Passing the Baton

My husband and I walked into our kitchen and curled up in the middle of the floor was a huge black snake. As any brave and fearless warrior would do, he grabbed our son’s close-by baseball bat and proceeded to send him to the “great beyond”. I’ll spare giving you the visual of my kitchen after that. I called a neighbor for moral support and she said, “Do you suppose it had a mate?” Then my astute, protective warrior proceeded to scope out our home’s territory from top to bottom so that HIS soulmate and our children could get to sleep. Our children saw a father’s protection, both in the physical and spiritual.

Another Wuerch family wildlife experience was when our young son stepped on a scorpion and, oh, the pain, that ensued. Our natural instincts were to quickly get the ammonia and soak the bite and our spiritual instincts engaged us in praying God’s Word: “Lord, your Word declares: “You have given us the authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy and nothing will harm us.” (Luke 10:19) “We speak that word over our boy right now, in Jesus’ name!” That double treatment caused the sting to quickly subside and that experience continued to give us the ammunition we needed as our family encountered many of those wildlife, sports, and every-day life experiences.

Many years later, my Wallace grandson was stung five times by a scorpion while sleeping on the floor of their home one night. When Staci called me for prayer support after calling Poison Control (their advice was to apply ice and watch him closely), I gave her the double-whammy remedy that we had applied many times in our lives. Payton recovered quickly and we continue to talk about this story and how God healed him. He has used that story in speech and debate competitions as well as speaking to youth groups.

Passing our faith experiences along to our family is like passing on the baton in a race. We come from a long line of baton passers and I know that my faith and devotion to Christ is because of them. They ran their faith races strong and so am I.

How are you passing on faith to the next generation? Have you identified the batons God has given you to carry? Psalm 145:4 says “One generation commends Your works to another; they tell of Your mighty acts …”

Each generation has memories, stories, and values it wants to pass along to the next generation but most important are the spiritual values of our faith. Letting them in on the victories won after the family has prayed together about something. Assuring them that as great as the medical team might have been with bringing help and wholeness to them, it was actually God’s healing virtue that flowed through them. Faith matters.

I urge you to keep your eyes and ears open for teachable moments with your kiddos. They learn so much through experiences -- even TV, movies, news reports, current situations with family members and friends can be used to point out God’s character and commands. Take the initiative to talk about God and bring Him into family conversations. I promise you – you’ll be “passing on the faith baton” when you do!

What is Your Ultimate Protection Guarantee?

While Staci called Poison Control, Larry called me to pray for Payton (10 years old at the time) who had been stung by a scorpion four times and each of the places was turning red and swelling up. Immediately, I remembered our son, Ryan, was stung by a scorpion on his foot. I gave Larry the remedy that God gave us. Without even a second thought, my husband and I begin to pray and speak scripture verses over Ryan that applied to this very situation. “Behold! I have given you authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall in any way harm you’ (Luke 10:19). Those are words that Jesus spoke to His disciples when He was speaking about the authority He was giving them. And they were words that we had lodged in our hearts. And, I also remembered hearing – “apply ammonia immediately to the sting”! Within just a few minutes the pain that Ryan was experiencing ceased.

Taking the advice of Poison Control (“apply ice compresses to the sting, and keep a watch over him for a while) and Nana’s advice, within just a short while, Payton had calmed down and the pain had subsided. As you can imagine, his activist Mama Staci, was on the phone the next morning getting an extermination company to come out and rid their home of the enemy that had invaded their home.

Immediately, I began to think about getting my house exterminated – literally -- and spiritually. Spiritually, in the sense that perhaps little creatures of doubt, unbelief, offenses, fear, concern, worry may have found their way inside my heart. We have a responsibility to keep our spirits free of the enemy’s attacks. Remember how Jesus handled the enemy’s attacks during His 40-day fast? He spoke God’s Word of truth to him. That’s how Jesus conquered……and that’s how we conquer.

God knows exactly where the enemy’s traps are located. And when we study, memorize and cultivate God’s Word into our hearts, we will also know. Proverbs 4:20-24 says: “My son, attend to My words; consent and submit to My sayings. Let them not depart from your sight; keep them in the center of your heart, for they are life to those who find them, healing and health to all their flesh. Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life.”

I was reading one of the extermination companies’ on-line guarantees. It said, “THE ULTIMATE PROTECTION® GUARANTEE -- Protect yourself with the strongest guarantee in the business!!” And, when it comes to God and His Word, that is truly THE ULTIMATE PROTECTION GUARANTEE!’ It’s time to take advantage of these guarantees -- to get busy with good common sense ways of exterminating the little creatures from our homes with bug spray, traps and deterrents…..and even more importantly, rid our lives of the enemy that wants to steal our peace and joy….with the infallible, sharper-than-any-two-edged sword -- Word of God!