I'm paying Landis to read his bible. He'd slipped twice with saying, "Oh my G--." The first time I was concerned of course and wondered if I'd even heard him correctly. Well, I did hear him correctly and I told him that we don't use the Lord's name like that and why. It happened again maybe a week later and so I knew something had to be done. I sat down with him and asked him if he'd heard talk like that at school. Of course he did and so I explained to him how important God's name is and that we don't throw His name around like that. Then I remembered listening to some teaching about 5 years ago where the guy was saying that it doesn't work to try NOT to be carnal and to try NOT to do the same old sins you've always struggled with. This guy (Andrew Womack) was teaching that we need to keep the Word before our eyes and to be filled daily with the Holy Spirit and to get so infiltrated with the HIM that there's not room for the old man. At least that's how I remember it from that long ago. Instead of trying to keep out the bad, just pour in more good. Basically, the point is to get our focus right.

Landis needs to get more of the Word in him so I began to wonder how I could get him in his Bible more, now that he's reading. He and Hope already have a weekly chores chart where they keep up with what they need to help with around the house. They get to mark in a box to show that they did the job and they get paid for it at the end of the week. Landis has a little more responsibility than Hope does at this point and gets paid just a little bit more - 5 cents per job and Hope gets 3 cents per job. Hey, you gotta leave room for growth. To show Landis the importance of reading the Word of God and to give him incentive to do it I told him I'd give him 10 cents a day if he read his bible. He was excited about that and he's done a pretty good job of keeping it up. Now, if I can get him into a habit when he's young that would be wonderful...just so he doesn't expect a check in the mail every week from me because he's read his bible. :)

I was making dinner a couple of weeks ago and Landis was reading his bible. I remember hearing him say he wanted to read John 9 but I didn't pay much attention to him. But when he began to read something got my full attention. He read the first two verses and I stopped him and said, "Landis, you just ministered to me." The passage is about the disciples asking Jesus who sinned, the man or his parents that this man was born blind. Jesus told them neither but that the works of God could be revealed in him. I have struggled for years with taking blame for what happened to Grace. But in November of 2002 John Bevere and Pastor Davis both told me together in one conversation that it wasn't anything I did that caused Grace to suffer. (I had rebelled against something Pastor Davis had told me to do in 1998 - just before Grace was born.) In 2005 I was visiting family in MI and went to their church on a Sunday morning. I took Grace forward for the altar call for healing. As they gathered around Grace to pray for her, Pastor Don Smith stopped everything and said that he believed God was telling him to remind me of John 9: 1 & 2. I melted a little but when I thought about it later, I still decided to hang on to my own opinions. Stubborn little sucker, ain't I? Finally, this day in May of 2007, my 6 year old son was reading John 9: 1 & 2 and the Lord said to me, "how long are you going to put your opinions over My Word? I've spoken through the men of God. Now...by the mouth of 2 or 3 every word shall be established." Later I looked at 2 Cor. 13:1 and was so amazed at the accuracy of our great big God and how He doesn't miss one tiny detail of our lives. Wow! He's so awesome. Needless to say I've repented for holding my opinion in higher regard than His Word.