Heart Chamber Echoes

I am reading an advance copy of "Brave Moms, Brave Kids" by my friend, Lee Nienhuis, who is also a Moms in Prayer mom and Precepts leader, and something she quoted by commentator Joseph A Siess on Daniel 1 spoke to my mom-heart. I hope it will speak to yours, too. He wrote that the first thing Babylon did was to change the names of those they were indoctrinating, but it was "too late with these youths. Their names were changed, but their principles did not yield to the enchantment. Early instructions are not so easily obliterated. The impressions of childhoods are always the most lasting. They engrave themselves upon the formation of the man; they constitute the mould [mold--I think he was British] of one's being. They may be weakened and overlaid, but not extinguished. They are like words spoken in a whispering gallery, which may not be heard near where they are uttered, but are produced in far-distant years and go echoing along the remotest paths of life."

I wanted to remember the words, so I decided to write them out on a sticker and pop them in my daily planner, and really it was without much thought other than for the color of the sticker I chose. However, as I was writing the words on the sticker, I realized I’d chosen one that was a cross-section of a tree showing layers and layers of rings beginning with the core that all were laid down upon. In essence, that’s what Joseph Siess was saying. That core, those teachings of childhood, are still there beneath the surface layers. Lee wrote this, which I pray be true, “May our teachings echo down their heart chambers decades from now, reminding them of the truths we sow into them today” and, I’ll add for us moms of adult children, the truths which were sown in them from their childhood.

 

We moms who have trained up our children in the Lord and prayed fervently over them, and continue to do so, can trust the Lord with them. For those with children who professed belief as youngsters yet are not now walking with their Savior, cling to the truth that our God still sees those children through all those passionate mom-prayers that are before His Throne. Don't give up. Keep praying. Keep teaching, and be sure to model from your own life, as Lee wrote, "the love and fascination for God we wish to see in our children."

 

Lee Nienhuis’ book, “Brave Moms, Brave Kids,” is available now for preorder at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Christian Book, and Target. Or you can go to her website, http://leenienhuis.com/, and easily preorder your copy there.

 

Here's a photo of me with mine.