SP #1

Started a new book...Sacred Parenting by Gary Thomas. Our small group just finished the Sacred Marriage study by him. I'm borrowing the book; therefore, I can't mark in the book. So I plan to make some notes/reflections here.

Initial thoughts...I LOVE my girls more than words can say. This is my life and I wouldn't want any other way....because...I know beyond a shadow of a doubt this is where I'm suppose to be and I don't want to be any where God doesn't want me...regardless of how difficult it can be. Bringing Reagan into the world was like-changing, to say the least. The adjustment was vast and oh so difficult at the time. I HAD to be selfless...my needs, my agenda, my desires, my goals had to be adjusted. I love how God used that season in my life to mold me to who I am today and where I am today. I believe as Reagan got older, I began to adjust to the different lifestyle. I picked up my own agenda again and ran less by God. However, being her mom continues to bring me back to Christ's love for me.

We are so blessed to have our sweet, sweet Rileigh now. (Side note....carrying and delivering my babies really wasn't that bad, but nursing and adjusting to a new schedule is hard for me. It is true...God won't give us more than we can handle. :) ) She is such a good baby. Her needs are quite simple. It is all going by so quickly. Although, this season is really hard at times, I still want it to slow down. Go figure!

I get weary of doing. Sometimes I think I just want to sit at the computer and read blogs, lay by a pool, organize spaces....just do what I want to do when I want to. That would be too easy...too selfish. I am called to die to myself daily...to serve others...to love others more...starting with my family. So, I pray a lot more now. In moments when this control freak feels out of control or this former-perfectionist can't complete a task up to par, I just pray. (sometimes I laugh and/or cry too) I KNOW God knows the desires of my heart. I KNOW he has my best interest in mind. I KNOW he has plans for my life. I KNOW this is not about me. I KNOW these things to be true.

I want to be a better person, a better mom, a better daughter, a better friend, etc for them. It is inevitable....they will observe me in every area of my life and so what do I want them to see? I will influence them. But in what way? How do I want this to go? I have a choice...daily, hourly, moment by moment. The responsibility is overwhelming because I am such a fallen person. My deepest prayer and desire is that Christ shines as bright as ever through me...so they will see HIS face through me. I pray that I will lead them closer to the Father. That they too, will BE STILL and KNOW that HE IS GOD.

Chapter 1: Papa God

"If it was going to be easy to raise kids, it never would have started with something called labor." -Anonymous

"It is in families we are broken and it is in families that we are healed." - Carl Whittaker

"Dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God." 2 Corinthians 7:1

• I seem so big to my kids now, when I know so little. Yet when I am more experienced and know more, I will seem so small to them.
• "The process of raising children requires skills that God alone possesses...parenting regularly reminds us of our absolute humanity. We do not love perfectly, as God loves. Our ability to relate, to understand, and to build intimacy comes up short in a way that God's does not." So true! Well put!
• "Why have children?"
• "We called to raise children who will love God and obey his commandments....for the glory of God."
• "When we don't understand the purpose of parenting, the process becomes tedious."
• Not how proud my children make me, but how faithful I've been to the duties God has given
• "Many of us are so tempted to focus on purifying our children that we neglect our own spiritual growth." (See 2 Corinthians 7:1)
• God-centered parenting vs. child-centered parenting
• My own spiritual quest must drive my parenting. "Unfinished or neglected spiritual business inevitably works its way out through our relationships in a negative fashion: we become more demanding, more controlling, more intolerant, more resentful. Our spouses and our children cannot quench the God-given spiritual hunger in our souls. When we neglect God, we ask our marriage and our parenting to become stand-ins for God-something they were never designed to do." Oh man!