discipleship simplified

Philippians 4

 ¹Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends!...

 ⁴Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ⁵Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. ⁶Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

 ⁸Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. ⁹Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

As parents we teach this to our children. It's one of the rules of Holy living that the Lord has given us that we pass on to our children - I liked the catch at the end ... 

Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice.

 

That certainly puts it all into perspective. 

A principle that I wish I understood about 30 years ago was that the Lord our God is the Creator, not me.

Before I had Kimberly I had worked at a facility called the Children's Center in Salt Lake City. I loved it there. I loved it because they showed and expressed value to little children. In the culture I grew up, children were on a as needed or as wanted basis. The adults had their lives and when children came along we were to fit in best we could. I'm sure that has it's advantages like children learning they are not the center of the universe (I never told my kids the truth about that one). They probably learned to be independent and separate from their parents.
On the other hand, you don't develop much personal value when you are just a cog in the wheel, a bit of entertainment or one more thing to be taken care of. You are independent but at what cost? Here is my point. The Creator of the universe shows us a different way.

When we are loved by God, he knows us. He knows every hair on our head. We are not just a cog in the wheel or a thing to be taken care of and as a result
 we recieve the love that nurtures us to our maturity.
 God has a way of loving us that inspires us to completion. When I read the Isaiah 49:16, I know I am loved.
 See, I have engraved thee on the palm of My hand 

 As parents we would do what ever we need to do for our children. We would give our lives for our children, it's been shown over and over. But the question is - do you have the heart of your child? Our God in heaven took the time to make sure His children knew He loved them. He did it in many different ways. One way, as in our example, He engraved us on the palm of His hand, then showed it to us and made sure we knew it. I guess you could say He was using an object lesson. In some circles that might be considered a little over the top parenting. He gives us the example of abundant love. In His actions He is speaking to a type of soul that hears the devotion. With overt love it's easy to see that why the Lord God Almighty has the heart of His children - because we love Him so much.

I guess the way a child knows you love them is by the time you give them. If you have time for them, that speaks volumes. When God teaches us He takes a willing heart and speaks to it. God always has time for us.
Susannah Wesley was an interesting mother. She birthed19 children, I think 10 lived but she was a devoted mom and she deliberately took time with each child.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=feH&ei=fjzaSvibFsTh8AbixtS3BQ&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&ved=0CA4QBSgA&q=Susannah+wesley&spell=1

 I wish I had known years ago what I know now. And I also wish I would do a better job now then I actually do but everyday I will pray and ask the Lord to take my meager offerings and make them multiply. And every day I trust that He will do just that. I don't live afraid of Him, I live in joy of His presence, continuing to go back to Him because He is the way to life and it's a good life. The Lord gives us a great example on how to love our kids.

Ideas swirling around in my head

With a cup of tea on my table I wanted to share with you that sometimes I think the Lord puts ideas in my head. Round and around they go and I'm thinking this might be a good spot for them to land.
Mostly, it's the parenting ideas that I really want to express. I have two other blogs but those blogs are for fun, they are quite random and it's whatever is interesting me at the time that goes on there. I use them kind of like a journal for my wonderful family and friends that are so kind to actually read them.

My heart for parenting has been developing for years. My husband and I were blessed 30 years ago with our first child, Kimberly.
God bless the first born.
That they survive us parents is proof that kids are resilient. Of course, she was a baby genius. All first born are. We were amazed at her development. Her ability to understand what we were telling her. How well she recognized us. And she was so able to pay attention to her environment just being an infant. Any toy we bought or made for her was one for her development. Our home was centered around her and her needs. Our first born princess was just that ... royalty.
We did everything that was in our power to enable her to reach her full potential. We were very happy.

Since then we have been blessed with 3 other equally marvelous children - at birth all were born geniuses. Yes, what a delight. All four of our children have been the highlights of our life.

 I don't want to leave you with a false impression, our wonderful prodigy are actually regular folks. God bless us all.
Seeing how they were raised by two fallible parents and in each one of their souls is a condition called a sinful heart we learned that parenting is hard business. There is a lot of mental, emotional and spiritual work done every single day.

We have learned that it's only the power of wisdom of our Dear Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that leads us through the long journey. I love the Bible verse that talks about love covering a multitude of sin. Don and I made many, many mistakes. We had (have) our own sinful nature to resist and deny. That sinful nature that produces selfishness, pride and sorrow.

The good news is our children survived us. We are a close family, we all love the Lord and something that blesses our heart greatly is that our two married daughters and their husbands are teaching their children about the love of Jesus.
The cycle continues. I pray that this blog will assist them or anyone that might benefit from our mistakes by learning about them and how to avoid them!

Those are the thoughts that go around in my head. Dealing with the different aspects of living every day. Trying, with the direction of God and through His blessed Holy Spirit to train up the children in the way they should go. And of course hind sight is 20/20 so let me share with you some ideas that might make your life a little easier and in the end bless your family.