Jesus is the Standard December 22, 2007
Posted by Erin in : Scripture Meditation , 1 comment so farJoe,
As I am finishing out my year of reading the Bible once again using the M’Cheyne Bible reading program, I am currently in 2 Chronicles and taking another trip through all of the accounts of the kings of Israel and Judah (although Chronicles if more of a focus on the southern kingdom). Something hit me this morning as I was in chapter 26 where once again the chronicler says that the next king, the son of the former king, “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that his father had done.” And the trend seems to be that the young kind will often start off walking in the ways of the Lord, but then turn to evil in his later days.
I was thinking about how important it is as parents to not set ourselves up as the standard for our children. We need to make sure that our children understand that we are sinners as they are and make plenty of mistakes. We need to be open about our mistakes and repentant of them, so our children can see and learn. Too often we want to mask our faults to our children because we think they will not respect us if we are not perfect. In doing so, we miss the opportunity to point them to the One who is perfect and paid for all of our sin. It is is Jesus who we ought to follow and walk in the ways of.
May we use this Christmas season to humble ourselves under the tiny baby in the manger as our Lord and Savior. May our children know we too are sinners saved by grace who must go to the throne of mercy every day. And may we point to Jesus as the One to ultimately pattern ourselves after.
Looking to Jesus,
Erin
Encouragement December 19, 2007
Posted by Erin in : General Lessons , add a commentJoe,
Just wanted to share a burden that has been on my heart as of late before getting back to the priority discussion. I have seen lately how easy it can be to become a negative person to be around, especially to my children. Now I am not trying to say we all need to be positive self-talk people, but these motivational/self-help people do have something. They know how powerful words are. We can effect ourselves and others so much my our words. I have seen this more and more as a parent.
It is much too easy to become a parent that is constantly criticizing every little thing my child does. Of course there are millions of things that need to be change din our children’s hearts and behaviors. But aren’t there a million in our own as well? And does God just keep at us about how fall short we fall? No, He gives us encouragement and hope too.
My prayer for my holiday season is that my children would hear encouraging words coming from my mouth that would give them hope to live. May I not just run them down with all they don’t do, but may I uplift them in all I am thankful for in them.
Rejoicing with you this holiday,
Erin
The Second Commandment December 13, 2007
Posted by Erin in : Blogroll, General Lessons , add a commentJoe,
Two days late here again! Maybe I should change my post day to Thursday???
So as I am thinking about how I can teach my children (and myself) to best spend their time according to the prioritities that God’s Word helps us to set. Last week I talked about our greatest priority should be our time with the Lord and the different ways we can increase our love for Him. By doing this we will obey the first and greatest commandment that Jesus gave us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.
The second commandment was of course to love our neighbors as ourselves. As Abby just learned in her catechism questions, everyone is her neighbor, but some neighbors will be closer in proximity than others. And none so more than our family.
It seems in our culture and the day we live in that it is so easy to forget about family. We get so busy doing things and running around to different events, that time with the family gets pushed to the side. One study I saw said that only 30 to 40 percent of families eat dinner together 5 to 7 nights a week. Not that the family dinner is the end all, but it is a strong indicator of things.
So what can we do to make our family a strong second priority? I think one of the biggest things parents miss out on is planning on how much they think it is wise to be out of the home. I know that what happens to us at times is that things come up a lot in one week and by the time we get to the end of the week, we have been out all but one night without even realizing it! (Or course, we quickly realize it when the kids are tired and hit meltdown!) Figure out how many nights you are going to be out in the week, and guard those other nights.
Also, come up with some fun and special events as a family. Some people like to do special family nights with a dinner and then other special event. Other families may go out for special times. A great set of messages to listen to are from the Mahaney’s on their family life. The messages are in a part 1 and part 2 format.
I am sure there is more that could be expounded upon with this subject, but I will leave at that for now.
Seeking with you,
Erin
Making the Most of Our Time December 6, 2007
Posted by Erin in : General Lessons , add a commentJoe,
Sorry I am two days late here on my weekly post. Great job getting back to a weekly post. Once a week isn’t that much, but sometimes before I know it the week is gone. So how can we not only make sure that we do the important things and also include the important things for our children?
As I have said time and time again, I think having a vision for your children and putting that vision into concrete priorities is vital. So often we see frustrated people (often all we have to is look in the mirror) because their lives are not being fulfilled in the numerous areas that God has designed us to have joy.
In this day it is so easy to try to have your kids involved in 101 things! As a mother I know the pressure that comes in feeling like you should have your child in one more class or activity or you should be making them a little genius in ome more way at home. This is when we need to get our priorities from God’s Word as to what will help to raise a well-developed God follower.
There are a few priorities that we must have for a children. Of first importance is to bring them up in the fear and instruction of the Word so that we make their hearts soft for the opportunity for God to regenerate them. At a young age, the family time of worship will fulfill this category to a large degree, until children are old enough to teach how to spend individual time with the Lord. You can also store the word up in their heart by playing Christian music, talking about every day areas of life and how they relate to God and consistently pointing them to the gospel in your daily instruction and discipline. Of course, these are just a few of many ways.
Our relationship with the Lord should be of first importance with our own life as well. Nothing speaks more to a child than a parent who is consistently seeking the Lord. I am thankful that our children are aware that their daddy is down int he basement spending time with Jesus every morning.
This was going to be a short post, but maybe we could use this as a jumping board to talk about other necessary areas of our lives that must be developed in ourselves and our children to make us the full and complete people God created us to be.
Looking to spend my time wisely,
Erin