Friday Favorites {Uniqueness, Finding Time and Child Training}
Some favorite things around the web this week:
The Dangerous Pit of Uniqueness. How easily our minds can spiral into self pity when we begin to think that nobody can understand our situation because it’s so complex and special. Actually, God’s word has promised us grace and a way of escape from any and all temptations, which are called “common.”
Calling all busy moms: Courtney gives seven ways to make SURE you get into God’s word during the day.
Three Things I Need to Say is a post—no an apology– to a church the author left in dissatisfaction. After grace and reflection, he discovers that perhaps he was at fault. This was refreshing to me. It seems the blogosphere is full of church-aimed venom. Now, I know that there are problems in any given church and that no church is perfect. I get that. But a church is a hospital for sinners, and sometimes those sinners are sinful. And where there are people there are problems. You aren’t going to find perfection in this sin scarred earth…you get where I’m going with this, right? Mkay. Great read, for self evaluation.
This series How Envy Behaves by Tim Challais. Envy is a subtle sin that is easy to spot. It’s that feeling of unhappiness you get when someone has something you want or think you deserve. The author explains, “This means that there are at least three evil components to Envy: the deep discontent that comes when you see that another person has what you want; the desire to have it for yourself; and the desire for it to be taken from him.” Don’t miss part 2 here.
This article, Helping Little Hearts Overcome Sin will be especially helpful for younger moms. Unfortunately, the trend in parenting today is to make excuses or rename sin in children, as though children don’t have an inherent sin nature. This worldview makes parenting really hard, because when you relabel bad behavior as something they can’t control, it shifts responsibility and allows the child to believe that they are a victim rather than the perpetrator. And if you are a victim, you really can’t change much. It is rare that parents deal with temper tantrums, hitting, biting, or disrespect as just being extra selfishness at the moment or as a sin against their neighbor. {Doesn’t so much of life boil down to loving God enough to obey and loving others enough to yield?}
We have five children, all very different, but the house rules are the same for all of them. Nobody is a “special case” here. We don’t celebrate “marching to the beat of your own drum” if it includes disrespectful, defiant, selfish behavior. {although we understand different temperaments appreciate certain types of care and love, and “tick” when things are just so. In love, we serve one another that way. We overlook a lot, but don’t feel it’s loving to let someone consistently walk along a sinful path without intervening. }
We used instructive discipline and corrective discipline. Instructive discipline talks, teaches, explains, encourages, admonishes, cheers and warns. Corrective discipline punishes when clear boundaries have been crossed. Parenting is hard. Period. There are no short cuts, or magic fixes. And consistency is key in child training. Do LOTS MORE encouraging and instructing than correcting. Be twice as positive as you are negative. Don’t discourage them, but don’t buy into the lie that children are unable to keep the Lord’s commands {obviously age appropriately! Plan to train from 18 months- five years old. Everyday. Every.Single.Day. Consistently. Yes, It’s hard!! But it’s not forever and it sure does get easier, I promise!}
What were your favorite reads this week?
*Please know that linking to a site does not mean a blanket endorsement of all of the information on those sites. As always, read with discernment, mkay?