a week of gratitude :: tuesday

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{i began this post last night. then my mom called. i was grateful for the chance to talk to her.}

all day today, i was thinking about listening to my children read scripture.

when thinking about what i am most grateful for, i knew i had to share this: one of my favorite things that we do together as a family right now is gather around our table once a week, open our Bibles and an old, old Confession of Faith, and read.

ben reads a chapter of the confession. all of the old english. and sometimes we all nod in agreement. and sometimes he says to me, "and now you better translate that for us."

then, we take turns looking up and reading aloud the scripture that is footnoted all through the confession.

hearing both of my kiddos (a teen and a pre-teen) want to look up, want to read, read with expression, ask questions, give insight - nothing fills my heart with more joy.

we don't attend a church {we haven't for many years, and that is a story ~ or many stories ~ for another day}, and sometimes, there are some things that i miss about walking in to a church, sitting in a pew, singing hymns, hearing scripture read, being part of a group of people who are together to participate in a worship service. the thing, though, that i am certain that i miss most is hearing other people read scripture.

i have read scripture aloud to my children over the years. ben and i have shared our faith and our knowledge, our questions and our prayers with our kids so often. we have watched sermon series and series of teaching together. we have read through books. we have memorized verses. when we stopped attending church, it became very real to me that there were no sweet grandma ladies who were going to teach my children bible stories using flannel boards and coloring pages. if my children were going to learn anything at all about Jesus, it would be through examples of people close to them. people, well, mainly me, because i spent the most time with them. and then their dad, and then some other relatives and friends. i began to make my life very transparent to my children, and to use many opportunities to be a witness to them and to others.

most recently, ben and i together have picked a time of the week to designate to learning and prayer, and for right now, sunday around noon is often the time, but if that doesn't work for one reason or another, we make sure that we don't get through a week without having our family time around the table, time with words, time with the Living Word. because wherever two or more are gathered, there he is, in their midst.