The Principal is praying for our desire for a home based business, something that we are hopeful to begin when we move and establish over the years between now and his official retirement in about 7 years time. WonderBoy is praying for our family time, this is something that needs to be continually nurtured and covered in prayer lest it be taken for granted or forbid- fall to the wayside. My prayers this week will be for my Aunt Jean in Toronto. I have so many wonderful memories of time spent with Jean growing up, it is an honor to lift her in prayer this week - love you Auntie Jean ;-)

Just by way of clarifying should you be wondering and especially if you are doing this with your own family - we put all our prayers back in the box each week. We feel that if a prayer is drawn again this is because the Lord desires us to pray further in this area so in those circumstances we add those repeated prayers to the new ones for the week. This week for example, The Principal again selected the slip of paper to pray for my writing, so he will, along with praying for our home based business desires. When WonderBoy was selecting our family prayer he drew generational curses and family mission opportunities both of which we have had previously so these will be added to our prayers of seeking God's help to be obedient to His will for our lives.

It really is wonderful how these simple steps are weaving our hearts together as a family who is drawing closer to God and celebrating His many blessings in our lives!

If you would like to share what you are doing in your family, please link up below. As always, have a wonderful and blessing filled week, Prayer Box Sunday is only 7 days away - get ready this week and join us next Sunday won't you?