Parenting and Religion

The one thing I can remember always wanting in life, even when I was a little girl, was to be a mom. For a few years, I wondered if my dream would remain just that, only a dream. Then God answered my prayers, and my dream was coming true before my eyes….and it has gotten bigger and better ever since.
I am a mom.
My greatest satisfaction with my life comes from the gifts God has blessed me with- being a wife and being a mother.
I was telling some of my kids today that whenever I have been given something that’s similar to what someone else has, I have always liked mine best…all of my life it’s been that way. I liked my dolls best, I liked my bike best….
Now that I am a grown up, I like my husband best (it’s a good thing since I am happily stuck ever after), and I like my kids best.
Not to ever make my kids seem like they are better than anyone else’s, but that they are the perfect kids for me to have…it’s a good fit and they are a gift from God.
Mother’s day to me is celebrating being mom, and rejoicing with the best example God could have given me of a mom….my mom.
Being mom is something I wouldn’t trade, and having my mom is something I wouldn’t trade.
Celebrate being mom, celebrate having a mom, celebrate the gift of moms- after all, life wouldn’t get very far without them.
Happy Mother’s Day!

Taking time for the important things is something that needs to be done on purpose, especially when you work at home and have deadlines to meet.
I find myself getting better at prioritizing my time, sometimes anyhow. Learning how much work is enough, and how much is too much. Turning down work when there is too much of it coming in, and taking the time to put first things first…that is my goal right now. (although first I need to be getting too much work!)
Being a freelance writer is nice. It gives me the opportunity to work from home, be available to my family, and make money.
One big benefit is that I don’t have to spend an ever increasing amount of money on gas to go to work.
Another is that I can choose when I work and when I don’t.
I can order my days around what needs to be done.
When I’m working on a deadline, though, it can be tempting to just want to work until it’s done. When my five year old comes up to me and asks me, “Mom, will you do something with me?”, the priority changes quickly. Now the priority is to play a game or go for a walk.
The wonder of it is, I always end up getting all of my work done, and have only once been a little late (as in a few hours) of a deadline.
Working from home is great….being mom is greater.
Bring on the games, bring on the spelling tests, bring on the time well spent with my kids.
The deadlines will be met, and there will always be more work to do.
Kids grow up too fast to put off the good times, the memory making times, the times I will hold in my heart forever.
One of my favorite questions is “Will you do something with me mom?”
I want my answer to be “yes!”

Everyone has something they are good at. Sometimes our gifts can’t be hidden, no matter how much we try to ignore them. Take artists for example. They can see simple things, such as garbage, or food, but in thier minds they see a creation that isn’t visible to the unartistic eye.
My son, Shawn is such a person.
We were eating at a local Chinese restaurant today, and Shawn had a plate of pudding that he made a face out of (See picture above). The people in the restaurant who saw it were amazed. I was too.
I was reminded that no matter where we are or what we are doing, our gift will find us out.
As a parent, it’s my desire to see my kids use their gifts. It can become easy to take abilities for granted, but I hope I never will.
My kids all have talent or are gifted in one way or another. Yours are too. When you begin looking for it, you will be amazed at what they can do, and how much they are good at.
Look for the gift, encourage the gift, and help them know how to use the gift.
After all, it is our job as parents to show them the way they should go…and that includes helping them be the best they can be- using their gifts to the best of their ability.
Finding the things they are good at, helping them excell, and being encouraging to them, will go a long way in helping them have a wonderful future of using their gifts.

Dan and I are making plans to go away for a few days…something we have NEVER done without the kids…..I’d say it’s about time.
Planning our few days takes a little more than our own plans. It also takes preparing the kids (one of them especially) for us to be gone for a while. We have an attached child who has a problem with separation. He’s a lot better than he used to be, but still worries and gets scared when we are gone for long periods of time.
Praying helps. We have been working with him teaching him how to pray for himself, and to rely on God to give him peace. But the endless questions about who will take care of him and how long we’ll be gone are already growing old with me. I feel like I have been blessed with the patience to deal with this, but I am growing weary of being patient.
It does help that he adores his older siblings who will be watching him and taking care of him, but at night when he’s tired, the worries begin.
Please pray for us, and for him… to have peace and be content, even when we are gone. Thank you.

Summer can be a time of fun for the whole family, together. Planning may be all that’s needed for you to have small time frames or days at a time of fun with your family.
With many Christian festivals, such as Creation, Kingdom Bound, and Alive, summer fun like camping, picnicing, and beach visits, there is an array of things to choose from.
Summer family fun can include anything you all enjoy. Trips to the park, the zoo, playgrounds, and camp fires at night, all add up to a great time, and wonderful memories being made.

Shopping can be a chore, or it can be fun for all. Prom dress shopping was definitely fun for all. Finding the perfect dress, going from one store to another, ooooing and aahhhing over all the beautiful dresses, and then some more as the sale prices were seen…fun times, fun people, fun with my daughters.
Times such as these are becoming more and more precious to me as I watch my children slowly (but it seems too fast), grow up, move on, and become adults.
That’s one great thing about having a lot of kids, by the time the third and fourth ones come around to nearing adulthood, you know how to appreciate the time together as parent and child, and hold it in your heart even more, on purpose, knowing it will be short lived. Before you know it, it is parent and young adult…still your child, but also your friend.
This is nice too, but holding the memories of childhood helps it be even better.
My advice to young parents: Make memories, and remember on purpose.
As they grow up and develop lives apart from you, you will continue to make memories, but they will be of a different variety than when they were young.
Growing up can be difficult, watching how fast they grow up can be even more difficult; but if the memories are there of time spent together, you will have an easier time letting them go, and letting them grow.
Shopping and memories, part of letting them grow up.

Yesterday when I was at work, (I work in a toy store), an elderly woman was leaning on the counter while her son and his family looked around. She started motioning for my left hand, which was lying on the counter. She said “Let me see that.”
I gave her my hand, and she began marveling over the beauty of my rings, particularly my “diamond” ring. It is beautiful.
I asked her if she really liked it, and she said “It’s stunning!”
I then told her that if she wants one, I can get it for her from Avon, for about $12.00.
She said “NO!!You can’t be serious!”

See how easy it is to be fake?
Diamonds can look real, to the untrained eye. So can people.
We need to be on guard our, spiritual eyes open, to see the devices of the enemy before he gets to attack.
There are so many people who trust anyone who goes to church, they are blinded to the truth that everyone has a past, and everyone has things that will always temp them. There are people who want to get close to our kids, with purposes that aren’t good. Their plans are evil, and it’s up to us to keep our eyes on them, and not be ignorant.
Now, I’m not saying that we aren’t all forgiven, I am saying that parents shouldn’t just trust someone because they say they are born again.
Let’s not be ignorant of Satan’s devices. One of his devices is to hurt our kids, using adults they think they can trust. We need to make sure that the relationships our kids have with other adults is monitored by us, and follows our rules.
We also need to make sure that anyplace our kids are taught, ministered to, and play, is safe.
There are websites you can find that have the addresses of child prdators in your area. These are only people who are second and third degree sex offenders, so the list is not all inclusive.
I found out there is an older man who lives three doors down from us who was convicted of molesting boys as young as six. He is fresh out of prison, and my kids aren’t allowed to ride their bikes alone out there any more.
Using wisdom, setting the rules for relationships between kids and adults, and not being ignorant. These are possibly the best things we can do for our children;s safety.

I have been taking my kids to an inner city outreach, where they can be ministered to at kids church, as well as minister to other kids. It stood out to me last night just how important it is to teach our kids to memorize scripture, and to have it memorized ourselves.
When we get into situations where we need to control our thoughts, know how to pray, or need to have something to say to encourage someone else, having the Word hidden in our hearts is good, having it hidden in our hearts, and fresh in our minds is better.
Teaching our children the importance of hiding God’s word in their hearts, is part of our job as mom and dad.
Taking our position in their lives, means taking it seriously. We have got to make sure we train them in the way they should go, in their gifts, their uniqueness, their careers, their relationships, and especially their relationship with God.
The need for the Word never leaves, it grows as we grow.
Let’s be prepared for anything, with hiding the word in our hearts and minds.

When we were in church yesterday, my five year old son, Andy, was sitting next to me in the front row. Andy was holding a little stuffed dog that has become his favorite. All of a sudden. the dog flew out of his hands and hit the wall, about two chairs over from us. After he picked up the puppy, I took it away from him, and held it while I told him “If you throw the dog again, I will take him away and you won’t get him back!”
He looked at me like I didn’t know what I was talking about and said “Mom, I didn’t thrown him, he jumped!!!”
Now, my question is, how do I maintain a straight face when my kids are so funny?
I did tell him that jumping dogs aren’t allowed in church, but I was having a very hard time looking serious. (I probably only thought I looked serious, because he was smiling at me when he said he would tell the dog no more flying.)
I guess life is full of lessons, but the ones I seem to be running into lately are keeping a straight face, being firm in the midst of cuteness, and not laughing when the kids say something they don’t mean to be funny.
I guess jumping dogs may be the least of my worries, I have kids who are more creative than they should be allowed to be…..I guess I better point them in the way they should go, and keep a good sense of humor along the way.

It’s a common thing that when we are riding in the car, my five year old son will notice street signs. When he sees the sign with a picture of a deer, he says “Mom, watch out for deers!”, and when he sees a picture of people crossing the street, he will say “Mom, watch out for peoples!”. A few days ago we were driving back to my parent’s house, when he said “Mom, watch out for boys on teeter totters’!”
I love this age.
When the innocence of a life being protected from the evils of the world is so obvious. When I think about all they still need to learn, it makes me glad that I have opportunity to show them the way to go.
That’s what parents are supposed to do, show them the way to go.
It can be such a temptation to try and be their friend, but what they need us to be is their mom and dad.
Teaching our kids how to handle life, what to do and not to do, and helping them find their way in the world; that is what we are to do. The way they should go…
Teaching them to follow Christ, to love their neighbor, to put others first, and to show compassion to the people they will meet in life; that is what we are supposed to do.
If I do my job right, my kids will grow up and serve the Lord, use their gifts, and be giving, loving adults.
Please pray for me, I don’t want to run over any boys on teeter totters.

A fellow blogger, Bryan Ayers at The Focused Family, has a great blog up about being intentional in our attention to our kids.
He talks about how often a crisis can happen in the blink of an eye, the few moments we may not have our attention on our kids.
How many times have accidents happened, and we were right there?
Or you see something about to happen, and it seems like you are moving in low motion as you try to get to them fast enough?
Being intentional with our attention is something we have to work to do. I know how easy it is to be divided. I tend to be right there, and block all the sound out, especially if I am writing or reading.
Being undidvided when they talk to us is especially important.
My husband has a saying:”If you want something to be successful you have to do it on purpose.”
I believe that applies to raising our kids, as well as anything we want to do well at.
I encourage you to read The Focused Family blog, it will encourage you to pay attention, on purpose.

When I was at work today, I had a convesation with a young woman I work with. She was telling me about someone she knows who professes to be a Christian, allways talks about God and salvation to her, but she says she blocks it out because the woman is a hypocrit.
The woman who witnesses to her doesn’t let her kids paticipate in Halloween, or St Patricks Day, with the reasoning that celebrating Halloween is celebrating a satanic holiday, and celebrating St Patricks Day is celebrating Leprechauns, which she says are also evil.
She does however, allow her kids to watch horror movies, such as Friday the Thirteenth, and the Saw movies (I have no idea what those are), and Nightmare on Elm St.
The young woman doesn’t understand the double standard.
How can you not allow your kids to celebrate Halloween, but they can watch movies that are full of murder, horror, and other evil things?
I got to thinking about it, and I know that I have been guilty of similar double standards over the years.
I think this conversation was good for me because it made me evaluate my own parenting rules, and what I allow, and what I don’t or haven’t.
As I have gotten older, I have noticed that I don’t make decisions based on fear as much as I did when I was younger, and I also am more likely to evaluate my reasons for certain rules, rather than make rules because everyone else thinks I should.
I want to be a good witness to my faith.
I want people to look at my life and see that I live what I say I believe, even in my parenting.
I know I have made mistakes, and I will make more before my kids are all grown up.
But I am doing the best I know how to do, and I did the best I knew how to when my older kids were younger.
Life goes on, and God has a way of making everything work out for our good, even when we make mistakes.
Thank God for that!

Tomorrow is Resurrection Sunday. This year it just seems too early for it to real be Easter yet. But it reality, for the Christian, every day is a day to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
I read a blog by someone yesterday (Good Friday), that said every year she is sad on Good Friday. When we stop and let the knowledge of what Jesus went through for us really sink in, it does have the effect of making us sad. We are sad because we are the guilty ones, and He took our punishment, our consequences for our sin, and He wore them at the cross. He took our past failures, our future mistakes, and our broken relationship with God our Father, and made a way for restored relationship.
Then, Sunday came. We all know what happened on Sunday- Jesus rose from the dead.
This is our celebration, the fact that though we were once dead to sin, we can now be alive in Christ.
Some people make it seem so complicated.
But it is really so simple.
We only have to say “I accept your gift of sacrifice for me Jesus, I accept your forgiveness of my sins, and I accept you as my Lord (the boss of my life), my savior The one who saved me from hell, and eternal death), and my Redeemer (the one who brought relationship with the Father back to me). Thank you, AMEN!”
The key is to mean it from your heart, and be determined to live for Christ….after all Tomorrow is Sunday, what better time to celebrate Resurrection?

I just heard on Fox News, that there are medications on their way to the USA, from China, that are tainted. Once again, China is poisoning us…..
Of course I am way off to wonder if all the things we have encountered recently from China could be being done on purpose…..I should slap myself for thinking such a thing.

Anyhow, before you give your kids any new medication, check the lable to make sure it isn’t made in China.