parenting

The following are some pics for Emma...to redeem the ones from her "crazy hair" post.  Baby girl, you really are pretty cute.

Parenting has been on my mind a lot lately.  Good thing, right?  I mean, I am faced with it pretty much 24/7.  As Livie is approaching age 2, I'm finding myself being more humbled and challenged, not only in parenting, but in my Christian walk.  More than ever before.

In attempt to explain this, I'm going to take an exerpt from a little book I was given for my birthday,  "Loving the Little Years", by Rachel Jankovic, mother of 5 children under 5!  She's further into this parenting thing than I am, but I can already relate to her with just 2 of my own.  The following passage really resonated with what I've been learning lately...

I do a lot of on-the-job failure and correction.  Repenting and forgiving.  Laughing.  Lots and lots of laughing.  Because if there is anything that life will teach you, it is that there is no room to take yourself seriously...

The opportunities for growth and refinement abound here - but you have to be willing.  You have to open your heart to deal with the tumble.  As you deal with your children, deal with yourself always and first.  This is what it looks like and feels like to walk with God, as a mother.  

God treats us with great kindness as we fail daily.  He takes the long view of our sin - knowing that every time we fail and repent, we grow in our walk with Him.  It is easy for us to accept this, because are sins are, well, ours.

But our children sin against us, annoy us, mess up our stuff.  We want to hold it against them, complain about them (if only to ourselves), and feel put on by their sin.  We have a much harder time accepting that every failure from them is a wonderful opportunity for repentance and growth and not an opportunity for us to exact penance.  

It is no abstract thing - the state of your heart is the state of your home.  You cannot harbor resentment secretly toward your children and expect their hearts to be submissive and tender.  You cannot be greedy with your time and expect them to share their toys.  And perhaps, most importantly, you cannot resist your opportunities to be corrected by God and expect them to receive correction from you.

God has given us the job of teaching His law and demonstrating His grace.  We are to be guides to our children as they learn to walk with God.  Sin is just a fact of life.  It is the way we deal with it that changes ours.

Love all of that...especially that it is so centered on the Gospel.  May God grant me grace to live out the Gospel of Jesus Christ at home!

My lighter note for today is that the roof on our new house is now completely sheeted (meaning, it is covered in plywood and is ready for shingles).  Sheeting the roof was a BIG job.  Soo, now the final decisions on outside finishes need to be made.  We have the stone, windows, gutters, garage doors, and trim picked out...now we just need to decide on siding and shake colors (which covers most of the house).  Here is what is on my kitchen table right now...

And the decisions are just starting...