Mom Seriously: Weekly Wrap-Up: Rebuilding the Wall

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Ever have one of those weeks where you're not sure who's learning more: you or your kids?

David, my 16 yo, just finished reading through the book of Nehemiah for his Notgrass study. Nehemiah has been foundational for me over the past year or so. I read through portions of it in January of 2010 and combined the Scriptures with focused prayer for our children's department and our church in general as we were considering a building project. (For those of you new to my blog, my family serves the Lord in an inner city church where my husband serves bi-vocationally as the missions pastor.) Also last year, our pastor took us as a church through the entire book as we prayed corporately over several decisions. So, I love Nehemiah!

In the Notgrass study, David was reading Nehemiah as the Biblical parallel to our country's rebuilding after the war between the states. As I read through the book last year, I saw it clearly parallel the broken community and the hurting children where we serve. Let me share a portion from my prayer journal, written in January 2010:

Our building and our church kids look okay on the outside, but the inside of both structures has been neglected. And there are multiple reasons for that. ...Lord, You see the bad situation we are in--how the building is in disrepair and how the children are left to raise themselves.

Everybody pitched in to rebuild the wall, whether they were builders by trade or not. Whether it was their passion or not. Whether it was in their skill set or not. They saw the need, heard the call, and went to help.

This journal entry concluded with a desperate plea for the Lord to send workers to our children's department. And a year later, that's still my prayer!

Rebuilding, whether it is in fact a building, or a war-torn, divided country, or a life, takes time. And it takes people. People that may not be skilled or gifted, but just people who see that a job needs to be done and who are brave enough to work outside their comfort zone.

Does something around you need to be rebuilt? Perhaps from the ground up? Or maybe today you're in the middle of a repair. You might have internal damage to tend to that isn't so noticeable from the outside. Whatever you're working on, there is hope in the story of Nehemiah. I was reminded of that this week, and I pray you will be too!

Be sure to check out all this week's Wrap-Ups at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers!