"Follow Me" Making Jesus #1 Makes All Other Relationships Better!

Matthew 8:18-21 says, "Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side.  And a scribe came up and said to him, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go".  And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head".  Another of the disciples said to him, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father."  And Jesus said to him, "Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their dead."  

Although there is much that could be said about this passage, I want to focus on two words, "Follow me"  Jesus is saying that He should be our #1 priority.  No one or nothing should hinder us from putting Him first in our lives.  There is no unfinished business that needs to take place before we say, "As soon as I'm finished doing such and such, I will start serving Christ with my whole heart".  If Jesus isn't #1 in your life, turn that spot over to Him now, don't delay!  

Am I saying that Jesus should come before my wife and children?  Yes. 

Follow this logic for a minute.  If I put Jesus Christ in the #1 slot, I would be in the word, studying and growing in the knowledge of God and His desires for my life.  I would realize that I am to love my wife as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it.  Wow!  If I hadn't made Jesus #1 in my life, I might not have thought about sacrificing myself for Lynnette.  Also, I will be learning that Jesus wants me to train my children, teaching them the word of God and helping them to get to the point where they also decide to make Jesus #1 in their lives too.  

So, by making Jesus #1 in my life, I end up with more meaningful relationships with my wife and children.

One last thought:  As a husband and father, my heart's desire is that one day I would be in Heaven and see my wife and children there too, enjoying Jesus face to face as well as all the glory that Heaven offers.  If our children know that dad loves Jesus so much that he has made Him #1 in his life, and that he wants them to love and serve Jesus too, they will see that this is real and be more apt to follow in his footsteps.    

Kyle  

The Blessings of Interactive Bible Reading

Silas is our 7 (almost 8) year old. He is learning to read out of his 'real' bible (instead of his bible stories book). This morning I was so blessed as we read our bibles together - he on one side of the table and me on the other. We were the only two up, well, except for daddy who was likely up at 5:00am and already in his office by the time we got up.

He stopped and asked me a couple of questions and I was so blessed to be there to answer them. One of the questions he asked was this:
"Mom, God always gives people second chances. Why didn't he give Adam and Eve another chance?"
I told him that he did indeed give them a second chance. I explained to him that God only gave them one rule, and they broke it. God told them that if they ate off of that tree, they would surely die. God warned them and they disobeyed. Although the death process began for them at that point, he gave them a second chance by continuing to commune with them and by eventually allowing provision for a covering of their sin through a blood sacrifice. They were cast out of the beautiful garden but they didn't have to leave God. God demonstrated his merciful kindness.

I was so blessed to be able to share that with Silas. I was reminded how important it is to be there for our children - to commune with them - to help them to understand who God is: his character, his love, his mercy.

How often do parents miss those opportunities to share God with their children because of busy-ness? I know this personally because it's all too easy to do. These past couple of weeks have been horrendously busy and I have failed. I'm grateful that God has given me a second (and third and fourth, etc.) chance. I'm enjoying this new week as a stay at home mom. I had almost forgotten what it felt like to just stay home and have a routine (even if it's not a strict one).

So, I was blessed today with this opportunity with my son and I and wanted to share this here because I thought it might encourage you today too.

Our children are always thinking...

...but don't always have the maturity to understand on their own.

Welcome to Family Integrated Living

This is the very first post of a brand new blog. We created Family Integrated Living because we think that families run too fast and miss too much. It's not a hard thing to do in our modern society.

We plan to use this blog to unite families who want to grab hold of every moment with their children. We hope to share ideas for family acitivites, encouragement to stay the course and inspiration as we continue this journey ourselves.

God used our daugther Anna Gabrielle to open our eyes to this beautiful concept. We rejoice in the 6 years God gave her to us. Tis better to have loved and lost (said goodbye to) than never loved at all. We absolutely agree with that.

So stay tuned...

We'll be back soon! If you are a FIL (Family Integrated Living) Blogger and want to join us on this journey, just let us know and we'll link to your blog here. If you aren't sure what Family Integrated Living is...see our brief description on the side bar.

Blessings to you today.

The Kraft Family
Kyle, Lynnette, Jared, Abigail, Cecily, Silas, Jonas and Harrison