So it looks like Monday's are going to be my Mothering Challenge days!!!! Last week it was my 7 year old, this morning it's my boys. Some unkind and ugly words were shared between them and tears were shed on my shoulder because of the pain that those words caused. ((SIGH))
Here we go.......Usually I'm tempted to go with that little face of anger that creeps in, I bypass that and then fear and anxiety creep up to take their rightful place (so they think). I push past those as well, and go for Grace. Realizing that this is another wonderful opportunity to teach my boys about love, compassion, forgiveness, the power of words, and how to choose your words carefully. It's also a time to expose the enemy for who and what he is, a toothless coward who tries desperately to tear people and families apart.
What's the line in a wedding...."What God has brought together, let no man (or enemy) put asunder"? I'm standing on that one for my family. God has brought this family together and I'm not going to let anyone or enemy tear that apart. But I must teach my children how to handle the enemy. Because one day they will be out from under my protection and guidance and they need to learn how to navigate these tumultuous waters on their own.
My boys are two very different creatures, their personalities can either compliment or clash, it depends on the day and really, the moment. Thank God that we have more complimentary moments than clashing ones. But when they do clash, watch out! I'm going to refer to them as Son A and Son B in order to protect their privacy a tiny little bit <3
Son A comes to me very upset and buries his head into my shoulder. He tells me that his brother called him something unkind and made some other odd comment regarding him. That's all I got from him as his head stayed buried. When I talk to someone, I like to see their face; one- to know that I have their attention and two -it's just right. I urged him to tell me how this made him feel, to no avail. I went right to the lesson.
The mind is satan's battlefied; when we hold our thoughts, fears, feelings, hurts inside our heart and head, we give the enemy a strong advantage over us and we might as well call it a day. The enemy wins, we hold onto the ugliness and it errodes us like acid, from the inside out. BUT when we can communicate those things, get them out of our heads, we have opportunity to add to our numbers. Yes the enemy is out to get us as individuals, but we are sadly mistaken in thinking that it's our job alone to battle him. I am not going to war by myself. Share your hurts, gather your army. Not only do we have opportunity to be encouraged and set right in our thinking. We are ultimately surrendering these pains over to the Great Physician. Healing begins when we let our guard down and let Him in!!
I prayed with and over Son A and gave him to Jesus. I did what I could do and now the rest is up to that son and God. Now onto Son B......he comes in and as soon as I say I want to talk to you, his guard goes up, his eyes tear up and his chin jutts out, his jaw tightens. I can actually see him step behind the "pride wall". I have to also realize that with this son, he feels things deeply but struggles with letting them out. I know that there are some growing issues there as well, some hormonal things that need to be handled with care. Remember the fear and anxiety that wanted to take their place at the beginning? Yeah, they're back and I'm even more tempted to give into them. But I don't. I found out that the ugly words were an act of self-defense. The only defense that Son B feels that he has against his brother.
We are also working on respect issues around here, it's all fun and games until someone draws a line and it's not respected. So, that's what happened......there was a line drawn (albeit incorrectly communicated) and it wasn't respected. Names began flying and you hit one where it hurts and it's done. Sadly though, victory gained in that manner rarely leads you to a celebration. So with this son, I talked about the power of his words, the misleading facts of wrongly executed self-defense and how the enemy is looking to divide and destroy. I reminded him of the special bond of brotherhood that God has given them and we talked about that ridiculous wall of pride.
I need to help him learn how to communicate clearly and precisely, as we are not mind readers nor are we decoders of spoken words. If this is what you want, you need to say it specifically. Vague doesn't work when you need to get a message across.
It's funny, well, not really but people usually spew out ugly words as an act of defense. I didn't know that was the case at the beginning of this. But the story was relayed one side at a time. There's a reason why we can't jump to any conclusions when the incident incudes more than one person. We have to keep an open mind and only deal with that one person's actions.
So here are some key points to this situation:
*boys have trouble communicating! It takes a slick hand to help them put words to things that they feel. We have to help them do this....their wives will thank us when we do<3
*Pride comes before the fall! (proverbs 16:8) Recognize pride in your life or your children's lives and help them to knock that wall down. It appears to be solid, but infact, it is a mirage. The closer we get to humility the stronger and taller that wall looks. Don't let too much time pass between the offense and a humble apology. Encourage them out from behind that wall!
*There is an enemy who wants to seperate us out like a wolf that isolates one member of the flock in order to easily overtake it. We must know the enemy, know his tactics and be ready to fight. We must stay with the flock!!!! Have you noticed when people in the church seem to fall from grace, we as the body are always shocked!! We have no idea that there was ever a problem until it's all over and the enemy has won. I'll say it again "STAY WITH THE FLOCK" There is safety in numbers and when we share our lives with one another, open ourselves to the vulnerability of community, we find safety and shelter.
So are you wondering where the brothers stand as of now? Well, I ended my conversation with Son B and asked him if he would like me to pray for him, would he like to go off and do that on his own, would he like me to mediate an apology or is he good. He decided to go on his own. Several minutes later I hear them laughing and running in the hallway. When I asked how it went, Son B said, "I said I'm sorry and sat on his back, he laughed." If you didn't know it before, know it now- BOYS ARE SO DIFFERENT FROM GIRLS!!! They slay me those two.....what a unique relationship they have! I'm thankful for reconciliation no matter what form it comes in <3
Another Sigh.....Oh Lord I pray that my sons would always know the source of their love, strength, grace and mercy. May they fiercely protect the bond of brotherhood and may they never let any man or woman or enemy put them asunder. Let them defeat the enemy at all turns, growing in strength and in number as they live out their days. Mold them into fierce warriors for You Oh God <3
Happy Monday Friends <3 Battle On!!!!!!
Lorraine
Showing posts with label parenting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label parenting. Show all posts
Monday, April 23, 2012
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Building a house, planting a seed
Hey there!!! How's your week going so far? As you know, I was presented with a challenge right out of the shoot on Monday. I was feeling pretty accomplished after my talk with my 7 year old....that is, until she had her next breakdown....that day!!! Then again on Tuesday, several times. I am seeing (and I did already know) that this has become a learned behavior for her. It's her "auto-pilot" if you will. She hears something that she doesn't like and she responds in the same way, every.single.time. I can certainly beat myself up over not having done such a great job parenting her, I can spend my time crying and worrying (much like she does). Or I can simply move forward from here.
But where am I going to go? How do I start over? What should I do? All very good questions, if I do nothing but move, I'm not going to yeild new results. The same thing will happen because I've not developed a plan of action, a lesson plan of sorts. Enter Scripture.....as Christian parents, where else are we supposed to go for instruction on life?
Proverbs 22:6 "Train a child in the way that he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it." Young's Literal Translation says it this way "Give instruction to a youth about his way, Even when he is old he turneth not from it." I've always looked at this verse in relation to teaching them about God, bringing them up in the church and while I believe that is a large part of it, I'm seeing that there is more to this verse than we give it credit for. We are going to be talking about a little of both.
Going back to that seed story from Monday, if we were to just leave the seed in the pot and walk away, nothing is going to happen. The seed is going to stay a seed, with no hope for reaching it's full potential. As the sower of that seed, we are not doing job if we just merely drop it in and walk away. Do you see the correlation to parenting here? If we simply create a family and then do nothing to cultivate that family, we can't expect to reap a good harvest.
Ideally, we need to start converstations early on; with God, our spouse or other people that will serve as a support to us in raising a family, about what we want our family to look like. We know we can't just leave it to chance, but often times, that's exactly what we do. Then we leave it to the world. After pre-school, our children spend large amounts of time away from the family hub. We then feel the need to pile on extra-curricular activities, we allow our kids friends to take up any other time there may be left and the home becomes a drive-thru, full of non-nutritional meals and I'm not just talking the food that we eat.
Know that I am not saying that those things are bad on their own, I'm talking about them as a whole with no room for the family unit. God laid on my heart years ago to go the homeschooling route, I know that not everyone is called to that path, I get that. Honestly, I could have my kids here with me all day every day (and I do) and I can still miss the boat. Just having them here doesn't mean I'm doing my job. We have to be intentional in our parenting.
So getting back to what we want our families to look like.....as adults we have certain dreams for our children, but before we start placing those dreams in front of our children we have to teach them how to get through a day, how to deal with their surroundings, how to love, to serve, how to be a friend and how to have friends. We have to "train and instruct". A teacher isn't going to walk into her classroom and just sit at her desk and do nothing all day, is she? No, she's going to have a lesson plan in place that she is going to follow. She knows what her students must learn in a certain amount of time and she knows how she's going to teach them. Our job is the same. We only have so much time to train them up. Believe me, it goes faster than you can even imagine!!
I want to tell you, that in no way shape or form, do you have to follow the crowd on this. God has given you charge over your family, over your home. Guard it fiercly. We, personally, have chosen to not allow our children to over-engage in activities that are going to take them out of the family hub for too long a time. We don't want to chauffer them from activity to activity. We want to gather around the table at the end of every day and share in a calm meal. Our kids play soccer in the fall, our boys have played baseball in the spring. We are involved in church activities. But we are in charge of our family. We don't want to keep busy for the sake of being busy. Our days are full enough with regular life. I don't feel the need to add more to the plate. So consider this your permission to say NO more often.
So once you've decided what your overall goal for your family is, you then need to work out the smaller details. The path to take to get you to the end goal. What is important to you? What qualities or characteristics do you want to help develop in your children. God has gifted them in certain ways, notice that. Years ago, God transformed my view on missionaries, and I began to pray that my children would have a heart for missions. I wanted that to be a tender spot for them. To know that the world does not only consist of the space 2 feet in front of them. God helped us to form beautiful friendships with some missionary families. Our schooling has a large place for learning about missionaries around the world and how to pray for them.
I also want my children to develop a heart for serving. Jesus came not to be served but to serve. I want my children to follow that. The first place for them to work that out is in the home. We are a team, a family unit, we work for the same goals. Now they don't always share that thought, they don't always want to work in that way, but it's a part of the training. They will have homes and families of their own some day and they need to know how to run a home and serve a family. We, as a family, seek ways to serve others. We use our home to do that. Our children help us with everything. No one person owns a job all to him or herself. Cooking, cleaning, yard work, etc. I've never been good at keeping up with chores and allowance. I don't really even believe that they should be paid for personal responsibility so in our house, there is no allowance, they truly want for nothing, but that doesn't mean they get everything they want. You do a job here, because it's your responsibility, you have to be responsible, that's it.
Now if someone goes way above and beyond or they show exemplary actions, we will pay them, sometimes monetarily sometimes in other ways. What are some qualities or ideals that you'd like to see in your family? We can't forget Love -first and foremost. The funny thing is, is that if we seek to show them Love and teach them Love, the other things that I've mentioned will probably fall into place. If you do the other things first, then Love ultimately grows. So love is the initial seed, it's the foundation, it's the framwork, the walls and the roof.
What's your plan of action? It's never, ever too late to start!!! Let me pray for us!
Father God, Daddy, thank you for allowing us to be a part of your family. Thank you for the examples that you show us each and every day. Thank you for sending your Son to be the perfect payment, the perfect example. Bless our families, grow those seeds first in us, that we may strive to grow a family that resembles yours. Bless these moms and dads, let them feel your love, your grace, your guidance. Bless the work of their hands, that their children would be the gifts that you intended them to be. Let them turn to you for instruction, lesson plans, strength and peace. In Jesus Name, Amen
See our facebook page for a link to a really cool blog site and opportunity to dig into intentional parenting...it's a 10 day challenge, with free printable journal pages to help you along in this journey!! www.facebook.com/aplace2gather
God bless <3 Lorraine
But where am I going to go? How do I start over? What should I do? All very good questions, if I do nothing but move, I'm not going to yeild new results. The same thing will happen because I've not developed a plan of action, a lesson plan of sorts. Enter Scripture.....as Christian parents, where else are we supposed to go for instruction on life?
Proverbs 22:6 "Train a child in the way that he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it." Young's Literal Translation says it this way "Give instruction to a youth about his way, Even when he is old he turneth not from it." I've always looked at this verse in relation to teaching them about God, bringing them up in the church and while I believe that is a large part of it, I'm seeing that there is more to this verse than we give it credit for. We are going to be talking about a little of both.
Going back to that seed story from Monday, if we were to just leave the seed in the pot and walk away, nothing is going to happen. The seed is going to stay a seed, with no hope for reaching it's full potential. As the sower of that seed, we are not doing job if we just merely drop it in and walk away. Do you see the correlation to parenting here? If we simply create a family and then do nothing to cultivate that family, we can't expect to reap a good harvest.
Ideally, we need to start converstations early on; with God, our spouse or other people that will serve as a support to us in raising a family, about what we want our family to look like. We know we can't just leave it to chance, but often times, that's exactly what we do. Then we leave it to the world. After pre-school, our children spend large amounts of time away from the family hub. We then feel the need to pile on extra-curricular activities, we allow our kids friends to take up any other time there may be left and the home becomes a drive-thru, full of non-nutritional meals and I'm not just talking the food that we eat.
Know that I am not saying that those things are bad on their own, I'm talking about them as a whole with no room for the family unit. God laid on my heart years ago to go the homeschooling route, I know that not everyone is called to that path, I get that. Honestly, I could have my kids here with me all day every day (and I do) and I can still miss the boat. Just having them here doesn't mean I'm doing my job. We have to be intentional in our parenting.
So getting back to what we want our families to look like.....as adults we have certain dreams for our children, but before we start placing those dreams in front of our children we have to teach them how to get through a day, how to deal with their surroundings, how to love, to serve, how to be a friend and how to have friends. We have to "train and instruct". A teacher isn't going to walk into her classroom and just sit at her desk and do nothing all day, is she? No, she's going to have a lesson plan in place that she is going to follow. She knows what her students must learn in a certain amount of time and she knows how she's going to teach them. Our job is the same. We only have so much time to train them up. Believe me, it goes faster than you can even imagine!!
I want to tell you, that in no way shape or form, do you have to follow the crowd on this. God has given you charge over your family, over your home. Guard it fiercly. We, personally, have chosen to not allow our children to over-engage in activities that are going to take them out of the family hub for too long a time. We don't want to chauffer them from activity to activity. We want to gather around the table at the end of every day and share in a calm meal. Our kids play soccer in the fall, our boys have played baseball in the spring. We are involved in church activities. But we are in charge of our family. We don't want to keep busy for the sake of being busy. Our days are full enough with regular life. I don't feel the need to add more to the plate. So consider this your permission to say NO more often.
So once you've decided what your overall goal for your family is, you then need to work out the smaller details. The path to take to get you to the end goal. What is important to you? What qualities or characteristics do you want to help develop in your children. God has gifted them in certain ways, notice that. Years ago, God transformed my view on missionaries, and I began to pray that my children would have a heart for missions. I wanted that to be a tender spot for them. To know that the world does not only consist of the space 2 feet in front of them. God helped us to form beautiful friendships with some missionary families. Our schooling has a large place for learning about missionaries around the world and how to pray for them.
I also want my children to develop a heart for serving. Jesus came not to be served but to serve. I want my children to follow that. The first place for them to work that out is in the home. We are a team, a family unit, we work for the same goals. Now they don't always share that thought, they don't always want to work in that way, but it's a part of the training. They will have homes and families of their own some day and they need to know how to run a home and serve a family. We, as a family, seek ways to serve others. We use our home to do that. Our children help us with everything. No one person owns a job all to him or herself. Cooking, cleaning, yard work, etc. I've never been good at keeping up with chores and allowance. I don't really even believe that they should be paid for personal responsibility so in our house, there is no allowance, they truly want for nothing, but that doesn't mean they get everything they want. You do a job here, because it's your responsibility, you have to be responsible, that's it.
Now if someone goes way above and beyond or they show exemplary actions, we will pay them, sometimes monetarily sometimes in other ways. What are some qualities or ideals that you'd like to see in your family? We can't forget Love -first and foremost. The funny thing is, is that if we seek to show them Love and teach them Love, the other things that I've mentioned will probably fall into place. If you do the other things first, then Love ultimately grows. So love is the initial seed, it's the foundation, it's the framwork, the walls and the roof.
What's your plan of action? It's never, ever too late to start!!! Let me pray for us!
Father God, Daddy, thank you for allowing us to be a part of your family. Thank you for the examples that you show us each and every day. Thank you for sending your Son to be the perfect payment, the perfect example. Bless our families, grow those seeds first in us, that we may strive to grow a family that resembles yours. Bless these moms and dads, let them feel your love, your grace, your guidance. Bless the work of their hands, that their children would be the gifts that you intended them to be. Let them turn to you for instruction, lesson plans, strength and peace. In Jesus Name, Amen
See our facebook page for a link to a really cool blog site and opportunity to dig into intentional parenting...it's a 10 day challenge, with free printable journal pages to help you along in this journey!! www.facebook.com/aplace2gather
God bless <3 Lorraine
Monday, April 16, 2012
Changing direction
I'm gonna be honest here.....I am trying to formulate a happy, springy, thankful post and my 7 year old is having a major meltdown in the next room! That's life for ya!! We are always presented with a choice....right now, my choices are to cave in to the screaming child and the stress she is causing me, ignore her completely and push past the situation and think happy thoughts or I can stop what I am doing and meet her where she is!!! I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.............she's quieting down........breathe........calming down the heart and the mind and the atmosphere. I'm going in......prayerfully, I'll be right back.
Okay, I made it. I really wanted to shut the crying out and just do my thing, but that's not what the job requires, is it? I hope that I'm not the only mom out there who feels that way from time to time. I see a trend that has been many years in the making. Our current culture is the perfect place for this trend to explode and work at it's best, fullest capacity. It's the unparenting movement. I don't know if it's truly called that, if anyone has coined the phrase or whatnot. It's just what I'm calling it.
Classic scene.....it all starts with a little devil called "busyness". What an ugly word!!! How many of us wave that banner? (Raise hand) Now, how many of us believe that we have no choice in that matter? It's our culture, it's life, what can we do about it?? Well I wanna tell you that even though it "appears" to be our culture and yes, everyone is doing it...okay that's a lie, everyone is NOT doing it, we don't have to be a part of that. Did you hear me? No? Okay, I'll say it again......YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A PART OF THAT!!!!! Crazy huh?
I have a feeling that you don't really believe me though. It's okay, you can tell me. That might work for you, but that's just not for me. I'll let you tell me that, but then I'm gonna tell you that you're wrong....sorry. Yes there are things that we have to do, we have to work (whether at home or out), we have to do laundry (unless you are a part of a nudist colony -I don't want to know if you are), we have to parent (if we have children).....did you realize that just having a child doesn't mean that you're parenting?
Sure you're providing the necessities, food, clothing, housing.....you may even throw in a life lesson or two. But parenting is a whole lot more than that. Now I'm still on the learning path, as I stated earlier, I would have rather just ignored that meltdown....but I couldn't. I had to stop what I was doing, even though they were important things, I had to put them aside to deal with what is at the top of my list of important things to do......parent my child. I had to teach her why she can't have a meltdown, I had to explain it in a way that she would understand it. Just yelling from the other room "knock it off" wasn't going to cut it. I know that I may be stepping on some toes here and trust me, I don't mean to, I don't even want to. This is coming from a deep place in my heart (one that is being torn open at a faster pace than I'm ready for), now that I'm involved in youth ministry.
We are seeing and hearing the stories of disconnected families....I don't want to put anyone in a state of panic, but I want us to all be a little more aware of how we interact with our children. It has to start at an early age, we have to be trained in this. It's not a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants activity and yet that's what most of us are doing. Mothers of Preschoolers is a wonderful place to start for help and support for when you're entering the early stages of parenthood (www.mops.org) but after that, what is there? Nothing. Sure there are books and seminars, maybe even some classes at a local college, I'm not sure. But what happens to the community, where's the local support, who can we do this part of life with?
The one answer I have is your local church.....talk to someone there. Youth Leaders, Childrens' Ministry leaders, prayerfully they will have resources and answers. I know that in our church we have fabulous Children and Youth staff, but sometimes that's not even enough. There's a trend in youth ministry to shift from just youth ministry to one of a parent or family based youth ministry. I hope I'm not speaking prematurely, but that is the prayer of our heart at Sharptown, to begin to shape and develop that. So that we can be a full support for parents at all stages. It excites me to think about how God is going to do that and I can't wait!!!
I hear kids say that their parents don't understand them or don't hear what they are saying and it breaks my heart. I know that it's not the parents intention to be disconnected or to not understand their kids, but let's face it......there are a lot of things fighting for our time and attention as parents. We are "busy" right? And if I'm being honest here (which I am) sometimes it's just a plain old hassle to deal with our kids. But let's not forget that when we gave birth or brought a child into our hearts and homes, we signed on for the full job, whether we truly realized that or not. Let's not forget also that there are a lot of things fighting for our childrens time and attention as well. And if we are not fully there for them, someone or something else will be. Let's begin to pray together about this problem, in our own lives as well as the lives of those in our communities and in the world.
Well, like I said, I started out wanting to do a springy, happy blog but instead we got down and dirty!! We need to do this more often.....be willing to deal with the ugly things in our lives. Let's band together and take our families back. I for one, am not willing to just leave them to the wolves!!! Who's going to stand with me?
We'll tackle the busy monster again in my next post on Thursday. I sincerely pray that you will join me again. Please feel free to leave a comment or send an email to express a certain area that you may be struggling as a parent. I don't promise to have all the answers, but I will do my best to prayerfully provide a place of learning and understanding. I will promise to pray <3
In Christ Alone <3 Lorraine
Okay, I made it. I really wanted to shut the crying out and just do my thing, but that's not what the job requires, is it? I hope that I'm not the only mom out there who feels that way from time to time. I see a trend that has been many years in the making. Our current culture is the perfect place for this trend to explode and work at it's best, fullest capacity. It's the unparenting movement. I don't know if it's truly called that, if anyone has coined the phrase or whatnot. It's just what I'm calling it.
Classic scene.....it all starts with a little devil called "busyness". What an ugly word!!! How many of us wave that banner? (Raise hand) Now, how many of us believe that we have no choice in that matter? It's our culture, it's life, what can we do about it?? Well I wanna tell you that even though it "appears" to be our culture and yes, everyone is doing it...okay that's a lie, everyone is NOT doing it, we don't have to be a part of that. Did you hear me? No? Okay, I'll say it again......YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A PART OF THAT!!!!! Crazy huh?
I have a feeling that you don't really believe me though. It's okay, you can tell me. That might work for you, but that's just not for me. I'll let you tell me that, but then I'm gonna tell you that you're wrong....sorry. Yes there are things that we have to do, we have to work (whether at home or out), we have to do laundry (unless you are a part of a nudist colony -I don't want to know if you are), we have to parent (if we have children).....did you realize that just having a child doesn't mean that you're parenting?
Sure you're providing the necessities, food, clothing, housing.....you may even throw in a life lesson or two. But parenting is a whole lot more than that. Now I'm still on the learning path, as I stated earlier, I would have rather just ignored that meltdown....but I couldn't. I had to stop what I was doing, even though they were important things, I had to put them aside to deal with what is at the top of my list of important things to do......parent my child. I had to teach her why she can't have a meltdown, I had to explain it in a way that she would understand it. Just yelling from the other room "knock it off" wasn't going to cut it. I know that I may be stepping on some toes here and trust me, I don't mean to, I don't even want to. This is coming from a deep place in my heart (one that is being torn open at a faster pace than I'm ready for), now that I'm involved in youth ministry.
We are seeing and hearing the stories of disconnected families....I don't want to put anyone in a state of panic, but I want us to all be a little more aware of how we interact with our children. It has to start at an early age, we have to be trained in this. It's not a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants activity and yet that's what most of us are doing. Mothers of Preschoolers is a wonderful place to start for help and support for when you're entering the early stages of parenthood (www.mops.org) but after that, what is there? Nothing. Sure there are books and seminars, maybe even some classes at a local college, I'm not sure. But what happens to the community, where's the local support, who can we do this part of life with?
The one answer I have is your local church.....talk to someone there. Youth Leaders, Childrens' Ministry leaders, prayerfully they will have resources and answers. I know that in our church we have fabulous Children and Youth staff, but sometimes that's not even enough. There's a trend in youth ministry to shift from just youth ministry to one of a parent or family based youth ministry. I hope I'm not speaking prematurely, but that is the prayer of our heart at Sharptown, to begin to shape and develop that. So that we can be a full support for parents at all stages. It excites me to think about how God is going to do that and I can't wait!!!
I hear kids say that their parents don't understand them or don't hear what they are saying and it breaks my heart. I know that it's not the parents intention to be disconnected or to not understand their kids, but let's face it......there are a lot of things fighting for our time and attention as parents. We are "busy" right? And if I'm being honest here (which I am) sometimes it's just a plain old hassle to deal with our kids. But let's not forget that when we gave birth or brought a child into our hearts and homes, we signed on for the full job, whether we truly realized that or not. Let's not forget also that there are a lot of things fighting for our childrens time and attention as well. And if we are not fully there for them, someone or something else will be. Let's begin to pray together about this problem, in our own lives as well as the lives of those in our communities and in the world.
Well, like I said, I started out wanting to do a springy, happy blog but instead we got down and dirty!! We need to do this more often.....be willing to deal with the ugly things in our lives. Let's band together and take our families back. I for one, am not willing to just leave them to the wolves!!! Who's going to stand with me?
We'll tackle the busy monster again in my next post on Thursday. I sincerely pray that you will join me again. Please feel free to leave a comment or send an email to express a certain area that you may be struggling as a parent. I don't promise to have all the answers, but I will do my best to prayerfully provide a place of learning and understanding. I will promise to pray <3
In Christ Alone <3 Lorraine
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