"It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" Heb. 10:31

My mentee (?--the girl I'm mentoring, what is the word for that anyway) and I are memorizing Hebrews chapter 10 verses 23-39.  It's a passage I chose to inspire and encourage us in our walk with Christ, but also to challenge.  The passage starts out by talking about how we should remember our hope in Christ who fulfils his promises, and encourage each other by meeting together and loving each other.  But later in the passage, it talks about how God is our judge, and will come down severely on those of us who have accepted Him as Saviour, but do not act like it.

I forget that part of God--that God who made mountains shake and appeared in a cloud to a sea of terrified Israelites.  My Heavenly Father is all loving, but he is also all powerful, and means to be respected.  I remember days in my childhood when I was goofing off from doing something I was supposed to be doing, and I would jump up and start looking productive every time I heard someone coming down the hall, thinking it may be Mom or Dad.  Looking at my every day life, I hang my head in shame that I don't tremble with the reverential fear of making sure I am about God's business.  I am happy to waste time on Facebook, scrolling through random articles on the internet.  And it is not that those things are bad, but how often I do them because I can think of nothing else to do--nothing more God-glorifying to do.

I am reading "Don't Waste Your Life" by John Piper at the moment, and I will tell you I did not like it at first.  It is a book that will flat jump down your throat if you are happy believing you are doing just fine staying at home, playing board games with your family, watching PG movies, and then going to work the next day while no one knows who you worship.  It does not glorify the safe western-centric life of an every day Christian.  What it does is challenge us to work with integrity at whatever job we have.  To seek opportunities to shine the love of Christ, and let people know what that light is, to seek to show people how Christ makes us glad, ESPECIALLY in the hard times, and that our hope is NOT in things of this world, and therefore cannot be taken away!  The book has challenged me to "be about my Father's business." It's not a nice book.  ~smile~ It pushes me...with a pitchfork.  But sometimes I need a sharp prod to get moving.

This is the day the Lord hath made

I had a Bible college teacher who always started out her class with a vigorous recital of that verse. "This is the day that the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it" (Ps 118:24)!  It was a nice thought, but at 7:20 in the morning, very rarely did I feel like I had the ability to rejoice.

This morning started as most my mornings do: Fiona wakes up, I nudge Dave, he lovingly gets up with her so I can sleep in a bit longer, and they eat breakfast and then come get me up.  This morning Fiona brought some books in to me while Dave got ready for work.  She climbed in bed with me, and I groggily read them to her.  Then Dave rushed out the door (because he always waits as long as possible before waking me), and Fiona and I went in the kitchen so I could eat breakfast, and she could eat second breakfast (yes, I'm raising a hobbit).

The sun was shining through the kitchen windows, which was so very welcome after all the rain we have had lately--blue sky visible over the hills.  After we ate our breakfast, Fiona happily sat at the table playing with puzzles, and I washed dishes.  I was filled with joy as this simple morning--and praise songs easily slipped through my lips as Fiona talked and sang along.  After dishes, she helped me with the laundry.  She helped take the dirty laundry out of the basket and put it in the washer, then climbed in and around the clothes horse to get the dry laundry and put it in the basket.  She then took the clean laundry out of the basket and put it on the bed so I could fold it--minimal bending for my back!  She did it so happily!  It was such a wonderful, blessed morning.

This reminded me that it is not how early I wake, but the attitude I choose as I wake in the morning.  Do I remember that God wants to bless my day with joy in the little things?  Do I accept His guidance as I work and play with my daughter?  Do I thank Him when my heart is filled with praise?

Fiona has just "woken" from her morning nap (aka is now done having her alone time in the crib), and I think I am going to get her dressed and take her to see her Daddy for morning tea time.

Thank you Heavenly Father for your comfort, joy, peace, and ability to worship.  I am so blessed by your love.  And thank you for the sheep too--they are fun to see walking up the hills and on the lane.

How to raise an achievement seeking, sharing on demand, moral pagan child...and other articles I've read lately

Over the past few months, I have read quite a few articles on how to parent properly-->from potty training to how to share to how to teach your kids about Christianity.  Let's not forget the one I read yesterday about how my child will turn out to be addicted to porn if I don't parent properly either. And here's something I've come to realise.  I turned out ok.  

My parents didn't have any of these online articles telling them how to do certain things or their children would turn out poorly.  They probably didn't watch me or my siblings as we were making stacks of blocks and think, "Am I only encouraging them to succeed, and not to work hard?  Should I help them celebrate when it falls and not when they build it correctly?!" (as I was thinking this morning watching my daughter with her stackers).  Or when we took a toy from another child, they probably didn't think, "Oh-I should help them to understand that's it's his/her turn at the moment, as opposed to just making them hand it back."  And on a whole nother level, I should, as a good Christian parent, be able to teach my kid that being good is not good enough--that being nice is not really the important part, but that God is--I should figure out how to do that with them...from birth.  

I've sat around and discussed all these things with other parents--parents who, for the most part, are highly-educated, love their children, a benefit to society, and well-rounded individuals.  How did we get to this point without our parents doing all that stuff in those articles?!?!?!?!  Because though those articles are well-meaning, interesting, mostly educated, and experienced based, they don't define how we are going to turn out.  My parents love(d) God, and they tried their best to show us kids what that looked like.  They taught us to share, even when we didn't want to, and that turned out ok too.  And they taught us home was a safe place to be, so thankfully I'm not addicted to porn.  They did all that because they wanted to be good parents, and in my experience thus far, that's what makes the difference---the wanting, trying, wrestling with how to go about being "good" parents.  That, that = love.  

And thank goodness for that.  Because, as much as all those articles are interesting, and I do get a lot of thoughts from them, sometimes they make me feel like I just can't win for trying, that I'm a failure at everything I "moming" do.  So next time you read one of those lovely articles, and then share it on facebook (like I usually do), don't beat yourself up for the choices you have made as a parent.  You are the parent God planned for your child--stand up and own it.