Wisdom, Whimsey and a Whistle — Helping moms live JOY!
On a good day you’ll find me outdoors hiking and squeezing in some writing. I love my man and my children, [read more]
It’s on the tip of my thoughts
Yet so illusive
Restless wanderings
In search of the starting gate
The battle … my prideful thoughts or
His words of enlightenment
Leaves me paralyzed
Staring at the white abyss
What letters to form
How to begin the structure
Of spirit breathed prose
Tantalizing torment
Avoidance must cease
Beat back uncertainty
Do not linger
Simply begin
Waste of time
Or inspired creation
Share with others
Or delete
Twice a year Cru (formally known as Campus Crusade for Christ) has a Day of Prayer in which all of the people involved with all of their different ministry outreaches cease striving and spend the day before the Lord in prayer.
What an amazing spiritual discipline for each of us to practice – extended, focused time in prayer.
We met together at a state park and had a time of aloneness in God’s creation going before the Lord in prayer and we also had times where we met together and gathered in groups to pray. It was indeed a rich day.
Might I suggest that right now you place a day on your calendar in the coming weeks where you will cease striving and spend the day in prayer. Whether you do so alone, gather with a group of friends or as a family I know you will be blessed.
And that is all I have to say today…as I am feeling so much at peace I am signing off!
We had guests over the weekend. My favorite kind of guests – teenagers.
My daughter came home from college for the weekend and brought three friends with her. There are only two weeks left to their Freshman year in college so it was a sweet time of lots of good home cookin and many rich conversations – a year in review reflections and the sharing future dreams wonderings!
On Saturday night we had a couple of adults join us, as I always think it’s good to allow the college students to hear from and mingle with interesting people. One of the friends there marveled at these young adults that are now a part of our daughters every day life.
We were sitting around the backyard firepit, listening to one play the violin, one play the guitar and the other one singing sweetly – we all joined in on their beautiful praises to the Lord. This is always a highlight to my daughter’s trips home with her friends.
One of our adult guests asked my husband and I how we managed to pull that off. “Pull what off?” I asked. He said these three students with your daughter are amazing. I told him that we have always prayed that our children would be friends with people that are chasing after God and we specifically and especially prayed for this as our daughter was preparing to go to college. His reply, “I think I need to get more specific with my prayers for my own kids.”
So, “this just in” if you realize you know a specific need for your child pray that specific need and believe God for it. And speak that need over your child as well.
I would be happy to agree with you for that prayer, please feel free to leave your child’s specific need in the comment area below.
Hey Friends!
You know how some people just “shine” when you meet them? Several years ago I met Tim Kimmel and his wonderful wife Darcy – shine and sparkle for sure! Tim’s books are some of my favorite parenting books! I have also been blessed by the wisdom and grace of Darcy through her on-line articles.
I did a happy dance when I was asked a year or so ago to be a guest blogger for their site for parents.
I am so very blessed to be a regular over at Family Matters Blog, won’t you join me over there today where I share some thoughts on being a bit too demanding when it comes to having your children do their chores!
Source: momlifetoday.com via Tracey on Pinterest
I have just about had enough!
For those of you who are raising little boys, allow me to warn you: when they get a little older (and I do mean a little older), they will be facing some rather aggressive girls who do not live by the same social etiquette rules most of us grew up with!
I remember being told by both of my parents not to pursue boys, and that was pretty easy for me to accept. I had two brothers, so I knew the gross side of boys. The rule that stands out foremost in my mind was the ”don’t call boys” rule. But in today’s tween/teen social environment, you can forget that one because now not only do tween and teen girls call boys, they text them, send notes on Facebook, send photos, and plop right next to them at the boys’ lunch table, insert themselves into their conversations, and pursue away!
I am much more concerned about my son having to deal with aggressive members of the opposite sex than I have ever been with his older sister. She has even shared with me that there are girls at school ”creepin” on him all the time. For those of you not in the know, “creepin” is showing aggressive interest in someone.
What? That makes this mama bear want to roar and protect her cub…
What’s a mom to do? Unfortunately this scenario is getting played out younger and younger. Join me over at MomLife Today and learn about how we deal with aggressive girls and learn about a GREAT new resource “Aggressive Girls, Clueless Boys” – trust me, this is a book you want to read!
Join me over at MomLife Today where I am sharing some secrets that just might get your children eating healthy snacks!
Yesterday over at MomLife Today we ran a post that literally made me gasp – no doubt you will too.
It suggests that the average age a child first views pornography is far younger than you might suspect.
The fact is, the average age of the first inception of pornography these days is 11. Yep. You read that right. Eleven. As in fifth grade. Last year of elementary school. (And that’s average. Yep, nine year olds are looking at porn.) On this fact alone, I’m glad someone out there in cyberspace is addressing the issue.
My heart breaks. As parents we must be ever diligent to recognize that the enemy, and the world, is actively seeking to lure our children…our children…into the world of pornography. And it is physically addicting due to the effect it has on the human brain. Even though you may think it couldn’t happen to your child…it can – I know a third grade teacher who has students in her classroom that are battling the lure of pornography.
Recognize that ANYTHING that connects to the internet it a portal into our children’s minds and hearts -we must not take that lightly and be boldly aggressive in protecting our children.
To learn more go to MomLife Today to read the rest of the story.
Laughter and revelry fill my warm, cozy home for a few days when we have college guests. Not so much more than when other guests are here. Just sweeter somehow.
She was home again. My daughter. My “I’m a freshman in college” daughter. Who is more woman than girl now. Who is more reflective and forward looking now.
This is new territory for me. Territory I knew was coming, yet as with any challenging journey no matter how well prepared one thinks one is…there are surprises along the way.
“Mom…I am so happy. I love my friends and miss them so, so much when we are apart.” Smiling at that proclamation I silently wonder, has she said that to her friends about me? Probably not as often as I’d suppose.
But that’s ok. That means I have done my job of mothering and preparing well.
I am propelled back to the three-year-old daughter, being dropped off in a new church classroom, the easy way she hugged me goodbye and bravely walked into a new room, not knowing a soul. She moved forward into that new territory bravely, I wondered why she forged on without even a glance backward.
Then, and now, I know it is because she is content wherever she is because she knows she is not alone. She has been taught that. By her father and me.
I hear her in her room when she chats with her Heavenly Father; I have seen journal entries she has chosen to share. I have seen serenity, peace and tranquility revealed when she puts pencil to sketch pad.
Still…there is that part of me that wants to hold on to the girl I was given and keep her all to myself.
Heavy sigh.
Oh what must my Heavenly Father have in store for this amazing daughter of mine? I pray He gives me the ability to face her future with as much grace and strength as she possesses.
A contented smile grows in gratefulness for the gift of motherhood and the well worn leather map that I use to chart the course each day – His word. Without it I’d be lost and lonely.
I have been to countless Easter morning services at church through the years, several different churches in fact, as I have moved seven times since becoming married. This year was the first time I saw my husband struggle with where exactly to place his eyes during the walk in and out of the church building. My sixteen year old son was having the same struggle.
I used to so enjoy seeing little girls, teens girls and women dressed in their Easter Sunday dresses – loveliness!
Well this Easter, loveliness was far from what I saw on several of the females.
All around us, the trip into and out of church was a gauntlet of very short skirts and very low cut neck lines. It’s bad enough that our men and boys are assaulted daily in society, but to be visually assaulted on Sunday mornings as a church goer is inconceivable to me!
I literally wanted to grab a few parents and ask them if they had lost their minds. Dads walking right next to their teen and college age daughters whose skirts barely covered their backsides.
At one point my husband was looking up at the sky, then he turned and looked at me with an, “Are you seeing what I’m seeing look on his face?” That look was accompanied with a look of pain. And I knew that pain was because the father’s were turning a blind eye.
I have a very dear friend, Dannah Gresh who studies human sexuality, modesty, the effect immodesty has on boys and many other issues – she provides a wealth of information you need to make use of over on her site Pure Freedom! She also wrote a great article titled Teen Daughter Shopping Survival Skills – and you should read it if you want to keep your daughter from making the same fashion mistakes I witnessed at church this past Sunday.
I am far from a prude, I like to dress fashionably and look cute, but what I witnessed this week on a large majority of young ladies was not fashionable…it was trashy. And quite frankly it was unfair to the boys and men who were getting flashed with tempting images.
Is it just my church…or is it happening where you attend church too?
Would you fight the crowds to get a glimpse of your favorite star?
It certainly seems most Americans would! From Justin Beeber, to Jennifer Lawrence to Tim Tebow, teens, and their parents are all a flutter – and a push and shove away from getting close to their favs! I have been known to do some pushin and shovin myself, for the right personality.
It is odd to me that star sightings are now considered “news” and the whereabouts of various famous people are plastered right next to real world news events.
What’s up with that?
Why are we compelled to “star gaze” and read copious amounts of written word on the comings and goings of the well known and famous. People go to such crazy lengths to get an in person sighting, be near and dare I say…”touch” someone who they see as special or especially wonderful.
It certainly seems to be a natural internal longing and most definitely has gone on for decades. Whether it was James Dean, Martin Luther King, Jr. or the Beatles humanity is drawn to be near those who they see as worthy of admiration.
Could this natural, internal longing be placed there for a specific reason and as with most things, we mere humans have messed it all up? We have the longing, but we are looking to the wrong sources to fill that longing.
Idols.
False worship of human idols.
“This is…American Idol” – irony at it’s best.
I think the longing God put in our hearts to lead us to seek Him gets muddled and confused and we fill that longing with a counterfeit, temporary stand in. That stand in may provide a temporary rush of happiness, but still leaves us empty and longing – for the next American idol.
The crowds were drawn to Jesus, as were the hurting individuals. And those hurting individuals knew, they knew deep down, that just one touch would heal. The Bible is filled with stories of those who sought out Jesus. Just this morning, as I read Matthew 9:20-22 I was struck by the reality of the bleeding woman’s need being met by Jesus and the converse reality that hurting humans are reaching out to the latest star and not finding the healing they so desperately seek.
Right longing, wrong individual.
This is not a judgment on the individual being sought after as Tim Tebow (and others) do rightfully guide their fans to the right source of fulfillment and I believe God is moving in the “industry” for those very reasons. (And as we’ve witnessed many don’t like that and they belittle those who speak the name of Jesus.)
I just wanted to share this insight and encourage those of you who are given any amount of notoriety to be ever mindful to point others to the One who will provide complete healing, by way of perfect peace! But be prepared for the haters – they have always been there and they followed Jesus around too!
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