Something to Hold Onto

Dear Lord,

This morning I come before you and ask that you would shake the false foundations. I ask you to tear down what we put our trust in that isn't you. I ask you to remove idols, wrong theology, superstitions, and anything else that we put our hope in that is not you. I pray for a stripping down of our minds. Lord, today we are going to gather in your name, in your house to worship you, but I know "your house" is really a building where we go to intentionally give our time and focus to you. It's our intentional God place. I pray that each of us would become crazy aware that WE are your house. I pray that each of us would become an intentional God place. I pray that our thoughts, our beliefs, how we invest our time, how we invest our gifts, how we live in the entirety of our lives would be an intentional God place. Show us where it isn't. Lead us into the fullness of you so that the presence of the Spirit would be as thick, dense, and obvious as the cloud that filled the Tabernacle. We are a people set apart for the purpose of bringing you glory and filling this earth with your will and your presence. I pray we would be an easy place for you to invade earth. Thank you for hearing the petitions of your daughter. In the All Mighty with nothing lacking name of Jesus I pray these things, Amen

 I prayed this prayer early this morning before I left for church. I prayed what I felt the Spirit speak to my heart.

 

At church I listened to the wife of one of our leaders ask the children, "Do you know what tomorrow is?"

 

"Monday?" was my thought.

 

"Groundhog Day. So we have to see if Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow so we know if we have more winter or not."

 

I stared.

 

This is the teacher of the children at our church, and she is teaching the kids to believe a rodent has the power to predict the weather.

 

She then spoke with one of the adults and said, "I love Groundhog's Day. I think it is important for them to have something to hold onto."

 

WHAT?!?!?!?!?!

 

We take our children to a church that professes Christ as Savior, Healer, Redeemer, and King, and we think we need to give them a groundhog to hold onto?

 

I can already hear some people saying, "Well, that's not what she really meant."

 

Then what did she mean? She told these kids to put their trust in the ability of a rodent to predict the weather because she thinks they need something to hold onto....while we are at a church where we are supposed to be teaching our kids to put their trust in no one but Christ.

 

And I'm wondering, do these "harmless" superstitions and habits lead our kids to believe in something besides Christ? And if we really, honestly believe Christ is the answer to how to live, what to do, and who to trust, why do we even look at horoscopes, fortune cookie predictions, or groundhogs?

 

Why would we ever offer anything else to hold onto except Him?