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Showing posts with label John Wesley. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John Wesley. Show all posts

Wednesday, 30 January 2013

Parenting Advice - Raising Children

Proverbs 22:6  Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Philippians 1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

Parenting can be a very challenging experience but it is a great honor. We are very blessed to be entrusted with these precious children to raise up to love and serve the Lord. We all come into it unexperienced so it is always a time of learning for both the parents and the children as well.
It is very important that we live our lives intentionally - that we do what we do because we are making an intentional choice. We do not want to live in regret for having made unwise choices when emotions run high in difficult circumstances. So that is why it is important to set up some goals for oneself in life and that would include parenting.
I was listening to Back to the Bible recently and in the program Woodrow Kroll shared some of Susanna Wesley's parenting advice.  I jotted down a few notes and so I would like to share it with those of you who come here to my blog.
Susanna Wesley is the mother of the well known brothers Charles Wesley and John Wesley. ( Sometime ago I wrote  a post on the life of John Wesley - link to post here:  http://sharingthefaith-northernsparrow.blogspot.ca/2012/08/heroes-of-faith-john-wesley.html  )
Susanna Wesley was married to Sammuel Wesley and they had 19 children. So we can see that Susanna Wesley had a lot of practice at parenting over the years.  Susanna Wesley would take 1 hour per week for each one of her children individually to have one on one time with them to talk about spiritual matters with them. She was truly a great woman of faith.

Here are Susanna Wesley's Six Rules for Raising Children
1) Subdue self will in a child and thus work with God to save him.
2) Teach a child to pray as soon as he can speak.
3) Give a child nothing he cries for, and only give him what is good for him and he asks for politely.
4) To prevent lying, punish no fault which is freely confessed, BUT never allow a rebellious sinful act to go unnoticed.
5) Command and reward good behavior.
6) Strictly observe all promises that you have made to your child.

Note - for more parenting tips please read my post titled  "Snippets from my Fridge - Family Rules and Discipline"  link to post here
 http://sharingthefaith-northernsparrow.blogspot.ca/2012/10/snippets-from-my-fridge-family-rules.html 

Friday, 3 August 2012

Heroes of Faith - John Wesley

Hebrews 12: 1-2 says  Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,  Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God

I believe that we can learn much from the Heroes of Faith who have gone before us.  John Wesley is just one of those heroes and in this post I want to share a little bit about him. John Wesley was born in England on June 28, 1703 to his parents Samuel and Susanna Wesley. He was the fifteenth child in the family. He is a brother to Charles Wesley who also would be in the group of the Heroes of Faith.

John Wesley spent much time preaching. He was married to a widow named Mary Vazeille when he was 48 years old. The marriage was a heartbreaking one and he had no children. This wife left John Wesley after years of unhappiness and sorrow  in the marriage. This shows us how God uses broken people. God often uses people with hardships in their lives and sends them out to proclaim the gospel. John Wesley travelled on horseback, preaching two or three times a day, preaching some 40,000 sermons during his life as a preacher. John Wesley finished his life strong and when he lay dying on March 2,1791 he said these words: "The best of all is, God is with us."  Then he lifted his arm in victory and he raised his voice and with a loud voice he again spoke the same words -  ‘The best of all is, God is with us"  and so he passed into the presence of the Lord into Heaven.  He died at the age of 88 years.

I want to post ten of John Wesley's well known quotes - many of which have a direct Biblical message bound up with in them:
1)  Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin, and desire nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether they be clergymen or laymen; such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven on Earth.

2)  Earn all you can, give all you can, save all you can

3) By salvation I mean not barely according to the vulgar notion deliverance from hell or going to heaven but a present deliverance from sin a restoration of the soul to its primitive health its original purity a recovery of the divine nature the renewal of our souls after the image of God in righteousness and true holiness in justice mercy and truth.

4)  Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.

5) Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God be for you, who can be against you? Are all of them together stronger than God? O be not weary of well doing

6) When I have money, I get rid of it quickly, lest it find a way into my heart.

7) My ground is the Bible. Yea, I am a Bible-bigot. I follow it in all things, both great and small.

8) Once in seven years I burn all my sermons; for it is a shame if I cannot write better sermons now than I did seven years ago.

9) Justifying faith implies, not only a divine evidence or conviction that ''God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself',' but a sure trust and confidence that Christ died for my sins, that He loved me and gave Himself for me.

10) I desired as many as could to join together in fasting and prayer, that God would restore the spirit of love and of a sound mind to the poor deluded rebels in America”