Last night Chris and I stayed up late, chatting, until around 11:00. That's about an hour past our bedtime, so I just knew I was going to have a hard time waking up this morning...and I REALLY wanted to get an early start to get some shopping out of the way before my fun outing with the kids (watch the blog for more info on our fun trip today!).
Well, wouldn't you know I woke up at 4:45...and COULD NOT get back to sleep? I tossed for over 45 minutes before I finally decided maybe God woke me up extra early so we could have a nice, long, uninterrupted chat.
I opened my April edition of Journey magazine to see what today's devotional was about...hmmm...parenting! Now surely that applies to my life. Hmmm...it's about DISCIPLINE! Oh wow, now there's some information I need! I think God is talking to me here!
I read some of the verses in Proverbs about discipline, and highlighted them in my Bible. Real gems, such as:
Prov. 13:24 "He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him."
Prov. 23:13-14 "Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish him with the rod, he will not die. Punish him with the rod and save his soul from death."
Prov. 29:15 "The rod of correction imparts wisdom, but a child left to himself disgraces his mother." (I really like this one! Boy, have I been embarassed at times by a misbehaving child!)
I didn't feel really moved by all the verses about the rod though. We do use a wooden spoon for discipline when needed, but I really try to be careful to only use it for serious offenses. So, God, what is it you have to tell me?
Then I saw it--the real beauty of what God had to tell me lay in Hebrews 1:3, a verse I found by accident (or not??)...it wasn't even listed in the devotional.
Hebrews 1:3 "The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven."
I added the bold text to emphasize that God sustains us by his WORD! A couple of years ago God brought Deuteronomy 6:4-9 to my attention, and Chris and I decided to make it our family verse. It talks about making God's Word central to your daily life--talk about it when you get up in the morning, as you walk along the road, and when you are going to sleep at night. (I even ventured to write the entire verse in beautiful calligraphy to frame in our living room, but I haven't quite finished that project.)
It occurred to me that I have not been making the Word central to our lives, and that is what is going to sustain me in parenting (particularly discipline!), and in life in general.
I referred back to an excellent book Chris and I have, called Teach Them Diligently: How To Use The Scriptures In Child Training. It's got a great reference chart showing verse you can teach your child and use for certain scenarios. Aaron, at almost 4 years old, has a few verses memorized already, but we haven't been actively working to teach him more. So I picked a verse about sharing to start teaching him.
Hebrews 13:16 (NIrV) "Don't forget to do good. Don't forget to share with others. God is pleased with those kinds of offerings."
We talked about it today at nap time and he really liked the verse! It's practical to him and he felt special reading something out of his grown-up Bible.
My prayer today is that God will give me grace when I stumble and will show me creative ways to make His Word central to our lives!
No comments:
Post a Comment