Who God Is

There's a version of this we all know. God is good. God is love. God is with us. We say it so often it starts to mean almost nothing. This month is an attempt to fix that — not by introducing new information, but by slowing down long enough to actually look at who God is. Not the bumper sticker version. The real one.

His holiness is a category most of us have never dwelt on long enough to feel the weight of. It's not just that he's morally better than us, though he is. It's that he's different in kind — wholly other, set apart in a way that makes the word "holy" feel thin when you really press on it. His sovereignty means he is not wringing his hands over what happens to your family. His love is not sentimental. It chose you before you were any good to choose. All three hold together without any of them giving.

The lessons work through that slowly. We think this is the month most families rush past, because it doesn't produce the obvious results that other months do. The forgiveness month changes something visible. The serving month changes something visible. This month changes the ground everything else grows in — which is harder to see and more important to get right.

Twenty lessons. One facet of God's character at a time. Some will land fast. Some will take a week to settle. Your kids will say something weeks later, in the car or at the table, that tells you it got through. That's the goal. It starts here.