{Guest Post} 2011 EHS Conference Attendee

 Hi there all at New Life Fellowship,

I just want to thank you for the time you invested in us this past week. I can say it was a landmark event in our lives. It will have a far reaching effect. I want to share some of the immediate results of the conference with you for your encouragement and as a testimony of our great savior.

We have five children and homeschool them. Their ages are 12, 10 , 8, 6 and 4. So the whole idea of being contemplative seemed at first a little hard to do, but then God really showed me that it is something that I could teach the children to do even now. So the first Sunday when we got home, my husband lead our family in a lesson about Samuel and how even in the Bible God speaks to children. So he told them to spend some quiet itme with God and listen. We had talked to them about this before, but it was always more reading your bible to get something not just quieting your heart. My oldest daught had expressed to me that she was worried that she wouldn't be able to hear God. But I encouraged her that the goal was to just be with God and enjoy him, not always to hear something. (This was something that I learned at the conference) So after our quiet time, we asked the children if they had heard anything that they would like to share. Our oldest
daughter said that God told her to go to each of her siblings and ask if there was anything that she had done to offend them. One of her sisters said that she had yelled at her and that it hurt her feelings and so she appologized. Then she said, "After that I really just felt like God said he loved me." I was so blessed! Imagine a twelve year old being able to hear and obey God on her own. That has been my prayer for them even as babies that they would hear God and obey. What more could a mother ask for?

So after that encouraging experience, I decided to add some contemplative time to our homeschool day. Right after lunch, I usually read a book to them so I told them that we are just going to start having two minutes to think about God. I told them to find a comfortable place to sit or lay on the floor and I lead them in thinking about crawling in their Daddy's lap and God wrapping his arms around them and telling them he loved them. They had a hard time settling down at first, but they all said they liked it. After the 3rd or fourth day, we were talking with my husband about how school had gone that day. My youngest son said, "Mom, tell Daddy about that special time we think about God, cause I really like that!" Can you believe that? A four year old was impacted by two minutes of being told to sit still! God is good! I know that many things in the conference will making a lasting effect on our family, but if we can leave a spiritual legacy of a contemplative life that effect will be seen on generations to come!

Thanks again,

Amy

Fort Worth, Texas

Shared with permission.