He Knows Our Frame May 29, 2007
Posted by Erin in : Scripture Meditation , 1 comment so farJoe,
Thanks for getting us back on track here. It has been busy and we will have another busy time coming up in about 10 days here as we go through another time of transition, but hopefully we can stay faithful with the little time we have!
I have been meditating a lot on Psalm 103:14 lately in regards to parenting. The verse says, “For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.” This is of course referring to God’s amazing patience with us and the way He bears with us in our sin and struggle to slowly refine us as a people for His own glory. Just to sit and meditate upon that truth, I am blown away at God’s patience. I know just a small fraction of the evil that lies in my heart and to think that God patiently is pruning this away from me makes me marvel.
But as I have been thinking about my patience and forbearance as of late, I have thought about my attitude towards others. And usually as I am looking at my actions towards others, I begin with those closest to me, which would have to be you (my husband) and children. Because we all know the true colors come out at home!
If I would say there is one sin that has been manifested more in being a parent than before we had children, I would say it is the sin of impatience. Before I had kids, I thought I was a relatively patient person. I wouldn’t have said it was a strength, but did not think it was a glaring weakness. Oh, how wrong I was. I realized it about a week in to being a mom when I was trying to console Abby at about 11pm one night and realized how quickly I wanted to give up. All of the sudden it hit me that I was not a patient person.
And this truth has continued to be shown, although God has granted some growth, in the last three years. But as I have been meditating upon this Scripture, I am able to see myself in my little daughter as I parent her. It is like I am seeing myself through God’s eyes. When she throws a temper tantrum, I see the way I had a temper tantrum the other day and God patiently granted me repentance and faith to walk through it. I can see His grieving over my sin because it is not what I was created. I see Him looking at me missing out on the joy I was created for. And although he looks on us remembering our frame, this doesn’t mean He does not discipline us. He does discipline us, but He does it for our happiness in Him. My discipline as a parent is often flowing from a heart that is bothered that my child is not acting the way I want him/her to. But never with God. He knows our frame and our weaknesses and works with us for our joy in Him.
So may we meditate this week about how the God of patience infuses us with patience to bear with the sins of others, especially those of our children who often test us every day. Let us be mindful that our children, like us, are but dust and a work in progress.
Patiently parenting with you,
Erin
Regaining our Shape May 28, 2007
Posted by Joe in : General Lessons , add a commentErin,
As it is probably plain from our lack of posting, it has been a busy few weeks around here. Of course, it does seem odd informing you of the matter, but that is how we do it here at the Sinners Raising Saints blog! Anyhow, I figured I would make a quick post and to get us back into our proper blogging condition. I had to do the same over at the Seeking Him blog.
One quick thing I would mention in regards to parenting is our continual need to take account of the amount of time and energy we are investing into our children. Of course, you know full well that I say that with the conviction that we can easily give too much of our time and attention to them. Some parents may think us a bit odd for such a statement, but we have seen yet again the effects of too much attention given to our children. They become addicted to attention itself and actually become worse.
Rosemond does a great job giving voice to this reality in his The Six-Point Plan for Raising Happy, Healthy Children. I am thankful we were pointed to such a book.
Alright, more will come later. Let us return to where we began this blog by offering some simple parenting lessons the rest of the week. Lord knows, we are learning more and more every day!
Seeking Him with you,
Joe
Good Sermon for Sure May 23, 2007
Posted by Joe in : Links , add a commentErin,
Let’s just designate this week as ‘Link Week.’ Anyhow, haven’t read this one yet, but I am posting it to make sure I do! I am confident it is a good one.
Until later,
Joe
Interesting Post May 22, 2007
Posted by Joe in : Links , add a commentErin,
We do have a busy week, so it might be good to post a quick link each day. Here is one I found. The rest of the cite is full of quick links that I will someday point to.
Catch you soon,
Joe
Final Suggestion May 18, 2007
Posted by Joe in : Family Worship Series , add a commentErin,
Thanks for finding and linking to that great article yesterday. It covered the recommendation aspect of things quite well. It also gave some great reasons for catechizing. It is sadly a neglected practice today. Somehow we have come to embrace the notion that rote memory does no good in the work of the mind and heart. This is surely way off course–just like a lot of other popular notions today! For the things we memorize seem to sink in deeper to our thoughts and feelings–even if we don’t realize what is going on. This most definitely has a transforming work. We might not be able to get our hands on it, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t very powerful and real!
Anyhow, I wanted to end this section (and maybe this series) with a simple word of exhortation: Just do it! Sure, Nike used that slogan for a long time. Sure, those words could be taken out of context to promote some sort of self-sufficient religion. All that is true enough. But in the end, I want to exhort parents (and especially Fathers), to do what you have to do to lead your family in daily worship of the Lord. What is standing in your way? How many things are more vital? What will you continue to place over and waiting upon and worshiping the Lord daily as a family?
Think of the various things that we will so easily give our time to? How hard is it to clear our schedule for some dinner with friends, or some sort of ministry activity, or work, or play? Why then is it so difficult to clear the 15 minutes we need for family worship? The enemy is real, but He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. The temptations are real, but they are also paper thin. Nothing should stand in our way or doing what we know we should do.
So let’s set aside the time to make a plan. Draw it up. Put it on paper. No matter how old your kids are, take leadership, take ownership and start small. You don’t need to preach a sermon and get the microphones out for worship. Just open up the Word and read it. Open up the hymnal and sing it. Open up your heart and pray. Not much else is needed (though it is suggested!). Sure, it will be uncomfortable at first, but every significant change in our lives usually us. It might be unchartered territory, but isn’t that a great place to be? Maybe you have never experienced it before. Well then, cut off that bad habit at the next generation. Let your children experience that which you did not. If done with the right heart, they will remember such times with gladness!
Much more could be said. And maybe I will say more sometime soon, but that is enough for now. May the Lord grant us mercy, men, to lead our homes with diligence for the honor and fame of His great name.
Seeking Him with you,
Joe
Recommendations- Catechisms May 17, 2007
Posted by Erin in : Family Worship Series , add a commentJoe,
So we are nearing the end of our family worship series. In some ways it feels like we just started and hard to believe a month has gone by so quickly!
Today i was planning on discussing recommendations for catechisms. But in finding this article from someone from Bethlehem Baptist (the church John Piper is the preaching pastor at), I probably could not say anything better than what was said here. It gives you 10 reasons for why your children should be taught a catechism and then reviews 4 different catechism books.
We personally use Susan Hunt’s “Big Truths for Little Kids.” Although Abby does not quite get the application part of the stories yet, she enjoys the stories and most importantly is able to memorize the questions.
Again, I would emphasize not to think your children are too young to be memorizing the catechism. Great fruit can come from what is stored in the heart at a young age. God will cause the growth, but we must plant and water!
Planting and watering through the catechism with you,
Erin
Recommendations- Prayer Guide May 15, 2007
Posted by Erin in : Family Worship Series , add a commentJoe,
You are right that this topic is not the easiest to write on, but we will learn for next time to just put the recommendations with each corresponding component.
I know this is stepping out of our plan because it was not on there, but I wanted to take the opportunity to commend to people the great help of a prayer plan for family worship time. This is something that we just recently started using and I think has added much more depth to our family worship time.
Now this is not a resource you can go out and buy or find online, but one you get to sit down and work on together with your spouse. For us, we used to spend our prayer times often having the two of us pray for the same things. not that that is bad, but we rarely got to cover all the areas we wanted to cover. So we decided to come up with a prayer plan so that certain things were guaranteed to be prayed for every day and others once or twice a week.
Once you have kids that are old enough to start praying with you on these topics you can add them as well, but right now we have a little one who is just learning to pray on her own. And so Abby’s prayer usually last a minute or two. But Joe and I then divide up the remaining topics that are to be prayed for that day.
So here is an example of how we work ours. Every day we pray for specific requests for the four of us (Joe, Erin, Abby and Elijah) and about 12 unsaved people we know. Then in addition the following categories are prayed for on specific days once or twice a week:
1. Our “inner” circle (8 close friends)
2. Our other family members
3. Our “second” circle
4. Our local church
5. Our ministry and its specific requests
6. Missionaries we support and mission work in general
7. Government leaders
8. Abortion
I may be missing a few topics here, but you get the point. This way we don’t go for two weeks having never petitioned the Lord for abortion. It also shows our children that there is a lot more to pray for than just the simple prayers of blessings on each of our days. It extends their minds beyond our four walls when we pray for specific missionaries and countries.
So I hope this aids in the prayer aspect of family worship by being able to cover more areas of prayer and having a better system in approaching prayer.
Praying for the glory of the Lord to cover the earth,
Erin
Hymnal Suggestions May 14, 2007
Posted by Joe in : Family Worship Series , add a commentErin,
I have to confess that although I absolutely love resources, this isn’t my favorite part of our little series. Not sure exactly why, but just reality. I’m sure that gets everyone excited about reading this post! But either way, I just had to make that confession up front.
So hymnals. It is our conviction that every single family should have one. And not only should you have one, but you should use it on an almost daily basis. As Erin covered in her post about singing hymns, there are manifold benefits to the practice. The heart is stirred. The head is informed. The family is together singing praises to God. Truly the Lord is pleased.
My first recommendation would be to use Cyber Hymnal. www.cyberhymnal.com As the title suggests, this is an online hymnal of sorts. Although Erin and I don’t use it nearly enough, it is a wonderful resource. Not only are there thousands of hymns, but each hymn is accompanied by its tune. The music might be a little old school, but that doesn’t really matter when all you want to know is how to sing the song! So check it out. Especially if you aren’t sure about the team (or if husband and wife are arguing about how it goes–now who would do that?!), it’s a wonderful resource.
The hymnal we use is called The Trinity Hymnal. Nothing fancy here, but it has served us well.
Another hymnal that might be worth checking out is called the Family Worship Hymnal. How about that? Should serve the family worship times well!
Two other suggestions would be The Baptist Hymnal and The Celebration Hymnal.
But in the end, if you have a hymnal, it is probably quite good. The only real concern would be the theological tradition the hymnal comes from, because everyone changes a few words around to fit their theological system. For some this is a very good thing, but for others, not so good! Particularly if you love the sovereignty of God (in salvation and everywhere else), be diligent to pick a hymnal that treasures that same glorious reality well! Because it is surely worth singing about!
There are more, but I hope these suggestions help. In the end, let us raise our children with songs–daily songs to the King. May it be natural for them to walk around the house singing His praises (even before they know what they are doing). I know that hearing Abigail sing hymns brings joy to my heart. So let us labor to fill their young hearts with wonderful songs of praise!
Singing His praises with you,
Joe
A.W. Pink on Parenting May 12, 2007
Posted by Joe in : Links , add a commentErin,
Yes, I have been a blogging slacker the past few days. I’m all the more thankful for the cross. He knows my frame, that I am but dust–so I even struggle to blog! But Lord willing, I will be back on track this coming week. Until then, here is a good article from A.W. Pink. I confess up front that I gave it a quick read. But I won’t stop there. I promise to read it all the way through!
Seeking Him with you,
Joe
UPDATE: I have read it all the way through in detail and can now wholeheartedy recommend it! We can definitely use these well-said reminders periodically. I’m sure that goes for every parent.
Loving Your Wayward Child May 10, 2007
Posted by Joe in : Links , add a commentErin,
So yes, you were the one who showed me this article, but hey, it is my day to make a post! Anyhow, this is a great article from Abraham Piper called “12 Ways to Love Your Wayward Child.” As you said, I hope and pray that our children will be faithful to the Lord throughout the whole of their lives, but there are no guarantees. That is for sure. So the parenting wisdom in this article should be considered by all.
Until tomorrow,
Joe