family devotions

Each week, CYPRESS CHAPEL will provide you with a devotion to center additional thoughts around the lesson that was shared on Sunday. Feel free to share them with friends!

Why are family devotions important? The hope of CYPRESS CHAPEL is that parents and kids are able to openly talk about their faith with each other.

For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them. (Romans 12:4-6a)

Like most kids, when I received a gift for my birthday, Christmas, or maybe even Easter, I'd want to tear into the wrapping paper (or reach in the gift bag), open up the box/container as fast as I could, and begin an imaginative journey in outer space (Star Wars), in the sewers of New York City (as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle), or tossing a new sports ball around with friends or family. This new possession would be my object to use for my own good...until I lost interest, lost it, or received something better in the future.

The lessons taught in the Toy Story movies are much more real-to-life than we may want to admit!

As I grew older, gifts on special occasions became less driven by how I might play with it, but rather: how I might use it.

Gifts like clothes (especially black socks and underwear) were hardly exciting, but most often necessary. Hand tools were not flashy, but clunky expressions of usefulness. The same could be said of coffeemakers, waffle irons, blenders, a new dishwasher, or even a fancy Dyson vacuum. These are hardly play-things anymore, but useful gifts which make life function.

God has gifted His church--including each member of the church--with unique skills and functionality for the benefit of His Kingdom. There's a reason why some can lead and others are wired to follow; why some are incredibly creative, outside-the-box thinkers and others want step-by-step instructions. God has made collaborators to work together and gather folks in; He's also wired others to work individually to help accomplish His plans.

Each member of God's family is gifted, uniquely, for His purpose. Thankfully, this is not to be played with, but to be used by God according to His plan.

Paul writes, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10).

Brothers and sisters, you have been gifted incredibly by your Father in Heaven. He will use you according to His purpose and plan, and you will be unwrapped and opened at the proper time, for His own good. With this in mind, remember that you are never discarded for the latest and greatest model, or the newest up-to-date version.

He has plans for you, as God's gift to the world.

If you read Psalm 127 in its entirety, it speaks of the blessings God provides--home, security, food, and children. In particular, children are referred to as a heritage--gifts not possessions. And entrusted with these gifts, parents become stewards.

What an awesome responsibility to nurture--to feed, nourish, sustain, maintain, cherish, and provide for these gifts from God. As parents provide for their material needs, it is essential that we also take into consideration their spiritual needs. It is indeed the work of the Holy Spirit to plant faith in the hearts of our children and to cause that faith to grow. But it is also an awesome privilege to be an instrument of the Holy Spirit, to hear the splash of baptismal water, and to trust in God's loving care and direction for our children as they grow.

This note today is taken from Baby Jesus Visits the Temple by Alice Earnheart Maas.