Friday, July 29, 2011

Trust Yourself & Teach Them Faith

Today I am linking up with Kelly's Korner and sharing my best parenting advice.

My girls are 9 and 11 and I have made my share of mistakes, but these are two things that I feel strongly about.

The first is to not listen to other parents.  When my oldest was in kindergarten, she had a friend whose mom had a very strong personality and loved to not only tell me how awesome her daughter was, but all of the things that I should be doing differently.  I am only human, so I started comparing my daughter to hers, which made me feel horrible.  Also, I was not comfortable with allowing my daughter to do certain things or have certain things.  Eventually, the friendship dwindled and I was relieved.

You know what is best for your kids.  Someone else may not share your values and that is okay, but you need to hold firm to what you believe to be the best way to raise your children.  And try to avoid comparing your children to someone else's at all costs.  In fact, remember that when you are talking about how great and wonderful and beautiful your child is to another parent, remember that they also have a child who they think is great and wonderful and beautiful and try not to put them into a place where they are comparing their child to yours.

The other thing I have learned is that there are times in my life when I am powerless, as a mother, a daughter, a wife, a friend...and all I can do is pray.  I know that the Lord can take care of things that I can not.  I know that He is in charge not me.  I trust that He will see me through.


The Lord replied, "My precious, precious child,
I love you and I would never, never leave you
during your times of trial and suffering. 
"When you saw only one set of footprints,
it was then that I carried you."
~Mary Stevenson


I have always said that the best gift I can give my children is faith.  Since my girls were tiny we have prayed together, before meals and throughout our day.  They both attended church pre-school and continue to attend Sunday school.  We read the Bible together and we talk about how God is at work in our lives often.  They see me pray throughout the day and they join me often.  If I don't teach my children anything else, as long as I teach them to pray and encourage their relationship with the God, I will have done my job.  Indeed, there will be times when my children's hurts and concerns will be things that I can not fix, knowing that they have a relationship with God gives me peace that they will know who to go to, who will listen and be the only one that can help them.


We got back home and I went to the barn



I bowed my head and I prayed real hard

Said,' Lord, please help me help my stupid self'
Then this side of bedtime later that night
Turning on my son's scooby doo nightlight
He crawled out of bed and he got down on his knees
He closed his little eyes, folded his little hands
Spoke to God like he was talking to a friend
And I said, 'Son now where'd you learn to pray like that?'

Chorus two

He said,' I've been watching you dad, ain't that cool
I'm your buckaroo, I wanna be like you
And eat all my food and grow as tall as you are
We like fixing things and holding mama's hand
Yeah we're just alike, hey ain't we dad
I wanna do everything you do
So I've been watching you.'

from "Watching You"
by Rodney Atkins