Cornerstone Gathering - September 2016

​“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 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.”
Deuteronomy 6: 5-7 NIV
 
I eagerly anticipated another incredible session with Dr. Rob Rienow on Saturday evening. We were in the midst of our Generation to Generation conference at Trinity and he had encouraged and equipped my husband and I throughout the weekend. 
 
The biggest takeaway for me was Rob pointing out that our hearts (my heart) needed to be directed towards my family. In the passage of Luke 1:16-17 says, “He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”(NIV)
 
This really struck me. I know that the last several years I’ve been searching for God’s path for me but I kept ignoring the path right in front of me, my husband, and two children. We were able to quiet our hearts at Gems and spent some time talking to Jesus.  I asked Jesus to renew my heart and turn it back towards my family. As Rob shared, “the biggest mark we could make in the world is through our children.”
 
As Deuteronomy says, I’m to love God with all my heart, soul and strength; then I’m to live by God’s word and teach my children on the way to school, while doing homework, preparing for bedtime, basically all the time. I will not be able to pass the goodness onto my children unless I’m privately, intentionally spending time growing in my own faith journey. One of my favorite Rob sayings was, “as we stumble and bumble along the way.” Our kids will see how much I need Jesus and praying they’ll want to love him even more then my husband and I do.  This is my greatest prayer for them.
 
I know the days ahead aren’t going to be easy and there will be days that I might feel like throwing in the towel.  The enemy certainly doesn’t want me to succeed but I know I have the power of the Holy Spirit to guide and direct me each step of the way.
 
“Lord, help me as I stumble and bumble along the way that my kids love you and trust you in the present and with their future, so we can all safely arrive home in Heaven together” (Rob Reinow).
 
Caley Spangenberg
September 2016