"I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me," Mth. 25:35-36.
First I have to say SORRY for how long it has taken me to get back to uploading to this discipling blog! I have not stopped writing---and God certainly has not stopped working in our lives! I just have not had the time to edit & get pictures for the pieces I've been working on. I am in the midst of launching a photography business (which has kind of come up suddenly) and been very consuming. Several of you have encouraged me to 'tell the stories' even if at this phase of life I cannot put all the time into as much editing as I did to the first 39 entries. Just tell the stories of how God is revealing Himself to your family daily.
One friend's comment put it over the edge for me, 'I think it's great you are starting this photography business, but you CANNOT stop writing for your blog! Even if it's only once a month---do not stop! Your stories show moms how we show kids Jesus in every day!' Wow---how encouraging and humbling, this dear friend Natalie does not even have children! I was confused as to why she was even following this blog.
We continued to talk and then I realized it, what Natalie and I share is a childhood filled with the pain of many, many decisions made apart from God. How incredible is it that her hearts cry is to raise a family that seeks the Lord and she has not even started having children yet! If my stories of honesty regarding the difficulty of the process and the rewards God sprinkles throughout encourage families to lay their lives at His feet, then wow---I'll keep telling the stories! So, phase 2 of this blogging journey will need more editing eventually for the book I plan to compile the devotions in for my boys, but again God confirms what He keeps trying to teach me, 'it does not have to fit into a pretty little package to be used by Me. I use dirt to create!'
So, now for true confession time. Homework time has had me pulling out my hair lately. Really, all this frustration and aggravation at the end of an already long school day?! Asking Will and Wyatt to focus further energy into sitting activities when they long to run and wrestle (which they've restrained themselves from doing all day) has been pretty ugly. In my heart I wrestle with how much time I feel forced into a teaching role for school work that I think should resume tomorrow, during school hours, not in the precious little time we have as a family. Last night was particularly bad because we saved hw till after dinner which was also running late.
The whole time we were sitting there, I saw it, the twins minds were somewhere else. Honestly, so was mine. Added to that, Wyatt had a paper with the 'were you using your time wisely?' tell-tale comment in red. So, I had him complete what he had not done in class. Both boys' minds couldn't be further from first grade math! Both were ready for bed and the focus of counting backwards by 2's starting at 48 was putting us all over the edge.
Cut to bedtime and one argument over a book on CD between the twins room and Tad's room. "That's it, one more person out of bed or loud and it's a spanking," I yelled up. Several minutes later I hear voices and all I can think is, 'they have to go to sleep, they need more rest not less and they are still fooling around up there.'
I walk into my foyer to start up the stairs to put the kibosh on all the activity. I stop dead in my tracks at the bottom of the stairs because of what I hear, "Dear God, thank you for my family and my friends. Thank you for all the food I had today. Thank You that I have God money so I can fill a box with toys for a poor kid who lives far away. I wish everyone in my church could do this too and my school, I wish they could do this for Jesus. Amen. Ok, let's read our Bible now Wyatt," said William.
"No, I need to pray first, then we can read our Bible," Wyatt said and launched into a similar prayer, gratitude then intercession for those too easily ignored. Wyatt spoke about people without food. I remembered our conversation that morning at the breakfast table. While buttering a 2nd piece of cinnamon toast for Tad I said, 'boys you know what I'm thinking about while I butter you more bread? Pastor Joe showed us a photograph at church of a boy eating his one bowl of food for the day, seated by the trash dump which he called home. It seems God has given us so much so that we can thank Him then share that with others."
One friend's comment put it over the edge for me, 'I think it's great you are starting this photography business, but you CANNOT stop writing for your blog! Even if it's only once a month---do not stop! Your stories show moms how we show kids Jesus in every day!' Wow---how encouraging and humbling, this dear friend Natalie does not even have children! I was confused as to why she was even following this blog.
We continued to talk and then I realized it, what Natalie and I share is a childhood filled with the pain of many, many decisions made apart from God. How incredible is it that her hearts cry is to raise a family that seeks the Lord and she has not even started having children yet! If my stories of honesty regarding the difficulty of the process and the rewards God sprinkles throughout encourage families to lay their lives at His feet, then wow---I'll keep telling the stories! So, phase 2 of this blogging journey will need more editing eventually for the book I plan to compile the devotions in for my boys, but again God confirms what He keeps trying to teach me, 'it does not have to fit into a pretty little package to be used by Me. I use dirt to create!'
So, now for true confession time. Homework time has had me pulling out my hair lately. Really, all this frustration and aggravation at the end of an already long school day?! Asking Will and Wyatt to focus further energy into sitting activities when they long to run and wrestle (which they've restrained themselves from doing all day) has been pretty ugly. In my heart I wrestle with how much time I feel forced into a teaching role for school work that I think should resume tomorrow, during school hours, not in the precious little time we have as a family. Last night was particularly bad because we saved hw till after dinner which was also running late.
The whole time we were sitting there, I saw it, the twins minds were somewhere else. Honestly, so was mine. Added to that, Wyatt had a paper with the 'were you using your time wisely?' tell-tale comment in red. So, I had him complete what he had not done in class. Both boys' minds couldn't be further from first grade math! Both were ready for bed and the focus of counting backwards by 2's starting at 48 was putting us all over the edge.
Cut to bedtime and one argument over a book on CD between the twins room and Tad's room. "That's it, one more person out of bed or loud and it's a spanking," I yelled up. Several minutes later I hear voices and all I can think is, 'they have to go to sleep, they need more rest not less and they are still fooling around up there.'
I walk into my foyer to start up the stairs to put the kibosh on all the activity. I stop dead in my tracks at the bottom of the stairs because of what I hear, "Dear God, thank you for my family and my friends. Thank you for all the food I had today. Thank You that I have God money so I can fill a box with toys for a poor kid who lives far away. I wish everyone in my church could do this too and my school, I wish they could do this for Jesus. Amen. Ok, let's read our Bible now Wyatt," said William.
"No, I need to pray first, then we can read our Bible," Wyatt said and launched into a similar prayer, gratitude then intercession for those too easily ignored. Wyatt spoke about people without food. I remembered our conversation that morning at the breakfast table. While buttering a 2nd piece of cinnamon toast for Tad I said, 'boys you know what I'm thinking about while I butter you more bread? Pastor Joe showed us a photograph at church of a boy eating his one bowl of food for the day, seated by the trash dump which he called home. It seems God has given us so much so that we can thank Him then share that with others."
A conversation that had happened 12 hours earlier with a whole lot of regular life filling up the in between and yet they remembered.
These were the boys I wanted to throttle only an hour earlier at the homework table. It was like God was saying, 'Jennifer, this is what really matters. Yes, encourage them to work whole heartedly at whatever they set their hands to, but understand that school is just a tiny piece of the equation of what I'm doing in their lives. Never let forgetting agendas, going on yellow for writing notes when they are supposed to be working independently in class, and incomplete classwork assignments take your eyes off of what I am growing in them. Never let them get so frustrated by their lack of focus that they take their eyes off of Me and what I long to teach them which has nothing to do with counting backwards by 2's.'
Their vision was big and mine was small. I prayed, 'thank You Jesus that the frustration at the table did not carry over to creating defeat and anger in those little boys. Thank You that they dream big dreams about caring for those who do not have. '
These were the boys I wanted to throttle only an hour earlier at the homework table. It was like God was saying, 'Jennifer, this is what really matters. Yes, encourage them to work whole heartedly at whatever they set their hands to, but understand that school is just a tiny piece of the equation of what I'm doing in their lives. Never let forgetting agendas, going on yellow for writing notes when they are supposed to be working independently in class, and incomplete classwork assignments take your eyes off of what I am growing in them. Never let them get so frustrated by their lack of focus that they take their eyes off of Me and what I long to teach them which has nothing to do with counting backwards by 2's.'
Their vision was big and mine was small. I prayed, 'thank You Jesus that the frustration at the table did not carry over to creating defeat and anger in those little boys. Thank You that they dream big dreams about caring for those who do not have. '
Yup, I'm wiping the tears now as I write this. When we stand before Jesus He's going to ask us what we did with what we were given. These are the boys who will dump all their "God," "Save," and "Spend" bags of money into the rice bowl collection for feeding the hungry at church. They will go help a neighbor weed, totally unsolicited. They seem to know God's going to ask if we reached out with mercy and kindess or did we only reach in to build our own empires? I'm pretty sure counting backwards by 2's from 50 isn't going to be on the roll call. Eternal value is way too easily trumped by all these very temporary distractors. Give us eyes to remain focused on true value even when every voice screams to pull our attention away.
*picture is one of the apology notes the twins wrote for writing notes with their friends during classwork time. Apparently this was started by a note Wyatt received that said, "Wyatt likes Joy."
*picture is one of the apology notes the twins wrote for writing notes with their friends during classwork time. Apparently this was started by a note Wyatt received that said, "Wyatt likes Joy."
It seems homework was not what God had placed on their hearts, but "heartwork" for him was.
ReplyDeleteWe can all learn from this, listen and hear what God is really putting on your heart, not what we put in our heads. Mom
I feel like I just read about an evening at my house! We struggle with the same issues with home work on a daily basis, and I feel the same way about it as you do. It saddens me that Aiden, in 2nd grade, has to sit a the table for another 45 min to an hour, after a long day at school, doing homework. I end up getting angry also and the nights seem to end up sad for all of us. I pray that my children learn form me the Christ likeness I am supposed to (and am trying hard to) show them, and not the worldy wacko mom that I feel I they see more often. Thank you for your inspiring story and encouragement ou have given me! :)
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