Create a Rhythm - When You Walk Along The Road

Sorry for the delay in posting this but I met an old friend this morning as I was leaving my work-out who asked for a ride to the bus stop so he could wait for the next bus home. There was no way I was giving him a ride to the bus stop! I took him home instead. I didnt think you would mind waiting for today's installment.

So we talked yesterday about the ONE THING that we can do to enhance the time we spend with our families at bed time - or when we lie down. Today I want to turn our thoughts to the times when we walk along the road. The first time I read this part of the verse I was instantly struck with exactly how much time during the day this might have been for the children of Israel at that time. They were in the desert heading for the promised land and by the time that journey was completed it took 40 years. That was all done on foot - all done by walking. That is a lot of walking. Transport yourself to present day America and lets face it, if you see someone walking you pray that they get their job back so they can afford the payments on a car. No-one walks in this country - everyone drives. In fact, even walking from the parking lot to the store seems to be too much for most as they endlessly circle looking, nay waiting for the space closest to the door to open up - even though they actually could have parked and walked to the store by the time this actually happens.

Our walking along the road has been transformed to 'driving in the car'. What do you do when you are in the car? What music do you listen to? What songs do you sing? What do you talk about? What do your kids do, if you have any? Do your kids jump in the back seat and turn on the latest Disney movie on their in-car DVD player for the 5 minute ride to your next location? Do you think you are missing an opportunity here? do you think that somehow you could leverage these few precious moments and instead of your child learning the words to 'A whole new world...' that they might actually have the chance to hear God's truth sung?

What if you tried a little experiment for 2 weeks. Two weeks is not a long space of time in the life of a child, so come on, lets give this a try. What if for the next two weeks you listened to nothing but Christian music while you were driving. What if you switched off the DVD player and dropped a Christian storybook, or even a kids bible into their seats. What if every time you got in the car you thought to yourself - "What should we talk about?" or "Who should we pray for?" and then you lead the conversation or the prayers for those things.

Julie told me yesterday that she is going to try to make even the short car trips intentional by asking our girls to say something that they are thankful for every time they are stopped at a red light. You know how many chances there are to be thankful between our house and Gold's Gym in Crofton - 6! There are 4 chances between our house and the Town Center and 6 chances between our house and Grandma's house. One of two things will happen with this experiment:

1. My wife and I will run an awful lot of amber lights as we travel.

2. Our kids (and us) will gradually make thankfulness an everyday part of our lives.

I pray that the second of these options occurs more than the first.

So what is the ONE THING that you are going to do to be more intentional about leading yourself or leading your family into a deeper relationship with Jesus when you walk/drive along the road?