God's Sovereignty

I'm involved in a mom's group at my church called Mom 2 Mom. It's kinda set up like MOPS but without all the expenses. It's a video series and I've learned so much from it! Today we had a speaker and she was wonderful! Sometimes God puts someone in your life at just the right time and today that was this women and the words of wisdom she had to share. So, please let me share with you some of her wisdom. I started with a 5x7 sheet of paper and by the end of the talk I was wishing I'd had more room to take more notes, she was that good! So, here are some points that I found very invaluable for me as a mom! They aren't in any order, but this time it's more the message then the placement of the points.

"Our God- Sovereign and Superior"
Carol Totten

* Hold a crown over your child's head and help them grow into it!
*Sometimes we spend a lot of our day pointing our fingers at our children when we should be spend that time praying for them.
*God's Sovereignty should teach us contentment. He is in control and He is faithful!
*I don't have to have all the answers, be able to fix everything, see the future.... He Does!
*Don't take too much credit or too much blame for our kids! Remember whose they are!

And the most important I found today was this....
*Matthew:37-38 God calls us to love Him more then our kids and our husband!
"He who loves and takes more pleasure in father or mother then in Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves and takes more pleasure in son or daughter then in me is not worthy of me; and he who does not take up his cross and follow Me [that is to cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and if need be in dying also] is not worthy of Me."
Do we find ourselves honoring our children more then our Lord? What does that look like- honoring our Lord over our kids? Well, an example given was a pastor that told his children that if they married an unbeliever he would not attend their wedding as we are called to honor the Lord by not being unequally yoked. Wow! Now that's a stand, what a way to Honor our Lord! I challenge you to take a stand and honor your Lord in the every day things too! Such as stepping in when your child is being fairly disciplined by your spouse because you feel sorry for the child? Do you give in to those 2 year olds tantrums? this is not honoroing our Lord! We need to honor our Lord in everything in every way!

And as an added bonus here is a list of Shirley Rice's Practical Points of Child-Rearing
1. Depend on the Lord constantly for wisdom (especially prayer)
2. Expect obedience; it is not optoinal
3. Expect what is reasonable of the child (age appropriate)
4. Have only necesary rules
5. Do not Nag (this is both great for children and husbands)
6. Insist on courtesy
7. Teach the child to respect other people's property
8. Teach the child to respect legitimate authority
9. Be consistent
10. Teach the child to endure hardness; and how to work
11. Help them face their faults and failures
12. Do not be pressured into punishing a child unjustly because of the opinion of others
13. Present a united front with your husband
14. If you are losing control, stop and get quiet before the Lord

A few things that were said in our small group were very convicting and my prayer is that I can choose daily to honor my Lord! My other prayer is that maybe God can use this post today to impact other women out there! What a blessing!