June 28, 2008

• Parenting

  You Know You’re a Parent When …

  You eat dinner on dinosaur-decorated placemats
  You catch yourself singing the “Barney” theme song — in public.
  You stop the tears by taping broken crayons back together.
  You long for nothing more than a good night’s sleep
  You know the best way to scrape dried Cheerios off the floor
  You share the storage closet with a miniature broom and vacuum cleaner.
  You take phone messages in crayon.
  You always buy the big pack of batteries– but you can never find one when you need one.
  You find action figures in your washing machine
  You find yourself cutting your spouse’s meat into bite-sized pieces

  Martin Luther once said, “People who do not like children are swine, dunces, and blockheads, not worthy to be called men and women, because they despise the blessing of God, the Creator and Author of marriage.”

  (Deu 6:4-7 KJV) Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: {5} And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. {6} And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: {7} And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

  There’s lots of good books and other materials on parenting, but the most important thing that you can be reading for the sake of your children is God’s Word. And more than just reading it, it needs to get into your heart.

  Your kids need you to be having a daily time in God’s Word. They need to see you as a mom or dad who reads their Bible. But they also need to see you living it out as well.

  Billy Graham wrote, “Children will invariably talk, eat, walk, think, respond, and act like their parents. Give them a target to shoot at. Give them a goal to work toward. Give them a pattern that they can see clearly, and you give them something that gold and silver cannot buy.”

  (2 Chr 17:3 KJV) And the LORD was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the first ways of his father David, and sought not unto Baalim;
  
  (2 Chr 20:32 KJV) And he walked in the way of Asa his father, and departed not from it, doing that which was right in the sight of the LORD.
  
  (2 Chr 26:4 KJV) And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah did.
  
  (2 Chr 27:2 KJV) And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father Uzziah did: howbeit he entered not into the temple of the LORD. And the people did yet corruptly.
  
  (2 Th 3:6-9 KJV) Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us. {7} For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you; {8} Neither did we eat any man’s bread for nought; but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you: {9} Not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us.
  
  100 years from now it will not matter:

  What kind of car I drove.
  What kind of house I lived in.
  How much money I had in my account.
  Nor what my clothes looked like.
  But the world may be a little better.
  Because I was important in the life of a child.
  – Unknown

  • 7:00 am
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