Shining Light in Our Hearts

As a parent I try to fill my children with guidelines, rules, values, morals, attitudes, compassion, love, forgiveness, love, happiness, love... What a daunting task. We're all filled with things, passions, interests, loves, how do I pass those things along to my kids? Of course there are plenty of opportunities for them to get filled up with stuff beyond my control. Yesterday as I was looking for a band aid for Archer, he said to me "Did you know when you use band aid brand it locks out dirt and germs?" Today I saw the commercial that said... well, you can guess based on what Archer said. He's getting filled up with lots of stuff, some good, some not so good. I'm making more of an effort to fill him up with good stuff.

What am I filled with? Its not such an easy question, if you really try to answer it honestly. There's frustration, selfishness, all kinds of junk that I'd rather not admit. Of course there are the good things like commitment to my family, honesty, love... But what really shines? And what do my kids see?

We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.
~ 2 Corinthians 4:7, NLT