impress them on your children

"Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up." Deut 6:7

i take these verses pretty seriously.
this is my job.
to impress God's heart (which hopefully is MY heart) on my children.
and i had a GREAT example of these verses today.

Rebekah has the day off school (teacher work day/election day).
so, what to do?
i want the day to be meaningful - not just counting the hours.
but i also don't want to fill it up running around - i want them to be able to just PLAY!
then...this whole clean water thing is consuming me.

so...this morning i sit down with a magazine we recently got that shows a well in a village in Africa and a piece of paper and a crayon to try to explain to my kids how important clean water is. and that some people don't have it. and what that means for their lives.
they paid attention.
they tried to understand. and they did a little bit.
but i could tell it wasn't REALLY getting through.

my mind was racing, "HOW do i get them to GET this???"
and then those verses came to mind. it was going to take ACTION.

so, after we went and voted, we headed to a stream with cups and a bucket.
i had them use the cups to fill the bucket.

all the while asking them, "do you want to drink this?"
"should i use this to wash our clothes?"


and then i made them carry the bucket home.
and we learned some more.
they got WET. it was HARD. the water splashed out!
they laughed. but they also got frustrated.
they learned how to work together to not make the water fall out.

it was only about a 1/2 mile back home.
(the people we passed on the way are probably calling child services on me for making my kids do something so crazy! i didn't even bother explaining. i just smiled :-))

she MUST have seen this in a magazine or something.
and it actually did work pretty well!

"Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up." Deut 6:7

they are outside playing now. with their bikes.

and the first thing rebekah said when we got home (after they changed their clothes and washed their hands) was, "and they don't even have bikes."

it was like she was having an ongoing conversation in her head.

just a part of a sentence.

but her mind is getting it.

she is SO blessed. and she knows it at moments.

they want to give their money from their chores to "clean water".

and that's God heart. and my heart. and now their heart.