1 Timothy 4

This chapter contains one of my favorite verses to teach children. Verse 12 challenges young people to rebel against the low expectations our society has shackled them with and sets the bar at not only being an example for the younger kids, but for all believers, including adults. The biggest part of my life purpose (or as my pastor calls it, my Chazown) is to lead the next generation to rise up and become leaders in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity.

But the rest of the chapter sets high standards for me too. I have to labor and strive to put my hope in God alone. I have to teach these things in a way that they know that they are commands not suggestions. I have to devote myself to public reading of scripture (which I guess is kind of what this blog is), to preaching and to teaching. (The next part intrigues my husband. Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you. Was the gift brought on by the elders' prayers or was the prophecy just God's announcement of the gift He had already given?) I have to be diligent in all this. Which is honestly really hard. But I have to give myself wholly to this cause and show progress. And this last part is the most challenging of all. Watch your life and doctrine closely. That's the part of my life I probably take most seriously. My doctrine. I don't want to present anything in God's Word in a way that might lead someone astray. Because the stakes are pretty high. The final sentence says, Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers. It's a life or death matter to not only my hearers, which are climbing in number every day, but also to myself.

I really feel this chapter as a heavy responsibility. Not a burden. But something to be taken very seriously. So pray for me as you go throughout your day. Because I have a lot on my plate right now that is the highest stakes game I've ever tried my hand at. I feel confidence in His calling. But not always in me to stay out of His way.