Let me set the stage for this blog post:
My family and I attend Second Baptist Church and we love it there. We were at church recently and one of the youth pastors was leading us in a prayer honoring our Veterans, which was quite nice. He used the word, 'invite' in his prayer, as in he was 'inviting' the Holy Spirit to our worship and into the hearts and lives of the Veterans.
For some reason that word, 'invite' really got to me. I mean, it really struck a chord with me and I wanted to write about it and teach it to my kids immediately. I was really excited! I started thinking about how an invite is intentional. You don't normally hand out invitations to something important like a wedding or a birthday party by accident, do you? No, you're intentional and you're selective about who you're going to ask to attend.
So, in order to demonstrate this, I wrote on three index cards the words, 'You're Invited'. I handed them out to my three boys as a way to invite them to our nightly devotional time. At first, they looked at me like I was crazy. "You're inviting us to home devotional, Mom?" The mystery was kind of fun, actually. I couldn't wait to reveal what I had been contemplating all day to share with them.
After dinner, we gathered together, each one with their invitations. I asked them how it felt to be invited? How did they feel the last time a friend invited them to a party? I got the following responses:"Special"
"Included"
"Welcomed"
"Wanted"
"Loved"
Yes, yes, and yes. I was so happy because I felt that they really had grasped the concept of the invitation. I also explained to them that in order to become Christians, you have to invite Jesus into your heart to rule and reign for the rest of your life. My oldest son has done that already, but the other two have not. I have faith that they will make that decision very soon.
I went one step further and reminded them that not only do we invite Jesus into our hearts to be Lord of our lives, but we need to make a conscious effort to invite Jesus into our heart and into our day EVERYDAY. We can all get busy and stressed; at least I do. That's usually when I have to stop and think if I had prayed and asked God to guide my day. If the answer is 'no', then I have made an unwise decision.
Asking God into your day and praying daily is always important, but it's especially important to do now that we are in the "most wonderful time of the year". Like the song says, "with Holiday greetings and gay, happy meetings when friends come to call." I hope you and your family have a blessed and Merry Christmas!
