Tent Of Meeting

Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the “tent of meeting.” Anyone inquiring of the LORD would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp. And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent. As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the LORD spoke with Moses. Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance to his tent. The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent.

Exodus 33:-7-11

This passage is near to my heart today. Yesterday I had the privilege of hearing a mighty woman of God speak. She talked about the importance of having a "tent of meeting" in our home. One where we can meet with God on a regular basis. I agree whole heartily with that, but she took it further. She talked about teaching your kids, from a very young age, to also have their own tent of meeting. I grew more and more excited as she explained how she taught her two year old to have a quiet time. Jason and I have done a daily devotion since we were dating... when we had Havana we changed that into a family devotion time. However, we save our own personal quiet times for the mornings before the children are awake or during their nap times. We have never had our quiet time in front of our children. We have talked several times about teaching them to have their own quiet times perhaps when they phase out of taking a nap or sometime in the future. Yet, i was convicted yesterday as this woman spoke of the importance of having the children see mom in her "tent of meeting" having her own quiet time. Showing them (not just telling them) that I live daily on the Word of God.  She also encouraged that we do this first thing to make it a priority. I discussed this with Jason last night and we decided that we would start that today. In addition to our family devotion time at night we will add a morning quiet time for our children. We prayed about where our "tent of meeting" should be. Mine is at my desk when I have my own quiet time, but for the children we thought (at least while they are this young) we need to have everyone on the couch.

So, today, I started the day waking up before the children and having my own personal time with God in my own "tent of meeting". Then I woke the children up and took them down for breakfast. After all three children had eaten I told them we were going to have our own personal quiet times and they needed to sit on the couch. I gave two Bible story books to Havana and two to Jonah. I set Selah in her swing. I set the microwave timer for one minute and told them we were going to be quiet and read our Bibles until the timer went off.   Jonah (17 months old) patted his Bible (what we've taught him to do) and kept saying "Bible" (pat pat) "Bible (pat pat). I don't think he even opened it. :) Havana looked at her books. She did ask once where daddy was. I told her he was at work and then reminded her that we were being quiet until the timer went off. I opened my Bible and read in Esther. Once the timer went off I told the children they did a great job having a quiet time and I was very proud of them. Havana said, "do it again." - I told her she could keep reading if she wanted to... it lasted may 30 seconds longer, but I was on cloud nine. I couldn't believe how well they took to the new routine and I told them we were going to be doing this every morning.

My children in their "tent of meeting" - this was after the timer went off. Havana wanted to do it again and apparently Jonah was done. :) 

I had a meeting today at church and so after our little quiet time I loaded everyone up and we were gone for a few hours. As soon as we came home Havana ran to the couch and said, "Havana read Bible, Baby Jonah read Bible, Mama read Bible again?" -- she was asking to do it again! My heart was overwhelmed. We will be doing it again tomorrow and the next day and the next day... I would like to add in a family prayer time after the quiet time. That slipped my mind today, but will talk with Jason tonight about it and hopes we add it in tomorrow. So excited to see how God is going to use this time! As I was reading Exodus 33 today and focusing on the "tent of meeting" I was struck by the last verse about how Joshua "did not leave the tent." -- I began to pray that our children will never "leave the tent" as they get older. Of course they can't stay on the couch all day, every day, but spiritually I pray that by setting up these family quiet times my children will learn to talk to God as if to a friend and that they will never leave His presence. Praying hard for my kiddos to be sold out followers of Christ! Oh, how I love my Lord, His Word, and learning from others who are wise in the faith!