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Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Keep Our Kids Safe, Lord...



This morning I was going through the 50 zillion papers that come home with my kids every week. I don't know about you, but I need a few quiet moments to process everything that is coming at me. I need quiet. Between sports opportunities, music opportunities, hot lunch, cub scouts, volunteers needed, PTA meetings, school policies, homework, field trips and everything else, with three kids, in two different schools...well, its just ALOT. I'm still trying to grasp that the fact that the public school system does stuff online, has resources, student workbooks online and they regularly use ipads in the classroom. Reports are done with technology. It's just so different that the school life we remember.

The one thing that caught my eye and made my heart stop for just a second was a letter that talking about the school's safety procedures. The letter said that this year the school will be practicing "intruder" drills and gave the alternate school location they would be at in case of an emergency evacuation. To be honest, I tried to hold back the tears a bit. I don't know why. When the Sandy Hook shooting happened last year, I think we all hugged our kids more, prayed a little more, snuggled a little more, but then time goes by and we forget just a little bit that we are sending our kids off into a world where things like this happen. At least in this day and age. And it hit me like a ton of bricks. It's very easy to be afraid, especially after we see that it happened again, this week. It's a scary world we live in and in case you haven't noticed, it keeps getting worse.


So what do we do? Do we live in fear? Do we keep our kids home where we can see them all the time? Where they are constantly under our watch and protection? Or do we trust in the hand of the Lord? 
I wanted to offer just a few scriptures for you to pray over your child and claim for your lives and families.


Deuteronomy 7:9 says 
Understand, therefore, that the LORD your God is indeed God. He is the faithful God who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations and lavishes his unfailing love on those who love him and obey his commands.

and Isaiah 55:11 says
So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.


So we can see, that God does not offer up promises in his word and take it back. He is faithful to his word.  He says it. It just takes faith to believe it, obviously!
When you pray over your family and your children and yourself, remind the Lord what his word says. His character is revealed throughout the entirety of the Bible, so even if you have to google scriptures on protection for them & peace for you, it can help. But here are a few to start with...




You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. Psalm 37:2

Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me! For my soul trusts in You; and in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge, until these calamities have passed by. Psalm 57:1


Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me: thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me Psalm 138:7

The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe. Proverbs 29:25

But in that coming day no weapon turned against you will succeed. You will silence every voice raised up to accuse you. These benefits are enjoyed by the servants of the LORD; their vindication will come from me. I, the LORD, have spoken! Isaiah 54:17

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. John 14:27


But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one. 2 Thessalonians 3:3

 Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Proverbs 30:5

…For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” Hebrews 13:5-6

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7

I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makes me dwell in safety. Psalms 4:8




and probably one of the absolute best scripture passages on protection is Psalm 91

You who live in the shelter of the Most High, who spend your nights in the shadow of the Almighty, who say to the LORD, “My refuge! My fortress! My God, in whom I trust!” – 
He will rescue you from the trap of the hunter, and from the plague of disease. 
He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings you will find refuge; 
His truth is a shield and a protection.
You will not fear the terrors of night, or the arrow that flies by day, 
or the sickness that roams in the dark, or even the destruction that lays waste at noon. 
A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it won’t come near you. Only keep your eyes open, and you will see how the wicked are punished. 
For you have made the LORD, the Most High, who is my refuge, your dwelling place.
No disaster will happen to you, no calamity will come near your house;
for He will order His angels to care for you and guard you wherever you go. 
They will carry you in their hands, so that you won’t trip on a stone. 
You will tread down lions and snakes, young lions and serpents you will trample underfoot.
“Because he loves Me, I will rescue him; because he knows My Name, I will protect him. 
He will call upon Me, and I will answer him. I will be with him when he is in trouble. 
I will rescue him and bring him honor. 
I will satisfy him with long life and show him My salvation.”

These are just a FEW of the hundreds of verses that can bring you comfort and you can pray over your family. I hope they help you, like they do me. If you need to, where it says "me" you can say "my family" or where is says "your" you can say "my."

Also, I wanted to mention this. When you have a personal relationship with the Lord, he is wonderful  at letting you know things to come. Sometimes we call it intuition. It's just a quiet small voice inside of you letting you know not to do something or be somewhere or go that way...and you cant really give a rational reason as to why you would be feeling like that. But I've heard dozens of stories of people escaping accidents, even 9/11, because they felt like they weren't supposed to get on that plane, or take that turn, etc...
Sometimes we don't listen to that, because we think we are imagining it, but He is trying to help...
 John 16:13 says this:
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future.

If you want to have a closer connection to the Lord and to feel his peace, and not just know about him or know what other people say about him, I really want to encourage you to invite him into your life. It's not as weird or religious as you might think. It's simple. It's just doing life...with God.

If you have any questions about this, never hesitate to ask me. I can even tell you what to pray if you want. It's between you and me... and God of course!






5 comments:

Scrappy Beads said...

I enjoyed my visit with you!! I ♥ your posts.

I just had to "follow" you so not to miss anything! It would make me so happy if you would follow me too. :)

Have a beautiful week!

Lots of BIG Hugs,

Deborah

katie_shannon said...

I had this same type of thing last year when we received an email our littles would be doing this. Oh how it frightened my heart, but I am so thankful for a pro-active school, a principal who actually loves the kids & a God who has us in the palm of His hands.

Thank you for sharing this!!!

After Eleven Blog said...

In a crazy world like today we have to believe in the protection of The Lord! It's definitely a necessity in today's time.

Vicki Sturgiss said...

One of the great things about being a homeschooler is that I don't have to worry about this anymore, but when my Monkey was at school lock downs really bothered/worried me.

TicoTina said...

what a great collection of verses, Julie! this is definitely something that would be hard for me if we didn't homeschool!

 
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