November 12, 2009
Dear Mackenzie:
Happy Birthday! Seven years old is such a BIG girl age! I am enjoying you as you grow. You are girly and pretty and crafty. You like animals and people and playing games and you do some nice little practical jokes as well. You take good care of Malachi and Zoe and Peaches and make sure they get lots of “pets” during the day. You like to shop. You know how to make lots of money by doing your jobs. You can do almost any craft. You are an artist and VERY good at drawing, painting, coloring as well as playing the piano. I will teach you backgammon and some other new games now that you are seven.
Also, now that you are seven, God will start to show you more and more about Himself. This will be the year you start to develop really really good habits that will go with you for the rest of your life. The main habit when you are seven is to read your Bible every day. You may not like doing this at first, but it will be the habit that is more important than any other habit you develop. “what is a habit?” you ask. Well, here is the dictionary definition for habit: Function: noun
1 : a costume characteristic of an occupation, rank, or function
2 : a usual manner of behavior or thinking
3 : a way of behaving that has become fixed by being repeated often --
4 : characteristic way of growing or occurring
I put the ones in purple that apply to you. As you develop the habit of reading your Bible out loud every day (one chapter a day), you will get to know God for yourself. Up until now, I have read the Bible to you, or stories to you, and we have memorized scripture. All of those things are VERY good, but the very purpose of learning to read itself is that you may develop the habit of reading the Bible for yourself. Now that you are seven, you are responsible to read it aloud to yourself. When you read it aloud to yourself, your brain in your head and your spirit in your belly both hear it. The Bible is not just a book. It is God’s letter to you. The words in the Bible are alive and living things. It is different than any other book in the world. When you read it, it will change you. When you love it, it will speak to you. When you open it and take time for it, God will visit you. Every answer in the world is in the Bible. Everything you ever wanted to know, you can find in there. When you open it, ask the Holy Spirit to show you something special. Expect to find out something new about Jesus. Don’t just read it to get the prize at the end of the week, but read it with expectancy. Read it like you are expecting to get a “present” or a “treat” out of what you are reading. God has “treats” in His Word, but you have to EXPECT them, or you will miss out on HIS treats. I started this when I was seven. I started reading my Bible every day and God has shown me Himself through His Word. When you have the habit of reading your Bible every day, you are building your life on the “rock”, not the “sand”.
Mackenzie, build your life on the rock. I am your mom. I can only show you the right way and guide you in your life, but you are seven now and you have to start doing things with more purpose and choosing the right way yourself. If you choose the right way, God has LOTS AND LOTS of good surprises for you. So SO Good. But you have to take more responsibility this year than you did when you were six. God loves you. He has a plan for you. He knows who you are going to marry and what you will do and He has a road for you that is WONDERFUL. But, He gives you the choice. You choose to walk on His road and you choose to do it every day. The best way to understand HIS road, is to understand God. The best way to understand God is to read your Bible AND to pay special attention at church AND special attention to anyone who talks about God.
The other gift you have in your pocket is the Holy Spirit. Once you can pray in tongues, this is a special gift from the Lord. PRactice praying in tongues every day. I like to practice when I am taking a shower. You are old enough to take your own showers now and it is a good time to pray in the spirit. Try to pray in the spirit the whole shower long and you will find that praying in the spirit is like having your “battery” charged. You have a spiritual battery, just like your new scooter has a battery. When you pray in tongues, you don’t understand what you are saying, but it is charging your battery. There is a lot more about praying in tongues and things you can do with that gift, but for this year, just practice charging your battery every day for at least five minutes a day. Or, when you take a shower.
This is the year of GOOD habits. It is nice to run, and play, and explore the woods, and to ride horses, and to play games. Those things are wonderful. But, it is time for you to build your life on the “Rock”. And EVERY day, before you do THOSE things, you need to practice your good habits.
I am so happy to be your mom. You are a wonderful gift God has given to me. Can you tell that I like teaching you? It is one of my favorite things to do. Now that you are a BIG BIG girl, I will get to teach you even more and we will get to play some really cool games (like Backgammon and cribbage). But my favorite thing of all is to watch you grow in God and get to know Him. May you grow more this year that the last.
Remember in The Silver Chair, when Aslan tells Jill to REMEMBER the SIGNS and say them over and over? This letter is like Aslan’s signs to you. Don’t just read it and forget it. Remember the signs, or, the HABITS for this year. Keep them in your mind and practice them. I will put a little reminder in your bathroom, but I want you to do this on your own as well. Each day, after you read your Bible chapter, I want you to bring me your Bible popsicle stick and after seven days or seven popsicle sticks, you get to pick a prize from the goody bag. And they are GOOD prizes! You could earn 52 prizes by your next birthday, but you have to do your habit, to get the prizes. The best prize of all is that you will know Jesus better by November 12, 2010 than you did this year. But I want to help you get on your way to a lifetime of good habits, so that will be our little “game” for the year.
I love you very much. Daddy loves you very much. No matter what, we will always love you and always be here for you, but no matter how much we love you, God loves you 1000 times more than we do. He saw you before WE saw you. He saw you when He made Adam and Eve. He saw that we were going to be your mommy and daddy. He saw that you were going to have brown eyes and love animals. He put that inside of you. He saw you inside of my tummy and gave you lots of hair and perfect eyebrows. And now, He wants to talk to you. Open your heart and He will show Himself to you. Don’t fill your whole day with just yourself, if you do that, you will never truly be happy. It’s only when you make room for Him that your life will come alive. And as you walk hand in hand with Him, He will show you secrets. SEcrets about Him, secrets about you, secrets about life. He will show you how to draw people and how to play the piano better than most mommies and daddies can. Because with God, you can do everything BETTER.
I love you!
mommy
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