Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes…Wondering if this brings back childhood memories for some of you? Similar to songs like the Hokey Pokey, you're not really sure why you ever sang it, but that tune can automatically pop up in your mind the moment someone mentions the title. Perhaps even the hand motions and the increasing speed came as you recollected the lyrics…I recently had a conversation with someone and referred to how my children "keep me on my toes." All in the best ways, of course! She quickly replied with a smile, "Is that how we say it now?" As I thought about it, I realized that our children keep us on our toes and on our knees and on our faces.Last week, I asked you to pray for a freshman you know. We pray so faithfully for our own children, but as believers it’s so right for us to lift up other people’s children, too. There truly is no way for someone to show more love to me than to love my children. As parents, it’s so easy for us to get weary. Yes, we know our children the best when it comes to praying for their needs. But there’s beauty in someone from the outside being able to cover our children in prayer. They have a freedom to pray for God's will in some ways that’s more pure than our own.So, I challenge you to find a freshman right now and commit to pray for them for two months. (I have a list of students that were submitted last week. If you need one, please let me know in the comments section.) High school and university campuses all around us are filled with students needing someone to cover them in prayer as they make this transition into the next season of their life.Knees and toes, knees and toes… That's exactly where God wants us to be. Quite honestly, most of us get stuck at the head and shoulders. We think about our problems or our children's shortcomings until it’s not possible to think of anything else. We then carry the weight on our shoulders of feeling like we’d better fix it. We waste precious energy over-analyzing and under-praying.The next time you catch yourself feeling the weight of raising children in your head or on your shoulders, I encourage you to sing the song with a new perspective. It’s just knees and toes, knees and toes...