How to Know the Will of God

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…”

To “be conformed” is a passive result of not doing anything. If we are just “being”, we are being conformed to the world around us. We see it, hear it, and pretty soon begin to think like it. We don’t have to search out the messages around us that are contrary to the mind of God…they seep into our being by our mere existence.

To be transformed requires deliberate action of the mind. A steady “washing” with that which is “true, honest, just, pure, praiseworthy and virtuous”.

Do I bring the influences of my mind under that scrutiny? That of my children’s minds? Am I being deliberate about the renewal of my mind?

Because Scripture says that unless I actively renew my mind with what is other-worldly, I cannot know the good, acceptable, perfect will of God.

May we love His Word and what it teaches us more and more each day.

The “Kingdom Choice” of Raising Children

“The efforts which a mother makes for the improvement of her child in knowledge and virtue, are necessarily retired and unobtrusive. The world knows nothing of them; and hence the world has been slow to perceive how powerful and extensive is this secret and silent influence….the influence which is exerted upon the mind during the first eight or ten years of existence, in a great degree guides the destinies of that mind for time and eternity! And as the mother is the guardian and guide of the early years of life, from her goes the most powerful influence in the formation of the character of man.” John Abbott

When Christians stop being “Kingdom-minded”, they stop making Kingdom choices. Choices like devoting a life to raising the next generation to love God, to honor authority and to live wisely. The very church of Christ has so degraded the blessing of children (and thus minimized a mother’s work), that it is almost unthinkably ignorant. For how can we expect to pass the torch of passion and faithfulness to our Savior unless we have made it our chiefest aim to daily impress His character onto the hearts of our children?

When we understand that our whole existence is to glorify the Lord, we live each moment differently. We get about our Father’s business. We don’t measure “if we should have children” by their convenience or how many vacations it will cost me or whether I can pursue my favorite pastime or career. We don’t have children to look cute in their ball uniforms and homemade hair bows.

We fall down on our knees with the grave responsibility of stewardship over these children, these people who will either further the Kingdom or be a blight on society, based largely on our diligence to the duty of raising them.

Mothers, you must govern your home well. It is the cruelest act of motherhood that you should neglect to teach your children to obey the loving authority over them. For in doing so, you make them unable to submit to God.

Children who have not learned self-government stand to be the most wretched of all men and women, loathing you for your indulgences.

But don’t you see, it isn’t harsh! It wells up from the deepest love, the deepest desire to see our children walking in truth and evokes sheer delight to walk beside them.

When I see my children through Kingdom-eyes, their vices aren’t irritations that bug me and cause me to be angry; they are offenses that sober me and call me to the tireless and tender action of praying for, teaching and tending the garden of their souls.

My children are the very happiest when I have loved them enough to require gratitude, obedience and honor. Their little faces light up into mine when they sense my tenderest sincerity toward their character.

And then, to place my hands on their heads, kneel over them and pray…

“Father, you have blessed me with this child. Thank you that she is growing to love You, thank you that she is obedient, and I pray that she will serve you all the days of her life”….

causes a heart-smile to break across their faces, and they know–it sinks down deep and they KNOW that I am in this for life, through tears, joys and hardship. I am their advocate, and I will stop short of nothing to give “my life for yours” in these few years they are mine.

“God’s Curriculum”…If You Don’t Teach Them Anything Else!

When I heard Kevin Swanson say, “God has given us a curriculum…it’s Proverbs”, my spirit resonated with that seemingly simplistic statement. That doesn’t mean we need to toss our math and grammar books, it means if we are teaching math and grammar without a thorough teaching of the Proverbs, we are not giving them the tools they need to be truly successful.

That’s because Proverbs is the book of wisdom–the “secret” to life and whether our children will do well at what they put their hand to or not. “Wisdom! Get wisdom!” the Proverbs screams. Why would we clamor to get our academic ducks in a row but neglect this principal thing?

Swanson has made it easy to teach through the book of wisdom with his 3-book series, the Proverbs Study Guide.

Our family uses this in our devotion time, but it could easily be implemented during school as well. I love the simple, short yet thorough explanations Kevin gives of each verse of Proverbs. He ends the lesson with questions for discussion, as important as the lesson itself.

Containing everything from how to handle finances to political and social ethics, we simply cannot neglect to teach our children these most essential life lessons from the Word of God.

The Book of Proverbs Study Series comes highly recommended from this family!

Teaching Love as We Walk Beside Them

Even though I’m in a hurry, I prop on my full shopping cart and motion her, with her three items in hand, to go in front of me…it’s only treating her the way I want to be treated.  But then, the hasty shuffle past me, and never a grateful glance.

A short response from someone I love…
a perceived wound…

A thousand small injustices a day have only the power we give them…will I nurse my wound, blame, wear my feelings in a vulnerable place, or will I give others the benefit of the doubt?

“As a mom, I find a hundred love-lessons like these to teach a day.”

“Who knows what that woman may be dealing with:  a terminally ill child she is hurrying back home to nurse?  Financial burdens larger than life?  An abusive husband?” I choose to ask myself.

“Love covers over an offense”.

I’m only just learning, at 38 years old, to look over offenses.  And I’m still very bad at it.  At least the thought occurs to me, and I’m praying earnestly that those thoughts would grow into more follow through.

As a mom, I find a hundred love-lessons like these to teach a day.  If we can cultivate a heart of looking over offenses in our children, imagine how we put them ahead!  Would you agree that this one character trait or flaw, whichever it is, is the source of so much violence, family turmoil and broken homes?  Think about the trail of disaster left in the wake of one of these tragedies when, who knows, had one party only had a mother walking beside him every day, spurring him to true Love, shaping a heart that is able to let an offense go, the whole chain of events may have never existed.

Left alone, the misery of self-centeredness–(for that is the vice that causes us to be quickly offended) will eat them alive.  But with careful pruning, day by day we speak into their lives…“Love keeps no record of wrongs”, and they are transformed by that truth. “Maybe your sister just needs a gentle word…”

Do I model it for them?   Do my children learn from the way I speak of others to cover offenses?  (This is a real question I’m asking myself right now as I write.)  What about my reactions to my husband or relatives?

Thinking the best of people, letting things go, covering up offenses…this is the stuff of Christian love.

Are we big enough?

Living Life With Children

There is wonder, awe and plain cuteness in little children. There is unbridled curiosity and a wise one will follow it without restraint. And there is fullness of living in what they teach us and what we teach them.

I love living life, soaking up moments and getting my feet wet in the puddles of daily life. It’s so easy to miss…so much competes for our attention and time. Most of our days are ordinary, aren’t they? I’m not talking about the poetic life-is-gumdrops-and-lollipops kind of living that pretends the floor isn’t sticky and the noses aren’t messy.

Living life…the real life. That’s what we miss so easily yet the ordinary moments are what, added together, make up a lifetime.

I was sanding a door yesterday–an old french door we bought dirt cheap for our screened-in porch on our new house. Mallie (5) wanted to help. The great thing about distressing stuff that’s already distressed is that the little ones can’t mess it up; they are perfect for the job. I love these projects where I can hand ‘em a brush and see their faces light up.

So she pulled up a stool and we sanded and painted and stained and rubbed the wood with a rag. Turning something old into something usable again. (Will she remember the lessons of being resourceful?)  And we talked. Not really about anything important, but I listened, and watched her face contort when she got to the “important” parts. And I got to say, “Isn’t it neat, Mallie, that God has blessed us so much and we get to work together to build another house? I like being with you.” And I got to see her connect another dot between her small, tangible world and the great big God that runs it all.

Side by side, living life, talking, sharing, smiling at each other. Just being here with them…I’m thankful in a thousand ways.

And even when we’re not smiling…when tempers flare and we say the things we shouldn’t. Praise God for days that don’t go well! Praise Him for the thousands of chances we have to live forgiveness! To show them that messing up doesn’t mean losing favor…that forgiveness is there again and again. No, I don’t like it either at the time but it knits the gospel into our hearts, makes us humble and reminds us of our constant need of a Savior. What could be more important?

So many lessons to learn in the ordinary. So much living to do in a day.

Dispelling the Criticism of Dominion Theology

Natalie at Visionary Womanhood has done an outstanding job dispelling some of the criticisms and false assumptions of what many call “Dominion Theology”, which is merely a new-sounding term for the way Christians have believed for centuries. Dominion Theology–fulfilling man’s first command and the supremacy of Christ in all things. This former “no-brainer” for Christians has now become an upheaval of controversy.

I highly recommend her article!

“I spent one hour searching for ONE POSITIVE THING on this topic…and all I found were horrific articles written by both atheists and Christians (funny how both sides agree on this issue…something is definitely amiss here, and I find that extremely fascinating…) that smear “Dominion Theology” into the ground.

I was mystified.  I mean, the articles were written by folks who really had NOT studied it at all, so they were writing all kinds of lies and half-truths and hyper exaggerations all couched in frenetic emotional rhetoric.  I did not find one intelligent discussion on it anywhere.Then the following article came to me in my e-mail in-box.  It came from a completely different angle…and it made a great point.  Every ideology is about having dominion. ”

Read the rest HERE!