Self-Control

"The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is now law."

Galatians 5:22

I used to be a salty-loving kind of a gal. Get a plate of chili-cheese fries in front of me and I would fight you for them. I never really understood all the jokes and memes about women's obsession with chocolate - and then I got pregnant. Suddenly, sweets - especially chocolate - was a round the clock craving. After I had Sadie, lots of friends dropped off meals for us and many of these meals had a dessert, so I had become accustomed to eating some kind of sugar almost every day. When the meals stopped (and so too, the desserts) my cravings did not. One time, I actually made my Mema's chocolate-chocolate chip cookies from scratch because I wanted something sweet so badly. I thought about buying a bag of Hershey Kisses and just having one or two a day, but I knew I would eat the whole bag in one sitting. I had a problem. I had no self-control when it came to sweets in the house. I had to quit cold turkey. No sweets in the house until I could control myself.

While the idea of self-control of chocolate and sweets is amusing, I realized this week that I had a lot of work to do with self-control but it was much bigger and more important than chocolate. You read about how I had (and sometimes still have) a problem when it came to asking for help and I was (and sometimes still am) allowing Satan to creep in and fill my head with filthy lies about my parenting, my marriage, myself and my relationship with the Lord. I realized this week as I was prepping for this final installment of the fruits of the Spirit, that I needed to have more self-control when it came to those issues. I needed to make sure that I was not allowing myself to sink back into self-pity.

Proverbs 25:28 says, "Like a city whose walls are broken through, is a person who lacks self-control." When Satan breaks through our walls and we allow ourselves to believe the blatant lies of The Creeper, our city - our hearts - become compromised. Instead of rejecting these lies, we let them fester and they slowly start to destroy us. We have the strength within us to defeat The Creeper whose only plan for our lives is destruction, but this requires the control of our thoughts and actions.

Romans 8:6 tell us, "The mind of a sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace." The good news is that as Christians, the Holy Spirit lives within us as well as all the qualities that the Spirit has - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. When we tap into these attributes, in this case we are specifically focusing on self-control, we have the power (and the responsibility) to tell Satan, "No! We will not believe your lies any longer!" Titus 2:11-12 says, "For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age."

So just as I had to put the kibosh on sweets in the house, I also need to take responsibility for not allowing the Creeper to come in and sabotage my heart. Just as I need to show restraint for sweets, I need to show restraint on allowing my mind to become polluted with filth. I need to lean on God's Spirit to help me control my thoughts and remind me that I am valuable to Him and His purposes in my life.

Weekly Parent Goal:
1. Ask the Holy Spirit to control our mind and create a clean heart.

This was one of my personal goals that I listed in the Faithfulness post but this time, I have a different spin on it. We learned in Romans 8:6 that the Spirit can control our mind and do so with peacefulness. When those negative thoughts come into our minds - and all parents hear them -  we need to stand up to The Creeper and tell him to beat it! We need to control our minds to reject the filth he is trying to spread across our thoughts and focus instead on our Father who loves us. We need to ask the Lord to help us control our minds and focus on His plans, not Satan's or our own.

This week's application for kids:
1. Blessing your kiddos.

Kids are naturally impulsive and the same it true for their words. This blessing from Mary Ruth Swope in The Power of Blessing your Children is a blessing of pleasant words which takes a great deal of self-control not only for our little ones, but for adults too. Pray this blessing over your kids:

In the name of Jesus Christ:

I bless you with an understanding of how important it is in life to set a guard over your mouth and to keep watch over the words that come from your lips. You will not speak negative and hurtful words that cause pain and wound spirits. 

May you learn quickly that a soft answer turns away wrath and that words thoughtfully spoken bring great rewards with them. You will learn to express pleasant words, profitable advice, and kind speech in all your conversations.

2. Try and activity that explains self-control to your kids.
Literary Example

One of my favorite books to read to my students was My Mouth is a Volcano! by Julia Cook. It talks about a boy who has a hard time interrupting which is something that most kids can understand. This book a great way to teach children how to engage in polite conversation and understand that everybody's words are important and should be heard. It is a great way to teach kids about self-control when it comes to their words.

Sesame Street Clip

I don't know why we pay for cable. If there was a package that only offered ESPN, HGTV and PBS, it would be called the Carlson Bundle. Zachary loves PBS and next to Dinosaur Train, Sesame Street is his favorite. I love how they have celebrities on the show to help explain the word of the day. in this clip, Ian McKellen and Cookie Monster are showing an example for the word "restrain" which ties in nicely with self-control. After I watched this with Zachary, we talked about how sometimes we have to wait - even if we really really want to do something. However, he is two so I know this is something we have to discuss every day - let's be honest, sometimes every minute.

Excuse for Sweets

Bring on another baking activity! Making cookies or brownies is a great way to show self-control because you have to wait for the end result. Plus, you get to eat something delicious. After you have baked your delicious treats, talk about how we have to show self-control by not eating all of the treats at once. If we did that, we would have a stomach ache and sweets are a once in a while treat so we wouldn't get the nutrients we need from eating only cookies. Talk about other ways we have to show self-control.

3. Weekly Scripture Challenge.

Though this scripture is a little longer than the ones I have posted in the past, I think this verse is a great reminder to us about the power that we have inside us. So this week's verse is the same that I mentioned above. Try to memorize this verse this week as a reminder of our focus this week and encourage your children to do so too!

"For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age."

Titus 2:11-12  

***I can hardly believe that two months ago I simply said "Yes" to God. He gently nudged me to write a series of blogs about how to parent with the fruits of the Spirit as a way to encourage moms but I had no idea that He would be working in me too. I have been stretched, broken, healed and exhilarated as I went through this journey. You as readers have also been a blessing to me with your words of encouragement and also your willingness to share your hearts with me. Thank you! It is amazing how simple this task was. All I was asked to do was to write - which is something I love. I did not know that I would come out stronger and feeling more loved and valued than ever before. My prayer for you is that when you feel that nudging from the the Lord, that you would emphatically say "Yes!" and allow the Lord to work through you. 

Maybe for some of you that nudging might be to open your hearts to Jesus. Maybe He has been calling you to reach out to Him. If you were reading this series and don't have a personal relationship with the Lord, I encourage you to take His gift of salvation. It is for everyone, no matter what your past may look like. We are all sinners and no one is deserving of His mercy, but He gave it to us anyway when Jesus died on the cross for our sins. There are no strings attached. His love is for all of us. John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life." By accepting Jesus into your heart, not only will you get the ultimate gift of spending eternity with Him in heaven, but you will also be filled with the Holy Spirit who will never leave you, who will help you in times of trouble and who will fill you with all the attributes that we talked about during this journey: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Mary Ruth Swope has a prayer of salvation at the end of her book. Pray this prayer in faith and receive Jesus in your heart:

Heavenly Father, I come to You in the name of Jesus. I am a sinner. I ask You to forgive me of my sin. I confess that Jesus is Lord. And I believe in my heart that You raised Him from the dead. Thank You for coming into my heart, for giving me Your Holy Spirit as You have promised, and for being Lord over my life. Amen.

Gentleness

"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law."

Galatians 5:22

After I posted last week's blog about faithfulness, I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I have been working through digging myself out of the pit of despair but I am still feeling very raw, very exposed and very exhausted. So it seems divinely appropriate that the next attribute of the fruit of the Spirit is God's sweet gentleness.When studying this characteristic, I came across the following verse that brought me comfort as I seek to find shelter in the Lord's gentleness:

"He tends his flock like a shepard; He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young."
Isaiah 40:11

We are the flock and the Lord is the shepard. The shepard loves his flock and tenderly cares for them. The last line is my favorite though, "he gently leads those that have young." Guess who that could be? It's us! The Lord knows how tiring it is to be a good parent. He knows that this is the hardest and most important job we will ever have. During our lowest lows and highest highs, He is always with us. He sees us rocking our babies for hours in the middle of the night. He sees us with our spit up stained shirts. He sees us cry in desperation when our children test and break our limits. He knows we are smiling on the outside but are fragile on the inside and so he is gentle with us mamas (and daddys too). 

God sees us as precious and valuable. When we are feeling beaten down, tired, and hopeless, He wants to be near to us and give us a hug. When we embrace the negative self-talk that The Creeper tries to pass off as truth, the Lord comes alongside of us and whispers our great value to Him. He gently leads us to repent our selfish ways. He gently leads us to those who will help us. He gently leads us back to Him.

Since becoming a mom, Matthew 11:28-30 was the verse I had on repeat mode especially during the nightly nursing sessions when I was exhausted and lonely. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 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.” As parents, this verse describes us perfectly. We are weary and burdened. Raising these babies is hard but the Lord tells us that he is gentle and humble. He is ready and willing to love on us, but he leaves the choice up to us. He tells us to come to him but this isn't a command, it is a heartfelt offer. 

In those weeks leading up to me admitting my issues with control and believing the lies that The Creeper had been telling me for so long, I felt hopeless, lonely and entitled. The whole time, I know the Lord was saying, "Pam, come to me. I know you are weary. I know you are burdened. I will give you rest. I know you are worried about what's to come. I will gently lead you. You just have to choose me." When I finally did choose Him, I felt like the heavy ugliness that has been weighing me down for weeks was lifted. I felt like I could breathe again. I felt like I could genuinely smile again. I felt like my restlessness had calmed. I am not saying that I don't still have a lot of work ahead of me - because I do. I still need to choose to love Troy first. I still need to choose to be thankful. I still need to choose to flee from The Creeper. These are all choices that I mentally have to make every single day, but when I realized what I was allowing to happen to myself, my family and my relationship with the Lord, I asked for forgiveness and was given the Lord's gentleness as I begin to heal.

Weekly parent goal:

1. Find refuge in the Lord and linger in His gentleness.

I received a lot of feedback from you all after you read about my failures. Many of you echoed that these are issues you struggle with as well. Friends, I urge you to speak out your own truths. Go to your spouse or close friend and tell them what is trying to steal your joy as a parent, spouse or woman. Talk about it with the Lord. Then rest in His gentleness. Visualize him wrapping his loving arms around you. Close your eyes and let Him take control. He will not abandon you, especially when you are choosing Him. Let Him gently lead you.

2. Do something restful for yourself.
Ooooh, this is a hard one for me. It sounds so simple, but for many of us moms, we feel guilty doing something for ourselves when our family is back at home, probably naked and starving (do you see my control issues?). Even though it is hard, we need to try to take care of ourselves every once in a while, otherwise we will burn out. It's like when the flight attendant on a plane tells you to put on your oxygen mask on first and then help your neighbor. You can't help your neighbor is you have already passed out. Encourage your spouse or close friend to hold you accountable for this goal this week. Go get a pedicure, spend an hour reading or working on a project you have been thinking about. Go to Target and run down every single aisle screaming, "I have no kids with me!" Whatever you choose, while you are doing this act, cognitively allow your brain to shut down and your muscles to relax. Spend some time talking to the Lord and enjoying His gentleness. Enjoy yourself!
 

This week's application for kids:

 1. Blessing your kiddos.
In my previous posts I have used blessings written by Mary Ruth Swope in her book, The Power of Blessing Your Children. She says in her book, "One thing should be clear: we have the ability to influence both our personal lives and the future of our nation through the powerful act of speaking blessings. It is a foundation stone for successful family and community living." Of the many blessings she has listed in her book, there is not a blessing on gentleness, but there is a blessing of assurance which I think aligns well with our topic this week.

In the name of Jesus Christ:

I bless you with assurance that God will search for you if you are lost and will bind you up if you are broken and will strengthen you if you are sick. Indeed, He will always be seeking you as one of His sheep, and He will deliver you to a safe place if you wander off the right pathway.

He will never leave you or forsake you; the Lord is your helper, so do not fear. May you, the beloved of the Lord, rest securely in Him who surrounds you with His loving care and preserves you from every harm. 

You may be sure that God will do what He has promised.

2. Try an activity that explains gentleness to your kids.

Rephrase your sentences.     Our house can be pretty noisy. I am convinced that Zachary loves to make a ton of noise just to see how long it will take to drive his parents crazy. One of his current pastimes is opening the kitchen drawers and slamming them closed. It scares the heck out of me every time. Instead of yelling at him to knock it off (which I sometimes do), I try to reinforce the behavior that I want to see. I generally say something like this, "Oohh, that was loud! Can you show me how you close that drawer gently?" And every time, he opens the drawers and closes it gently with a proud smile, and of course we make a big deal about what a wonderful job he did and how I could hardly hear the drawer close! Maybe the first few times, show your child what gently looks like and then ask him/her to mimic that behavior.

Go to a petting zoo.     Zachary, like most toddlers, loves animals. His favorite animals are our pets,

Here is Zachary, sitting on our cat, not showing gentleness.

our dog Bruce and our cat Olivia. We seriously have the most patient and loving pets. Sometimes, Zachary can be found laying next to Olivia, sucking his thumb and letting her furry tail tickle his toes. Other times, Zachary can be found filling Bruce's food bowl and then calling for "Brucie-Bruce" to come for dinner. And then there are the times where Zachary is not so gentle, like when he his trying to run Bruce over with his toy lawn mower and poor Bruce rings the bells to go outside only to take a nap on the warm (and quiet) patio. Olivia seems to be a glutton for punishment because even though she could get away from Zachary, she chooses to stay and allows for him to sit on her or try to herd her around the house. Kids don't always know what attributes like the fruits of the Spirit look like. They need to be modeled for them. When you want your child to be gentle, tell them what that looks like. For example, "Zachary, Olivia probably doesn't like it when you throw your football at her face. That probably hurts her. Can you show me how to love on Olivia gently? Maybe we could give her some scratchies?" Animals are a great way to teach kids about gentleness. Find a petting zoo and allow your kiddos to practice gentle touch with the animals. 

3.  Weekly Scripture Challenge.

Try to memorize this verse this week as a reminder of our focus for the week. Encourage your children to so too!

"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience."
Colossians 3:12

Be sure to share your experiences with this topic. What did you learn about yourself/your kids/the Lord? What activities did you do with your kids to teach them about gentleness? I would love to hear them! 

Faithfulness

"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law."

Galatians 5:22

This post is the hardest one I have had to write so far because I am about to get real with you - like brutally honest and somewhat embarrassed to be admitting all of this - real with you. The past couple of weeks have been really hard for me with this last week completely knocking me to my knees. I felt like I was failing in all aspects of my life. As a mother, I had zero patience with Zachary and Sadie. Their needs felt like boxes on my "to do" list. I would groan when Zachary would want to be held while I was nursing Sadie or when Sadie would cry while I tried to eat dinner. As a wife, I realized that I was creating a contractual marriage instead of a covenanted marriage. My husband has started to become my roommate and instead of focusing on all that he does for our family, I was focusing on what he wasn't doing for me. As a woman, I hated what I saw when I looked in the mirror and lamented about how this was the best I could do. All around, I was selfish with my husband and children. I wanted to know who was going to take care of me? When was I going to get doted on? When was it my turn to have fun or relax? As a writer, I was prideful about my blog posts. I judged my "success" of them by how many post viewings I had. Or I worried that people would think that I was a crazy religious zealot. I cried often, feeling like I was stuck in my own prison of self-pity. In my despair, I was unable to act on the parent goals that I had written about during this series.

I wasn't completing tasks with joy or looking for joy in my trials.

I wasn't stopping in my tracks to pray.

I wasn't practicing gratitude.

I wasn't letting go of worry.

I wasn't practicing patience.

I wasn't forgiving.

I realized that I was feeling such despair because of two people; "The Doer" and "The Creeper." The first person who was destroying my joy was "The Doer," who was . . . . me. I am a control freak. I think that I know what works best for me and my family and so I juggle everything by myself. I can't let Troy -or anyone else- help me because it won't get done the way I would do it. I hate asking for help because it means I can't do something. I hate asking for help because I am worried that I will be met with an excuse. I hate asking for help because I feel guilty that someone is doing something that I am physically capable of doing. So instead of reaching out to someone, I add it to my pile of stuff and make it work - and it does work, for a short amount of time. But then I become an enabler to all of those around me. They see me juggling just fine on my own so the offer to help is non-existent, which fuels my stress and the attitude I take on as a martyr.

The second person who was beating me down was "The Creeper." The Creeper is the one who tells you that you can't do something that you know you should. There are times when each of us are called by God to do something to further his kingdom. Maybe you were called to be brave and reach out to someone you didn't know. Maybe you were called to give a substantial amount of time to a cause. Or maybe you were called to write a bunch of blogs about how to parent with the fruits of the Spirit. The point is that when we are obedient to the Lord, we become a target for evil. Satan wants nothing more than to derail us from sharing God's love. My friend, Becca calls Satan "The Creeper" because he slowly creeps in and whispers things like,  

"Your kids are so needy. Just yell at them and then ignore them. You should make Zachary feel guilty for hitting you. Those kids shouldn't get to play with you. You're much too busy with more important things. Who else is going to get the laundry done, the kitchen cleaned and dinner on the table? You are totally unappreciated."

"Wow, it must be so nice for your husband to be sitting there without any kids to care for. What does he know about "work"? You're the one who deserves a break. Don't bother serving him until he serves you."

"How's the blog coming along? I wonder how many people read it? Oh wow, that post didn't get many viewings - people are probably getting tired of all your "God talk." You're not going to keep writing about God are you? You know that all your non-Christian friends are going to unfollow you on Facebook because you keep posting this propaganda. I can name five people off the top of my head who think you're a Bible thumper."

"Geeze, have you looked in a mirror today? You look like a hot mess. You probably won't ever lose all that fat around your belly. Your kids totally ruined your body. Remember when you used to be firm? Well, it's not like you were ever that firm, but you definitely looked better before kids. Why can't you look more like so-and-so who can wear a bikini? She always looks so put together with stylish clothes and beautiful hair. She has THREE kids and you only have TWO, so what is your excuse? You look frumpy in everything you put on. Could you at least put a little eye-liner on? There is no way your husband wants to be intimate with you looking like this. You're lucky you had him for this long."

I heard The Creeper say all of these disgusting lies to me. Many times a day. Most nights, I would cry in the shower and hope that tomorrow would be better, but it only got worse. The Creeper knows your innermost insecurities. He knows the buttons to press to send you deeper and deeper into the pit of despair where he hopes to slowly destroy you, your family and - most importantly - your relationship with God. The Creeper comes in and gives you a plethora of excuses as to why you can't fulfill God's purpose in your life.

I know, without a doubt, that my purpose right now, is to raise our children to love the Lord. In doing so, they need to see their parents love them in a way that reflects the love of Christ and they need to see what a God-centered marriage looks like. That means that another purpose for my life is to love, honor and respect Troy. I have also been given a purpose to use my passion for writing to encourage mothers who may feel like I do. These are all very important tasks that the Lord has given me and so of course Satan is going to attack me on all these accounts. I am listening to what my Heavenly Father is telling me to do and that threatens Satan. He likes to tell us that we aren't good enough to be of use to God, but even he knows that is a lie. We are empowered, gifted and prompted by the Holy Spirit. The same Holy Spirit who encompasses all the fruits we are studying; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. God sees us as precious and valuable.

Something needed to change and quickly. The whole time I kept looking to Troy to try and fix me but  he didn't know what going on in my head - which is something that I do often. I want my husband just to take care of the problem, but unless I communicate that problem, my man can't help. I couldn't let my joy be robbed anymore. I sat down and talked with Troy. Well, I really more sobbed at him. I am surprised he was able to understand everything I was saying through my tears (it was actually ugly bawling). I told him that I was sorry for my selfishness and for trying to do everything by myself. I told him I was going to start asking for help (which he has been telling me to do for a while now) and I already had a few things that I needed him to do:

1. I need Troy to pray for me EVERY DAY.   Being a mom is super hard which Troy (and all of you) will definitely attest too. I need to know that my life partner is supporting me through prayer every day so that when the morning takes a turn for the worse with a sudden toddler temper tantrum combined with a baby blow out diaper, I know that I am covered in prayer. I also need to be praying for Troy everyday so when he is stressed at work he knows that he is covered in prayer.

2. I need Troy and I to pray together EVERY DAY.   During the toughest times in our marriage, we have prayed out loud together, but once things went back to easy living, we stopped. I need to be praying with my husband everyday about things that are specific to our marriage, our parenting and our struggles.

3. I need to have quality family time.   This means that while the kids are awake, NO PHONES. No Facebook. No Instagram. No Pinterest. No surfing the web or playing games. We can answer calls or send and receive texts but anything else needs to be done during a nap time or after bed time. We have already seen our first baby turn into a two year old in what seemed like overnight. I know that kids grow fast. I don't want us to miss anything and our phones are overpowering and destroying our family time. When Troy was on his phone, I would feel lonely and isolated even when he was home because he wasn't there mentally. Or when I was on my phone, I was missing out on sweet Sadie's gummy smiles or Zachary's new learned skills because I was checking my Twitter feed. It was gross and it had to stop.

After I bawled my eyes out, Troy held me for a very long time and as I calmed down, I realized that I felt better because now it was out in the open. Now my issues could start to be resolved. Now my hurts could start to be healed. As Troy hugged me, I thought about how his faithfulness to me as his wife was much like that of the Lord's faithfulness to me as His daughter. Even though I let The Doer and The Creeper come in and start to destroy the blessings and purposes that God gave me, the Lord never left me. Even though I felt helpless and alone, the Lord was always with me. And when I repented, He opened his arms even wider to me. God is always and forever faithful to us. Psalm 91:4 says, "He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart." I love that visual.

My only goal in this life is to live in a way that when I meet my Creator in Heaven, he tells me, "Well done, good and faithful servant!" (Matthew 25:21) In order to be faithful to my Lord, I need to respond to his calling. And when I respond to his calling, I need to prepare myself for attacks from the evil one. And when The Creeper creeps in, I need to resist him, repent and turn my eyes back to the Lord, who is always faithful.

Weekly Parent Goals:

**This week, these goals are specific to me. As you can see from above, I have a lot of homework to do to dig myself out of the pit of self-pity. These goals are going to take much longer than a week. They are going to take a lifetime to work on as the ebb and flow of joy and brokenness wage through my life. Of course the Holy Spirit will speak into your heart if any of these goals resonate with your God given purpose.**

1. Ask the Holy Spirit to control my mind and create a clean heart.

Romans is probably the most underlined books in my Bible. In chapter one, we learn that the Holy Spirit convicts cleanly. He doesn't use crushing words of shame. If we are feeling guilty, we need to know that it is not from the Lord. Guilt is not a motivational tool used by the Lord because it undermines grace. When I start to find myself sinking deeper and deeper into the pit of despair, I need to ask the Lord to control my mind so that I am only thinking thoughts of the Lord. With that, I also need to ask the Lord to hit my restart button on my heart. My friend gave me a verse to meditate on while I was wallowing in my self pity. Psalm 51:10 "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me." This verse has been my reminder to ask the Lord to get rid of the filth and guilt and selfishness that I have carried in my heart and regain the joy that I have in knowing that I am a part of my Creator's family. This has been a very hard task for me to work on. Bitterness is ugly and it takes root on your heart and holds on tight. I have been reciting this verse many times, daily.

2. Have a marriage that reflects a covenant, not a contract.

Laura and Eric

We went to visit my sister and her husband over the fourth of July. I love watching how Laura and Eric interact. The word I would use to describe their marriage is 'thoughtful.' I told Eric over the weekend that he reminded me of my Pepa because he used to treat my grandma like a queen and Eric does that for Laura. Eric tried to scoff off the complement by saying that he is actually selfish because he just wants people to do the stuff for him that he does for others. But that is actually very far from selfish. One of the commands that Jesus made in the Sermon on the Mound was "Do to others as you would have done to you" (Luke 6:31). So all this time that I was bemoaning what Troy wasn't doing for me, I should have been doing those things for him. This means that if I want Troy to rub my feet more, I need to start rubbing his feet. If I want Troy to hug me more, I need to hug him more. If I want Troy to do sweet things for me more, I need to do sweet things for him. I was "keeping score" in our marriage.  Troy is the best thing that ever happened to me. Why on earth would I stoop so low as to keep score and possibly ruin one of God's greatest blessings to me? I love Troy but love is an action which means that I have to choose to do it. So my life's goal is love on Troy first . Do things for him first. Rub his feet first. (He is going to remind me of these foot rubs after reading this post!) Hug him first. Love him first.

3. Ask for help. 

We were not meant to do life alone. God created Eve for Adam because "it was not good for man to be alone" (Genesis 2:18). This is because we are supposed to help each other. I need to get over whatever baggage I have when it come to asking for help and just do it. I need to let go of the control issues I have and accept that when someone helps me, it will be different than how I would do it, and that's okay. More than that, I need to celebrate those moments when I actually have the courage to ask for help - even if the response is not what I was hoping for. Asking for help shows that we are aware of our limitations - which is good. We aren't meant to do it all.

This week's application for kids:

1. Blessing your kiddos.

Mary Ruth Swope wrote a book called The Power of Blessing Your Children. The book contains many blessings that you can read to your children. In her forward she writes about the power of blessing our children and that this power helps us to live successful lives for the Lord. She writes "We cannot allow Satan to rob us of this wonderful privilege." Of the many blessings she has listed in her book, there is one on faith, but I wanted to make this blessing more personal to the story I shared, so I wrote my own blessing this week on faithfulness. 

In the name of Jesus Christ:

I bless with you with the ability to clearly know God's purpose for your life and the obedience to follow through with it. I bless you with the power to ignore Satan's desire to rob you of your joy and derail you from the Lord's plans. 

I bless you with the knowledge of God's undying faithfulness for you and know that he will never leave you of forsake you. I bless you with the love of the Lord and to show your faithfulness to Him.

2. Weekly Scripture Challenge.
Try to memorize this verse this week as a reminder of our focus for the week and encourage your children to learn this verse too!

 "Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies."

Psalms 36:5 

**I realize that this post was unlike the other fruits of the Spirit posts. I did not go into great detail on what the Bible says about faithfulness. I did not include an activity to teach faithfulness to our children. I certainly did not keep this post short and simple. What I did do was write with brutal honesty on how God is faithful to me (and everyone) even though we screw up.  I felt it was more important for you to know that I do not have all the answers and that I fail on a daily basis. I felt that this post was better spent sharing my struggles as I attempt to parent with the fruits of the Spirit. I also feel like living our purposes given to us by God is a life-long lesson in showing our children our faithfulness to the Lord and his faithfulness to us. Thank you for your understanding and hopefully kind and nonjudgmental thoughts.**

Goodness

"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law."

Galatians 5:22

As a pseudo-writer, the word 'good' feels weak. I would rather describe something with a more colorful and visual word. Even when I was in school, my teachers would encourage us to use a different word to describe something as good. That word gets overused so much that it feels very bland.

How was your day today?                 Good.
How is your cheese pizza?                Good.
It's been so long! How are you?        Good!
What did you think of the movie?     Oh, it was good.

In Bible times, in order to get a point across, writers were redundant. They would repeat the word or phrase many times to get the message across that what they were saying was important. The concordance in my Bible lists 54 verses that contain the word 'good' which means that from the Bible's perspective, 'good' is far from bland.  'Good' is used to describe what God makes (Genesis 1, 1 Timothy 4:4) or God's character (Matthew 19:17, Psalm 34:8, 86:5). I think in today's culture, people - especially non-Christians - have a hard time viewing God as good. They see pain, suffering, sickness, hatred, war and destruction all around them and wonder how a "good God" could allow these things to happen. Some believe that these misfortunes are punishments to appease a vengeful God. I would image that people in Bible times had similar thoughts. Life was even harder then without the luxuries we have today. God does see the pain, the suffering, the sickness, the hatred, wars and destruction all around us. And he weeps with us. God doesn't revel in our low moments. He whispers encouragement to us and helps us up. In the verses below, Jesus describes what the Father is really like -  and He would know; He is his Son.

Matthew 7:9-12
“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets."

What Jesus is trying to explain here is that we, as loving parents, wouldn't be cruel to our children, and in the same way, God won't be cruel to us because we are his children. 1 John 3:1 says, "See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!"  He wants to pour his love on us. He wants to send down his blessings. We don't deserve it, but we are his children. Aren't we like that as parents? Don't we want to "lavish" our kids? I hate clutter and excess toys with a passion, but sometimes when I am out, I see something cool and want to buy it for Zachary or Sadie - not because they necessarily deserve it but because I love them and I want to make them happy. Our Heaven Father is the same way. Romans 8:32 says, "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?"

Talk about the ultimate gift! And a GOOD one at that! Romans 8:32 shows how good God is. He could have kept his most precious Son at his side. He could have spared Jesus from a gruesome death, but he didn't. And Jesus was willing to go because God knew that this was what was best for his kids. He wanted to have a relationship with us but we messed everything up with our ugly sin. So the best gift we ever got was that of Christ who came and repaired our relationship with the Father.

God is good all the time and all the time God is good.

 Weekly Parent Goals:
1. Learn what gifts your Father has given you.

I am a  personality test junkie. I have taken the Myers Briggs, Strengths Finder, Love Languages and Spiritual Gifts quizzes. I am fascinated by how we are all so different. Knowing the gifts that we have been given by our Father helps us to know how we can further aide the Body of Christ through acts of service. It can also help us in our marriages and our parenting by using our strengths to help us instead of focusing on where we are lacking. Click on the link below to learn more about your spiritual gifts that God has given you!

Spiritual Gifts Test


2. Thank the Father for his good gifts to you.

We moms know how frustrating it can be when we do something nice for our little people without a simple thank you. It is always nice to be recognized for doing something nice. We owe all that we have and all that we are to our Heavenly Father, so it is vital that we thank him for all the blessings he has given us. Practice thanking him periodically during the day. When you wake up, thank him for another day, sun for a pool day or rain for your plants. Thank him for the meals that are on your table. Thank him for your family. Thank him for making the flowers look and smell so lovely. Thank him for giving you a hunky spouse (a little shout out to Troy Carlson!) The possibilities are endless. Not only does thanking the Lord make you aware of what he has done for you, it is a great way to pull yourself out of a lousy or crabby mood.

This week's application for kids:
1. Bless your kiddos.

In my previous posts I have used blessings written by Mary Ruth Swope in her book, The Power of Blessing Your Children. She says in her book, "One thing should be clear: we have the ability to influence both our personal lives and the future of our nation through the powerful act of speaking blessings. It is a foundation stone for successful family and community living." Of the many blessings she has listed in her book, there is not one general blessing on goodness, but there is a section where the reader can write his/her own blessings, so I wrote my own blessing this week on goodness.

In the name of Jesus:

I bless you with the awareness of God's faithful goodness. May you always be able to recognize his great love for you through the gifts he has given you. Be sure not to compare your gifts with others, as we were all created for different but intentional purposes.

I bless you with the ability to actively and cheerfully thank the Lord for what he has given you, both tangible and not. I also bless you with the ability to give good gifts to others with your time and resources.

May you always know that God's goodness and love will always follow you all the days of your life.

2. Try and activity that explains goodness to your kids.

Just as our Heavenly Father gives us good gifts, we try to give good gifts to our children. This week, give your children a good gift. For example, maybe your daughter loves playing dress up. Pull out your good dishes, put on fancy dresses and have a tea party. Eat little cakes and talk in silly accents as you sip your tea. Maybe you give her a cheap feather boa from the party store to wear. Or maybe your son like to play war games (as many boys do) outside. Get a bucket and fill it with water balloons and a couple of water guns and have a water fight in the back yard. We like to take Zachary swimming. Our community pool is half off after 5pm. It is an inexpensive way to show our son goodness. Your gift could be something simple and cheap like a feather boa or water balloons, but the real gift is your time and recognition of a game or activity that your child loves. When you're done playing, relax together and ask your child why he/she think you did that activity. Tell them it is because you love them and you love to see them happy. In the same way our Heavenly Father loves them too - even more than Mommy and Daddy - and he loves to give them good gifts too. Talk about the gifts the Lord has given your children. Maybe your child is a gifted reader/artist/athlete, or maybe your child is compassionate/driven/organized. These are all gifts that the Lord has given us. Help your children recognize that they were "wonderfully made" (Psalm 139:14) by the Father.

3. Weekly Scripture Challenge.
Try to memorize this verse this week as a reminder of our focus for the week. Encourage your children to do so also!  

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."

James 1:17

Be sure to share your experiences with this topic. What did you learn about yourself/your kids/the Lord? What activities did you do with your kids to teach them about goodness? I would love to hear them! 

Kindness

"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law."

Galatians 5:22

Most parents, whether they are Christians or not, would say that they want their children to be kind. Kindness is a character trait that is taught in classrooms across the globe and many religions center around this attribute as well. Aesop said, "No act of kindness, no matter how small, was ever wasted." Anne Frank wrote, "No one has ever become poor by giving." And the 14th Dalai Lama was quoted, "When we feel love and kindness toward others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace." All of these things are true. Kindness is defined as a quality of being friendly, generous and considerate with care and concern for others. We use kindness as a synonym for "nice" but I think the Bible teaches us that kindness is much more than that.

Ephesians 2:4-10 says, "But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast." 

Go back and read what I italicized. These verses makes me want to cry because what Paul is saying here is that God loved us so much, that even though we are sinful beings, he "expressed in his kindness" how he still wants to have a relationship with us. He accomplished this by sending his Son to die for our sins. All of them. My sins, your sins, even that obnoxious person who drives you crazy - yep, his/her sins too. Not only that, but all of our sins are pardoned. Psalm 103:12 says, "as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us." You might notice that this verse doesn't say, "he has removed only the easy to forgive transgressions from us." That's because in God's eyes, sin is sin. No one sin is greater than another - it's just all bad. So God's kindness is his forgiveness, which is offered to every one of us.

God extends this kindness to us in the form of forgiveness and if the Lord is able to forgive all sins, then we too need to be able to forgive those who wrong us - and not just the easy sins, but the heart-wrenching ones too. In my post about love, I talked about when Jesus told a parable of a servant who owes his master a dept. The master forgives the debt but then the servant turns around and demands the debt of a fellow servant. The master finds out and is furious that this servant didn't show the same mercy that he had just received and jails him until he is able to repay his -now reinstated- debt (Matthew 18:21-34). Afterward (verse 35), Jesus tells his disciples "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart." Oh geeze. I don't know about you, but that verse makes me uneasy because there are lots of things that I don't want to forgive. I have been hurt in ways that are still raw to me and I don't want to give my forgiveness away . . . but I certainly want to be on the receiving end of the Lord's forgiveness. When we do that, we are being hypocritical. We can't have our cake and eat it too when it comes to harboring resentment.

Jesus doesn't discriminate against sin. He forgives all. We need to do that too. Colossians 3:13 says, "Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you." We need to forgive, because the Bible tells us to but also because our little ones are watching our every move and the "Do as I say, not as I do" parenting technique is a thing of the past. We are their model. We are being watched all day, every day and how we respond to situations shows our children how we really think a conflict should be solved and it shows them that we practice what we preach.

Weekly Parent Goal:
1. Forgive and forget.

There is only one parent goal for this week because it is a hefty one. We need to practice forgiveness. Go above and beyond what our society says kindness looks like and use the Lord's definition of kindness; forgive and then let it go. This is a hard task and is going to take much longer than a week to practice - it is going to take a lifetime. Start with those that are easy to love - your spouse and your kids. When they leave their underwear in the bathroom for the 400th time, spill the milk all over the floor or tell you they hate you because you did something they didn't like - forgive them even if they didn't say they were sorry. Then practice forgiveness with friends, next acquaintances and finally strangers. When Jesus was dying on the cross, he told his Father to forgive those who put him there - even though they felt no remorse about their actions (Luke 23:32-38). When those excuses of why you don't need to forgive start to enter your mind, stop and reflect on how God forgives all, so we need to do so as well. Of course this is still no easy task. Those feelings of anger and resentment will start mixing inside you and in those times take a minute to ask the Lord to help you to love your wrongdoer as He loves and ask Him to help you forgive. Afterwards, consider it finished. Do not bring up the act again. Guilt trips are beneficial to no one. They are tempting for sure, because your pride is bruised but they are a manipulative way of getting people to carry out your own selfish ambitions.

This week's application for kids:

1. Bless your kiddos.

Mary Ruth Swope wrote a beautiful blessing on 'Mercy' in her book, The Power of Blessing Your Children which aligns well with our topic of kindness and forgiveness. Read this blessing to your children:

In the name of Jesus Christ:

I bless you with the knowledge that the Lord is plenteous in mercy to everyone who calls on Him. Know that the Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works.

I bless you with the desire to be faithful in showing kindness and mercy to your family and friends. God has promised to show favor and give a reward to those whose acts of mercy are done in the name of Jesus Christ.

2. Try an activity that explains kindness to your kids.
I am addicted to the videos that SoulPancake posts about Kid President. I seriously love that kid. Here is a funny video on 20 things we should say more often. It is pretty amazing. (#5 is my favorite) Watch this with your kids and try to say as many of these things during the week as possible - which may mean you need to buy some corn dogs (this will make more sense after you watch the video.) Write them down to help you remember - or just watch the video everyday, which is totally enjoyable.

Even though we spoke mainly on forgiveness, being friendly and considerate to others is still a part of kindness. Make a list of kind things you could do with your kids and try to do one every day this week. Here are a few fun ideas you could try but ask your kids what they think would be kind to do for someone. I am sure their answers will surprise you as well as warm your heart.

• Leave a pile of pennies at a fountain with a note "Free Wishes" then sit somewhere close to watch people as they make a wish
• Go through a drive through and pay for the person behind you
• Make thank you cards for custodians and secretaries at your church
• Plant flowers in paper cups and leave them on your neighbors' porches
• Bake cookies and bring them to your local fire department
• Write encouraging messages with sidewalk chalk for pedestrians passing by your house

3.  Weekly Scripture Challenge.

Try to memorize this verse this week as a reminder of our focus for the week. Encourage your children to so too!

"But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit."

Titus 3:4-5 

Be sure to share your experiences with this topic. What did you learn about yourself/your kids/the Lord? What activities did you do with your kids to teach them about kindness? What ideas did you kids have on how to show kindness to others? I would love to hear them! 

Patience

"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law."

Galatians 5:22

Let me start this post by saying that I feel completely inadequate to write a blog on patience considering I am totally lacking in this attribute. For all of my previous blogs I made outlines based on what I thought the Lord wanted me to say but when I sat down to study patience this week, nothing came to me. I impatiently just decided to "wing it" but I still had writer's block in the worst way so I had to get up and walk away from this post. I sat outside on the patio while the kids were napping and prayed that the Lord would speak to me for the direction of this post - and I needed it in the near future so I could post this on Monday. I heard a small whisper that said, "God's timing is perfect." I wasn't sure if that was what I should write about or if that was a message for me in relation to my nagging . . . so I continued to nag God. Then I felt like God was teasing me and said something about how I am being impatient for the sake of patience. He was right, per usual.

I am an A-type personality which means that I am impatient by nature. Every act of waiting means that time is being used inefficiently. Waiting at the grocery store? Must mean that the store isn't making good use of it's employees. Stopped at a red light? Those thirty seconds could have gotten you that much closer to your destination. When a serviceman says he will be at your house within a six hour window - oh man, don't even get me started on that one. If I can even get a little personal here, sometimes I get impatient just going to the bathroom because I feel like my body should take care of these waste issues more quickly! The thing is that type-A people get restless when we have to wait because we want to use our time wisely. That restlessness is exactly what we need to shed. Our theme verse says that one of the fruits of the Spirit is patience which means the Holy Spirit doesn't get restless or agitated or annoyed because God's timing is perfect.

When I was in college, I prayed for patience daily. I wanted to be more patient with my roommates. I wanted to be more patient with my family. I wanted to be more patient with my future. I asked God everyday for this patience but patience isn't a burger you order through the fast food drive-thru. Patience is a virtue that is acquired through practice. So instead of "granting" us patience, like a genie in a bottle, the Lord gives us opportunity to practice it. The Bible tells us that patience is one of the attributes of love (1 Corinthians 13:4) and that is better than pride (Ecclesiastes 7:8), but it also tells us that we need to practice this patience even in times of trouble (Psalm 40:1, Romans 12:12) and that it is not just to be used with those who are easy to love but even with those who drive you nuts - which sometimes is that little person who calls you "Mommy" (Ephesians 4:2).

As parents, we have LOTS of opportunities to practice patience. 1 Thessalonians 5:14 says, "And we urge you brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, and be patient with everyone." Is it me or does it seem like Paul wrote that to everyone in Thessalonica who had a toddler? I loved the "idle and disruptive" part especially because you know when it is quiet, your kids are destroying something. And do our kids not get "disheartened" when they can't eat Goldfish crackers by the pound? Yet, Paul tells these parents of toddlers people that they (and us) are to still be patient with everyone.

 This week's parent goals:
1. Look for ways to cheerfully practice patience.
In my post about love, I mentioned that one of the best pieces of advice I got from a friend at MOPS was to look for God in the mess. So when Zachary is having a temper tantrum, I need to try to find something I can thank the Lord for in that situation. Sometimes I am so frustrated, all I can think of is that Zachary is alive and standing in front of me - and that's okay! When we practice gratitude, it squeezes out some of the impatience for that situation. The next time I am at a stoplight with my kids screaming in the back seat, I am going to try to stop and thank the Lord that I have these beautiful children and that their lungs work properly, or that I have a reliable car to get me from point A to point B, or that soon we will be seeing Aunt Laura, or Meme, or Oma and they will give me a break!

I used to do yoga (honest moment here, I say 'used to' because I have no time for it anymore since I am unwilling to wake up early to work out and at night all I want to do is watch something in the DVR cue) and what I loved about yoga was how the instructors always talked about how yoga is a practice. Everyone, even that guy in the front of the class who has his body twisted like an upside-down pretzel, is always working towards getting better. Patience is the same way. Remember it is a practice.

2. Learn the "Have Patience" song.
I realize this seems like a weird thing to work on as parents, but this song is really helpful. I only have the chorus memorized because it was something that my grandma used to sing to my sister and I all the time when we were waiting for something. I do sing it to Zachary sometimes, but I also use it for myself because I seem to need to practice patience a lot. Recently, Sadie had minor surgery and we went back to the hospital for a follow up appointment. The nurse who set up the appointment told me that they wanted Sadie there fifteen minutes early, so for her 8:30 appointment, we were there at 8:15 am. We didn't get called back to the room until 8:50. The doctor didn't come in to see us until 9:20. He looked at her scar for 5 seconds, said it looked good and left. Meanwhile, Sadie had been crying for the past 20 minutes and my husband was trying to keep our two year old busy in the waiting room. While I danced around that little room, I sang this song -out loud- for myself to calm down because I was so annoyed at the lack of respect for our time. I was crazy impatient. It did help, a little. Here are the words to the chorus:

Have patience, have patience
Don't be in such a hurry
When you get impatient, you only start to worry
Remember, remember that God is patient, too
And think of all the times when others have to wait for you

3. Stop and Pray.

I think it is also a good idea tell your kids how you are feeling and pray together. I was reading one of Zachary's favorite books for the fifteenth time and Sadie was rolling around on the floor, annoyed with something and I felt like I was going to have a meltdown. It's not like anything happened out of the ordinary that morning but I just had very little patience and desperately wanted to have a small amount of personal space and maybe a cup of coffee. I closed Zachary's book and told him that Mama was feeling impatient and grumpy and that I needed to talk to Jesus about it. I asked him if he would pray with me. He said yes, closed his little eyes and listened as I asked the Lord to calm my heart. Then I continued reading to Zachary while pacifying Sadie with Sophie the Giraffe. I did start to feel better and I modeled for Zachary what we can do when our feelings get out of control. I think it is important to show our kids that as parents we need help too. By stopping the activity and praying about your situation, you kids can see that you rely on the Lord as well.

 This week's application for kids:

1. Blessing your kiddos.

In my previous posts I have used blessings written by Mary Ruth Swope in her book, The Power of Blessing Your Children. She says in her book, "One thing should be clear: we have the ability to influence both our personal lives and the future of our nation through the powerful act of speaking blessings. It is a foundation stone for successful family and community living." Of the many blessings she has listed in her book, there is not one on patience, but there is a section where the reader can write his/her own blessings, so I wrote my own blessing this week on patience. 

In the name of Jesus Christ:

I bless you with the ability to cheerfully practice patience.

May you exhibit a quiet and steady perseverance through your life while you wait on your family, your friends and even those you don't know. May you live without restlessness as you wait on the Lord and his plans for your life.

I bless you with the ability to be patient in times of trouble and look to the Lord for guidance always.

2. Try an activity that explains patience to your kids.

Something that Zachary likes to "help" me with is baking cookies, probably because he believes baking is eating all the chocolate chips. Baking something sweet with your kiddos is a great way to explain patience, plus you get to eat something yummy afterwards. Measure out all the ingredients that you need and let your kids pour them into the mixing bowl. Talk about how the batter (while still delicious) is a goopy mess and in order to the cookies to come out the way they should, they need to be baked and then they need to cool, which takes time. Sometimes it is really hard to wait, but if the batter gets pulled out of the oven too soon, the treat falls apart. By practicing patience, we can eat our delicious cookies without making a big mess or burning our mouths. This is true with other things too. List off situations where your kids need to practice patience: watching a sibling's soccer game or dance recital, waiting for Dad to come home to eat dinner, wanting to play outside but it is raining, etc.

3. Weekly Scripture Challenge.

Try to memorize this verse this week as a reminder of our focus for the week. Encourage your children to do so too!

"Be completely humble and gentle; be patient bearing with one another in love."

Ephesians 4:2

Be sure to share your experiences with this topic. What did you learn about yourself/your kids/the Lord? What activities did you do with your kids to teach them about patience? I would love to hear them! 

Peace

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law."

Galatians 5:22

Up until fairly recently, a good adjective to describe me would be timid. I have always been a fearful person. When I was a kid, I had nightmares pretty often. It seemed like I was always being attacked by a giant spider, a hungry shark or King Kong. Yep, my childhood reoccurring dream was about King Kong. He would look in my house, with his giant eyeball taking up the whole window. I always woke up right at the part where I was yelling at my parents to move away from the window as he was about to reach in and grab them. I remember a one time waking up to my dad who was trying to rouse me from a nightmare - apparently I was screaming in my sleep. As I got older, I became fearful of being abducted, tortured or getting in some horrific car crash. Then I got married and had kids and started to worry about what would happen to these people whom I loved fiercely. All of this worry was building up and quite honestly, it was very exhausting; especially because all of my worries had one thing in common: my lack of control on my environment or outcomes.

I think most moms worry. We have birthed these tiny humans and unfortunately, they don't come with instructions or bubble wrap. So, we worry about small things like sleep habits, breastfeeding verses bottle feeding, daycare or nannies, separation anxiety, and so on. Then we worry about big things like if our children will grow to love Jesus, if they will be bullied, will they go to a good college, will they be happy, etc. And then we have those fleeting moments where we worry about heart-wrenching things like if our child will be kidnapped or harmed or taken away from us too early in life. All of this worry builds up and we begin to live timid lives. Last summer, the Lord laid on my heart to let go of this timidity and start living a bolder life. My mantra verse became 2 Timothy 1:7 which says, "God did not give me a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline." The reason we worry is because none of us can control our environment, we can only control how we adapt to it and the best way to do that is to lean on the Lord.

Jesus talked about worry because worry has always been an issue. He tells us that worry is counterproductive because the Lord will always take care of us - we are valuable to him (Matthew 6:25-34). This doesn't mean that we won't face trials - because we will - and it doesn't mean that the Lord will always answer our prayers the way we want - because he won't - but it does mean that the Lord is always with us and will give us the strength, comfort and support that we need in those moments.  Isaiah 41:10 says, "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous hand." We don't have to do life alone. The Lord wants to come along side us and help carry our burdens and worries. He wants to share his peace in every aspect of our lives, including our children and their future.

So, we know that we need peace in our hearts but we also need peace in our actions. Matthew 5:9 says, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the sons ('and daughters' if I may add-lib here) of God." Being a peacemaker might not be as difficult as having peace in your heart, but it certainly isn't always easy either. One way that we can be peacemakers to is refrain from gossip, which I have found can be an easy entrapment for moms who crave to know what's going on outside of PBS. I am ashamed to admit that this is something I struggle with as well. The Bible tells us that gossip betrays confidence (Proverbs 11:13), separates friends (Proverbs 16:28), and fuels conflict (Proverbs 26:20). I have found that this problem seems to be especially prevalent in the church where gossip spreads like wildfire due to "prayer requests." I put that in quotes because I have heard, and have also been a victim of, people spreading gossip but disguising it as a prayer request. 

When I was in high school, I got into a car accident. Everyone was fine, but I was deeply embarrassed, especially because I thought people would judge me as a bad driver because I was a newer driver. My mom (with my consent) shared this with her small group to pray for me but asked the ladies to keep it within the group because of my embarrassment. However this information leaked due to phrases like, "Oh, did you hear about Pam? She was in a car accident. I guess she is really nervous about driving again. Can you pray for her?" The next thing I knew, the whole church knew and I had many people coming up to me to talk about my accident. Whoever shared that "prayer request" betrayed my mom's confidence, which made her not trust her small group and it also fueled anger within me. Do not use a "prayer request" as a sneaky way to spread gossip. Be loyal and trustworthy. Keep your word and your friend's confidence. You may think you are helping, but it is best to ask your friend first if you may share their stories. Don't make that judgement for yourself. James 3:17-18 says, "But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness." Let's use this as our guide as we try to be peacemakers. Seek the wisdom from heaven so that we can reap our harvest.

This week's parent goals: 
1. Let Go of Worry.

Okay, this is less of a weekly goal and more of a life-time goal. This is a really hard one for me. I have worried for so long that it is a hard habit to break and since having kids, I worry even more about them. We know that the Lord doesn't want us "borrowing trouble from tomorrow" (Matthew 6:34) and he wants us to experience His peace. John 14:27 says, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." When we find ourselves worrying, we need to train ourselves to stop and give that worry over to the Lord. We need to trust that His way is the best way and that He can turn everything into good. Philippians 4:6-7 says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present all your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." When I find myself worrying (which is many times during the day) I try to stop and thank the Lord for what I have in that very moment and tell Him about whatever I am worrying about. He already knows what is troubling me, I might as well chat about it with Him. Often I find that my worries are alleviated even if it is just a little bit.

2. Be a Peacemaker

Remember that our little ones are watching our every move to see how we handle situations. It is important that they see Christ's reflection in our relationships. We need to make sure that we are helping to resolve conflicts instead of building them up. We are all going to fail at this; we are human, but those can also be great teaching times to show our kids how we right our wrongs. How wonderful for our children to see their parents say "I'm sorry," or to stand up for someone who's name is being slandered.  Proverbs 15:26 says, "The Lord detests the thoughts of the wicked, but gracious words are pure in his sight."

This week's application for kids: 
1. Blessing your kiddos.

Mary Ruth Swope wrote a book called The Power of Blessing Your Children. The book contains many blessings that you can read to your children. In her forward she writes about the power of blessing our children and that this power helps us to live successful lives for the Lord. She writes "We cannot allow Satan to rob us of this wonderful privilege." Use this blessing Swope wrote about peace on your kids this week.

In the name of Jesus Christ:

I bless you with peace--another gift from God that comes to those who walk in His statutes and remember to do His commandments. Your children, too, will be taught about the Lord, and great will be their peace.

You will not be afraid but instead will have perfect peace if you keep your mind on Him. Jesus Christ is your peace. And the peace of God will keep your heart and mind in health as long as you trust and serve your God. 

2. Try an activity that explains peace to your kids. 

As an educator, I LOVE children's literature. The Pout-Pout Fish in the Big-Big Dark by Deborah Diesen is a great book to read with your kids to address our first topic, worry. In the book, Mr. Fish agrees to help a friend, but has to go to the deep, dark ocean to complete the goal. He is afraid of the dark but with the help of friends, he realizes that friendship is bigger than the dark. Read this story to your kids and talk about things that they are worried about. Remind them that God is bigger than those things and then pray with your kids about their worries.

A great example of being a peacemaker is in the book Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes. In the book, Lilly has a purple plastic purse that she got from her grandmother, along with new movie star sunglasses and three shiny quarters. She wants to show everyone in her class her treasures but she chooses to do so at the wrong time. Her teacher takes away her things and she draws a mean picture of him, which he finds. When he returns her things with a note saying that tomorrow is a new day, Lilly feels terrible and apologizes to her teacher. Read this story with your kids and talk about how we all do things that aren't nice but the importance of making things right and a good way to start is by apologizing. Model what an apology should look like.  Start with addressing the wrong and then explaining how he/she can use a different strategy in the future. Then ask for forgiveness. Write down the following prompts and display them somewhere in your house as a reminder of what a sincere apology looks like. Be sure to use this too so that your kids can see that you mean what you say and that these rules aren't just for kids, but for adults too.

I am sorry for ...

Next time I'll ...

Will you forgive me?

An idea I found on Pinterest is a graphic organizer that shows what a peacemaker looks like in a classroom setting, but this would be a great activity for families too. Write down or have your kids write down examples on how you and your family can be peacemakers in your home and out in public. Prompt the kids with ideas but be sure that they are giving a majority of the responses so that they can take ownership in this activity instead of listening to a list of rules that mom is making. It will help them to remember and then execute their words.

3. Weekly Scripture Challenge.
Try to memorize this verse this week as a reminder of our focus for the week. Encourage your children to do so too!

 "The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace."

Psalm 29:11

Be sure to share your experiences with this topic. What did you learn about yourself/your kids/the Lord? What activities did you do with your kids to teach them about peace? I would love to hear them!