ASI 2009: By Knowing Him

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ASI 2009 Morning Devotional

Edgar Vyhmeister

Judith Vyhmeister

Knowing Him as a Family, Part 1

Edwin Nebblett

Maria Nebblett

Knowing Him as a Family, Part 2

Byron Smith

Janice Smith

Knowing Him as a Family, Part 3

But 1 by 1, all of those calls just dwindled away and I just...

And in the meantime, I kept getting calls from this school board chairman way up north.

Well, finally around May, the first time he called me had been in December, finally around May, I decided, you know, God talks to us in really good ways.

I decided that clearly he was calling me to go to this little tiny school way up north where I had never been before.

And you know, as soon as I recognized God calling me to do that, I was excited about it.

Why, I was going to the mission field, and I was dedicating my life to singlehood, to be in the mission field.

Well, I got up there and started teaching school, and it was a grand challenge as you can imagine, you know, a one-room school and everything.

And it was so cool because, man, I hadn't been teaching school for maybe a month and a half, and this is who I met.

Well, we got married, that was in, we met in October and we got married the following July.

And in the meantime, before we got married, we had gotten a call to go teach school in Ontario, California.

And actually, the Lantz's, Harold Lantz was on the school board there.

And we took the call, thinking that it would be a good opportunity for him to continue his studies in agriculture at Cal Poly Pomona.

And so we got married and packed up our stuff and moved to Southern California.

We had never, either of us, lived in big cities really before.

And so this was a pretty big change for us.

And started teaching school, really liked it.

The school had a work-study program, and so it was really, really wonderful.

And before we got married, We hadn't talked a lot, a little bit, but not a lot about having children.

But there was 1 thing we were on the same page about, and that was that we really weren't in a hurry.

We figured, you know, a couple years at least before we had kids.

Well, I was thinking 2, you were probably thinking 4 or 5.

We lived in Fontana, school was in Ontario, and then his college was in Pomona.

So we would drive in the morning from Fontana to Ontario, and around about, I would say, late October, I got hit with the baby bug.

And so from then on, every morning, we would be driving down the freeway to school and I'd be saying, sweetheart please just 1 little baby please just a little wee 1 that's all I want.

Well finally in January he said he gave in and so he said 1 month I'll give you 1 month to see if it works.

And 4 kids later, I'm so glad he gave in.

Well, when we got pregnant, I was, it was just, you have no, I mean, well, I guess you do.

And along with the excitement, suddenly I was struck, we both, we were so struck with this incredible responsibility.

I mean, we were going to be bringing a new life into the world.

And so we started reading child guidance more.

You know, of course, I had read it before, but really started reading it because we wanted to be responsible parents.

From my standpoint, There's a lot I could say about that But I'll just say once once she actually conceived and was pregnant, I was so excited.

Waiting until we could get The confirmation that she actually was pregnant was the longest 3 weeks of my life.

And you know, I was 1 of these kind of guys that as I was growing up as a teenager and so on, You would see some lady bring a new baby to church and all the other women would gather around and they'd say, oh isn't he or she so cute, isn't a darling little baby?

And I would look at them and I'd say, the only reason they're saying that is because they're wanting to be polite.

Those newborn babies, in my opinion, were the ugliest things.

And about the time that we got close to having our own baby.

Our last checkup, actually, we went to the hospital there in B.C.

And after we were done visiting with the doctor, I decided that we should swing by the nursery.

And I felt that I should see how bad it was going to look when I actually got 1 of these things.

So we got down to the nursery and I looked through the window and there were probably 3 or 4 babies in the nursery then and I looked at them and I said I would take any of those those are the darlingest little things.

Well when Jana was born September 24 she was blue blue blue she'd had a very very difficult delivery And she was covered with this cottage cheesy kind of stuff.

And I took 1 look at her and said, that's the most beautiful baby I've ever seen.

But anyway, some of these things just kind of mess with your mind, that's all I can say.

Anyway, I carried this little baby up and down the halls of the hospital the whole time I was there.

The nurses started telling me that I needed to leave her alone.

I'd take her to work, just a little tiny baby in her little bag.

Every chance I got, and I would get up in the morning and have my personal devotions in her bedroom.

And you know, I know that it talks about a mother's love, but I can tell you, God represents himself not as a mother, but as a father.

The love of a father for his children is something that I don't think very many people really acknowledge because men tend to be more reserved with their emotions.

And I remember 1 morning when I was having my devotions, I looked over the edge of the crib at this little baby, still only probably a few months old, and I was just admiring her and looking at her, and I said, you know, 1 of these days you're going to be 6 years old and you're going to go to school.

And then I burst out laughing at the absolute absurdity of that little thing ever being 6 years old.

About the time Jana was born, we moved and I took a job starting and operating a vegetable greenhouse in northern British Columbia.

And over the years, working with plants, farming, I began to notice that in the Bible, there's an awful lot of references to reaping, sowing, seed planting, harvest fruits.

You know, we… you probably don't notice it until you actually become a farmer and then you start seeing how much it's actually in the Bible.

In Christ Object Lessons, page 33, paragraph 1, it says, by the parable of the sower, Christ illustrates the things of the kingdom of heaven and the work of the great husbandman, farmer, for his people.

Like the sower in the field, he came to scatter the heavenly grain of truth." Then it says, Because of its simplicity, the parable of the sower has not been valued as it should be.

From the natural seed cast into the soil, Christ desires to lead our minds to the gospel seed, the sowing of which results in bringing man back to his loyalty to God.

He who gave the parable of the tiny seed is the sovereign of the heavens, and The same laws that govern earthly seed sowing govern the sowing of the seeds of truth.

That means if you want to know how to have a better, more productive, and dynamic spiritual life, where can you go to look?

In other words, if you look at how you deal with seeds and how you grow plants, what you learn there is exactly the same laws that you will find governing your own spiritual life.

That is something that I don't think very many people, and I'm speaking about myself, appreciate.

Now what does that have to do with families?

I believe that the same principles, obviously, to be successful as a parent, to be successful as a husband and wife, the core of that is your own spiritual life because God is love and if we take his spiritual principles into our life, there will be love and there will be success.

This morning I would like to focus on 3 simple, profound truths.

If we understand these 3 points and practice them, you will be successful as a parent guaranteed.

I know that a lot of people think of parenting as A complicated procedure, and I think parenting is a lot more simple than we give it credit for.

The Bible says, "'Be not deceived, God is not mocked.

Whatsoever a man sows, that will he also reap.'" that will he also reap.

In the book of John, chapter 15, Jesus is just getting ready, just getting ready to be crucified, to end His earthly ministry, and He's talking to the disciples, And he has this verse, this statement that he makes, John chapter 15 and verse 1, where he says, I am the vine.

Now I've heard that my whole life, and it was only recently that it suddenly occurred to me, you know what Jesus is saying?

In this verse, Jesus is actually stating the relationship between a father and a son is best described as the relationship between a gardener and a plant.

So, if that's the case, then my children are plants and I'm the gardener.

In Psalm 128, verse 3, it says, Your sons will be like olive shoots around your table.

In Psalms 144 verse 12, it says, then our sons in their youth will be like a well-nurtured plant.

In Isaiah 58 verse 11, it says, you will be like a well-watered garden.

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ASI 2009 Morning Devotional

Knowing Him as a Family, Part 3

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