The Most Important Job as a Mom

I have been very slack in writing here. I often am learning and growing in my role as a wife and mother and often think I should journal that here so others may in some small way benefit. The buck usually ends with just the "thought" of writing it down. However, today, I was unable to continue with my rest/attempt at a nap due to the nagging that I should get up and write down the nuggets of gold that the Lord is revealing to me. I will attempt to stay current by consistently writing here about what the Lord is teaching me.

This week has definitely been a week of housecleaning and not the physical kind. This week has been a week full of spiritual housecleaning, cleansing, and leading me in the way I should go. One of the major outcomes of the week thus far has been my decision to quit my job as a nighttime crisis worker. My job is not very demanding and I enjoy it immensely. However, the job is changing a bit and wanting a little more of my time. I could definitely handle the changes easily and still be able to manage my home fairly well. But I no longer want to just do my job as a wife and mother "fairly well" nor do I want any distraction from my primary purposes which are two fold, to be a helper to my husband and to love and train my children in the ways of the Lord. I do not have to be at my job 9 to 5 and have great flexibility with my hours, including being home a majority of the day to homeschool my children and to tend to my home. However, if my boss were to say you need to be here at 3pm, I would have to drop my duties at home to be there or if I was told to be at a training all day, I would have to be there. I want my ultimate responsibility and commitment to be to my family. As I have more free time and less commitments, of which I may be purging more, I will be better able to serve my family, find ways to do a better job in my housekeeping, in my meal planning, and taking the time to study God's word on child training and then actually spending the time to train my children excellently.

"Train a child in the way he should go and he will not turn from it."
Prov. 22:6

The operative word in this verse is to "train". To train is defined as:
-to develop or form habits
-to make proficient by instruction and practice
-to undergo discipline and instruction
-to get oneself into condition

If someone were to train for a marathon, there would be extensive effort to plan the training, to build on the training by increasing the demands, and to consistently run every day to maintain the training.

What greater calling is there than to train our children in the ways of God? We are training them for a marathon, a lifetime of following the Lord and serving Him. Our job in training our children will require a great amount of effort to study, to pray, to read scripture and then impart what we learn to our children. You are the trainer in the ways of God to your kids, you are the expert. Not feeling like an expert? Thankfully the word of God is all we need for ourselves to get into spiritual shape and to train our children.

1 Timothy 3:16
"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness..."

A few practical applications that I feel the Lord leading me to pursue include scripture memory for my children, the use of scripture during times of discipline, and the leading of my children in prayer for repentness following a disciplinary issue. "For Instructions in Righteousness" is an excellent book for topical scripture references to use in the disciplinary process.

I pray that you would continue to consider your role as a trainer to your children and pray that the Lord would lead you in regards of the "how tos" in this area.

God Bless.
Angie

Getting Started

I am looking forward to getting started in blogging again. I am growing so much in my role as a wife and a mother that I want to share what I am learning with those around me. Putting it into words solidfies the concepts for myself even if noone else reads it.

Today, I have been focusing on 1 Peter 2. It lists faith, goodness, knowledge, self control, preserverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love as attributes to which a Christian should strive for. In that chapter, it even goes as far to say that if you increase in these attributes it will keep your faith from becoming ineffective and unproductive.

My dh has been toying with the idea of starting a family worship/devotional time. So we decided to start with studying and making the Jesse Tree. Basically, we will study scripture and make an ornament following the lineage of Jesus. We will be using the template found here http://www.eriercd.org/jessetree.htm