You are currently browsing the monthly archive for January 2011.
So in my quiet time today I came across this verse:
“He turned their heart to hate His people, to deal craftily with His servants.” (vs. 25)
The Psalmist is basically describing God’s faithfulness to Israel after they were in Egypt and became enslaved to them. By the end of the psalm, the psalmist writes how Isreal was delivered and that God gave them all these many blessings “so that they might keep His statutes and observe His laws”.
What struck me was how clear and simple this truth was portrayed-that God has the power over us to change our hearts. In this case, it was the Egyptians heart being hardened and given to evil. It was also not the choice of the Egyptians, but God’s will that prevailed. How big He is! I cannot comprehend it, but I pray that He will soften my heart to follow after Him. God controls all of me-the breath to live and my heart to seek (or not) seek Him. I believe He is good, or that would be a very scary thought. As it is, I am comforted to know that a good God has everything in His control.
Well I finally finished one of the (many) books that I began reading several months ago. When I opened this book, I was set to like it. Having grown up hearing about Dr. Dobson and even reading some of his other materials, I figured this book would be great. Here are my thoughts on this updated book:
One of the topics that Dr. Dobson discusses is the controversial topic of spanking, which he wholeheartedly supports. He explaned the need for spanking (disrespect and outright rebellion), and he made it VERY clear that spanking is NOT child abuse. He explained the appropriate times and places to spank, being wise in how you go about it. I agreed with Dobson’s view and plan on using this tool in the future for my kids.
Dr. Dobson also set up a clear explanation of procedures (and departure from them) and rules (and disobeying/disrespect). For instance, a procedure might be that your kid put their clothes in the basket when he takes them off at night. If he doesn’t, you remind him that he is supposed to do it. This is a procedure. If, however, after you’ve asked him to do this, he ignores what you say (or mouths back, etc), this is disrespect and disobedience. The latter should be punished with, say, spanking, but the former should not be punished-a simple reminder will do. He also adds rewards to the procedures, which helps kids follow them. (You get $1 if you keep your room clean, etc.) This idea of rules vs. procedures is actually something I’ve used in my classroom and it works very well.
This pretty much concluded the first half of the book, and at this point, it went downhill.
Dr. Dobson then began to write about other topics other than discipline: achievement, learning disabilities, drugs, and purity, among others. While he had some relevant and interesting things to say about these topics, I felt they weren’t appropriate for this book. It disappointed me that he strayed off topic so much! I understand that these issues could play into how you discipline, but I felt his book would have been more effective had he stayed to the point. Had he offered more techniques and examples of appropriate parent/child discipline, I would have thought it a great read and worth my time. As it was, I finished the book disappointed. Overall, I’d only recommend someone to read the first half.
One of these days I am going to go through all my crafting and art supplies and make myself finish all the projects I once had in mind or started long ago. However, today is not that day. Alas. I am starting a new project. If I finish it, I will post about it on here. My hopes are high, because I have a deadline! Here is a sneak peek:
Pretty paper
After writing my last post, I tried to think of what my parents wanted to pass on to me. I’m not sure what the answer is, but here are a few of the good things that they taught me:
1. God is in control (and he is good)-This has been proven over and over again in my family.
2. Make wise choices-I think both of my parents taught me this in different ways, from my dad reading me Psalm 1 to my mom teaching me about what it means to be a woman. I probably also got the luxury of seeing my older brothers make mistakes and cause my parents grief over it.
3. We are blessed to be a blessing-my dad drilled this into my head, and always showed by example that people are more important than money.
4. When cleaning, always be thorough. (Thanks mom…if only I had learned to do it more frequently!)
5. Have fun when competing. I think my dad passed this along, because he always played games for fun.
6. Eat your vegetables. (But a treat is okay sometimes, too.)
7. My parents are always there for me, even if our family was a little broken.
8. Work is secondary to enjoying life. I think I learned this because dad was always free to take vacation days for whatever, and mom tried to keep me as young as possible by not letting me get a job until I was over 16. “She has her whole life to work,” I believe is what she said.
I know there are many other things, but these were the things that popped into my head. I’d be interested, Ben, Becky…anyone else in the family, to see what you would say???
What did your parents teach you?
Well, I’m trying to do a post a week, so today I’m going to write out something I’m a little excited about. Matt and I started a parenting class last night at Bannockburn church called the Legacy Breakthrough class. It’s only four weeks but the premise is how to raise your children with intention. One of the first things that the pastor mentioned last night was that good parenting doesn’t just happen-it takes being intentional and purposeful in how you want to raise your kid. I don’t know from experience, but I agree that is probably true. It’s definitely easy to be a bad parent, that’s for sure!
What really excites me is that this class is kind of like setting goals and planning, two of the things I’m pretty lousy at but really want to improve in. I think that if I improve in these two areas, it will pave the way for me to improve in a lot of other areas of life (discipline, follow through, finishing things, challenging myself, etc). How can I accomplish anything if I don’t have a plan? Exactly.
Growing up so quickly!
Last night our homework was to think of some things that we really want to pass on to our kids. When Caleb leaves for college, what do Matt and I really want him to know? Here are some of the things we came up with:
1. How to have a close personal relationship with Jesus
2. That we love him no matter what
3. How to live with integrity
4. How to make wise decisions
5. How to manage money well
6. How to care for others
There were more we wrote down, but I can’t remember at the moment. I think this is definitely a challenge, because I’m (and probably Matt) still learning how to do these things myself. I’m no expert. It will be interesting to look back in 18 years and evaluate if we were able to do these things or not. My thought is that it will probably take me learning how to do #1 well along with a lot of prayer.
What would you want to pass on to your kids?
