Go girl!

I am loving this new stage!!!!! This is Ireland making herself an egg "McMuffin" for breakfast. We have sort of become health freaks recently so we don't go to McDonalds, but try as we might, we can't let go of the egg McMuffin. So this is Ireland's version of it. Its an organic wheat English muffin, with a farm fresh egg (that we actually pick up from a farm) topped with a little cheddar cheese and some all natural organic strawberry jam. YUMM!
When I posted last week about my girl starting to cook, I thought "Oh how cute, this is going to be fun". Now I realize this is more than fun.
This leads me to another subject. The subject being that of how to we raise good adults? These big girl steps that Ireland is taking are a symbol that I no longer have a kid to "train", I have a young girl to raise into a Woman. Its crazy how that sort of freaks me out. Not because my daughter is getting older (although that does make me sad) but because there is so much more responsibility in raising Godly, sweet, selfless, women, then to teach a little child to obey. To teach my children to obey was a constant battle of being consistent, delving out spankings, and lots of prayer to the Lord for Patience. When it comes to discipline however, I am entering this next faze of "older children" and my thoughts go from "what toy can I take away?" to "how do I handle this situation in a way that will best effect their heart?". I am realizing now, that I must be an example more than ever. I am not saying that you don't need to be a good example when they are young, because obviously you do. It seems though, that at those early stages, their life is more of cause and effect. Toddler hits another child, same toddler gets a spanking for being unkind. Young child steals, same young child gets his/her toys given away to the salvation army :)

Cause and effect.

Now though, things are changing. She is looking more deeply at how "I" handle things. How do I respond when things go wrong? Do I argue when I do not get my way? Am I taking the time to explain the greater reasons of WHY do we not do things? Am I always completely honest, as I train her to be? Am I "training" a child in the way they should go so that when they are old they will not depart from it? YIKES! Talk about responsibility. Its hard enough to keep them from being totally spoiled and immoral, which is the way our natures bends. But to train them to be good, and noble, and courageous, to stand for what is right and against injustice. MAN!! who can do such a thing?

I can.

You can too. How do I know this? God says we can. He says He has given everything we need for the challenges in our life. In Acts 17 it states....

24"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'

And again in 2 Peter 1:3

"3His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness."

It also says Deuteronomy several times that we are to train our children, to teach our children, to talk to them, to raise them right (I wrote more on that subject in this post)

Sometimes though, its just plain HARD. I see so many of my failures in how I parent. So many failures in who I am. I can be very impatient and rude. I can easily choose time on the computer over time with my kids if I am not careful. So where do we go for strength when we feel this job is not only hard, but never seems to end! ha ha. Well once again, His Word gives us encouragement in this when it says in Galatians 6:9 "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."

We are in it for the long haul ladies, let's do it well.