Children

Why does parenting have to be so hard? Sure, there are many moments of ease when your children are being model citizens and require little if any attention. But, many moments of parenting are very hard. Of course my children are still very young (five and seven), so I'm sure that there are many more difficult moments ahead. Tonight was no exception. My young daughter did not want to do what mom asked of her. After repeating myself many, many times, I was so angry inside I wanted to burst. However, I kept my cool and just calmly kept repeating myself until she did the required task at which point the punishment of instant bedtime was applied. This of course started a deluge of tears which even after being completely frustrated the moment before made me want to go back on my resolve. Not only were there tears but then there was "I'm sorry mommy" and a tiara was placed on my head. I calmly re-enforced the punishment although inside I wanted to give in immediately.
My thoughts go to my Heavenly Father. How hard being a parent to me must be! I have many times not done as He has asked repeatedly through His word and through the Holy Spirit speaking to me. Does He get angry with us? I believe so. But He calmly meads out the punishment with much love.
If we look to examples in the Bible, there are examples over and over of God's love for His children. Look at David! He wanted what he didn't have and murdered to get it. Yet God calls David "a man after mine own heart". Look at Paul! He murdered saints of God (ironically he is now called a saint by many). Yet God has used him mightily over thousands of years through his writings.
I know I am not the first parent to struggle with disobedient children. For thousands of years I would dare to say, parents have had the same struggle - across cultures and languages raising children is much the same because of our human nature.
How I wish to become more like my Heavenly Father- He is so patient. There is consequences for our actions (look further at the previous examples). However, our Heavenly Father loves us so much He sent His Son down from the heavenly realms of glory. How can my love for my children begin to mirror this great love? Paul tells us in 1 Timothy that he the worst of sinners was shown grace so that "Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life".
So this must be our goals as parents: try and imitate as well as we can in our weak human state God's unlimited patience so that our children and those around us would receive eternal life!

Salvation for Children?

It has greatly saddened, worried, and frustrated me to find recently that several well known educators do not believe that children can be truly saved before the age of accountability. This implies that before the age of accountability, children can not be held accountable for their sins. This also implies that children can not enter into the blessings of God if they can not obtain salvation. By extension, because children can not obtain salvation, they can not have spiritual gifts.
First, what is the age of accountability? One professor believes that age is about thirty years of age. Are you kidding me? I have read others who believe it is the age of twenty based on Numbers 14. Still others feel the age of accountability is at conception based on Psalm 51:5. Psalm 58 and Romans 5: 12-14. There is such discrepancy among Christians over what the age of accountability is, how in the world can we hold to the belief that children can not have salvation?
Second, seeing how Jesus interacted with children, leads me to believe that children can enter into God's blessings through salvation. In Matthew, Jesus refers to faith of children several times (Mt. 18, Mt. 19, Mt. 21).
Third, anyone that has children of their own has witness to their unadulterated faith! My son, though only six years of age, states without any doubt that Jesus is in his heart. Not only is he sure of his salvation, he knows exactly when his moment of salvation took place. Who are we to judge this faith? Shame on us who would cause a child to stumble because of our own agenda's whatever they may be!

Too Much Knowledge?

How much do we really need to know in current events? As ministers for Christ, do we need to keep abreast of all the current tragedies as they unfold in our country and world? In light of the terrible events at Virginia Tech on April 16th, I am wondering how much is too much knowledge? I have had to take the news off my Google homepage because the travesties that occur to children give me sleepless nights. I start worrying incessantly about my own children and their safety and well being. So how much is too much?
In John 17 when Jesus prays for his disciples, he prays not they would be taken from the world but that they would be sanctified by the truth of God's word. To sanctify is to set apart. If we are set aside by the truth of God's word, why would we fill ourselves with news of destruction and despair?
In Philippians 4, the Apostle Paul exhorts us to think on those things which are true, honest, right, pure, lovely and admirable. If we think of these things, then the peace of God will guard our hearts and minds. Does this mean that we should not watch the news then? Most news reports are not pure, lovely and admirable for sure. They may have truth and honesty. But do these reports of tragedy give us peace? I think not!
So then, I am caught in a quandary. Do I keep up on events so that I can be informed and thus help those I minster to try to understand tragic events? Or do I choose to think on only those things that are pure, lovely and admirable and shut out the news?
I would like to shut out the news. Much sadness, sleepless nights, and worry has been on my mind because of news reports. But if we are not up to date, how can we effectively minister?

Life

I have been thinking about life a lot. Why is it that we don't really appreciate it until a crisis hits us? In the book entitled Tuesdays w/ Morrie, Mitch Albom has the opportunity to visit w/ Morrie for a period of time after Morrie has been diagnosed w/ ALS. It is a sad book because you already know the ending before even beginning the book. However, Mitch and Morrie spend that last part of Morrie's life speaking on important topics like: regrets, death, fear of aging, culture, how love goes on, marriage, feeling sorry for yourself and the world. Some of these topics are ones that we really don't like to address and thus never speak of them! However, some of these topics are important. We are all going to die, someday, maybe some day soon. We don't know. Shouldn't we be celebrating the life that we have been blessed with every minute of every day? We generally speak of death, when evangelizing, or speaking of eternal life. And this we must do as we are all called to be evangelists (see 1 Tim. 2: 3-5). But don't we owe it to God, our marvelous creator, to celebrate our life here on this earth that he created for us (see Psalm 104 and Psalm 139)?

Why do we get to the end of life and have regrets? That is a very sad thing indeed. "You don't want to squander your wonderful life, to waste your precious life among the hardhearted. Why should you allow strangers to take advantage of you? Why be exploited by those who care nothing for you?You don't want to end your life full of regrets, nothing but sin and bones,Saying, "Oh, why didn't I do what they told me? Why did I reject a disciplined life? Why didn't I listen to my mentors, or take my teachers seriously? My life is ruined! I haven't one blessed thing to show for my life!"" (Prov. 5: 7-14 The Message). But if we spend our days celebrating our life and what God has given us here on earth, we should not have any regrets at the end of life! We can't be caught up with past sins. God isn't! If we have confessed our sins, they are gone- "Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD "—and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered" (Psalm 32: 5,1 NIV). If we get stuck on old sins and thus have regrets, we are mocking our Saviour- the One who is an atonement, a reconciliation between God and man, for our sins (See Rom. 3:21-26).

Mitch and Morrie also talk about "the perfect day"- if you had only one day left to spend however you wanted, what would it be like? For me, a vast Thanksgiving dinner with my husband, children, parents, siblings, nieces and nephews, and great nieces and nephews present would constitute a perfect day. There would be a bounty of food, laughter, talk, games, and singing. That would be a perfect day! I'm thankful that I have experienced several almost perfect days- not quite perfect because everyone has not been present together because of the pride of believing they are better than another. Ah pride...that is quite another subject. Pride does us no good. It hampers us from celebrating our life here on earth. So, in a perfect day, there would be no pride- just fellowship one with another. I'm not sure if I will experience this "perfect day" here on earth. But one can certainly hope!

So, let us celebrate life! Let us have no regrets! Let us speak of those uncomfortable subjects- for we never know when we may be gone- and our loved ones will be left w/ the sadness of no longer being able to converse on life, culture, death, aging, marriage, ...