A Balanced Christian, Daily

I often wonder, sometimes to myself, if I would ever get up early. That is my main struggle. I would love to, but somehow my sleep just calls out to me every morning when the alarm rings.

1)     1)  Prayer - Learn both to wake up early, and to stay up late

It’s good to have a balanced life. Proper amount of sleep (8-10 hours) is good, I usually sleep for nine hours and usually wake up happy and getup easily. If I sleep for more than that I get up grumpy. If I wake up any earlier than nine hours, I get up really sleepy, and if I stay awake, I always get happy and excited thinking about all of my extra time!

Learning to wake up early is like an uphill climb for me, because except for rare occasions, I’ve been up at 9am for most of my life! (how “un-dilligent” of me). I can stay up late easily, but the next day I wake up extra late.

Habits are taught from very young. If a child is taught from young to wake up early, it is easier for him to wake up earlier. If a child is taught from a young age to prevail in prayer until midnight (once a week overnight prayer?), even if the child is not praying the awhole time, it is very good training for later years. I believe that I should learn to pray more and more, as the time is short. By twenty years of age I want to pray 4 hours minimum a day. I’m sixteen now, and I don’t even pray one hour (Bible reading instead). Still, Word and Prayer goes hand in hand, can’t have one without the other.

You see, if I always read the Word only, and hardly pray (except before eating and sleeping), then there’s something wrong with me (yes, there is). I can be too big in my head and too small in my spirit (yes I am… God help me!) Prayer is like the application of the Word. I always pray from Scripture, if not directly, then paraphrased (I am very cautious not to quote-out-of-context).

If you only pray and don’t read the Bible, then you don’t have enough spiritual depth in the word for you to pray accurately and hit the target. We don’t want wasted prayers, only prayers that reach into the throne room of God. Prayer is a very important application of the Word (not the only one!), and if we don’t read the Word, do we know what to prasy? Dow e know what is God’s heart?

One thing I learned from Corrie ten Boom, (In My Father’s House by Corrie ten Boom ),  was that her family prayed very regularly. Jesus, as she remembered thinking as a child , was a member of the Ten Boom family. She could talk to Jesus, just like she could talk to her papa or mama. Everyone always was talking to Jesus. They was such a flow of the Spirit of God in their lives that in their conversation  her papa could just pray, just like that, to God, and it would not be out of place. How blessed was she. She talked to Jesus, and prayed about the things that troubled her, like the town drunks (she felt such pity for them).

We must always pray for

1.       God’s will to be done, on earth as it is in heaven

2.       Jesus’ second coming

3.       Israel’s salvation

4.       Our nation – salvation for leaders and people groups, etc

5.       Church – the persecuted church, the lukewarm church (you can use the seven church in Revelations) etc.

6.       Salvation for unbelievers that you know

7.       You pastor and church members

8.       You family –protection, faith

9.       Your relatives

10.   Ten things I want from God for myself

What are they? I’ll be very honest and say these are not the only things I desire from God, but these are the ones I think are so important, it’s just the things I have to have. Like spiritual depth, faith, etc. I always try not to pray amiss, so I ask God for the things He promises, like Wisdom (James 1) and things He requires of us (Faith).

2)      2)Learn to love the word of God

The Word of God must become you daily sustenance, you can do no better without it than without water or food, and even more so. Children easily learn to hate what they are forced to do, if you force and throw the Bible down your children’s mouths and scream at them, would they learn to love it? Then can, but only when they are mature, and willing to walk over all the negative feelings you put in them against God! So why not teach them to love it? It requires some degree of forcing at first, but if you do it right, if the grace of God is in you, it is better if you just make them read with you, and show them and explain to them, and you must love the Word of God so much that they love it too. Children learn more by example than by words.

The Word of God must be the center from which your life rotates; actually God should be the center from which your life rotates. I love to read the Bible, though I admit I am not very systemic.

Memorization is very important, God’s word must be put into your heart, and meditated upon. Reading is good too, but it is unfruitful if there is not understanding, however, If you are diligent, God is sure to reward you (Hebrew 11).  Just read, out of obedience to God, just read. You may be reading words on a page, and not even thinking about it, but the word of God can change you just as it changed me, it takes time though.

I will go more into this another day. 

3)   3)   Learn to read good books.

There comes a time and season when you must fast from reading all other books but God’s Word, but I doubt for everday life (it is wonderful if you can), that you can do nothing but read the Bible. And if you can’t, neither can your children. Don’t let all that your children read be schoolbooks, the Bible, and silly nonsense literature.

The best thing for a child to read is the Bible. Then teach them to enjoy the writings and (perhaps picture) biographies of missionaries and preachers of God. Corrie ten Boom is my especial favorite. There are many, many good Christian biographies for children out there and I never outgrew them.

Don’t be fooled by storybooks. What child doesn’t like to read amusing stories (I still do). It is better if you don’t feed them too many worldly stories of bunnies that wear clothes and bears that talk. Like I said, give them biography stories, or even books like “Pilgrim’s Progress” (Daddy likes the cartoon one – we find it much easier to read) When you give them the cheap and amusing soulish books (that will entertain their minds), how can they understand the deep and spiritual?

I don’t think children can immediately make the jump from “How the Tortoise won the Race” to great Christian writings like Watchman Nee, or Bonheoffer.  I can say that, though I have enjoyed classics like “Anne of Green Gables” and “Pollyanna”, there are a lot of elements in them you have to be careful about (fairies, for example in Anne of Green Gables, or worldliness in the Little House on the Prairie books). Besides, these are all products of man’s imagination, and though they might be clean and good, don’t’ fall for the nonsensical and plain silly. Books about God’s creation are good, and historical books like Little House on the Prairie are wholesome and full of family values, but remember the food pyramid’s order of consumption. Junk food the very least (silly books), Wholesome non-religious books and studies being like meat and chicken, godly biographies and writings (like Oswald Chambers) being the vegetables, and God’s Word being like Carbohydrates (they make up the bulk). Remember, Daniel and his friends survived on vegetables and carbohydrates. People get diseases from eating too much red meat, so don’t. Stick to wholegrain, fiberous, books – they are harder to chew, but better when they go down. (The “book pyramid ” is not the order of nutrients, it’s the order of consumption!)

4)      4) Music.

Music is good training is discipline and diligence, attention to details, etc. It is also an art.  I love to learn music and good training, especially in scales and arpeggios (however much children hate them), will prepare them if God wishes to use them to serve Him in writing songs (especially from Scripture) and to worship Him, in church and alone. (Take my mommy, for example.)

Children can learn to love music. Teach them to sing, you can sing without much knowledge of theory, etc. Don’t make music a chore, or stuff it down their throats, forcing them to take exams. By the time they are done with Grade 8 they will be done with music forever. Though it takes forcing in the beginning, some children will learn to love and enjoy it (that’s what you want!) Cultivate a love for singing God’s Word, and worshipping him alone, as a family, or in church.  Music is healthy and will make balanced children.

Worldly pop, rock, and country music, etc are basically toxic. They’re not even on the “Music Pyramid”

5)   5)    Bodily Exercise profits a little, so says Paul in his first epistle to the Corinthians. Recreation is important. Bodies must be disciplined and fit, even little ones. God does not mean for us to be cooped up in libraries, growing old over books. We need to have fitness, to learn to work with our hands. Girls and boys alike should learn to cook, wash dishes, and house cleaning. Learn to grow your own food (there will come to time when you will not be able to buy food). Strenuous gardening (farming, also) is very good training for missionary work. Learn to sweat it out. Learn to make your own clothes, wash clothes by hand, and learn to clean the floor and your hands and knees. Let children see this as a fun activity and teach them the responsibility of doing things, even though they don’t feel like it, but because they have too.  Non-productive hobbies should be “necessary evil“, like studies. The focus should not be on them. I much prefer productive hobbies, but sometimes watching a good Christian film like the Hiding Place is beneficial. I liked Bonhoeffer the Movie, but of course its not exactly perfectly accurate. It got me interested in hisi writings, however. Listening to audio teachings (like David Pawson) is a good way to keep yourself connected to God when you do housework.

  

6)      6) Food – is for the bodies. Neither if you eat you are the better (spiritually) nor if you do not eat you are worse. Briefly – it would be ideal if we all ate to feed our stomach and not our flesh. However I have not achieved that (Confession: I hate veggies!)  Fasting is very healthy for our bodies and spirits, but I think should only be practiced if children actually understand why they are fasting – fasting is not starving – there is a big difference. Children should be fed wholesome, natural food from Day 1. Like I always say, Mummy never fed me sweets when I was small and I grew up (not deprived at all) not wanting sweets at all. Sweets are very bad for children – it feeds their flesh and ruins their bodies. When children grow up eating junk, reading junk, learning junk, listening to junk, don’t expect them to become men and women overnight. Anyway, I will expand more on this topic (of foods for the body, not just sweets) another day.

Conclusion: Here I was rambling on about the things I want to incorporate and get rid off in my life. I hope I haven’t bored anyone! I just want to look at life from a Biblical Perspective, and preferably God’s perspective. These are just my private opinions – they work for some people, and not for others.  After writing everything, I just realize I want God in my life and nothing else J However, I think a life balanced on God’s principles is very important, especially for children. Jesus grew up learning carpentry. Samuel grew up serving God in the temple, probably helping in the cleaning and sacrificing. David grew up singing on his harp and watching sheep, fighting bears and lions. Isaac grew up travelling from here to there, living in tents. Paul grew up learning the law. God doesn’t want us growing up in air-conditioned, selfish environments, feeding our flesh and serving ourselves, glued to entertainment and junk food, lazing away our lives. He wants to build character into us, and make us into Christ’s image, and finally love Him so much we want to die for Him! Remember, children should be taught to serve, to give and to give their all, and then some more.  And they should be taught by example.