Day 5

My challenge began 5 days ago... to reestablish our family prayer time and to make it more meaningful.  That night I was hit with a horrible flu.  I was lying in bed while my husband was trying to round the troops up for bed.  I knew I could not skip the very first night of my challenge, so I called them all in to our bedroom pray.  We calmed down a child upset because he was given an "open" banana instead of a "closed" one, then tried to keep another child earth bound.  All was quiet and for the most part calm, and my husband prayed.  We have continued praying together before bed since then.  My personal prayer really suffered - the only thing I could really mutter for 3 days was "Jesus, help me."  Seriously, I don't remember being so sick.  I am feeling great now and am so thankful!  (so is my husband!)  It is really amazing what happens when mom is out of commission for a few days.  Saturday afternoon, the Thursday night dishes were still on the table!  I was so out of it to even try to round up help and get them to clean up.  Anyway - all is under control now, and I am so thankful!  Now, to get our prayers to become more meaningful.  I plan to start our curriculum in the next couple of nights and begin keeping a family prayer journal.  I am thinking of having the older kids write down our family's prayers.  It will be fun to look back on it and see God at work!

Family Prayer

How is family prayer time in your household?  Does it hold an important part of your day?  Is it a priority?  Is is meaningful?  Not in my home right now. I usually think of family prayer time as before going to bed.  I don't know what we have done wrong, but most nights bedtime is all out exhausting.  By the time I have put kids to bed for the 14th time, delivered disciplined to children who refuse to settle in quietly in their beds, I just want to say "goodnight, I love you, see you in the morning."  I don't feel like going through the battle of getting them to sit still and be quiet so we can now pray together.  I just want to get to my "list" of things to do so I can get to bed.  Can't you love your bed as much as I do?!  Well, enough of the excuses!  It is time to start now, and allow prayer time together be something they remember as a priority!  Teaching them the powerful, effective tool of prayer is something I need to do!  There is an old post that I wrote called "The 21 -day challenge".  It has been shown to take 21 days to establish a habit.  I am committing to 21 days of praying together as a family.  We are going to go through the curriculum "Why do we pray?", found here: http://www.impressiveparenting.com/  and begin keeping a journal of our prayers together.  Now I need to pray for a time that we can sit together and do this without it being a wrestling match to get little ones to sit still and be quiet!  It will be good training for them!  You may have other areas you would like to commit to along with me.  If you have meaningful, family prayer times - share them with me as an inspiration.  If you struggle - will you commit with me?  Let's impress on our children a walk with God through prayer and may we grow closer to our Father in heaven.

Back to Blogging

A few things have changed since I have typed anything here.  It was put on my heart to get back to blogging.  I came across a blog from a gal with 5 kids under 5.  If she can find the time, I will try too!  So to catch you up a bit we have another addition to our family.  Little baby Sammy (Samuel Peter) joined our family 1 year ago tomorrow!  The last couple years have been an amazing adventure.  We moved to the Canistota, SD area almost 4 years ago now.  After loving country life and the community here we were excited to find a more permanent home.  We were put through a trial last year that the Lord saw us through.  Here's a quick rundown:  8 1/2 months pregnant, discovering bed bugs in our home, doing about a million loads of laundry, getting rid of all beds, couches, and cleaning everything else, living in our camper for 5 days while they fumagated our home.  Oh, then finding out Baby flipped and I was in need of a C-section - what!?  I had two more weeks to get things cleaned, organized and put back in order before he came!  Not this time... Baby Sammy had to come out as his heart rate was low w/ the cord around his neck.  The Lord's peace came over me on the operating table as I continued to say Phil. 4:6-7 over and over and the shaking finally stopped.  A baby taken out of you with no feeling is nothing like a natural birth.  It was difficult, but still a joy to have this healthy baby boy next to me.  So coming home barely able to move, an infant, 4 other children needing care, with all clothes and blankets in big garbage sacks in the basement going through the process of debugging is a bit overwhelming.  This is when full dependance on the Lord comes in.  It is no longer mom going to get everything done.  But help stepped in and God's love was so overwhelmingly shown me.  I didn't have to cook for a month - literally!  I had people coming over to clean, help with the kids, besides all the food. Oh yes, I fogot to mention that shortly before this we acquired sheep and a puppy!  What a fun, crazy, exciting, exhausting time...
Psalm 34:19  "A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all."  The Lord was with us and saw us through.  My everyday difficulties don't seem that big when I remember life a year ago. 

Consistently Inconsistent

I have found that the one thing I am very consistent at is being very inconsistent. I can give you a list of great "Plans" that I have instilled, and then find a few weeks, or more likely a few days later they are not happening anymore. For example the "Read-a-Bible-story-together-and-say-a-memory-verse-together" plan. Or perhaps, "My-house-is-going-to-be-organized-from-now-on" plan. And then the "Everyone-do-your-chores-everyday-keep-track-of-it-and-then-be-rewarded" plan. And of course there's the "I'm-going-to-eat-really-healthy-now-no-more-junk" plan. So who comes in and steals all those wonderful plans away from me?!

Well, I know I will continue to instill plans and will continue to pray that God would help me be consistent. I also know that when I fail to continue those plans - I have a God who never fails - is always faithful in His love for me. Thank you God!

With saying this - there is one more thing that is consistent - my love for Jesus and my passion for His Word. And with this is my desire for my children to have this passion as well. Don't you desire your children to follow the ways of God rather than the ways of this world?! I would like to share some great insight from a book I am reading "Don't Make Me Count to Three!" There is some wonderful wisdom that is really helping me figure out how to consistently teach my children the Word.

What is one thing that happens everyday - at least in my house? Disobedience, or some other form of sin! What a perfect time to take the opportunity during those times of discipline to teach the Word. Proverbs 29:15 says, "The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself disgraces his mother." We all know what the "rod" is - but what about that second part. Give them the "instruction of the Lord" (Eph. 6:4) when we give them reproof. When your child sins, discipline them, and then with this, teach them from the Word what God expects them to do in that situation.

There are many examples given in her book - here are a few and I will share more with you soon.

Child 1 annoys child 2. Child 2 whacks child 1. Child 1 comes crying to you.
(Read Mathew 18:15-17 for more understanding) - but from this teach them when they are offended - tell that person about it. They should first try and solve it themselves. If the offender does not repent, then child 1 can bring it before mom.

Other verses to use in various situations:
1 Corinthians 13:5 "Love is not rude."
Philippians 2:14 "Do everything without complaining or arguing."
I Peter 3:11 "God gives joy to those who promote peace."

Ginger Plowman is the author of this book - I highly recommend it!

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Galatians 6:9

Blessings!
Susie

The Main Thing

Ahhhh, my favorite time of day. Kids are tucked in bed and all is quiet, finally. Crazy days, anyone relate? Something that God continues to impress upon my heart is to "keep the main thing the main thing". I can look around the house and see various "projects" my kids have created, dishes in the sink, laundry to be folded, trying to make order with one hand as I hold a baby in the other, etc., etc., and I start to have a bit of that self pity that we can allow to creep in. Then I think of the 4 blessings God has given me and all that goes with that is to be treasured - for I am reminded by parents with children grown and gone, to enjoy this time. So back to the main thing - we as parents have so many roles and responsibilities, but do you know the primary role we are given as parents? To teach our children the Word of God and to teach them to obey us so that one day they will obey their heavenly Father.

Psalm 78:4-5 "We will not hide them [God's teachings] from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done."

Deut. 6:6-7 "These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up."

There are several other verses related to this as well as many on disciplining your children. So in the midst of a crazy day wishing someone would swoop in to take my children for just a couple hours while I regain order - I stop and remind myself what my primary goal is - to raise children who love the LORD their God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength. So I ask myself - have I talked to them about God today? Have I prayed with them? Have we discussed a Bible story or read one to them? Have I kept my cool and disciplined lovingly and consistently? Have I shown them the love and grace that my Father shows me? If the house isn't in perfect order, if we aren't able to go to an event or be in an activity, etc. It's okay. I need to keep my focus on what God has deemed most important. (I do know our God is a God of order, and order is a wonderful thing to have, just not at the expense of our children's knowledge and understanding of the one true God.)

Teach them the Word!

God blessed us with Caleb Jonathan on Father's Day! He was a healthy 8lb 5oz baby boy!
I have been overwhelmed with joy in how God has created this precious little miracle inside me.
I have been reading a devotional for new mothers and was reminded once again from one of the day's reading that our children become our imitators. Now this can be a good thing, but it it also very sobering to think about how each and every word, action and deed is being watched, now by my four children. I pray that I would set an example for them each and every day for the life I would want them to live, and yet I know I fall short of this so often. For this I am thankful for God's grace and mercy and His ability to work in the lives of my children in the areas I fall short in. Our children help us to live the pure lives God calls us to live, and it helps to keep reminding myself of this as I go about my day. It has also made me realize my dependence on the Lord. My quiet times that had been carved out in the early mornings for several years has changed. I am working on carving that time out again as we are getting on a better routine, and getting more sleep etc. The days I don't cry out to God for help quickly fall apart - when I know I have asked for God's help - I feel that I can fully trust Him to follow through and give me the help, strength, patience, self-control, etc I need to be the mom He desires of me.

Valuable Traits

I just read something today that I wanted to share with you. I do not take credit for it - it came off of a BSF handout. It was so good, I wanted to share a few things from it.

It stressed the importance of knowing your child's traits - the good, the bad and the ugly. But then to not just become overwhelmed and frustrated with the bad and the ugly, but pray about how those traits might be used to become qualities that can be useful for the cause of Christ some day. For example - a child who demonstrates traits of being bossy or pushy, with being trained could be a great leader. A stubborn, obstinate child could be goal orientated. There are so many traits that I think we can get so frustrated with. But I would encourage you, as I was encouraged, to take the time to write down the traits you see in your child. And then decide how the undesirable traits could be transformed into valuable traits - with prayer and with God's help. Your diligent prayer and effort in this will be instrumental in his becoming a child of Christ-likeness.

Susie