Feelings, Wind & well...who knows!
I am sitting down to do the dreaded task...yes that task is blogging. While I should be cleaning up dinner, preparing the children for bedtime and changing hte loads of laundry...I am forcing myself to do this.
"Why"is it dreaded, you ask? Well, because it involves feelings. And as is a theme in my life I try, as hard as I may, to not let those rule my life; For that matter I attempt to not let them in much at all. At least my own feelings...I tend to let others pour their souls out to me...console them or just listen, allow friends and family to show me their inner workings, but try not to interject my own all that often. Sure there are a select few who I "blow up" to sometimes...I can't hold it together all the time (although at times I may like to think so).
WOW that felt really good! Oh the beauty of honesty and anonymity at the same time.
So....what brought me here is the devotional I did for a baby shower last evening at church. I thought, prayed, and thought some more about what to say. You know the typical things...how this will be the happiest time of your life...how you will bond with your baby so much...how you will never have a first again...WAIT!!! What is the most important task we have as parents???? Certainly not having the best bonding experience ever...or how to be the happiest...none of that fit! WHAT WAS I GOING TO SAY?
Then it came to me (with some research of course). There are so many more important things to tell her...and to share that I still work on today. Like planning intentionally our friends, as a parent, and how they too may affect our children's lives. Like having a solid prayer life for our children...even before they are born. How consecrating them in prayer (like so many in the bible..Samuel, Samson and John the Baptist..to name a couple)just assists us even more in our task. I wanted to talk about all of the preparations we need for this job. Look at all of the professionals in this world...all of the training and schooling they do. Why would we, as parents, do any less? I needed to tell her that as great as her friends and mothers opinion is...the Bible is to be our handbook (Deut 6:5-7). It will tell us all that we need to know about discipline and raising our children. For if we parent with feelings there is not a sturdy foundation. My feelings, I know, change like the wind!
So I did...and it felt ok. I felt a bit like I was telling and not "encouraging". But this is an issue I have...why are we not more intentional about the things we speak on? Wouldn't I have loved some of these lessons from a "veteran" before I had children? ABSOLUTELY!
But most important of all...as the weather today was beautiful, a tiny breeze blew...I knew that not so much for her, but for me God had put these thoughts together. And today I was able to reflect and re dedicate myself to these truths! What an amazing way our Great Educator works!
"Why"is it dreaded, you ask? Well, because it involves feelings. And as is a theme in my life I try, as hard as I may, to not let those rule my life; For that matter I attempt to not let them in much at all. At least my own feelings...I tend to let others pour their souls out to me...console them or just listen, allow friends and family to show me their inner workings, but try not to interject my own all that often. Sure there are a select few who I "blow up" to sometimes...I can't hold it together all the time (although at times I may like to think so).
WOW that felt really good! Oh the beauty of honesty and anonymity at the same time.
So....what brought me here is the devotional I did for a baby shower last evening at church. I thought, prayed, and thought some more about what to say. You know the typical things...how this will be the happiest time of your life...how you will bond with your baby so much...how you will never have a first again...WAIT!!! What is the most important task we have as parents???? Certainly not having the best bonding experience ever...or how to be the happiest...none of that fit! WHAT WAS I GOING TO SAY?
Then it came to me (with some research of course). There are so many more important things to tell her...and to share that I still work on today. Like planning intentionally our friends, as a parent, and how they too may affect our children's lives. Like having a solid prayer life for our children...even before they are born. How consecrating them in prayer (like so many in the bible..Samuel, Samson and John the Baptist..to name a couple)just assists us even more in our task. I wanted to talk about all of the preparations we need for this job. Look at all of the professionals in this world...all of the training and schooling they do. Why would we, as parents, do any less? I needed to tell her that as great as her friends and mothers opinion is...the Bible is to be our handbook (Deut 6:5-7). It will tell us all that we need to know about discipline and raising our children. For if we parent with feelings there is not a sturdy foundation. My feelings, I know, change like the wind!
So I did...and it felt ok. I felt a bit like I was telling and not "encouraging". But this is an issue I have...why are we not more intentional about the things we speak on? Wouldn't I have loved some of these lessons from a "veteran" before I had children? ABSOLUTELY!
But most important of all...as the weather today was beautiful, a tiny breeze blew...I knew that not so much for her, but for me God had put these thoughts together. And today I was able to reflect and re dedicate myself to these truths! What an amazing way our Great Educator works!
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