Teaching Our Children About Life

As parents we are responsible to teach our children to walk in the way of the Lord - that is to teach them the Bible. In the Bible we learn how to live our lives pleasing to the Lord and to avoid all kinds of evil that will certainly befall those who live only to please themselves. Read the Bible - spend time with the Lord personally and then spend time in the Bible with your children. Show them by your own lifestyle what a real Christian is and does. There are many false and fakes out there who claim to be Christians but in reality only live to please themselves.

Deuteronomy 11:18-20  Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes.

 And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

 And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates:

picture fro idlehearts.com

Pray with your children, teach them by example to honor the Lord in all you do.

Colossians 3:16-17  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

 And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

picture from fayettewoman.com

Live in the Present...

Psalm 77:11-12 I will remember the works of the Lord; surely I will remember Thy wonders of old.  I will meditate also on all of Thy work, and talk of Thy doings.

Here is a simple thought... "live in the present" -  So since it is a fact that we cannot take back the past and re-live it ( so to speak ) and we cannot live in the future ( it's just not possible ). The past is but memories and the future is a dream .....so living in the present seems to be the only option available really.
What I am saying is that it is important to live life to the full at the stage of life you and I are at right now. If you are a child going to school, don't wish or pretend that you are older - be a kid while you can! If you are dating...enjoy it and save sex for marriage. If you are married, be thankful for your spouse and do your part to make your marriage a happy one! If your kids are grown and it seems your friends are grandparents already, but not you.... that is just fine, don't rush your married kids to give you grandbabies. If you are getting close to retirement age, enjoy your job while you can... the golden years will be here soon enough!
Be contented and enjoy to the full every day that the Lord has given you!

One thing we should all long and wait for though is to be with Jesus in our eternal home. Keep looking up for the soon return of the Lord Jesus. Keep your heart fixed on Jesus and live every day for Him till He calls us home!!
 Titus 2:13  Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ

Parenting Tips from Church - Mother's Day

Sunday Sermon Review - May 12, 2013

( from my home church I attend regularly )

This Sunday was Mother's Day. As part of our Mother's Day celebration, our church had two couples share some of their parenting experiences - what works in their home. So I cannot do a "sermon review" this week but I will share a little bit of what was said.

Couple A

- were parents of adult children, have two grandchildren

- family is important

- keep God at the center of your marriage, showing love and respect to each other

- God works in the lives of our children in the midst of our failures as parents

- keep the relationship with your children growing through the years

- suggested to do Sunday lunches together

- be open about sharing your faith with your children

- be diligent to tell your children they are significant to you and to God

- be discerning as to the time and place that you share your thoughts ( teachings ) with your children

- encourage them, being careful to not say too much at the wrong time

- make time for your children

- as a Mom, try hard to be there for your children, and pray for them

- Dads can teach values while doing work projects with the kids

- do fun things together

- parents need time away alone

- babysit your grandkids so your married kids can get away alone for a time

- be interested in your children's lives, their work and their home life

- PRAY - satan wants to destroy our families

- God is the One who brings healing and restoration where hurts have occured

1 Corinthians 13:4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

Couple B
( parents of married kids with grandchildren )

*prayer 

- important to not be a "control freak" , let go

- prayer intensifies in hard times and long periods of illness

* respect and trust

- when you catch yourself thinking " I wish my children would listen to me" then remember that God is thinking those very same thoughts about you

*gratitude 

- show gratitude even for small things

* be flexible

- your kids need you so change your schedule to meet their needs

* character

- develop good character in your children by including them in family responsibilities

* dates with spouse

- never stop dating your spouse and when you are on your dates make a point to not talk about the children or finances

* Allow your children to make decisions, make mistakes and face the consequences.

- this helps them to learn to think things through before making a decision in the future

* forgiveness

- ask your kids for forgiveness when you have messed up

James 1:4 

But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

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 

Snippets from my Fridge - Family Rules and Discipline

Proverbs 6: 20-22 My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother: Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck.  When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.



Snippets from my fridge

I like to put pictures, little notes and reminders on my refrigerator door - maybe you do too. As I think back over the last ten or fifteen years, there have been many little snippets on my fridge. Among other things, I like to keep a few pictures of family as well as some reminder type notes to myself to help me to focus on the Lord and His purposes for me. I'd like to share a few snippets from my fridge here in this post regarding family life and discipline of children.
When our children were younger, I kept a "Family Rules" guide posted on the fridge. These were the family rules that I had posted :
1) Love one another
2) Say nice things or say nothing at all
3) No hurting anyone ever for any reason.
4) Respect each other
5) Delayed obedience is disobedience.
6) Everything you do should indicate that you are a kind and loving person.
7) Choose to be joyful

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

Discipline
Now as any parent can testify, the rules were not always kept but they were there set out as a constant guideline of expectations. I was told the most effective way of disciplining a child was to use this method -
Say the child's name, make eye contact, give your instruction to your child in a normal tone of voice, and only one time. The child will learn that you are serious and discipline will follow if he or she  is disobedient. Disciplining your child is hard. But there are a few points that I tried to remind myself of:
A) Am I disciplining in anger or in love - it should be in love
B) By disciplining my child in this way, am I teaching him or am I just punishing him - the goal is to teach.
C) Explain why the behavior the child has just displayed is an unacceptable - stay at this point of  talk till the child understands no matter how long it takes.
D) Carry through with the disicipline you promised would happen.

Watch my blog for more upcoming posts on snippets from my fridge link here http://sharingthefaith-northernsparrow.blogspot.ca/2012/10/faith-building-snippets-from-my-fridge.html

Coming to Jesus!

In  an earlier post I wrote a bit about the beginning points of my journey of faith. During my childhood I did have some level of faith and sense of the presence of God with me. Sometimes I would pretend that Jesus was holding my hand and we would run around together as I played outside. I would pray to Jesus and ask Him for help at school. But in my early teen years I began to feel the urge inside my to get the matter of faith settled. I knew that there is heaven and there is hell and that when we die we will be in either one of those two places depnding on what we have done with Jesus here on earth.  I wanted to be sure that heaven would be my home. My best school friend Nettie was from the Pentecostal church and would often talk of how she couldn't wait to be raptured and to be with Jesus.  I knew that I wasn't in as close a relationship with Jesus as she was but I wanted to be. My parents did a great job in exposing our family to the Bible. On Sundays we would go to church and then in the afternoon they would tune in for the Hour of Decision program with Billy Graham on the radio and on Wednesday evenings we would always listen to Dr Manfred George Gutzke.  Every evening my Dad would read to us from the Bible. So it is plain to see that I have been very blessed to have had all these opportunities to hear the gospel. When my sister started reading her Bible, I also decided to read my Bible simply because she did. I remember one particular Sunday riding with my parents in their 1976 blue chevy pick-up truck and of course my Dad again turned on the radio to listen to a Christian program. The topic of discussion was about putting off the old self and putting on the new as found in Colossians 3:9 - Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;  and Colossians 3:10 -And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. I found that stuck in my mind though I did not understand it much. And so it went on for a while, the Holy Spirit was nudging me from various sources. Every Sunday Billy Graham would say " are you sure that if you died tonight you would go to Heaven, you can be sure".  Billy would say that even if I had been the only person in the world that needed saving, Jesus still would have went to the cross and died just for me. That is an amazing love. John 3:16 says : For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. I understood that Jesus took my sins, my judgement and the hell that I deserve and he bore it all for me on the cross and died for me. I wanted to be sure that Jesus is my Savior and that I would be in Heaven when I die so I prayed and asked Jesus to be my personal Savior and Lord.  He has come into my heart and I am happy to say that I belong to Jesus!
To be continued .... with my Baptism