Hello, this is Brother Denny.
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Shall we stand before the Lord in prayer?
God our Father, we bow down to you
in the name of your precious Son, Jesus
Christ, tonight.
We thank you that you love us.
Thank you that you did love us when
we were very unlovely.
We thank you that you're a God who
can change us.
You can save us from the gutter most
to the uttermost.
Through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
We thank you, Father.
Oh Lord, we do, Lord.
We stand there by that doorpost, God.
We don't want anything else but a hole
in our ear, God.
Nothing else, God.
Oh Father, please come and bless us again
tonight, all of us.
We want to learn how to raise our
children to do the same thing, God.
That every one of them will walk up
to that doorpost someday and get a hole
put in their ear.
God, please help us tonight.
Give us wisdom.
Anoint us with the Holy Ghost, all of
us.
And we may hear what you are saying
to us.
In Jesus Christ's name we ask it.
Amen.
Greetings, in the name of the Lord Jesus,
tonight.
Thank you for all your joy and enthusiasm.
God bless you, every one of you.
In this session this evening, we are going
to continue to look at the guiding training
aspects of raising children.
I feel very burdened to focus on these
again for two reasons.
Number one, because many parents do not realize
how easy it is to guide their children
in a good, positive direction.
Neither do they realize the blessed results that
come from that kind of positive guidance.
The second reason is this.
Many parents have fallen into the correction, nagging,
spanking mode of parenting.
This is not the primary focus as I
see it in the Word of God.
I was meditating in the Shepherd's Song in
the light of this subject.
A child could easily say, my parents are
my shepherd.
I shall not want.
Surely they could say that.
I noticed in this song.
Note this.
Out of ten wonderful aspects of the good
shepherd's care over the life of those mentioned
in the song.
Only one is correction.
Only one time does he say, I rod
and I staff, they comfort me.
All the other nine aspects are the other
ones that we're speaking about.
God, our father, primarily, he is a leader,
not a corrector.
We need to grasp this more fully as
we ponder our responsibilities as parents in our
homes.
God, our God, our father is a leader.
That is his prime characteristic.
He is a leader of love and blessing
and direction and teaching and all those things
in our lives.
And occasionally, yes, he is a corrector and
he spanks us.
And we thank God that he does.
There are some verses in Isaiah that describe
so beautifully the blessing that this title of
this message gives this evening.
The title of the message is A Quiet
Orchard Life.
I believe that's what God wants for our
children.
And he's looking unto us to shepherd our
children into a quiet, ordered life.
That they can look up like the sheep
look up unto the shepherd and say, he
leadeth me in green pastures.
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He leadeth me in paths of righteousness for
his namesake.
Amen.
A quiet, ordered life.
Isaiah 32, reading verse 17 and 18.
The work of righteousness shall be peace.
The effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever.
My people shall dwell in peaceable habitations and
in short dwellings and in quiet resting places.
There is a wonderful flow of thought in
these verses, which is probably the goal of
every sincere parent listening to this sermon.
A quiet, orderly home.
Amen.
A quiet, orderly home where we can raise
up our children to love God with all
their heart.
If you read the verses ahead of these,
you will find that this will not happen
until the spirit be poured out upon us
from on high.
You look up in the text there.
Until the spirit be poured out upon us
from on high.
This inviting picture that is painted for us
is the fruit of the spirit.
Have you noticed, brothers and sisters, how many
times we find a reference to the Holy
Spirit lingering nearby?
These many verses that we find on the
home and the family in Isaiah.
Have you noticed that?
You go track them all back.
You will find the spirit of the living
God hovering near every one of those promises.
And I believe what God is trying to
get through to our hearts is that there
is no way we can do this except
His way.
I believe that.
Oh, that God would pour out His spirit
upon our families and transform our homes into
quiet, resting places.
Amen.
Notice the motivating progression of truth in this
text.
The spirit is poured out on us.
That produces the right ways of God in
our lives.
As we walk in these blessed ways, they
produce peace in our lives.
This peace is, first of all, an inner
peace, but then a peaceable order that works
out in our everyday life.
This outworking of inner peace produces a quiet
inner assurance.
Got that?
Just like the Lord Jesus had, He lived
in a continual quiet inner assurance.
I mean so much so that He could
look Pilate right in the face when Pilate
said, Don't you know I have the power
to crucify you?
He had such a quiet inner assurance it
made Pilate tremble when he said, You have
no power over me except what's given from
above.
That was the kind of quiet inner assurance
Jesus had.
Which, in turn, this quiet inner assurance, it
affects our homes.
Our homes become stable, secure havens of order
and rest.
That is the will of God.
Yea, even a little bit of heaven on
earth.
Amen.
Thy kingdom come, O Lord.
Thy will be done in every one of
our homes, even as it is in heaven.
That's our prayer.
I think of the example of creation in
this as we look at the subject of
looking unto and longing to and for a
quiet, orderly home.
I think of the example in creation.
The earth was without form and void, and
darkness was upon the face of the deep,
and the Spirit of God moved or brooded
upon the face of the water.
When God comes by His Spirit to chaos
and prevails, peace and order is the beautiful
result.
Amen.
O God, come to our homes and prevail.
And dear brothers and sisters, that means God
come and prevail over me.
And have your will in your way in
me, God.
That's how God will come and prevail over
our homes.
Sometimes it is hard to imagine this state
of quiet and order in most of our
American homes.
We live in a very fast pace, don't
we?
Remember the rat race we talked about earlier?
So many people are on this wheel and
do not know how to get off.
Though the society goes on in an ever
-increasing speed, dear brothers and sisters, there is
a way that you can turn your home
into a haven of rest and refreshment for
all who enter there or live there, even
if you live in a city.
However, you must be willing to take control
of your environment.
I believe if you're willing to do that,
you can have a sweet, quiet haven of
rest, even in the midst of a city.
Now, just a thought on that.
This sermon is not a teaching on destructive
influences in our home, but just consider, I
wonder what would happen if we could get
rid of all the noisemakers in the homes.
You know, the things like the television, the
radio, the toys, the boombox, the computer games,
even the telephone ring, ring, ringing all day
long.
Silence has to be more peaceful than all
that noise, even in a secular home.
Back to taking control of your environment, which,
by the way, if you got all those
noisemakers in their house, I would encourage you
to take control of your environment.
Amen.
The big question is, who will be in
control of the home?
Jackie and I have learned that children prosper
and feel secure if they live in an
ordered, controlled household, which we, as the parents,
order for them.
They do not prosper when they don't know
what is going to happen next.
And also, they do not prosper if they
are allowed to be in charge of what
they're going to do and what is going
to happen next.
I cannot emphasize this enough.
The many benefits of an orderly life.
Now, I understand there may be those who
feel that that's a bit rigid.
And I would say to you, if the
pace of your life is slow enough for
you to just go with the flow and
still remain a quiet, ordered household, great.
No problem.
But my experience is that most people who
have no order are carried along by the
strong currents of society and have very little
peace and order in their homes.
Let me give you just a little glimpse
of some of our daily routine.
Early in the morning, Papa's alarm goes off
first.
Shortly after that, Mama's alarm also goes off.
But nobody is going to beat Papa out
of bed in the morning.
A little later, the girl's alarm goes off.
And the day is off to a good,
sanctified start.
Samuel's not in the schedule because the boy
just got back from Africa.
Joshua gets up at five and David is
called at 545 for Bible tape at six
with Mama and the children.
They listen and read along with the Bible
on CD until 630.
Mama and David go over the daily light
reading.
Remember, I talked to you about that, so
that David will have something to share in
devotion.
The others are off doing chores until 730.
At 730, we have breakfast and it is
finished by eight o'clock.
Eight o'clock till 820 is clean up
time in the kitchen and the living area.
Then we gather at 820 for family devotions.
820 to 830 is chatter time at our
house.
That's when everybody just chatters about all the
things that come to their mind.
That's from 820 to 830.
We even call it chatter time.
At 830, we begin to sing.
We finish some time after nine o'clock.
We are not rigid on this one.
If devotions are really moving along like I
described last evening, we go longer.
From here, we move into work schedules and
school schedules.
And that's enough schedule for you to understand
that our life is very much ordered.
There's none of this stuff of everybody sleeping
in until they want to wake up and
skipping this and skipping that and grab yourself
a bowl of cereal and go off to
do this.
We will have none of that.
Children do not prosper under that.
They prosper under what I just described to
you so much better than the other.
There seems to be some controversy about this
ordered life, especially when children are young.
Some people say it is too restrictive.
The child has so little freedom.
However, we all know that true freedom comes
by learning to live within a given order
of society.
And this was the essence and the wisdom
and the blessing of this land that we
live in today.
But we are fast losing it and we
are losing our freedoms right along with it.
And every one of us know that.
Let's look at authority.
Calm, quiet authority.
God has placed the children completely under the
authority of the parents.
This is a beautiful place of prosperity.
Remember what we said the other evening?
All they have to do is obey and
it will go well with them, God promises.
It is also a place of abundant freedom.
All they have to do is obey their
parents all their days.
I have learned by my own parenting experiences
that God works mysteriously behind the scenes to
establish this authority in a home.
I for one, I do not believe that
parents have to push their weight around, raise
their voice, kick and fuss, spit, sit everybody
down, lay down ultimatums or say the words.
Now listen here, I am the authority around
here.
I do not believe that parents should ever
say those words because God has already established
your authority.
We already have it and we need to
confidently exercise it.
That's as simple as that.
There are several ways in which this authority
is established.
I want you just to consider them very
quickly here.
First of all, this authority is established in
your home.
Number one, because God has already given it
to you.
It's already established.
He has already said you are the authority
in your home that settles it.
There's no other need to even discuss it.
You just need to lead your family in
the way that they should go.
Let me use the example of a policeman.
If a policeman is given that responsibility, if
the state says to him, OK, you are
now a policeman, put on this uniform and
go out there and be a policeman.
That policeman doesn't need to do anything.
They don't need to parade him down the
street and he doesn't need to hold up
a gun and tell everybody, Hey everybody, I
want you to know that I'm a policeman.
See my uniform?
See the stripes I have on my arm?
By the way, you all better listen to
me because I'm a policeman now.
You better do what I tell you.
A policeman doesn't do any of that.
A policeman just simply polices in confidence, without
even a thought or a doubt in his
mind.
I'm a policeman and a policeman polices.
That is exactly what I'm trying to get
across to you parents tonight.
You are the authorities of your home and
you don't need to fuss about it.
You don't need to carry on about it.
You don't need to raise your voice to
try and establish it.
You already have it.
It's done.
It's settled.
It's spoken.
God spoke it.
What more do you want than that?
You need no uniform.
You need no gun to flash around.
All of heaven is on your side, dear
parents, in this matter of authority in your
home.
Go and do it in the same manner
that the policeman does.
Confidently, calmly, without any pomp or show, without
any carrying on or hollering or anything.
Just go do it.
This will establish your authority more than anything
else that I can tell you.
Just the fact that you believe that you
have it and you move forward based on
that truth.
Nothing will establish your authority more than that.
Lead, man, lead.
Just do it.
It's done.
Secondly, what will establish your authority in your
home?
Walk with God.
When a man and a woman walk with
God in their home and they are the
ones that are in authority, God gives them
not only the positional authority of a parent,
but he also gives them spiritual authority.
There's a difference between positional authority and spiritual
authority.
Spiritual authority begins to work behind the scenes
in mysterious ways in the hearts and lives
of children.
Spiritual authority.
You get that from walking with God.
This is the work of God.
Trust him for it.
This is the kind of authority that Moses
passed on to Joshua.
You know, when he was passing off the
scene and God said, OK, Moses, it's time
for you to go.
Go call Joshua.
Put your hands on him and what you
had, he will have.
And bless God, Joshua had it, didn't he?
He had spiritual authority.
Yes, he also had positional authority.
But there's no question about it.
When you watch what that man did, he
had more than just a position.
He had more than a uniform on that
said, I am the boss.
He had spiritual authority because he was a
man who walked with God, dear fathers and
mothers, and you will also have spiritual authority
when you walk with God and nobody can
shake against your spiritual authority.
Number three, build a relationship with your child.
This will also establish authority in your home.
In this sense, being a parent is different
than being a policeman because we are drawn
into a very close leadership relationship.
Policeman is not quite that way.
He just kind of oversees things.
Build a relationship with your children.
As you draw close to your children, it
will establish your authority in a sense.
A parent needs to earn the respect and
the obedience of their children.
Now, on the children side, God says children
obey your parents.
But on the parent side, God says you
walk with me.
You build a relationship with those children.
You lay down your life as a sacrifice
for those children.
And I will cause you to rise up
in their heart.
They shall honor you.
They shall respect you.
They will obey you and your authority will
be established.
And number four, be consistent in your directing
and in your discipline in your home.
The children are very discerning.
We all know that.
They're no dummies.
They discover very quickly where your true lines
are.
Be consistent with anything that you want to
accomplish in your home and you will have
success.
You see, the children, they can discern it
very quickly.
This is where dad's really at.
Dad says this, but this is where dad's
really at.
Imagine that.
A five-year-old or a six-year
-old, they know that already.
And they do.
And every one of you parents, you know
they do.
And so, if dad says, don't do it,
but he doesn't really mean it, and the
next time dad hollers and says, don't do
it, but he still doesn't really mean it,
and the third time dad hollers even louder
and grabs you by the scruff of the
neck and takes you into the bedroom, then
the child, he has it all figured out.
No problem.
Dad always says, but doesn't do.
Dad always yells and doesn't do.
Then when dad really yells, he's really serious
and it's time for me to get really
serious.
They read you like a book.
Establish your authority in your home by being
a consistent leader and the children will understand
very quickly right where the lines are.
Some of the children are even smiling at
me while I'm speaking these words.
They're no dummies.
They know.
We need to wake up, parents.
All this is done in a cool, calm,
collected way.
Amen?
No raising the voice, no getting angry, no
getting upset, no.
You don't need to do any of that.
Just speak it and lead it out in
your home.
Oh, that'll bless your family.
Dear fathers, if you can learn to do
that, it will bless your family.
Oh, they'll learn so beautifully so many lessons
in life.
Many parents are slow to do this.
Then through neglect, things get out of hand
and they rise up with emotional strength and
set everything in order.
For some homes, this scenario is repeated over
and over again.
The children slowly learn that this is what
authority is and this is how it works.
They quickly figure this all out and live
it up until mom or dad gets to
that point where she exercises her authority.
Listen, fathers and mothers, this is all wrong.
This is a total distortion of God's original
intent.
Remember, we are the ones who are supposed
to show our children what God is like.
Is God like that?
Is that how God deals with people?
We know the answer to that.
He does not deal with people that way.
He is not like that.
The children are receiving a perverted view of
God's authority through the whole thing.
If you are caught in this emotional trap
and your children are playing you to their
advantage, I would strongly encourage you to establish
some godly authority in your home and stay
on it.
And the children will very quickly fall into
the lines that you draw.
Let's look at another subject on this ordered
life, positive order or negative correction.
The clearest expression of this authority is when
a parent takes the active leading role in
the home.
That is the clearest expression of authority.
Now, some parents don't have that one right.
They think I only exercise my authority when
the children get out of line and then
I'm going to correct them.
That is wrong.
The clearest expression of your authority is when
you take the lead and you positively lead
this family, just like we looked at there
in Psalm 23.
He leadeth me to the green pastures.
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He leadeth me in paths of righteousness.
My father, mother lead me into good things
every day.
And I learn to follow and submit to
their authority.
Obviously, if God tells the children to obey
their parents, then he had in mind that
we tell them what to do.
Did you get that?
Sounds kind of simple.
I mean, we already all know that.
But why don't we tell them what to
do?
Parents just kind of let things go as
it will.
And then they give corrections when things get
out of line.
Come, let us reason together.
Think with me.
Some of you businessmen, imagine trying to run
a business this way with very little guidance
and very little order.
Imagine just sending all the workers out to
the shop to go to work.
No schedule, no training, no specific jobs and
no one in charge.
And then you, the boss, you spend the
rest of the day solving problems, correcting mistakes
and answering questions.
How many of you would buy a business
that runs like that?
How many of you think that thing's going
to make some money?
Let me see your hands.
Hey, you all know.
Yeah, that thing's not going to make any
money.
That business will not last long.
It will never make a profit.
And the workers will soon quit in frustration.
And so will the boss.
Children who are given too much freedom get
into more trouble.
They tend to be more discontent and require
way more spankings.
And they usually have frustrated moms, too.
What kind of parent are you?
I have four categories to help you to
evaluate.
You just listen very closely.
Are you a proactive parent acting in advance
to deal with expected difficulties?
This is the home where the parents are
actively leading the children in the good and
the right way.
Planning and forethought is involved in this kind
of parenting.
Proactive parenting.
Number two, reactive parenting.
This is responsive actions based on difficulties that
arise.
These parents are very sincere.
They want the children to do the right
thing.
However, they are more on the corrective nagging
side of parenting.
The children are allowed more freedom than out
of concern.
When the children do wrong, the parents correct
them.
They really don't want the children to go
wrong.
But somehow they didn't figure this thing out
that if you lead them to go right,
they won't go wrong as often.
So they run around putting out fires all
day long and starting fires back here.
That is not how you raise your children.
Reactive parenting is not God's way.
Then we have the non-active parenting.
This is a passive attitude toward difficulties.
These parents, through ignorance or carelessness, leave the
children to themselves.
And they just say, ah, children will be
children.
They don't even correct them.
They'll sit in the middle of chaos on
every hand.
And they're just as peaceful and calm as
can be.
This is the non-active passive parent.
That is a very dangerous kind of parent
to be.
And lastly, we have the explosive parent.
A frustrated, highly emotional reaction to difficulty.
These parents tend to be self-centered.
They neglect the children and allow them way
too much liberty.
Then, as the children express their nature, the
parents explode in frustration.
High emotions, strong hateful words are used to
bring the house back into order.
Which kind of parent are you?
I am pleading for proactive parenting of those
four categories.
Do your children a favor and do yourself
a favor before the boss quits.
Proactive, that category, is the most biblical, centered
way to raise godly children.
It will also give the most peaceful parenting
experience.
Obviously, you will have the best results if
you begin your child's life with this kind
of directed order.
Instead of waiting until later.
However, I want to quickly say, any time
you move into the proactive mode, your children
will prosper under it.
So I want to encourage you to do
it whenever.
But I'm pleading with you to start early.
It will be better for you.
It will be easier for you.
It will be better for the children.
And you will have a peaceful home a
lot sooner if you'll do it that way.
For many parents, it is a totally new
thought to think that you could order the
life and routine of a small child.
I'd like you to consider that just a
little bit here at the last part of
this meeting.
Guiding and controlling and ordering the life and
routine of a small child.
The reason why this is hard for people
to grasp is because we are so used
to meeting the urgent needs of a helpless
child.
And I have that in quotes.
I have emphasized these words on purpose because
that is how many people think.
A baby cries, oh, it's an urgent need.
We have to go and take care of
it right now.
It may be.
Just consider what we thought was an urgent
need were actually urgent demands of a self
-centered child.
They are pretty self-centered, you know, aren't
they?
If the needs are in fact self-centered
demands, guess what you're doing?
We are training a selfish, demanding child each
time we cater to their cries.
Sometimes I've heard parents say, what do I
do with this monster that I have in
my hands?
A small child can be guided into an
ordered life.
They don't have to eat every time they
cry.
Do you have to eat that many times
a day?
They don't have to eat.
They don't have to be held or rocked
every time they cry for attention.
They can be guided and led into a
more ordered life.
We began to learn some of these things
in a clearer way with Joshua and fully
put them in practice with David.
David was the most pleasant, easy to care
for child that we have had.
He has also required the least amount of
discipline of all the boys that we had.
Very interesting.
The question is this.
Is the child's life to order by careful
parents or is the child's life to be
ordered by the child's own desires?
Pick me up.
I want to be held.
Feed me.
I want some food.
Rock me.
I want to go to bed.
And on and on and on it goes.
I'm just giving you some thoughts.
You think about them, OK?
And if you think, Brother Denny's way off
on this one, that's fine.
Maybe I am.
You think about it.
Some of you busy moms that don't know
what to do and there's more things going
on than you can keep track of and
you feel like you run from one to
the next, to the next, to the next.
Just consider what I say.
Instead of living like that, start planning and
ordering and directing the child's life.
It may surprise you, but a small child
can be taught to wait 30 minutes before
it's fed again.
Did you know that?
They can be taught to do that.
And there's nothing wrong with an empty stomach.
In some cases, the children are being trained
to express frustration and even anger if they
are not fed right now.
At the first whimper of hunger, they want
their food.
And some parents, you know what I'm talking
about.
And we know from our own experiences in
our own child training days.
You know, you feel like, I'm coming.
I'm coming now.
Please be patient.
Now, who's in charge?
Bless God.
Who's in charge in that scenario?
They can learn to be patient and wait
until mom is ready to feed them.
Child can learn to take a nap in
a peaceful way at a certain time in
the day.
How pleasant to lay your baby down and
just have the baby roll over and go
to sleep.
Or if the baby isn't quite tired yet,
it'll just lay there in the crib and
be quiet.
And soon it's off to sleep.
The child can learn to enjoy quiet time
for 30 minutes.
Sitting in a room all by itself.
Just being quiet or listening to a Bible
tape.
Your child can learn to have playtime all
by themselves each day.
Just going into a little room and playing
all by themselves.
And learning even to be happy and pleased
with only four toys.
Instead of a hundred.
Right?
I mean, you know what I'm talking about.
Okay, go play for a half an hour.
And when the half an hour is done,
the whole floor is covered.
They really can be taught to just play
with four toys.
And be happy with it.
They can learn many, many things.
You know, before Andrew and Elizabeth went down
to Guyana, you know, they had their little
quiet time for little Jenny.
And she sat in one of these little
car seats.
That's where she had her quiet time.
She was sitting in a little room by
herself in her little car seat and listening
to the Bible.
And she's just sitting there.
This is a one year old.
She's just sitting there as quiet as can
be.
Just listening and the Bible's being played.
But then, you know, Andrew and Elizabeth got
to thinking, you know, we're going to a
third world country.
We can't be using car seats down there.
We're going to have to come up with
a better way to do this.
So they got rid of the car seat.
And now they have blanket time.
They just put a little blanket on the
floor.
And this is your blanket time.
This is your quiet time, Jenny.
You stay on the blanket.
And you have your quiet time.
And that little girl sits on that blanket
for thirty minutes and enjoys listening to the
Bible.
I mean, we got a little letter from
her on their airports.
They were moving from this place to that
place.
No problem.
Elizabeth just laid a little blanket out in
the corner of the airport.
And Jenny went over and got on the
blanket and had her quiet time for thirty
minutes.
Bless God.
That's what she did.
They can learn to do that.
And guess what?
You get and they get a quiet, ordered
life.
Now, see, if you begin to do this
in a small child's life, guess what?
It'll be very easy to do it when
they get older.
They will look your way and expect that
you are going to give them direction.
This list that I just gave you is
just a few examples of good, helpful activities
that will be a benefit to everyone involved.
But a child who is guided in this
manner will be content, secure, and very pleasant
to have around.
I'm sure every one of you mothers would
agree that this would be nice, to have
such quiet order like that, instead of running
yourself ragged.
And consider it this way.
Add a couple more children to the scenario,
and it really becomes a blessing.
Now, all of a sudden, you have three
or four, and everything is ordered for them.
And they're very compliable.
Oh, this is what you want me to
do now?
I'll go and do it.
This one, you will go and do this.
And this one, I want you to go
and do this.
And they're all going to do these things.
And guess what?
You have a peaceful home, and you have
three or four children in your house.
Then when a new baby comes, no problem.
Everything's in place.
All right.
Perhaps this is too much for you to
grasp.
To imagine that a small baby can fit
into this type of a schedule.
Okay, fine.
Then wait until they're six months old.
And then start heading that way.
That's the encouragement that I give to you.
I know one couple that had a set
of twins.
And you know how it is when you
have twins.
You think, oh, my.
Here we go.
Get extra help.
Two or three at least.
You take care of this one.
You know why they think all that?
Because if you think it's hard to meet
all the crying demands of one, try meeting
all the crying demands of two.
But if you order the life of the
one and the other, guess what?
You can handle it without a whole lot
of help.
And this mother has twins.
And she's doing an excellent job.
And there's peace and rest in her home.
And it's a quiet, resting place.
Let's bow for prayer.
God, our Father, Lord, we are pleading with
you this evening for proactive parents.
God, Lord, you know the burden that is
on my heart.
That we would get more involved with the
lives of our children.
And that this whole matter of disciplining children
would get in its proper biblical place.
God, we believe in spanking our children, Lord.
But, oh God, we do see as we
look into your word, it's very clear in
there, Father, that you are calling us to
lead them, guide them, train them, love them,
nurture them.
And yea, sometimes spank them.
Oh God, give us the proper balance in
these things, Father.
Open our eyes, God.
Help us to learn even things maybe that
are new to us.
Help us to learn, Father.
Give us your wisdom.
We pray in Jesus Christ's name.
Amen.