I have been teaching our 2 year old about creation and all the wonderful things God has created for us. He frequently pulls his stool up to the window and says "God's trees. God's birdies, God's grass". He gets it. In his little 2 year old mind, he understands that the whole earth is the Lords.
It has been such a great reminder to me. All that there is, IS God's! So often I see things, but don't look at them. I very rarely say "Oh, God Made That!". I just see sunsets, and close the drapes because the sun is in my eyes.
I am so thankful for a curious and talkative 2 year old to remind me to take in the things around me and give God the credit for them. HE is an amazing God and His creation is so enjoyable.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
Honoring Your Parents
Not since I became a parent has that verse become so important. I feel like I slighted my parents because I didn't "get it" when I was younger. I have parents that have been very easy to respect. Not that I always did it, but they have always deserved it.
As I posted in the first post, my husband and I come from VERY different backgrounds. Mine, really it should have been too easy to honor my parents. His, he still struggles. He doesn't doubt that his parents loved him. They said it and he believed it. The choices they have made with their lives, and his life, have made it hard for him to HONOR them. The dictionary describes honor as "to hold in respect". Respecting someone that you have always completely disagreed with their lifestyle has been a challenge for him, but he, with the Lord's help is able to do it now. He looks beyond himself and sees this as a direct command from God to do and after getting past a lot of bitterness he not only loves his parents now, but honors them. The older two kids have divorced parents, as my husband does. He and I want so much for them to respect and honor all their parents because they are following God, not because their parents have done something to deserve it. Bitterness over what happened to them as children, by choices they did not make will only make their life hard. People, even parents, will fail you. God won't and by obeying, honoring and respecting His commandments your life will go well for you.
Ephesians 6:1-3 says to obey and honor your mother and father. That's not all. It comes with a promise, that it will go well with you. As a mother, I NOW get it. When my kids disobey or treat their parents disrespectfully things don't go well for them. They are disciplined. I don't think that God set an age limit on honoring and respecting parents. It doesn't end when you turn 18. If I am honoring my parents it will go well with me. Even at, ahem, 36 years old.
This is something that as I see my parents grow in age, they need respect even more. They are wiser, more experienced and still need that from me as their child. If I don't, there is no point in teaching my children this commandment because they will most likely follow my example and blow it off.
How do you teach your childrent To respect their parents?
As I posted in the first post, my husband and I come from VERY different backgrounds. Mine, really it should have been too easy to honor my parents. His, he still struggles. He doesn't doubt that his parents loved him. They said it and he believed it. The choices they have made with their lives, and his life, have made it hard for him to HONOR them. The dictionary describes honor as "to hold in respect". Respecting someone that you have always completely disagreed with their lifestyle has been a challenge for him, but he, with the Lord's help is able to do it now. He looks beyond himself and sees this as a direct command from God to do and after getting past a lot of bitterness he not only loves his parents now, but honors them. The older two kids have divorced parents, as my husband does. He and I want so much for them to respect and honor all their parents because they are following God, not because their parents have done something to deserve it. Bitterness over what happened to them as children, by choices they did not make will only make their life hard. People, even parents, will fail you. God won't and by obeying, honoring and respecting His commandments your life will go well for you.
Ephesians 6:1-3 says to obey and honor your mother and father. That's not all. It comes with a promise, that it will go well with you. As a mother, I NOW get it. When my kids disobey or treat their parents disrespectfully things don't go well for them. They are disciplined. I don't think that God set an age limit on honoring and respecting parents. It doesn't end when you turn 18. If I am honoring my parents it will go well with me. Even at, ahem, 36 years old.
This is something that as I see my parents grow in age, they need respect even more. They are wiser, more experienced and still need that from me as their child. If I don't, there is no point in teaching my children this commandment because they will most likely follow my example and blow it off.
How do you teach your childrent To respect their parents?
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
I Don't Want Any Advice
Advice. The thing that can cause the most comfort and the most discomfort at the same time. Why do we even ask for advice?? Or the thing that always seems to get people going, unsolicited advice.
Becoming a stepmother and wife in the same day I received more advice than I could possibly even comprehend. Giving birth for the first time I received my second round of advice that was in an overwhelming capacity.
Did I want or even need all this advice? Maybe, I might have, but probably not. In hindsight, some of it has helped me tremendously. It was at this time that I came across a verse in Romans 14:19 that says "let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification" I know Paul is talking about food and what to eat in the chapter but God spoke to me specifically about the advice I was receiving and how to respond. I needed to respond in a way that produced peace and built up the giver. Not always easy. My sinful self tells me to respond with "I know" or "you don't know MY kid" or last but not least, "that's just not me".
So what does responding in peace look like? Well for me it has been a learning process, and it varies with each person that gives it. For some it means just shutting my mouth and NOT responding. Others it means acknowledging that they were thinking of me and saying a simple "thank you". Others it means, listening and doing. Some of the advice that I had shut my mouth to has become the most valuable. I now know not to turn away people that are giving advice even when I really don't want to hear it because I have learned that God uses so many many types of people to mold me to be more like Him.
How do you respond?
Becoming a stepmother and wife in the same day I received more advice than I could possibly even comprehend. Giving birth for the first time I received my second round of advice that was in an overwhelming capacity.
Did I want or even need all this advice? Maybe, I might have, but probably not. In hindsight, some of it has helped me tremendously. It was at this time that I came across a verse in Romans 14:19 that says "let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification" I know Paul is talking about food and what to eat in the chapter but God spoke to me specifically about the advice I was receiving and how to respond. I needed to respond in a way that produced peace and built up the giver. Not always easy. My sinful self tells me to respond with "I know" or "you don't know MY kid" or last but not least, "that's just not me".
So what does responding in peace look like? Well for me it has been a learning process, and it varies with each person that gives it. For some it means just shutting my mouth and NOT responding. Others it means acknowledging that they were thinking of me and saying a simple "thank you". Others it means, listening and doing. Some of the advice that I had shut my mouth to has become the most valuable. I now know not to turn away people that are giving advice even when I really don't want to hear it because I have learned that God uses so many many types of people to mold me to be more like Him.
How do you respond?
Monday, March 15, 2010
What are we going to do?
That is a question we hear A LOT as parents. So much so we get weary of it. The kids asked us many times this last Saturday as we had planned on just being at home and "doing" nothing special. You see the kids are used to having something special planned for them so much that they are starting to forget about just being home and relaxing, refreshing themselves for the week ahead.
As I was getting my room picked up Saturday morning God nudged me. He reminded me that there are so many times He wanted me to rest in Him instead of DOING something "for Him". Why do I think I need to do something special in order to please God? Sure, He appreciates the time we spend serving Him in church or training our children. At the time, but how many times have I sat down and truly rested in Him and refreshed myself in His grace and love? I don't want to be too busy "doing" to miss the opportunities God has for me to show me Himself. Just like I don't want to miss moments with my own children of snuggling in their pj's or just reading on the couch next to each other. Getting up and feeling loved, refreshed and overwhelmed by His grace.
As I was getting my room picked up Saturday morning God nudged me. He reminded me that there are so many times He wanted me to rest in Him instead of DOING something "for Him". Why do I think I need to do something special in order to please God? Sure, He appreciates the time we spend serving Him in church or training our children. At the time, but how many times have I sat down and truly rested in Him and refreshed myself in His grace and love? I don't want to be too busy "doing" to miss the opportunities God has for me to show me Himself. Just like I don't want to miss moments with my own children of snuggling in their pj's or just reading on the couch next to each other. Getting up and feeling loved, refreshed and overwhelmed by His grace.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
About Me
I am starting this blog because God has been speaking to me as a stay at home mom and I wanted to share. My other blog is strictly about my family doings.
I thought I'd start with a bit of my background. My biography if you will.
I grew up in a fantastic Christian home. I don't remember a time when God wasn't included in our lives in a major way. I accepted Christ as my savior as a child and although I have stumbled my way through, I love being a child of Christ. My husband often jokes that my childhood was like the Walton's. Everyone loved each other and we lived in the same house my whole life. We were very middle class, not rich, but not poor. My parents still live in my childhood home. I have parents that are still married after 41 years and I strive to have that kind of marriage too.
My husband grew up in the complete opposite. He is a child of teenage parents that were married briefly and divorced. He grew up mostly with just his mother and a variety of step-dads and boyfriends of his mom's. He moved about the country living at poverty level and even spent some of his childhood in homeless shelters. He had grandparents that did their best to introduce him to Christ but it wasn't until his late teens that he found Christ.
I was single for what some people deem as "a long time". I was 31 when I met my husband, married at 32. When I met him he was a divorcee that was a single parent to his two children. He was a somewhat "broken" man that I wasn't sure I wanted to fix. After much much prayer I decided God wanted me to at least have a friendship with him. I found out that this man wanted marriage and never wanted to be divorced. He wanted a complete family. He adored his kids so much and that was super attractive! So God and I had some chats. He really changed my heart after I searched God's Word. After 5 months of dating, I became engaged and exactly a year to the day from our first date, we were married and I became a step-mom.
Step-mom...GASP! The word send chills down your spine doesn't it? It has never felt that way with the two awesome kids that God gave me. From the time we got engaged they wanted to call me mom. I was NOT ready for that when we first got married. They continued to ask frequently, but I never really felt it was right. They had asked again just before we were ready to move to new town and I felt God telling me that it was time to let them decide. So we approached the kids and told them that if they wanted to, and only if they wanted to they could call me mom. We were anticipating having more children, and remember the kids saying that the new kid wouldn't get so confused if they all called me mom. Since then, I have been mom. There is actually a lot more to that story, but I'll save that for another day.
So that's how it all began, me as a mom. Now with a toddler and one more on it's way I hear God speaking to me through these amazing little people. This blog is to share what God is doing in me and through me. Please feel free to comment, question or discuss my posts with me. I do ask that we keep the conversation respectful as God has called us all to different walks of life, FROM different walks of life. I am only speaking of my life.
I thought I'd start with a bit of my background. My biography if you will.
I grew up in a fantastic Christian home. I don't remember a time when God wasn't included in our lives in a major way. I accepted Christ as my savior as a child and although I have stumbled my way through, I love being a child of Christ. My husband often jokes that my childhood was like the Walton's. Everyone loved each other and we lived in the same house my whole life. We were very middle class, not rich, but not poor. My parents still live in my childhood home. I have parents that are still married after 41 years and I strive to have that kind of marriage too.
My husband grew up in the complete opposite. He is a child of teenage parents that were married briefly and divorced. He grew up mostly with just his mother and a variety of step-dads and boyfriends of his mom's. He moved about the country living at poverty level and even spent some of his childhood in homeless shelters. He had grandparents that did their best to introduce him to Christ but it wasn't until his late teens that he found Christ.
I was single for what some people deem as "a long time". I was 31 when I met my husband, married at 32. When I met him he was a divorcee that was a single parent to his two children. He was a somewhat "broken" man that I wasn't sure I wanted to fix. After much much prayer I decided God wanted me to at least have a friendship with him. I found out that this man wanted marriage and never wanted to be divorced. He wanted a complete family. He adored his kids so much and that was super attractive! So God and I had some chats. He really changed my heart after I searched God's Word. After 5 months of dating, I became engaged and exactly a year to the day from our first date, we were married and I became a step-mom.
Step-mom...GASP! The word send chills down your spine doesn't it? It has never felt that way with the two awesome kids that God gave me. From the time we got engaged they wanted to call me mom. I was NOT ready for that when we first got married. They continued to ask frequently, but I never really felt it was right. They had asked again just before we were ready to move to new town and I felt God telling me that it was time to let them decide. So we approached the kids and told them that if they wanted to, and only if they wanted to they could call me mom. We were anticipating having more children, and remember the kids saying that the new kid wouldn't get so confused if they all called me mom. Since then, I have been mom. There is actually a lot more to that story, but I'll save that for another day.
So that's how it all began, me as a mom. Now with a toddler and one more on it's way I hear God speaking to me through these amazing little people. This blog is to share what God is doing in me and through me. Please feel free to comment, question or discuss my posts with me. I do ask that we keep the conversation respectful as God has called us all to different walks of life, FROM different walks of life. I am only speaking of my life.
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