Parenting 101

Ok, so it has been over a year since my last post...since His mercy is new every morning-Ill jump into life currently.

There are too many facets withen my mind to begin to cover them all in one post-so I will start with parenting...it's where my latest conviction comes from....

Love....that's it. Do I really love? Fully, completely, unconditionally, physically, tangibly? Only when they behave as I desire? Is that where all my praise comes from? Do I expect perfection? Have I sucked the joy out of loving Jesus?.....yes, on all accounts. Guilty. Thank you Jesus for standing in the huge deficit of my parental skills....thank you , thank you......

I took a long and extensive look in the "mirror" at the mother I have become vs. the mother I long to be....hum, tad off base....how do I get so far to the left? I have all the usual excuses, "I'm busy with 4 kids." " There is so much work to do, I don't have time to enjoy them!" " I didn't grow up this way. My mommy didn't love me." "My husband is in Iraq." You know, all the usual ones.... but really at the end of the day-they are just excuses.....I get on track for a while, then all of a sudden I look at the map and have no clue how we got here?! Thank you Jesus for your Map!!!

Jesus said that they will know you are my diciples by your love (paraphrase, but close!).Quick revelation-I think he's talking about my kids too! Not just the outside world or those who don't believe. How about the little people who see me everyday, all day?! His word also teaches that I should "train them (children) in the way they should go..", somehow I am to merge these two thoughts! OH!! I get it!!!

Somewhere in my brain , I think I thought that as long as I train-they will catch the rest..and I suppose that could be true-but I hyper-focused on one to the exclusion of the other. Opps. Again, thank you Jesus for your grace and mercy.

Love them and train with grace....hum, nice one liner.

I like things that I can write on the wall of my brain like post-it notes to self....it works for those of us prone to be distracted by shiny objects...

So what does that look like to me? The mommy I long to be? I don't wanna fall to far to the right either and just stop parenting. It's not so black and white;right or wrong. I think I have to have the balance of tender, yet firm love and training. Is there a book on that? (lol)yeah, there is.....

It can be so overwhelming....tender yet firm, gracious yet consistant, authoritative yet humble....

I'll start here. For today, just for today...(pretty sure they use that in AA...but I digress...)I pledge to do the folowing:


Hold you for as long as you will let me.
Talk late.
Find the "funny" in you and all you do.
Cry with you when your heart hurts.
Love you...all the way.

....and on that note....I'm off to learn more about crustaceans, supervise a chemistry experiment on fueling reactions, and go over colors with my two year old....love it!