Tag Archives: Faith

Ten On Tuesday :: DISCIPLINE

Posted on February 21, 2012 | 2 Comments

I am so glad the Bible gives us some guidance about how to discipline our kiddos and, likewise, how God disciplines us.  I don’t know about you, but I would be completely lost otherwise.  There are many days when I find myself thinking, “I must be doing something wrong here!” when it comes to the leading and training and growing up of my children.  Sometimes that’s just discouragement getting the better of me, but sometimes there is validity.  It’s always important to take a step back in our parenting, seeking counsel and looking at our kids through the glasses of the knowledge of God, instead of allowing those boiling emotions to make decisions on our behalf.  So today I just want to share some of that knowledge.

ONE :: “Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid”.
Proverbs 12:1

TWO :: “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”
Proverbs 22:6

THREE :: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.”
2 Timothy 3:16-17

FOUR :: “Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.”
Proverbs 13:24

FIVE :: “Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.”
Proverbs 22:15

SIX :: “Discipline your son, and he will give you rest; he will give delight to your heart.”
Proverbs 29:17

SEVEN :: “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”
Ephesians 6:4

EIGHT :: “If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons…  For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
Hebrews 12:8,11

NINE :: “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.”
Revelation 3:19

TEN :: “He who is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck, will suddenly be broken beyond healing.”
Proverbs 29:1

and a bonus…

ELEVEN :: “…God’s kindness leads you toward repentance…”
Romans 2:4

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Faith

Tagged

Just WAIT Child!

Posted on February 11, 2012 | Leave a comment

(photo credit)

I tell my kids to wait

all

the

time.

Seriously.  Children want what they want, when they want it.  Wait??  What’s that??  Why should I?  Why can’t I have it now?

Well, because if I give you a chocolate milk now, you won’t be able to fall asleep at bedtime in a half hour and you’ll (I’ll) be crankier in the morning.

Well, because if I fix your toy right now, I have to stop feeding your sister.  And even though you’ve got a laser beam focus on that toy, she has needs that need met, too.

Well, because if I let you go downstairs right now, you will probably put an entire roll of toilet paper in the toilet, or rub hand soap all over your body, or try to climb the bookshelf to get the remote, or scrape candle wax into your underwear… because I’m upstairs making dinner.

Do you ever feel this way?  “Wait.  WAIT.  WAIT!!“  But how can a three-year-old understand the effect of sugar on his little pre-bedtime body?  Even if I tried to explain, which believe me, I have, he talks right over me, continuing to demand that he has what he wants RIGHT NOW.

“Child, just wait.  I’m not saying no.  I would love to help you.  I would love to give you what you’re asking for.  But you can’t have it RIGHT NOW.  You wouldn’t understand why, and that’s ok.  Just trust me.  I can give soon.  Please just wait.”

Frustrating, right?

Is God saying the same thing to you in this moment?

 

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Faith

Tagged

An Alternative to Resolutions and January’s Word of the Month

Posted on December 31, 2011 | 2 Comments

I’m not one for much reality TV, but there are a few gems out there that I think shed light on important issues and bring real life change for the people involved.  The Biggest Loser is one of those gems for me.  It’s one of my favorite shows on TV.  I had never stopped to really think about obesity.  I just assumed (I am ashamed to admit) that overweight people were overweight simply because they liked eating and didn’t want to stop.  After watching a few seasons of the show, I realized that obesity is often brought on by much deeper life battles, like the loss of a loved one, the struggle to feel valued, a serious injury, or poor eating habits introduced in childhood.  There is almost always an underlying dilemma that each of the show’s participants must learn to face before they will find success in keeping the weight off.

In trying to see resolutions through to completion in past years, I have often found myself discouraged, defeated and disappointed in myself.  I try to accomplish the goal that’s in front of me, but it’s like there’s this huge pile of bricks tied on behind me that I’m having to drag the whole way.  The weight of it all is too much.  I give up.  There’s always next year.

But the problem with next year is that the pile of bricks is still there.

The thing that has us giving up by the first of February is the very thing we have to turn around and deal with.  It’s not just pushing forward to the goal that gets us to the goal.  Almost always, there is an underlying dilemma that we must learn to face before finding success in the goal.

If I were to make a list of New Year’s Resolutions for 2012, it would look something like this:
1.  Get up earlier
2. Be more consistent with study time in the Word
3. Maintain a clean kitchen as often as possible
4. De-clutter
5. De-clutter
6. De-clutter

This is a GREAT list of resolutions.  In fact, I imagine yours might look similar.  But when I zoom in a little, take a closer look, I see an underlying dilemma.  My problem is not that I sleep too late or don’t like reading the Bible or have broken arms which disable me from moving the dishes from the counter to the dishwasher.  My problem, my underlying dilemma, is that I lack self-discipline.

I lack self-discipline.

That’s my pile of bricks.  And until I turn around and deal with that, I will never see the positive resolutions fulfilled.

So this year I am doing something a little different.  No resolutions.  No lists.  No ideal of the better person I will be by 2013.  Instead, there will be one word.

One word will guide me through the year.  One word will be like a flag in the front yard of my life.  One word will be my motivation, my determination, my resolution.  I will choose just one word to focus on in 2012, and let the goals fall as they will from there.

My word for 2012, and also our family’s Word of the Month for January, is…

……..drum roll please………….

SELF-CONTROL.

You guessed it!  This is the fruit that the Spirit has been working into my heart little by little over the past 6 years.  I know this is a work that the Lord wants to fulfill in my life.  My prayer this New Year’s Eve is that 2012 will be a year of great break-through in this area.  I will continue to pray over this word, this fruit, this transformation, and will let the word rest as an umbrella over my life this year.  I want to let God do His work here.

Maybe it’s one of those years for you, too, when the list of resolutions needs to go in the trash and you need to turn around and face that pile of bricks.  What is the underlying dilemma that’s buried there? 

Because truly, the resolve is in getting up every day and taking one step to lift one brick off the pile that’s keeping you from your goals.  The resolve is in choosing one step in the Spirit, instead of in the flesh, so that the Spirit can bring about the heart change that leads to better life.  Fuller life.  FULLEST LIFE!

Will you pick one word for 2012?  Will you tackle the pile of bricks?  And your word is…

drum roll please………………………………

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Faith

Tagged , , , , ,

It’s Four Days Till Christmas… Let’s Slow Down

Posted on December 21, 2011 | Leave a comment

I didn’t send out a family Christmas card this year.  It’s sort of a shame, because it was going to be awesome.  Our family Christmas card was going to blow all the other family Christmas cards right out of the water.  It was going to be all photo-shopped and funny and magical.  And people would laugh.  And put it in the very center of the fridge display.  And probably just take all the other ones down because they wouldn’t be able to compete.

Of course, I’m joking… sort of.  The Christmas card had to go this year because something had to give for us.  It’s difficult for me to let things go, because I used to take a lot of pride in the fact that I was the girl who could do everything.  But not anymore.  The Lord has worked.  He was worked some yucky stuff out of me, all for His good.  So this Christmas, I’m not going to do everything.  I’m going to let some things go.  So no Christmas card.

Instead of running around like a crazy person these last few days before the Holiday, I want to encourage you to slow.  At the heart of Christmas is not the parties or the food or the stockings or gifts or decorations or even friends and family.  At the heart of Christmas is a celebration.  A celebration of Christ.  His advent.  The arrival of the Great Answer to our ever-unsolvable problem.  Praise God, Christ has come.

Let’s lift our eyes up out of the holiday muck; up to a God smiling down.  We are preparing to celebrate God’s soaring declaration of Love over us.  I want to see the babe.  I want to see the gift.  I want to see the Love Come Down.  Do you?

Go ahead, let something go.  That card you’re trying to finish.  That garland you’re trying to perfect.  That performance you’re forcing everyone out the door to see……..

let it go.

Let it go.  And look up.  And remember.  And celebrate.

Him.

It’s not about me.  It’s not about being the one with the best card.  The one with the prettiest house.  The one with the most fragrant supper table.  It’s about Him.  The One who gave us the gift of Himself.

And He gave great.  It is always about Him.

Always.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Faith

Tagged , ,

Celebrating the Season of Advent… wait, What IS Advent??

Posted on November 30, 2011 | 2 Comments

December 1st.  Going up on the side of the oak cupboard at the edge of the kitchen is a calendar.  A small, stuffed Santa peers over the edge of the pocket in the top left corner.  He waits for little fingers to move him along, finding treats and family events on the 24 day journey.  I remember the calendar.  I remember driving through neighborhoods, wide-eyed at Christmas lights.  I remember decorating the tree, gardening gloves adorning the luckiest hands.  I remember a zoo soaked in color and light, and a fireplace topped with milk and cookies for a middle-of-the-night guest.

The traditions my parents worked so hard to establish for our family when I was growing up are now treasures buried deep in my heart.  And this year, I want to begin building these traditions for my own young family.  But as I thought about creating an advent calendar, I was struck with the realization that I don’t even know what advent is!  I remember the calendar.  I don’t remember the advent calendar. 

I wasn’t about to hang up a calendar that I didn’t even know the meaning of.  (There’s enough of those traditions floating around during the holiday season, aren’t there?)  So I looked it up.

1. a coming into place, view, or being; arrival: the advent of the holiday season.
2. ( usually initial capital letter ) the coming of Christ into the world.
3. ( initial capital letter ) the period beginning four Sundays before Christmas, observed in commemoration of the coming of Christ into the world.
4. ( usually initial capital letter ) Second Coming.
 
An advent is an arrival. 
 
Advent, for the Christian, is a celebration of three things:
1 – The past birth of Christ.  The arrival of God in the form of man into the world.
2 – The future Second Coming of Christ.  The arrival of Christ to redeem His own and give the final gift of eternal salvation to all who believe.
3 – The anticipation we live in now, in between these two arrivals, and the call on our lives to live in readiness, walk in humility and kindness, and respond to God with our obedience, as a result of a repentant and thankful heart for the gift of Christ.
 
So simple.  So beautiful.  And what an amazing way to teach a young family about what we are celebrating during the Christmas season.  I am so excited to celebrate this Advent season and acknowledge the anticipation of the world that led up to the birth of Christ, and the anticipation of my own heart as I wait for my eternal salvation.
 
Advent can be celebrated in many ways.  It is the heart humbled before God, in waiting, that is important.  Two of the more common Protestant ways of celebrating this season are with a Jesse Tree and with an Advent Calendar.  This year, we’re going with the calendar. 
 
There are so many ways to do an advent calendar.  I will just share with you how we will celebrate this year.  Again, it’s the heart of humility and remembrance and anticipation that is important, whatever your celebration looks like.
 
We will use The Jesus Storybook Bible as our guide, reading one story each day, from Creation all the way to the birth of Christ (on Christmas morning).  I absolutely LOVE this Bible!  It’s a children’s Bible, but I’d be lying if I said it’s never had me in tears before!  This Bible is appropriate for advent readings because included in every Bible story narrative is the way in which the story points to the coming of Christ.  Every Old Testament event leads to the gift of the Savior and God’s “Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love” that caused Him to send for us, His children, a “Rescuer.”
 
 
 
At the beginning of each day we will read the story from this special Bible, and then draw the little gold card out of the pocket on our advent calendar.  Each day is a different activity.  Our activities are not necessarily synched with the reading; they are all fun things to do as a family that excitedly lead up to Christmas day and our celebration of Christ come into the world.  Many of our activities are based around events happening in our own lives and community, so yours will be different, of course.  But this list might help give you a jumping off point if you are celebrating with an advent calendar this season.  Here’s what we’re doing:
 
1 – Give a gift (to a family in need, our church pantry, or local rescue mission)
2 – A special candy for Maddox
3 – Go to my husband’s work Christmas party (a family affair)
4 – Go to the tree farm and pick out our (FIRST EVER!) live Christmas tree
5 – Decorate the tree
6 – Make gingerbread houses
7 – Pick out new tree ornaments (each family member picks one new ornament for 2011)
8 – Give a gift (to a family in need, our church pantry, or local rescue mission)
9 – Go to a live nativity
10 – Go to the local Ranch for an evening of Christmas fun
11 – Electric Safari at the zoo
12 – A special candy for Maddox
13 – Make gingerbread men cookies
14 – Toddler Time at the library
15 – Give a gift (to a family in need, our church pantry, or local rescue mission)
16 – Getaway to the mountains
17 – See a local church Christmas production
18 – Watch a Christmas movie
19 – Deliver gifts to our friends and neighbors
20 – Free family day at the Fine Arts Center
21 – Give a gift (to a family in need, our church pantry, or local rescue mission)
22 – Hot cocoa for dessert
23 – Drive the city to tour Christmas lights
24 – Attend Christmas Eve service with visiting family
 
 
The 25th is not included on the calendar, but we will have our final reading that morning; the birth of Christ, and then celebrate that which we have been anticipating.
 
If you’re thinking of starting your own advent calendar, it’s not too late!  Start the celebration wherever you are, however you can.  It’s always the heart that matters. 
 
 
How do you celebrate Advent?  What are some traditions that you enjoy burying in the hearts of your loved ones during this special season?

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Faith, Family

Tagged ,