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!

Maestro! May My Eyes and Heart Be on You!

Maestro definition: Master Conductor, expert, genius, prodigy, pro, virtuoso, a great or distinguished figure in any sphere.

I’m sure you’ve been there when an orchestra is tuning up before their concert. All of those musicians are doing their own thing to check out their instrument – to be sure it’s in tune. Those players are not in sync or in harmony. How could anything beautiful come from what sounds so disharmonious and chaotic. But, in a matter of minutes, it is like a switch was flipped and the Maestro appears. He tap, tap taps his baton and, voila, the chaos turns into the most melodic, rhythmic, harmonious, sweet sounding and beautiful music. The appearance of the Maestro changed everything. Every eye and ear of the orchestra was set on their Maestro, and he guided them through a symphony of delight to all who were captured by the richness of their symphony.

If there were no Maestro, the musicians would continue to be doing their own thing that continued to result in an abundance of NOISE. Isn’t that similar to our world today? So much noise of anger, animosity, dissension and voices of “know it alls” – so much criticism of this and that in our world with CHAOS abounding.

On Ash Wednesday, last week – the day when many Christians went to church to focus on their MAESTRO and it was also the day when yet another tragic shooting took place in a Florida school. The perpetrator’s maestro was not God but the enemy of his soul. The reaction by the NOISY masses was “We need gun control. We need more mental illness awareness.” In the meantime, the ONE – the MAESTRO – our Creator – had been terminated from schools. Our MAESTRO was no longer welcomed in prayer or any other acknowledgement of Him. I can’t help but believe if God were still allowed in our schools, it would be very different today.

My point today is welcoming our MAESTRO to lead again because when He is leading – a spectacular symphony is heard. And in similar ways, our lives create a beautiful symphony of harmony and melodic music when we depend, rely, and fully follow the direction of our Maestro – our Master Conductor. There may be chaos, disharmony and disagreement on so many levels around us, but if OUR eyes and OUR ears are fixed on the peace, joy, and harmony that God represents in our lives and when we follow His lead, He will turn the chaos and disharmony of our life into a beautiful symphony of peace. That music will be a sweet, sweet sound in His ears and in the ears of those in our life. I think of the prayer of St. Francis as I type this post, "Lord, make me an "instrument" of your peace!" May peace be the song in our heart, in our mind, and in our mouth as we follow our Maestro's lead.

I love you, Lord, and I lift my voice
To worship You, oh my soul, rejoice!
Take joy my King in what You hear.
Let it be a sweet, sweet sound in Your ear.

Psalm 57:7 "My heart, O God, is steadfast, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and make music."