in our heart, in our mouth

"And it shall be when your son asks you in time to come, saying, 'What is this?' then you shall say to him, 'With a powerful hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery."

Exodus 13:14

In his commentary on this passage, Matthew Henry writes, "Also care must be taken to teach children the knowledge of God. Here is an old law for catechising. It is of great use to acquaint children betimes with the histories of the Bible. And those who have God's law in their heart should have it in their mouth, and often speak of it, to affect themselves, and to teach others."

Those who have God's law in their heart should have it in their mouth...

I thought about that last week, as I read out loud to my family in the evening.  We read The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, a suspenseful story that, every night, left my entire family wanting one more chapter.  In the book, there were several particularly menacing, even evil, characters, women the likes of Cruella deVil or Mrs. Hannigan from Annie.  But in this book, we were all especially indignant when the diabolical mistress of the orphanage read Scripture out loud to the girls, while at the same time overseeing their hard, and punitive, labor in the orphanage.  This woman had God's law in her mouth, but not in her heart.

My kids recognized right away that although she spoke the Word, this woman was not a doer of the Word.  It was so blatantly obvious in this case, but even so, it's tough to deceive these kids.  She had absolutely no credibility in my family's eyes. 

And so, my prayer is that I have both, that I have His law set deep in my heart AND that it would be quick on my tongue.  My prayer is that my children know my sincerity before Him, that they recognize my dependence on our Lord, and that my witness of Him, how the Lord indeed brought me out of bondage and out of slavery, would be true.

(art credit to kmberggren at etsy)