Flipping the House

Last weekend Clay and Renee Crosse were at our church for a weekend conference and Sunday services.  It was a wonderful weekend of God's truth being spoken in love by two people who truly love the Lord.  Clay spoke to the men and Renee to the women on Saturday. Then they both addressed the church on Sunday morning.  One of their topics was "flipping the house" and it really spoke to my husband and me.  So much so that we are doing our own house flip.  A mere week later we have seen such a difference in our home and our children!!

What are we doing differently?  Simply sitting and reading the Bible aloud and praying with the kids.  We are trying to do it nightly.  We missed a couple nights due to our crazy schedule and all felt as if something was missing those days.  I think what surprised me most is the kids not only seem to like it but they actually want it to go longer on nights when we have a quick reading and prayer time. 

My husband and I were talking tonight about how awesome it is to see our family gathered around with  Bibles open, reading God's word and talking about it.  Discussing things that speak to us and why.  I am enjoying hearing the boys questions and comments.  Some of them are really insightful - like Justin asking if Paul was married - and some of them are simply interesting - like Patrick finding verses that are in a Superchick song.  I'm looking forward to seeing where this flip takes our family.  I know it's going to be wonderful. 

OH...and a funny Bible story from our house.  My husband and I both grew up with the KJV being THE Bible.  When our boys were all small we gave them Bibles of their own.  Over the years we've bought new ones for them.  Daniel had requested a smaller one that would be easy to take to church.  Out of habit, I bought a KJV for him.  Over the past couple of years, he has mentioned it's hard to follow along at church since we typically read from the NIV.  But, he's never made a big deal about it....until we started our daily family devotionals. Our first couple of readings were from Genesis.  The word "helpmeet" turned into a huge sticking point with him - a funny one, granted, but a sticking point nonetheless.  On Tuesday I promised him we would buy an easier to read Bible.  Well, the week was crazy busy and we didn't make it to Family Christian.  Today we went to the church bookstore after services.  He looked over the Bibles and narrowed the selection down to 3:  a plain NIV, a teen study NIV and The Message.  He cracked me up as he looked over the three.  He liked the plain NIV since there were "no helpmeets!!" He also liked the Message  because "it's easy to understand".  But, in the end he bought the teen study Bible.  It has "great cartoons" in the margins.  Gotta love the logic of a 13 year old boy.  :)