Sunday Thoughts...

For this morning's Sunday School class Ethan memorize Proverbs 3:4-6.  All week long we have been working on the powerful words, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight." Also this week I have been working on the Certain Truth Ministries newsletter.  Ironically my husband quoted this verse in his article... As I've been meditating on this verse... it has really made me think!

After church we went hiking around our favorite little ponds....

The water is mostly frozen... the frost was beautiful... 

and it was surprisingly warm... 

 Ethan tried and tried to break the ice with rocks, but it was frozen solid...

 Eden tried to break the ice (too)! At one point I worried she was going to fall in... and later on when she wandered OUT ON THE ICE I really thought she was going to fall in!!!! (talk about a near heart attack... I thought I was going to go for a "rescue" swim!!!)

 As a parent I find myself instructing all the time.... ALL THE TIME!  I wonder when they will listen, when they will learn... when they will TRUST ME!  A few weeks ago I realized that I demand perfect behavior out of them instead of understanding that it is my job to INSTRUCT!  They disobey because they need to learn HOW to obey... their sinful hearts need a Savior.  This realization is changing my parenting style.  I now discipline to teach, to instruct not to gain perfectly behaved kiddos... I desperately want them to acknowledge God in all their ways!

 My kiddos lean on their own understanding all the time.  They don't trust me... their hearts are fully rebellious bent on going their own way (99% of the time)... As I see this in them it reminds me to pray that God will work in their little hearts making them soft toward Him... I am just like them... I lean on my own understanding A LOT... just yesterday I was stewing about some thing... The more I thought about it the angrier I became - until I realized that I have a choice to STOP cultivating bitterness and instead choose to trust my Father with all of my heart!  This "situation" is His concern not mine... I choose to trust... I choose to lean on His understanding and not my own!

 We found a giant pile of rocks and Ethan immediately climbed right to the top... I was watching them climb, slide, and throw rocks and my mind drifted toward control.  

Why do we all want control?  My kids constantly want control.  

 If I say, "Please don't throw rocks over your brothers head!"  

Eden will choose to do what I asked her not too... most of the time!

See how the rock barely missed Ethan!!!!  I think about how God gives me boundaries... He does so because He loves me.  He doesn't do it to ruin my fun... He does it for my SAFETY and the safety of others.  I tell Ethan and Eden all the time that when I tell them something, limit them to something, or take something away it is not because I am mean... it is because I am aware of what they are not.   "Please trust me!" Boundaries are a good thing.  I am learning how to set boundaries for my kids - I have realized that I've let them have way too much control - because I was uncertain about my parenting.  Now I am realizing that whether what I say is fair... it is what goes...

 They learn... I learn... we grow together.  I pray that together we will, "Trust in the Lord with all our hearts, that we would not lean on our own understand but in all our ways acknowledge Him and He will make our path straight!"