Reminding Ourselves to Remember God

The sin that pops out over and over again to me as I journey slowly through the Bible with my kids is simple: We forget God. Adam and Even forgot about God when they ate the fruit from the tree. All the people from Noah’s time forgot God, except for Noah and his close family. We forget God, and that opens the door to every other wrongdoing imaginable.

When we remember God, the presence of the Holy Spirit blesses and guides us towards making the right steps on our journey, the steps God is asking us to take.

The first step to remembering God is, of course, starting your day with prayer. You might rise early before the kids, to pray alone. Or like me, you may gather your kids together to pray with you. Or you might be amazing, and do both things. But what comes next?

How do we keep God here in our midst as we dive into both the struggles and blessing of our everyday?

We keep praying. Short prayers. Little snippets to help us remember who we are. Lord, have mercy. Glory to God. God, bless us. God, help me. Thank you, God. This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.

We reach up and out of our own souls towards God with each little remembrance.

We can’t believe our child STILL DOESN’T GET LONG DIVISION! (Lord, grant me strength and patience.)

Our toddler spills a glass of milk all over the floor we just mopped. (Glory to God, the child is unharmed.)

Our mind swirls in a fog as we attempt to wake up for another busy day, even though we already feel exhausted. (This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.)

Our child makes a keen insight about the theme of a novel without us having to point it out. (Glory to God.)

Whether your day is easy or hard, offering all the moments up to God is the way we remember Him. The way we worship Him. The way we enter into a relationship with Him. The way we learn to accept and acknowledge His love, and the way we send our own feeble attempts to love back towards Him.

This is not a quick fix to make our days easy and light. This is our life, this is the fallen world, and there is no quick fix to give you the perfect homeschool you want. No quick fix to be the perfect mother you want to be. No quick fix to make your kids perfect angels.

It is simply the correct path. The journey back to God.

Let us rejoice and be glad.

Marla Szwast lives in Marietta, Georgia with her husband and six children. She has written articles for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine.  She is the author of Stepping Through History: Starting With You!, and a semester long fifth grade science course. Both courses are published online at Schoolhouse Teachers membership website.  She writes about home schooling, child development, neuroscience, and the history of education on her blog at: www.jumpintogenius.com, you can also follow her on Facebook @jumpintogenius, or Twitter @MarlaSzwast, or Medium.