Love Your Children Day Four

by Deb Weakly

“The measure of love is to love without measure.” – St. Francis de Sales

1. Call your prayer partner for your 10-minute prayer call. Keep trying to connect until you get to pray together. This tiny habit of praying with a friend regularly will truly change your life! It has changed mine! Done:______

2. It’s time to meet with your Jesus! He is the One who loves you completely and wants you to come to Him with all of your burdens and cares. Ask Jesus to speak to your heart this week about loving your children and accepting them for who they are. Ask Him to show you your children’s hearts and how to love them well in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Read 1 Corinthians 13:1-8. Meditate on this whole passage of scripture today. Notice the different details about how “love” behaves.

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”

Pray and ask God to show you areas of your parenting where you could put this Scripture into practice.

What Do You Do When Your Child Does Not Fit the Mold?

Do you ever feel like your children don’t fit the mold? Maybe it is your Sunday school mold or your kindergarten mold or homeschooling mold–your child just does not fit in?

You know, the “calm, quiet, polite, yes ma’am, no ma’am, thank you, please, always has their napkins in their lap, and never chews with their mouths open” kids?

I never did. As a matter of fact, I had the ones (particularly one) that would always get into trouble everywhere we went.

She was the one child who was into EVERYTHING and constantly had to touch every little thing she saw! She frequently had her little toe right on the edge of the line that you told her not to cross, and to make matters worse, she possessed more energy than any other child I had ever known, and this energy kept going and going until the very last moment when we put her into bed at night. Oh, I’m still tired just thinking about it!

That was my Christie.

But you know what I learned? God made Christie hugely curious, not the normal curious, but the type of curious that constantly wanted to learn and engage her brain.

The only problem is that sometimes it came across as disobedience because I could rarely keep up with her, and it seemed like she frequently challenged me when in reality, she just wanted to keep going, learning more and more and was rarely content to sit on her laurels.

I wish I would have understood her better when she was little. I wish I would have given her grace more and not taken the things that she did to be disobedience. She needed constant learning, challenges, and stimulation for her little growing brain. (She is still like this today as a 22-year-old!)

Thankfully, God gave me and my husband wisdom each day to know how to parent our children. He gave us the strength, patience and perseverance we needed to raise our children up for Him, and also friends and family who supported us.

Ask God to give you everything you need to be the best parents for your children. Pray daily for your children and for you and your husband to see their hearts and accept them the way God made them. Lean into God and try to give grace as much as possible.

Treat your children the way that they can BECOME, according to faith, grace, and the gifts God has placed inside of them, not the way they are acting. Most people will rise to what’s expected of them. Expect great things from your children!

Catch your children being good as much as possible, even in the little things. Say things like, “You are so kind! That was so sweet of you to let your sister have the big chair,” or “You are so trustworthy! Thank you for waiting for Mommy to help you cross the street!”

When your child makes a mistake, call their attention to it, discipline them as quickly as possible, and move on! Don’t drag out your discipline! Take care of things BEFORE Daddy gets home. Don’t make poor Dad come home to a house of turmoil and stress. Lastly, let you children know they are forgiven and that Mommy and Daddy make lots of mistakes too.

Oh, if you happen to have a Christie, take heart. They are wonderful blessings! My Christie is now a happily married woman to an amazing godly man, and they both love Jesus with their whole hearts! She is finishing up her computer science degree, devours several books at a time, and is still curious and loves to learn.

I have decided that I am so happy my children don’t fit the mold! Life is just so much more interesting this way!

“Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6.

3. Questions to ponder: Write the answers to these questions in your journal.

-Pray and ask God to show you areas of your parenting where you could put this Scripture into practice.

4. Faith- Filled Idea:

-If you haven’t already, print out this week’s Mom Tips, pray and pick a couple to accomplish this week. Check them off as you complete them. Rejoice that you have added something positive to your life and the life of your family!

Love Your Children Day Five

by Tara Fox

“Trying to do Lord’s work in your own strength is the most confusing, exhausting, and tedious of all work. But when you are filled with the Holy Spirit, then the ministry of Jesus just flows out of you.” Corrie Ten Boom

1. It’s time to meet with your Jesus! Are you ready to spend precious moments with your Savior? Do you know that He longs to be with you? You are his precious daughter! He loves you dearly!

Begin by reading Galatians 6:8-9, Philippians 3:3 NLT, and Isaiah 32:15 in your Bibles.

Pray and ask God to speak to your heart about parenting in the power of the Holy Spirit. Ask Him to help you to learn to rely on Him for help with your precious children.

Loving Your Children in the Power of the Holy Spirit

I became pregnant with my third daughter Paisley when my second daughter Ella was only four months old. It was such a surprise!

I know it really confused a lot of people who didn’t see me often. They just thought like an elephant, I was pregnant for a few years! People often say the funniest things to you when you are pregnant. They would look at me in bewilderment and ask, so what is your plan when the baby is born? How are you going to do this?

Um, I don’t know. This wasn’t in my plans!

Then my sweet Paisley arrived and she was such a precious blessing to our family!

There are many moments that our children are so easy to love and parent, but if we are honest, there are also many times we are at a loss when it comes to parenting.

Sometimes it is just plain hard!

As we are going into motherhood, we may expect loving and serving our children will come effortlessly. As they grow we realize in no way can we love them well and understand their hearts fully in our own strength.

Thank goodness our Heavenly Father does not ask us to love in our own strength.

Instead, He has given us the Holy Spirit and wants us to rely on Him for the wisdom, strength, and help we need every day of our lives.

Loving our children in the power of the Holy Spirit is counter intuitive. It often goes against our culture, our flesh, and our earthly knowledge. When our flesh wants to criticize, be short tempered, yell, and withdraw, the Spirit loves perfectly.

When my child is throwing an epic tantrum and I want to push her away, the Spirit often tells me to draw her near.

I want to freak out; the Spirit reminds me this is the time to display love and meekness.

The exact need of our children’s hearts will come to us by the wisdom of the Holy Spirit.

Even with our greatest intentions, if we are not fully allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us we are missing the power of God! According to the bible, raising children solely in our flesh brings destruction. We have all been there and because we are human, we will all be there again.

The great news is that we have grace in Jesus and we have the ever-present help of His Spirit!

Isaiah 32:15 Tells us, “Until the Spirit is poured out upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fertile field, and the fertile field is considered as a forest.” When we choose to rely on God instead of our flesh, He will pour out His Holy spirit, and we will sow seeds of love and reap a rich forest in our children!

While loving our children in the power of the Holy Spirit, we will spend much time pushing away and rejecting our flesh, but we can walk by faith knowing HE is guiding us and helping us to love like Jesus, more and more each day.

We can trust God to help us to stop parenting in the flesh, and give us the power we need to be patient, kind, and loving moms.

Pray and ask God for help today! He longs for you to come to Him! You are not alone!

2. Questions to ponder: Write the answers to these questions in your journal.

-Pray and ask God specific for ways He wants you to love your children in the power of His Spirit, and not your flesh.

– Ask God to search your children’s hearts and tell you things that only he can discern, to give you spiritual eyes to see into their lives.

What is He laying on your heart?

3. Faith filled idea:

Start an ongoing journal with each child.

Write them a note of encouragement asking if they want to be your pen pal!

Tell them it is your special journal for each other!

Love Your Children Day Six

by Rachel Jones

“To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.” -Eleanor Roosevelt

1. Start your day with God! Grab your Bible, a journal, a pen, and find a comfortable place to sit. Open up your heart during this time to the Lord. Pray against distractions and idleness. This is your time! Read Proverbs 15: 1-2, 4 in your Bible. Write verse 1 in your journal.

Reaching Your Child’s Heart Without Crushing Their Spirit

When my girls became toddlers and started taking on more responsibilities, my life became more difficult. It felt more difficult because with more responsibilities came more mishaps, messes, and mistakes!

I remember in those days, little things like a spill in the kitchen would often cause me to lose my temper, especially on a busy day. Looking back, it took only five minutes to clean up the mess, but it took much longer to mend my daughter’s broken spirit after I had scolded her.

Over the years, I have had to submit my temper and anger to the Lord. And He is so good! He revealed to me what an honor it is to be a mom, and has helped me to remain calm and lean on Him.

Most importantly, He spoke to me about how fragile and precious my girl’s hearts and spirits are to Him.

Children, especially when they are under the age of 12, look up to their parents and admire them more than any other adults in their life. As parents, we have the power to nurture our children’s hearts. However, after our child has done something that frustrates us, our tendency is to lose our temper and say something we regret. This is dangerous.

With every sharply delivered word or disapproving stare, our children’s hearts become smaller and more hidden away.

Colossians 3:21 says, “Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged.”With this kind of behavior over time, we can truly break our children’s hearts and spirits.

Our children do not need a rigid taskmaster but a loving encourager!

Our children need a mom who, like it says in Proverbs 3:5, “trusts in the Lord with all her heart and leans not on her own understanding.”

I would like to encourage you, dearest mama, to avoid overreacting to minor child mishaps and accidents. If there is a legitimate issue with your child that does need to be addressed, I encourage you to lead by example. Show your child that you can remain calm.

Also, model for your child the most important thing: turning to Jesus in prayer and reading His word. Let them know that Mommy has to ask God for help too and that you’re not perfect. They will appreciate not feeling like they are the only ones who mess up!

Let’s all celebrate our children by nurturing and protecting their hearts together!

2. Questions to Ponder: Write the answers to these questions in your journal.

– When was the last time you looked your child directly in the face and told them you loved them and are proud of them?

– Read Psalms 112:1-2. How does this verse make you feel? Convicted, encouraged? Write down some thoughts in your journal.

3. Faith Filled Idea:

– This week let’s focus on praising our wonderful children. Strive to speak three times more positive words than negative ones to your child. Go even further and make lists for all of your children celebrating the qualities and talents you love and admire about them. Read the list out loud to all of your children over dinner one night. Their little hearts will swell with encouragement. 