Devotion, Prayer Families & Birthdays

DEVOTION

There are many hard lessons we have to teach our children. ‘Life’s not fair.’ ‘You can’t always have things your own way.’ ‘Sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to do.’ ‘No, you can’t play computer games all day long!’ These lessons can be hard to teach and learn but they are also part of our role as parents and teachers.

Hard lessons are good lessons. They help prepare our young people for the challenges they will face later in life. It is better that they learn these lessons from people who love them, care about them and want what is best for them, than other people who may not. 

Jesus did the same thing with his disciples. He once told them that he was heading to Jerusalem where he would suffer and die (Mark 8:31-32). Peter didn’t like the sound of that and told Jesus it would never happen. He thought he knew better. Jesus told Peter, ‘You are thinking like everyone else and not like God’ (verse 33). 

God cares too much for us to avoid difficult conversations and hard lessons. But he also handles them with love and care. The art of thinking ‘like God’ is knowing when to push and when to draw back, when to challenge and when to encourage, when to correct and when to let things slide. We sometimes call this ‘picking our battles’ and it is a hard lesson for all of us to learn.  

May God bless you as you work with your children on the hard but important lessons of life. Living Waters is here to support you and your children in these lessons, and so prepare them well for their future. 

Pastor Ben

PRAYER FAMILIES

for the fortnight beginning 23 February: 

Bathern, Bee, Berlin, Berry, Bettineschi

And staff:

Riley Bevan, Mike Boland

BIRTHDAYS

Happy Birthday to the following students for the coming weeks:

Carlena McNamara, Malachi Fernando, Christian Shunje