Introducing .....

me!  Well, just a little about me.  My name is Susan and I'm going to try to fill in for Jody while she's off exploring.  This is gonna be tough .. Jody has set a high bar!  But I'll do what I can to interject a few thoughts.

It might help you to know a little about me.  I've known Jody since ... well, what happened in Jr High stays in Jr High!  I'm married (this Sunday we will be celebrating our 34th anniversary) to Keith and we have 5 kids -- 3 of our own and 2 married to ours.  Plus we have 2 grandchildren.  Keith and I are "missionary church builders" --- we travel around the US constructing buildings for very small congregations.  We live in a 40' fifth wheel RV and are currently building in Wisconsin (and yes, it's as cold as it sounds).  I came to believe in Jesus as my Savior when I was 7 years old.  I had disobeyed my mom, and that Sunday, from the pulpit, my pastor used that very example as an example of what sin was -- I SO understood!  He also explained that sin forms a barrier between us and God and the only thing that breaks down that barrier is Jesus ... we needed to make Jesus the Lord of our lives.  I'm not sure I fully understood everything, but I understood enough to know that I needed Jesus to be my Savior.

As I was reading today, I had a couple thoughts.

First, as a parent, I understand having "rules" for my children.  Don't play in the street.  Don't touch the oven door.  Don't poke things into the light sockets.  I was pretty strict about some of these rules!  The rules weren't there to make life miserable for my kids ... I wanted to protect them, to keep them from harm.  Their safety was a high priority for me.  But there were other rules too.  Say "please" and "thank you".  Share your toys.  Don't cut in line.  These rules were in place to make them courteous people and pleasant to be around in society and to make them aware that their conduct impacts other people.   And there were consequences for breaking the rules -- sometimes the consequences were the natural result of their behavior (like the "don't eat too many sweets or you'll get sick" rule --  their little tummies didn't like it when they pounded down handfuls of candy) and sometimes Mom or Dad had to enact some discipline (the punishment always fit the crime).  It is no surprise then, that God, as a loving Father, has rules for His children.  Some were intended to protect them from the dangers of the times.  I'm sure my great-grandparents didn't have the light socket rule for their kids -- because times do change, but the principle of protecting our children doesn't.  Some were intended to make them better people and set them apart as representatives of a Holy God.  Whatever the reasons God had, we can learn a lot about what matters to God by observing what rules He made for His children.

Then, I noticed in the Deut 5:8-10 part of the reading, that future generations would be impacted by the conduct of the parents.  I am a recipient of that principle.  While working on a church in eastern New York, we had the opportunity to do some research into my Dad's family history.  When I started, he told me his ancestors were all either preachers or horse thieves .. and he figured it was heavy on the horse thieves.  ;)  But as I found more and more about our generations past, I found a rich heritage of Godliness.  My dad's dad was a pill, so there aren't any promises here ... but of the 12 generations since my dad's family arrived in America, 6 have been deacons, pastors or missionaries.   And most of the others have been farmers, highly respected in their churches and communities (with the exception of the one stray horse thief!).  The song lyrics "may all who come behind us find us faithful" have taken on a huge new meaning for me -- and challenged me to leave a legacy of Godliness for my great-grandchildren to discover.