Another day, another book of the Bible!

I can feel Hannah’s anguish at not being able to have a child.  I can see her praying silently to the Lord, sitting on her knees with her eyes closed and her mouth silently pleading for an answer to her prayer for a son.  She wanted one so much she was willing to give him up in service to the Lord!

Imagine deciding before your child was born that you would willingly let the Lord have him.  Metaphorically, many of us do just that.  We have baby dedications where we promise to raise our kids to know, love and serve the Lord.  But what does that mean?  For Hannah, it meant taking her son as soon as he was weaned (two, three, four years old?) and giving him to Eli to raise.  What does it mean to me?

If I peel back the layers and take a hard look at my parenting, I see that I have fallen well short of the mark.  Yes, we talk about the Lord at home.  Yes, we pray before our meals…usually.  But I cringe to admit that we do not have a regular Bible reading and discussion time in our family.  I do it individually.  My daughter sees me do my “Bible and Blogging” exercise…but I have not been experiencing these Bible readings WITH her.  Since I am certainly not going to give her over to my pastor to raise, I better get busy figuring out for all of us just what it means to serve the Lord, intentionally.  But not alone.  I need the guidance of the Lord if I have any hope at all of having a heart at least half as strong as Hannah’s!