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My latest post continues my discipleship journey with my kids and we talk about abiding with God.
Disciple Lesson #6:Temple Work
Jeremiah 29:11 says, '"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."' God has a path not only for each of us but, very importantly, for our children. Can we as parents help them to find the path they have been designed for? There is hope and a future for the younger generation and we can equip them to find their way.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Patience: A Ministry of Reconciliation
I have posted to my new site. I share thoughts on the idea of patience and reconciliation and how we are called to be both of those things in all situations. Make sure you sign up to receive my new blog via email so I don't lose you. Sign up at imagineparenting.com and subscribe to email.
By His Grace
By His Grace
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Imagine Parenting has Updated!
Please join me at my new location and site: www.imagineparenting.com
I have put my most recent posts and my discipleship journey with my kids so far on this new site.
Please sign up to receive my new site via email and continue to journey with me in parenting.
By His Grace
Stacie
I have put my most recent posts and my discipleship journey with my kids so far on this new site.
Please sign up to receive my new site via email and continue to journey with me in parenting.
By His Grace
Stacie
Friday, March 8, 2013
Home
Joining up with Lisa-Jo for Five Minute Friday. She says, ” why not take 5 minutes and see what comes out: not a perfect post, not a profound post, just five minutes of focused writing. So now on Fridays a group of people who love to throw caution to the wind and just write without worrying if it’s just right gather to share what five minutes buys them. Just five minutes. Your words. This shared feast.”
HOME
START: As the Israelites journey through the desert the resounding words that led them on were 'keep My commands and remember My promises'. God spent many chapters reminding them to keep His commands and to remember His promises. This 'keep and remember' kept them focused on their home, the promised land, the place they were to find their inheritance.
I love the journey of the Israelites because it reminds me of where we are called to find our home. If you think of the old adage 'home is where the heart is' and put that in the context of keeping and remembering, we should find home in the Lord and His promises, as the Israelites did. Each time they made a mistake they had to revert to that keeping and remembering.
What do we keep and remember each day? What do I encourage my kids to keep and remember? I desire to keep God's commands and remember what He has promised. But what is that? In the end it is a singular promise of eternal life for those who believe in Him. Is that the idea of home that sustains me each day and the idea I instill into my kids so that they view home as eternal life with God? STOP
HOME
START: As the Israelites journey through the desert the resounding words that led them on were 'keep My commands and remember My promises'. God spent many chapters reminding them to keep His commands and to remember His promises. This 'keep and remember' kept them focused on their home, the promised land, the place they were to find their inheritance.
I love the journey of the Israelites because it reminds me of where we are called to find our home. If you think of the old adage 'home is where the heart is' and put that in the context of keeping and remembering, we should find home in the Lord and His promises, as the Israelites did. Each time they made a mistake they had to revert to that keeping and remembering.
What do we keep and remember each day? What do I encourage my kids to keep and remember? I desire to keep God's commands and remember what He has promised. But what is that? In the end it is a singular promise of eternal life for those who believe in Him. Is that the idea of home that sustains me each day and the idea I instill into my kids so that they view home as eternal life with God? STOP
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
D5: The World
In Jesus' conversation with God in John 17, the third and
lost priority He addresses is our need to 'love the world'. Hmmm...kinda hard to explain to kids coming
off the idea of being yoked and rooted in Jesus and with other believers. In John 17:20-22 it says, " “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will
believe in me through their message, that all
of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they
also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me."
We are called to show Jesus and His love to the world so the world will
discover the plan, peace, and eternity He has in store for all who believe. So
love the world? No. Be salt and light to the world? Yes.
Salt and light to a 10 and 12 year old
is hard to explain and understand. The world flies in their face daily. They
are faced with things I was never faced with and now they have a mom who has
never experienced what they are experiencing or will experience in their
lifetime. Great. Sounds like a recipe for disaster. But God is a God of victory
and not disaster. I want my kids to show Jesus to people daily and they can do
that by living out the fruits of the spirit, by learning to seek Him as their
foundation and dwelling and by learning and establishing spiritual disciplines
in their lives. Blah, blah, blah, their faces glazed over as I have said all that before and said it often.
What I have been faced with lately is an
overwhelming number if conversations and comments about the teenage years. I am
a year away from that ominous age thirteen. But in my naivety I believe that
the teenage years don't all have to be bad. Do all teenagers hate their
parents? Are all teenagers impossible to live with? If we are really to fly in
the face of the world and be different than the world but live in the world,
can't we challenge that paradigm?
So in light of the conversation about loving
the world versus finding inheritance in the world, I challenged my kids. We
have talked about teenagers and the societal expectation of hardship as a
result of the age. I challenged them to show that they are different by being
different teenagers. What if a whole generation of teenagers got along with
their parents, talked with their parents, worked through issues using the love
of Christ with their parents? I do believe that we can speak things into being,
especially when they are circled in scripture and prayer. So, let's see what
happens. I will continue to challenge my children to be different teenagers and
I may end up with the proverbial egg on my face or I may end up with a glorious
relationship that is only supplied by God. Either way, it will be a learning
experience and I will be on my knees.
By His Grace
Friday, March 1, 2013
Five Minute Friday: Ordinary
Joining up with Lisa-Jo for Five Minute Friday. She says, ” why not take 5 minutes and see what comes out: not a perfect post, not a profound post, just five minutes of focused writing. So now on Fridays a group of people who love to throw caution to the wind and just write without worrying if it’s just right gather to share what five minutes buys them. Just five minutes. Your words. This shared feast.”
ORDINARY
Here goes: God calls ordinary people to do extraordinary things. He is the God of ordinary to extraorindary. If we trust Him. Do we leave enough room in our lives for Him to talk, to transform, to lead our children? Do we have quiet time that allows us to reflect and listen to His voice. I find that when I simplify my life, make it more ordinary, then He, in His wisdom transforms the ho hum to extraordinary.
Just last week my son and I were sharing a story about his friend that walks through the school's carpool line without looking for my car. My son and I were laughing about it, then, out of the mouth of babes he says the following: Mom, my friend not looking for your car is like us not looking for God, even though He is there and waiting for us we do not look for him in our lives and He continues to sit and wait and then He even has to track us down sometimes.
Ordinary to extraordinary. What a blessing God gave me in that moment. He desires a relationship with us but we need to take the moments and hours to develop that relationship so we can be in tune with Him. As we prepare for the ordinary, He creates the extraordinary. I am excited to see what He does with my ordinary day of carpools, projects, and as much quiet time as I can get. STOP
ORDINARY
Here goes: God calls ordinary people to do extraordinary things. He is the God of ordinary to extraorindary. If we trust Him. Do we leave enough room in our lives for Him to talk, to transform, to lead our children? Do we have quiet time that allows us to reflect and listen to His voice. I find that when I simplify my life, make it more ordinary, then He, in His wisdom transforms the ho hum to extraordinary.
Just last week my son and I were sharing a story about his friend that walks through the school's carpool line without looking for my car. My son and I were laughing about it, then, out of the mouth of babes he says the following: Mom, my friend not looking for your car is like us not looking for God, even though He is there and waiting for us we do not look for him in our lives and He continues to sit and wait and then He even has to track us down sometimes.
Ordinary to extraordinary. What a blessing God gave me in that moment. He desires a relationship with us but we need to take the moments and hours to develop that relationship so we can be in tune with Him. As we prepare for the ordinary, He creates the extraordinary. I am excited to see what He does with my ordinary day of carpools, projects, and as much quiet time as I can get. STOP
Check Your Yoke
Yokes can be heavy or light, positive or negative based on what the yoke is or what you are yoked with. Jesus promises that His yoke is easy and His burden is light in Matthew 11:30. But there are times when we dot not choose that easy, light yoke and instead choose the yoke of the world.
As promised, we had an 'awesome' example in our house of being yoked together and how that can take us over. If you have read my blog frequently you have probably gotten the impression that my son, Cole, tends to be an introspective and sensitive boy. He loves God and has some deep thoughts and ideas about his own walk.
As promised, we had an 'awesome' example in our house of being yoked together and how that can take us over. If you have read my blog frequently you have probably gotten the impression that my son, Cole, tends to be an introspective and sensitive boy. He loves God and has some deep thoughts and ideas about his own walk.
Well, this boy also LOVES handball. He had, notice past
tense, a goal of playing as much handball at school as possible while honing
his skills on a wall at our house after school hours. Recently, by way of
another mother, I found out that Cole had been in the vice-principal's office.
Whoa is right! At Cole's school as it was at mine, the principal's office
equals good and the vice-principal's office equals bad. The story was shocking
to me, not only had he gotten in trouble but he had neglected to tell me about
it. So here's what ensued...
Cole had taken to playing handball with a group of boys that had, shall we say, a different spirit and mode of behavior that Cole has previously exhibited, but, they played some good handball. The words this group were exchanging on the handball court were inappropriate and flew in the face of what should be exchanged at a Christian school. After cooling my jets, I talked to Cole.
Once I got the story from him I asked, "How did it feel
when Joey (code name) called you a ____?"
He said, "It was fine."
Ugh! Cole had become desensitized
to the behavior of these boys and had joined in and taken on the actions of the
group. Talk about being yoked and rooted! God provided an amazing situation to
have a conversation about how easily Cole had transformed from what we know him
to be into something foreign to those of us that live with him. Then together
we came up with a remediation solution. Cole had taken to playing handball with a group of boys that had, shall we say, a different spirit and mode of behavior that Cole has previously exhibited, but, they played some good handball. The words this group were exchanging on the handball court were inappropriate and flew in the face of what should be exchanged at a Christian school. After cooling my jets, I talked to Cole.
I share all this because I desire that you, as biblical
parents, would continue to talk to your kids about their priorities. What is
our goal anyway as parents? How can we point them to God and have them listen
for His voice? Our yoke and roots influence our actions and behavior. God provides the content in His word and the situations in our
lives to follow Him, but do we? Or do we become like the group? We just have to seek, watch, and take each moment as an opportunity. What a
privilege that God tagged Cole and taught him such a valuable lesson. I pray
the same for your kids.
By His Grace
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
D4: Love Believers
In our last discipleship lesson we left off with the three
priorities Jesus leaves us with in His longest recorded prayer or conversation
with God before His death. The second priority in John 17 is to love other
believers. We were created to be in community, in relationship and a part of something
that is outside of and bigger than our little life bubble. The importance of
this is tantamount to our growth and the ability to show that we love God with
all our heart, mind and strength, which was the first priority in John 17.
To talk with my kids about this second priority we focused
on Matthew 11:29-30 and 2 Corinthians 6:14.
In Matthew Jesus says, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For
my yoke is easy and my burden is light." We had a lively discussion about
what a yoke was in the physical sense. It was a heavy, wooden, plank structure that
held two oxen together to plow the fields. Not a light thing to carry on your
shoulders. I had my kids imagine themselves as those oxen and then we talked about
true trust in Jesus and the intangible, spiritual yoke we are to have with Him.
When we are affiliated or yoked with other believers, when
they are our circle, we are built up in Jesus and can trust and grow while in
those relationships. It is critical to our spiritual growth to be in these
relationships. But we constantly bump up against the pull of the world. So, my kids and I also looked at and talked about 2 Corinthians 6:14. It
says, "Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have
in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?" My kids and I
had a frank discussion about what happens if we yoke ourselves to unbelievers.
The relationship in inconsequential to the unbeliever but it changes us. This
ties back to my last post on being rooted. If we yoke ourselves to or allow
ourselves to become rooted with people and behaviors that are not Christ-like,
soon it becomes very easy to allow ourselves to act like those we are yoked to,
which goes directly against what God intends for us.
We had a situation in our home to demonstrate just that in
bright, living color. I will share that in my next post, so stay tuned, but I
love how accurate and detailed God is when we seek and talk about His
Word. It will come alive, for better or
worse!
Talk to your kids about loving believers as a priority and
the idea of being yoked. Then watch for God to show them in a tangible way how
that plays out in their lives.
By His Grace
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Got Root?
On a recent school
break the four of us had an opportunity to visit a redwood forest. Redwoods are
beautifully tall trees. They can grow up to 2-3 feet a year in ideal conditions
and there are some so large you can drive your car through their carved out
trunk. Then I read that their root systems were shallow, which, from what I
know about trees, is a recipe for disaster. But redwood trees grow in clusters.
Under the surface of the soil these massive trees have roots that can extend
over one hundred feet from their base, all the while intertwining with the
roots of the other redwoods.
God created us to be in community. In Genesis 2:18 it says, 'Then the Lord God said, "It is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper as his complement."' If a single redwood tree grew without the community or cluster of the other trees it would not survive the elements.
We not only need root, we need to seek it out for ourselves
as well as for our kids. As parents who desire that our kids walk through their
lives with Christ as their center and guiding force, we need to equip them with
the ability to root themselves in Christ and also to root themselves in a
community. It starts in our homes. As we become rooted together as a family
they can draw strength from that root system. As they grow we want them to intertwine
their roots with like-minded friends through church or school. This equips them
to seek out like-minded friends when they are no longer with us, hopefully! Our job is to point them in that way and help
them see the importance of intertwining roots.
God created us to be in community. In Genesis 2:18 it says, 'Then the Lord God said, "It is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper as his complement."' If a single redwood tree grew without the community or cluster of the other trees it would not survive the elements.
Over the past year I had the privilege of facilitating a
couple of parenting studies and through that experience I found moms who just
want to cluster together with like-minded moms. Moms who want to learn and grow
and share parenting ideas with moms who believe and have the same 'root structure'.
In addition, my husband and I began a small group bible study at our church,
ironically called 'Rooted'. At a recent function with that group one of our
members brought shirts for all of us and on the back was the question, 'Got
Root?'. I was seeing a pattern!
It begs the question in my heart: what are we rooted to, who
are our roots entwined with and how are we nourishing those roots? "Therefore, as you have received Jd 3 Christ Jesus the Lord, Eph 3:11 walk in Him, rooted and
built up in
Him Eph 2:20 and established in the faith, just as
you were taught Eph ; Heb 13:9 overflowing
with gratitude."
Colossians 2:6,7
By His Grace
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