From Generation to Generation

We butchered some chickens today. We have been doing about 10-15 per week. We started this season with around 70 and after today we are down to 13. YEAH!

While I was cleaning out yet another bird I had an audience. (well actually I usually have an audience!) But this time it was Mikaya.

As any little girl does she was watching everything I did very intently. You know, the every move I made, kind of watching.

At one point my hair was in my eyes so I was blowing up to get it out because I didn't want to touch it with my ummmmm....YUCKY hands.

Mikaya then started making the same noise, blowing toward the chicken that I was cleaning.

And then I realized because I had blown, she thought this was all part of the chicken cleaning process! I then explained to her that I was just getting the hair out of my eyes.

Kind of reminded me of the story I heard once about the lady who would always cut the tip of the roast off before she would put it her roaster to cook. One day someone asked her why she did that. She replied, "Because that's what my mom always did." That got her to thinking, "why did her mom cut the tip off the roast?" so she asked her. Her mom replied with a chuckle, "Because my pot was too small"

I could just imagine Mikaya when she was a mom blowing on her chicken as she is cleaned it and her children asking why she did it!!!!

And today this was just another reminder that I am being watched. Watched by many pairs of eyes. This time it was cleaning a chicken, but every day they are also watching how I react to the circumstances that come my way . Am I showing them a godly example or do they see me react according to the lust of my flesh? Too many times my children have reflected my bad attitude, my lack of self-control, a quick tempered spirit and it bothers me because I know it is my flaw that they have picked up from me. I know every child is born with a sin nature and there are many sinful actions that don't have to be taught, but I also know that children learn by example. What do I teach them?

And when the day comes that I stand before my God to give account of all I have done on this earth, both good and evil, is He going to be able to say to me, "Well done thou good and faithful servant." Will He be able to tell me that because of my faithfulness to Him and His Word, my children were impacted, and their children, and their children......generations. This is what I desire. Not to be so distracted by the temporal things of today, but instead to act and react with eternity as my focus.

We will not hide them from their children;

we will tell the next generation

the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD,

his power, and the wonders he has done.

He decreed statutes for Jacob

and established the law in Israel,

which he commanded our forefathers

to teach their children, so the next generation would know them,

even the children yet to be born,

and they in turn would tell their children.

Then they would put their trust in God

and would not forget his deeds

but would keep his commands.

Psalm 78: 4-7