Seeing God Around Us

This post is from Moms Take Ten episode 73, God In Our Daily Interactions–Seeing God Around Us, which you can listen to wherever you listen to podcasts or at https://sites.libsyn.com/403493/god-in-our-daily-interactions-seeing-god-around-us

Welcome to Part 3 of our series, God in Our Daily Interactions. We have covered Playing the Bible and Talking About the Bible. Today we are looking at how to help our kids see God around us, in our everyday moments. God isn’t a God of the past, he is the God of today. He is alive in the world around us and in our own hearts and lives. As we prioritize teaching our kids about the Lord, we want them to see that he is for them now. This means that we help grow their awareness of him. We want them to start to look for him! 

It is summertime right now and a lot of us are spending our days outside with our kids. All throughout Scripture we read how nature displays the glory of God. Connected Families has a quote, “Helping your kids to see God in nature is a valuable part of outdoor time and vital to their understanding of the power, majesty, beauty, creativity, and even joy of God!” This can be as simple as commenting, “Wow! Look at that flower that God made. Isn’t it beautiful!” or “Look at that animal. It looks so silly! God was very creative when he made that one!” Nature walks or scavenger hunts, bike rides and times at the park, boating adventures or hikes, gardening or playing in the backyard. As we are out and about with our kids, we can use our conversations to get them thinking about the creator behind the creation, and what an incredible job he did!

One part of creation that I have been talking to my kids about more lately is themselves. I was inspired by the store that Lynne Jackson shared with us in May about Ephesians 2:10. Just like the mom in the story, I taught my kids the verse, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Randomly, I’ll ask, “Hey! Who are you?!” and they will excitedly shout back, “God’s workmanship!” I’ll respond with, “who made you?!” and they declare, “Jesus!” “And why did he make you?!” “For good works” they say with big smiles on their face. Sometimes they will initiate it, by asking who I am. I love it! It springboards us into conversation about how God made them, the gifts he gave them, and how much he loves them.

As I was growing up, my dad kept a gratitude journal. Little moments and big would be recorded throughout the year, and then around Thanksgiving, or whenever he wanted us to, we would read through it. We’d remember the time someone took us out to ice cream, or was kind to us at school. We’d hear the names of people who loved us or people we had only met once but were so kind to us. It taught us to stop and acknowledge the good that was happening or had happened, even in hard seasons. This especially stood out to me when my dad lost his job and things were rough financially but God consistently provided for us through the body of Christ. We were not alone in that trial.

Questions like, “what are you thankful for today?” or “what was good from today?” or “what can we thank God for?” help our kids tune into the many blessings they are experiencing. It’s like that old kids song, “Count your many blessings. Name them one by one. Count your many blessings, see what God has done.” I also try to do this throughout our day. As we are driving and things get a little dicey, I’ll say out loud, “Thank you God for keeping us safe.” When my kids fall (like the time the swing snapped when all of my children and a friend were sitting on it), I’ll say, “Thank you Jesus for your protection. Things could have been so much worse but you were with them.” Or when we get a parking space in a fully packed parking lot, “Thank you Lord for your provision!” I realized that I say, “Praise God.” in response to things when my son said it one day. I can’t even remember what was happening but he breathed deeply and said, “Praise God! Right mama?!” I loved it! He was learning to see God in his daily life.

Similar to his gratitude journal, Dad went through a season where he would write down “God sightings.” This can be how we see him in nature, or in another person, or ways that he was working in us. These sightings teach us about who God is, about his character. We can ask, “how did you see God today?” and learn our kids’ perspective of God through their answers. We can share our sightings with them and what it taught us about God. We can celebrate the fact that God was and is right here with us! 

The more that we practice seeing God in the good, the stronger the foundation is for our kids to see God in the hard. When they are feeling discouraged, we can ask, “but who are you?” When they feel so sad because a toy broke or they lost it, we can ask, “what do you have that you can be thankful for?” When things at school are really hard and they feel alone, we can ask, “who is always with you?” When our kids mess up, we can remind them that Jesus died for that, and there is forgiveness and grace.

And for us as parents, on the days when it is hard, we can thank God for his comfort. On the days when we want to give up but don’t, we can thank God for his strength. On the days where we simply don’t know what to do, we can thank God for his wisdom. He is with us in the good and the hard. He is working. His character is on display. Let us look for him!