Last week I shared about the difficulties we’re facing . If you haven’t read that post, you can read it here.  Even though I’ll be honest with you about what we’re going through, this blog isn’t about our family.  It’s mostly about God’s family. So I’ll only share about us if it serves you in some way. Here’s an example:

Every Christian parent I know wants to bring the Bible to life for their kids.  We want them to know that it’s not just a collection of myths, legends, parables, and poetry.  We want them to know, deep down, that it’s real and true for them. So we read the stories, and get them to memorize some verses.  Maybe we send them to Bible camp.

But it’s just theory.

Until something happens, and they have the opportunity to live it.  Our kids had one this week.  When we were explaining our situation to them, my husband said, “This is our Red Sea Moment.  It looks like there’s no where to go, but when God makes a way for us, we’ll know it was Him.  Years from now you’ll tell this story of how God came through for us”.

They all knew the story.  We’ve read it a gazillion times and even acted it out.  But knowing it and living it are different.

So maybe it’s no surprise that God is literally making a way for our family to cross the sea. God orchestrated a connection between us and some missionaries on the Italian island of Sardinia, where I lived as a student 20 years ago.  A few days later they invited us to join them there to explore a future partnership.  The pieces are still falling into place. We still don’t know how we’re going to get a visa, or how we’ll be supported long term now that my husband’s job fell through.  But we know God is making a way.

And like the Israelites, we’re heading home.  Even though most of my family has never been there (most of the Israelites had never seen Canaan either) we know we’re heading to a good land.

Teaching your kids the Bible is alive and real and true starts with teaching them to hear God’s voice.  When you read the Bible with the question “How can we live this truth?” and act on the answers you receive, you enter into the story in a new way. Your kids might sell everything and give the proceeds to the poor.  They might pray for dead people to be raised.  Let them walk the messy, beautiful walk of faith side by side with you.  You don’t have to invent disasters to build their faith, but you also don’t have to sanitize life to protect them from what God is doing in the world around them.

Now it’s your turn: What Bible story do you identify with most strongly? How has God brought it to life for you and your family?