"Bless you, Keep you."

Numbers 6:24-26

"The Lord Bless you and keep you.  The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.  The Lord turn his face towards you, and give you his peace."

We had the honor of spending 2 years in a small group of amazing people who will prayerfully be my friends for life.  And during this small group we studied the book called "The Family Blessing".  Basically it broke down the concept of blessing your children.  Eric and I had never heard of this but we were excited about a new way to incorporate scripture into our children.  What you do is, pick a verse that speaks one of God's blessings over his people, and at night while tucking your children in, place your hand on their chest and recite the verse while looking them in the eyes.  It doesn't sound like much, but first of all, speaking truth over your children is so essential.  And secondly, they need to hear you reciting scripture out loud.  It allows them to see your dependence and faith in God's word.  It also allows them to hear God's word.  AND it allows them to eventually memorize God's word.  Now at night as we are tucking our children in for bed, they ask for their blessing.  It has now gotten to the point where Campbell will say "Bless you, Keep you.  Bless you, Keep you." , in sort of a worried voice...like we're going to forget.  And if we don't place our hand on her chest, she pats her chest until you do.  Blessing our children has gone from this foreign idea that we read in a book to this amazing gift that the Lord has given us.  Adelai now recites it along with us.  So like I said, not only do they hear God's word, they now KNOW God's word.  And that's the best gift you could ever give your children, as far as I'm concerned.