Just Thinking - Pillars

Maybe because both of my girls are invading my closet to borrow shoes, clothes, belts......

Maybe because I am looking them eyeball to eyeball without bending over....

Whatever the reason, this summer I feel time passing faster than ever before.

More than ever before I find myself drawn to pray for my girls. And not just my physical daughters, but also the sweet middle school girls God lets me love on during the school year in small group Bible study.

As we ended our Bible study for the summer, I shared with them a verse from Psalm 144 that I pray for my daughters as well as my middle school girls. It is verse 12 and it says


Let our sons in their youth be as grown-up plants, and our daughters as corner pillars fashioned as for a palace.


I look at that verse and when I see corner pillars I immediately think of a few words:

                  support system            carved/ornate          custom designed    strong

Towards the end of the school year it hit me that we have entered a more intense "training" stage of parenthood.  We have very few years left before we send them out. 

More than ever, I feel the urgency for them to be grounded in their faith.  They will be the support system in their homes, to their husband...I want them to be a strong, pure, holy, beautiful support system.  Pillars confident in who God says they are, and what God has called them to do.  Corner pillars that are solid and structurally sound, completely capable of holding up the area God entrusts to them. 

My prayer is that they are wise women who build their house on the rock, not the sand. (Luke 6) I pray that as they are strong pillars. I pray they understand that until they see the face of Jesus, they must continue the building process! The foundation must go deeper.  The support beams must continue to be strengthened and added or the corner pillars will begin to crumble. 

But just like God always does...the more I pray this over my daughters, the more God reveals weak areas in my foundation.  Areas that need attention.  Areas that need to be reinforced.

And it sends me straight to my knees.

I am the corner pillar in my home. 

Am I a strong, pure, holy support system to my husband?

Am I confident in who God says I am and what He has called me to do?

Am I solid, structurally sound and completely capable of  holding up the area God has entrusted to me?

Am I consistently working on my foundation? Adding support beams?

Am I checking myself for weakened areas? 

In other words:

Am I, the corner pillar in this household, spending enough time with the Father?  Am I giving my girls a clear picture of what a strong corner pillar looks like? 

I want, as Ezra 7:9-10 says, the good hand of the Lord on me! Changing me, making me stronger and capable to do the thing He has called me to.  Verse 10 of that chapter in Ezra says "Ezra set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to practice it and to teach His statutes and ordinances."

I am convinced and convicted that for my girls to become those beautiful corner pillars this mommy MUST:

Set my heart to

STUDY

PRACTICE

TEACH

This summer is taking a turn in a direction I had not anticipated. :) And I am so very glad.  Something tells me it will be one that will impact our family for generations.