Posts Tagged ‘Train up a child’

• God Is The One We Should Please.

  Date: 2009.09.10 | Category: Bible, Christian, Encouragement, God, Life, Prayer, Scripture, Train up a child, Widows and Orphans | Response: 0

  This is a devotional written for children, but the message is the same to all of us.

  As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” (Colossians 2:6-9)

  “Say ‘Mama,’ Stella. ‘Mama!’”

  “No, Stella. You can say ‘Daddy,’ better, can’t you! Say ‘Daddy’!”

  Jimmy laughed at the expression on his baby sister’s face as she looked back and forth from her mom to her dad. “You guys are going to confuse her!” Jimmy said to his parents. “Stella’s going to come out with something like ‘Dama’ or ‘Maddy’ if you both keep saying your names!”

  Dad laughed, too. “You’re right, Jimmy. We probably ought to give her little brain a little break. We don’t want to make her dizzy just trying to make one of us happy.”

  “True,” said Mom. “Besides, she doesn’t really have to say our names to please us. Both of us will love her whether she says our names or not!” Then Mom grinned. “But she’s going to say ‘Mama’ first!”

  Do you ever get the feeling that there are too many people to please? Your siblings want you to share with them. Your friends want you to play with them. Your parents expect you to behave a certain way. Your teachers assign you projects and want you to listen in class. You might have chores to do and family to visit and pets to take care of. Have you ever thought about how many “rules” there are just for good manners? Saying “please,” saying “thank you,” holding a certain fork a certain way, chewing with your mouth closed, and the list goes on! Sometimes keeping track of all you have to do and say can become very overwhelming!

  Colossians 2:6-9 says that if our trust is in Christ Jesus the Lord, we ought to walk in a way that pleases Him. It says that all kinds of people have all kinds of opinions, and you might meet people who will try to spoil (ruin) you with their godless opinions and worthless ideas. But we ought to be rooted in Christ, living to please Him. This passage says that Christ is the fulness of the Godhead bodily, which means that Christ is God! He is the Creator. He is the Redeemer. He is the highest Authority, and all other authorities (like your parents and teachers) were put in their positions by Him! Christ is God. If your goal in life is to please God above everyone else, then you will be obeying His Word. You can be sure that you will be doing what you ought to be doing!

  Did you ever think about how God is really the only One we have to think about pleasing? Yes – of course – it is good to practice good manners and be concerned about other people. But ultimately, if we are growing in the knowledge of God’s Son and walking worthy of Christ – then we can trust that we are living in a way that pleases Him. And God is the most important One to please. If we please God, we will usually make our parents and other people happy automatically.

  God is the main One we have to be concerned about pleasing.

  My Response:
  » Is my life pleasing God right now?
  » How can I show I am more concerned about pleasing God than about pleasing others?

  This devotion and more can be found at http://devos.kids4truth.com

• “I Just Want to be a Mommy”

  Date: 2009.02.02 | Category: Christian, Home Tips, Homeschool, Life, Train up a child | Response: 0

  This article spoke to me and encouraged me when I was feeling overwhelmed as a homeschooling Mum.  I have been busy with the beginning of our school year and thought to post this as my blog entry for today. Enjoy.

  Our first year of homeschooling, I had a seven-year-old, a five-year-old, and a three-year-old, plus a constant struggle with depression partly rooted in a lack of spiritual growth. At this time, I found another Christian mom, with children my children’s ages, in whom I saw wonderful spiritual maturity. This other mom agreed to spiritually mentor me. For a year, we met together, did a Bible study, memorized Scripture, and discussed the practical aspects of our spiritual walk as Christian women. I was so grateful for the investment this woman made in my life. That year my friend’s children were in a Christian school, but the following year she decided to homeschool them.

  Although our mentoring time lasted only one year, we continued to maintain a friendship. After a year of homeschooling, my friend chose to put her boys back in a Christian school. I can still remember her words to me that afternoon as I sat in her home, and she justified her actions, “Oh, Teri. I just want to be a mommy. I want to welcome my boys home in the afternoon as their mommy. I don’t want to have to be their teacher too. I just want to be their mommy.” I recall driving home that afternoon in tears. “Lord, I just want to be a mommy too. I want all the happy, fun things about being a mommy with none of the difficulties.”

  In my mind, I pictured my friend’s children coming home from school in the afternoon. She would have spent the day in personal Bible study, prayer, exercise, housecleaning, reading, ministry, sewing, and cookie baking. As the children bounced in the door, they would be met by a beautiful, smiling mommy. I was sure she would have taken a long shower and blown her hair dry too. The children would smell the freshly baked cookies and scramble for a seat at the table. There they would happily discuss the excitement of their day in school. Finally, they would head outside to play while my friend started supper in peace and quiet. I just want to be a mommy too!

  As I prayed about my heart-wrenching discussion with my friend and my personal feelings about wanting to “just be a mommy” too, the Lord soon began to show me some things. He made me realize that my homeschooling lifestyle was “just being a mommy” in its fullest sense. As we begin a new school year, perhaps you are struggling with feelings of not wanting to tackle another homeschool year. Maybe you have even thought the thoughts of my friend when she told me she “just wanted to be a mommy.” It could be that this is your first year of homeschooling, and you are concerned about being both a teacher and a mommy. Perhaps your role as a homeschool mom has lost the joy it once had. Together let’s encourage one another in the direction the Lord has led each of us in homeschooling. After all, I just want to be a mommy!

  What does being a mommy really mean? Titus 2:4 tells the old women to “teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children.” Easily seen then, my role as a mommy is to love my children. Practically speaking, how is this done? Do I have more chance to love my children when they are away from home at school for seven or eight hours or when I have them home with me all day? The answer to this one is obvious: when they are home with me. By loving my children, I just want to be a mommy!

  During those extra hours I have to “just be a mommy,” I can tell my children over and over again how special they are to me, how much I love them, how wonderful they are, and how blessed I am to “just be their mommy.” I have seven more hours a day to give them hugs, pat them, put my arm around them, smile at them, kiss them, laugh with them – opportunities to “just be a mommy.” The bottom line is, “I just want to be a mommy!”

  What about the time we spend in homeschooling? Have I taken off my “mommy” hat and replaced it with a “teacher” one? I am taking the place of a teacher in a classroom in my children’s lives, but I am still “Mommy” in the fullest sense of the word. My mommy role as a teacher began from the first words I quietly whispered in each newborn baby’s tiny ear. Almost everything my children have learned in their young lives, this mommy has had a part in teaching them. Being an official teacher in our homeschool is simply an extension of this natural teaching relationship that exists between a mother and her child. Really and truly, I just want to be a mommy!

  I thought about what it meant to be a mommy teacher beyond simply teaching my children facts and figures. What teacher in a school loves their students like I love mine? What teacher’s main goal in life is to see their students grow up to love the Lord Jesus Christ with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength? What teacher is going to cuddle a sick student on the couch, tucking that student in with extra pillows and blankets, while loving and consoling him through his misery? Hey, I just want to be a mommy!

  Perhaps I should consider the time spent in disciplining or correcting my children during school hours. Maybe I am not being a “mommy” then. Once again Scripture assures me that this is part of my mommy role. “My son, keep thy father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother” (Proverbs 6:20). My friend didn’t like to have to make her children do their schoolwork. Sometimes they cried about what they were to do for school and this was part of why she abandoned homeschooling in favor of “just being a mommy.” One of my most important “mommy” responsibilities is to prepare my children for life. If they face a difficult task in their school and choose to cry about it, this is my chance, as their mommy, to encourage them to pray about it, to put forth some effort, to try again, and to rest in the Lord. What opportunity these hours my children are home with me during school time afford. Wow, I just want to be a mommy!

  Every day I have a choice set before me. I can look at my homeschooling with resentment and think, “Lord, I just want to be a mommy,” while sending my children away to school and doing what I want to do all day. I might think these same thoughts without acting on them but all the while wishing I could put them in school. It will still affect my attitude toward my children and my homeschooling. Alternatively, I can view homeschooling with rejoicing in my heart and say, “Lord, I am so grateful to just be a mommy. Thank you that homeschooling is part of the mothering I can give to my children. I know there are moms who want to homeschool their children but can’t. I know there will be difficult days for us as we homeschool our children. Yet, it remains with me as to what I will allow in my thoughts.” May we be mothers who relish our roles as homeschooling mommies. Let’s never forget, I just want to be a mommy!

  Written by Teri Maxwell, co-author of Managers of Their Homes, Managers of Their Chores, Keeping Our Children’s Hearts: Our Vital Priority, Just Around the Corner, and author of Homeschooling with a Meek and Quiet Spirit.

  Teri Maxwell is the mother of eight children and began homeschooling in 1985. Three of her children have graduated from homeschool, two are still living in their home and one is married. Teri is a homeschool conference speaker and has been writing monthly articles of encouragement for homeschooling moms since 1990.

• Poptropica and Australian Girl Dolls

  Date: 2008.11.02 | Category: Home Tips, Life, Train up a child | Response: 0

  Today I’m going to talk about these two things.

  The first I heard about from a friend.

  

  Poptropica

  I explored it on Friday while the International Rules Footie was on. I found I couldn’t open it on explorer, only firefox. Poptropica is a game for 6-15yo children. It’s designers have intentionally made it so that you can’t input anything that may be explicit or questionable. The first thing your child (or you) would do is choose a automatically generated character, complete with a cool name like Sleepy Leopard or Hungry Jumper. Then they can customise the look by changing skin colour, hair style and colour and clothes. The character then has to go into the virtual world and explore, find and learn. As you go through you’ll be prompted once to save the game, at this point you choose a screen name and password that is never seen by anyone but you have to remember it to login to your character again. To leave you just close the window and it automatically remembers where you were and you go on from that point. In the “cafes” you get to “interact” with other real people but all the conversation is pregenerated like “What is you favourite colour” and the answers are pregenerated. You can “battle” as well, by playing soduko, paintwar, skidiving, hoops and many more games. TIP: As you go through always click on the people and they’ll tell you helpful stuff.

  Australian Girl Doll was created by a frustrated Perth Grandmother who couldn’t find a nice doll for her granddaughter.

  

  They are to be released in a few days. All dolls come with a pair of thongs (for Americans, they’re for your feet! You call them flipflops!) how Australian is that! They aren’t movie stars or catwalk models, they’re girls. They like animals, music and sport and are just like your children. So if you’re sick of the Barbie and Bratz invasion, check them out at Australian Girl Doll.

  I found out about it through one of Dave’s Blogging Friends, Wayne.
  

• Casting down the Imagination

  Date: 2008.08.30 | Category: Christian, God, Life, Scripture, Train up a child | Response: 0

  I was reading an email from Crosswalk Homeschool Encouragement.  It is right in the area God seems to be concentrating in my life at the moment – the mind.  Recently I’ve been slowly reading and making a study of the book “Loving God with All Your Mind” by Elizabeth George.  The main verse she presents is Phillipians 4:8 Whatever things are true… think on these things.  Now from a Christian point of view (and mine!), that is whatever is written in the Bible, what God says is the truth.  It also says Jesus is the truth and the truth shall set you free.  So I have been casting down imaginations and thinking on what is true.  What is true about God, what is true about me, what is true about other people and what they are thinking and what is true about my life now, not the past and not the future.  You have no idea how much mental space that has cleared up.  God is good. 

  Here is that email. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

  Casting down the Imagination

  Kym Wright

  “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ…” 2 Corinthians 10:5 One of Adolf Hitler’s more famous sayings is: “If you tell a lie often enough, and loud enough, people will believe it.” And, often, our spiritual enemy tries to use this very trick on us. Imaginations, as defined in the dictionary, is the formation of a mental image of something that is neither perceived as real nor present to the senses. It is an unrealistic idea or notion; a fancy. A plan or a scheme. It came on so very slowly, I’m really not sure when it began. I was just disgruntled with being a mom. It wasn’t fun anymore. The joy was gone, replaced by a sense of failure and a desire to succeed at anything outside the home. Put the children in school. Be a career woman. Be a somebody — as if motherhood is for wimps and “nobodies.” I plodded through the homeschooling days. No joy, but doing the work nonetheless, committed to being home. In my mind I knew this was a wonderful calling, that I was doing a great work, that my time investment counted, and my occupation was worthy. But, the accusations and lies persisted. No joy. Do it anyway. You’re not doing well. So, I’ll persist in a poor quality job. You’re doomed to failure. Probably, but I’ve committed to staying home to raise and teach the children. One day, one of our older children came to me and said, “Mom, thank you so much for spending your time teaching us. We’d never have made it so far without you.” I was floored, astonished. My mind whirled with questions. Am I really doing an okay job? Are the children really turning out all right? At that moment, I recognized the enemy’s voice, and realized I had been believing — not just one lie, but many lies. The foundation was an imagination — something in my mind, which wasn’t true — and my mind had allowed a larger plan of the enemy to discourage me. My failure was an unrealistic notion. My heart thrilled with the question, “And just how far could I go if I believed this venture was a success?” So, I followed the biblical example and cast down the imagination. I just tossed out this image which had exalted itself against God’s plan for me. And I replaced it with this new image: me enjoying my calling. The children doing well in life — for indeed they were. Contentment and joy. Success in fulfilling my mission in life. So, I pose the question, What has the enemy stolen from you? What image is he trying to foist upon you, to steal the joy in finding God’s best and success for your life? Let’s reclaim the joy. Challenge the lies in our minds. Declare war on the father of lies. Cast down those wrong images, and let’s raise up the vision God has for us.
  

  ---

  Mark & Kym Wright have homeschooled since the mid-80s. They have 8 children, having graduated 4. Kym pens the “Learn and Do” unit studies. You can visit her website at: www.Learn-and-Do.com. First published in Weekly Wakeup with Kym Wright, a free e-Couragement for moms. Subscribe to The Mother’s Heart magazine, a premium online publication for mothers with hearts in their homes, published by Kym. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= There is a scripture that comes to my mind when I read about that lady losing her joy of homeschooling.  I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. 3 John 1:3-5 For me homeschooling is not only about reading, writing and maths, it’s about teaching the girls about God and the truth. 

• God is wherever there is Love

  Date: 2008.06.23 | Category: God, Life, Photos, Train up a child | Response: 0

  I received this email today.  I’ve seen it before and am glad I got it again so I could post it up here.
  This is one of the kindest things I’ve ever experienced.  I have no way to know who sent it, but there is a kind soul working in the dead letter office of the US postal service.
  

  

  Our 14 year old dog, Abbey, died last month. The day after she died, my 4 year old daughter Meredith was crying and talking about how much she missed Abbey. She asked if we could write a letter to God so that when Abbey got to heaven, God would recognize her. I told her that I thought we could so she dictated these words:
  Dear God,
  Will you please take care of my dog? She died yesterday and is with you in heaven. I miss her very much. I am happy that you let me have her as my dog even though she got sick. I hope you will play with her. She likes to play with balls and to swim.  I am sending a picture of her so when you see her you will know that she is my dog. I really miss her
  Love, Meredith.
  We put the letter in an envelope with a picture of Abbey and Meredith and addressed it to God/Heaven We put our return address on it.  Then Meredith pasted several stamps on the front of the envelope because she said it would take lots of stamps to get the letter all the way to heaven. That afternoon she dropped it into the letter box at t he post office. A few days later, she asked if God had gotten the letter yet. I told her that I thought He had.
  Yesterday, there was a package wrapped in gold paper on our front porch addressed, “To Meredith” in an unfamiliar hand.  Meredith opened it.  Inside was a book by Mr. Rogers called, “When a Pet Dies.” Taped to the inside front cover was the letter we had written to God in its opened envelope. On the opposite page was the picture of Abbey & Meredith and this note:
  Dear Meredith,
  Abbey arrived safely in heaven.  Having the picture was a big help.  I recognized Abbey right away. Abbey isn’t sick anymore.  Her spirit is here with me just like it stays in your heart.  Abbey loved being your dog.  Since we don’t need our bodies in heaven, I don’t have any pockets to keep your picture in, so I am sending it back to you in this little book for you to keep and have something to remember Abbey by.
  Thank you for the beautiful letter and thank your mother for helping you write it and sending it to me What a wonderful mother you have. I picked her especially for you.
  I send my blessings every day and remember that I love you very much.
  By the way, I am wherever there is love.
  Love, God

• Summer Fun

  Date: 2008.06.19 | Category: Christian, Life, Train up a child | Response: 0

  As the temperatures are dropping here in Merredin, the opposite side of the world is enjoying the warmth of summer.  I was just reading some emails and one of them from ‘The Old Schoolhouse’ was titled “Summer Fun”.  It struck me as weird as I’m freezing my hands off here, so I thought I’d read it.  One contributor’s article I found valuable, no matter what time of the year or season it is.  Enjoy the read.

  It’s Just Common Sense
  Ruth Beechick, Curriculum Specialist

  
  I’m not going to add to the summer fun ideas that is the topic for this week. Instead, I’m going to suggest that you turn off your schooling mindset sometimes this summer. Do things for yourself and let the children do for themselves.Homeschool kids aren’t usually the ones who say “I’m bored. What can I do?” But if one ever does, he needs to learn how to get unbored without somebody planning all his time for him.

  Children need “downtime.” They can wander from thought to thought or from activity to activity. Free play in the back yard or wherever develops thinking skills. And thinking on their own develops creativity. That’s not to say that you’ll see something creative come out of a free summer afternoon, but what transpires in the brain develops creativity anyway. This works with solitary play as well as playing with companions.

  So take a recess from “teaching.” Don’t try to sneak in some learning through summer fun activities. Enough activities will come along. Let the downtime come along too.

  Just one teaching activity: If you can manage it, get to the Creation Museum.  www.AnswersinGenesis.org.
  
  –Ruth

• Consumption of the American Male

  Date: 2008.03.29 | Category: Life, Train up a child | Response: 0

  By: Debi PearlHave you ever seen teenage boys slouching with their pants hanging limp, walking down the sidewalk like a loose-jointed snake?

  That kind of walk certainly isn’t natural. They had to watch other kids and practice the jives to create body movements like that. One day, after my girls came home from a meeting, I asked them if so-and-so’s cousin, a recent arrival to the community, looked like the other members of the family. “Oh,” they said, “He looked like them, except he had this empty, computer generated look on his face all the time, like he was some kind of an image instead of a real person. Like, knock, knock, who’s there? Nobody; didn’t you notice. I think its in style.” Instead of real people, his parents gave him a TV and a computer to mold him into a digital image instead of a man. The

  America male is being eaten by the gigabyte.

  I love it!  You can read more from Debi at www.nogreaterjoy.org