My 4-year-old was making a list of the things she wants Santa to bring her for Christmas 2018. (Yes, in January, she’s planning for December. I find this both impressive and concerning.) She asked her sister “What do you want?” The 7-year-old said she wanted two books, Rags and Riches and A Christmas Carol. She goes on to explain that she needs these two books because she realized in a conversation with her Papa earlier that day that she needs to “review these books again to get better at explaining the Victorian times with her mouth.”
(I must admit that I was one proud mama as I listened to this exchange!)
I remember that conversation with her Papa. I thought what she shared with him was great. She spoke of several random facts she’d learned including that “it smelled bad” in some areas of London because there was no indoor plumbing. I was ready to drop the mic with that tidbit of information. Turns out, she was not satisfied. She knew she’d learned more and recognized that her ability to recall and share that information “with her mouth” could use some work. She, therefore, has a plan to get and review her own copy of these books.
What do you do when you realize you are not at your best? How do you respond when everyone on the outside is impressed, all the while you are fully aware of your capacity to do better, be better, and experience better?
Joshua 1:8 says, “keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”
This passage is telling us that the “best” we desire is a by-product of living a life in line with God’s will. Furthermore, we are empowered to carry out this will only when we read our Bibles, “the Law”, keeping its truths “on our lips.”
The more my daughter reads or keeps the writing of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol “on her lips,” the less tripped up she will be when asked about the Victorian times and the better she will become at sharing more of what she knows with others. The more you and I read God’s Word, The Bible, the less tripped up we will be when asked about the Christian faith. When we “keep this Book . . . on [our] lips” we become better at living out and sharing its truths with others.
Look, I was not expecting Gabrielle to say “a book” when asked what she wanted for Christmas.
But . . . she did!
The truth is, many of us were not expecting God to say “a book” when we ask “What does it take to be prosperous and successful?”
But . . . He did!
Right there in Joshua 1:8.
Go ahead . . . plan to get and review your own copy of this book today.
WORD.