To Train a Child

It is so easy to react to your child's behavior. I often find myself saying the same things all day long: "Stop doing that! Don't do that! Stop hitting your brother! Stay away from there!" It is easy to react to disobedience and to get frustrated if that's all I do all day! It is not so easy to train a child. When we train for an event - a sporting event, a job, etc. - we undergo intense, proactive exercise to learn something new. We train our bodies to do something they have not done before. We train our minds to learn a new concept. And when we "train up a child in the way he should go," we teach them something new. Our children do not know how to obey us, and they definitely do not know what it means to glorify our Father. Our job is to train their minds and hearts to understand a foreign concept, to do something they've never done before. When a runner trains for a marathon, running becomes easier and easier as the training continues. When you are trained for a new job, the task becomes easier as you continue to practice. Let us all remember that we are to discipline and train our children for Godliness.

Lord, help us to persevere through the difficult task of training our children. When they grow old, give them the strength to not grow weary but to run the Christian race more quickly and richly every day.

Sorry for the delay!

I apologize for the lack of posts! We are moving next month, and we covet your prayers during the home-buying process. Thank you for reading and for being patient with me!

I Work at Home

It is not the cultural norm to aspire to the profession of Wife and Mother. Our world tells us to "take care of yourself. Learn to provide for yourself so your husband doesn't have to. Be independent, and if you want to stay at home while your kids are young, it's permissible to put your career on hold for that. But hurry up and get them involved in school so you can either enjoy the day without them or return to your important career." This culture has even labeled those whose sole job is to care for their family as "stay-at-home moms," implying that our families are keeping us from getting out and doing something else.

But God...

Older women...are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

-Titus 2:3-5

God has given us clear instruction to work at home, not simply to stay at home. We are to work hard to care for our families - first to help our husbands, then to nurture our children. This profession is not for the weak but for the strong, the hard worker, the diligent. So often our culture (but most prominently our own sin) causes us to stay and not to work, or to work hard only at things outside the home. The curse of Eve cries, "You can do what your husband does, and probably better! You can work and provide for yourself! Someone else can do the menial tasks of housekeeping or cooking or childcare; you are better suited for grander things!" But let us remember the urgency of our role as wives and mothers. Working at home is not for the infant or preschool years; working at home is our task. It is our job. As God may gift us to work in the church or work at anything outside the home, our primary task is to keep our home in a manner that honors God so we are able to love our husbands and care for our children.

Lord, please give us the wisdom to choose to work hard at home, whatever the demands on our lives. As your Scripture reminds us, help us to keep our home, not for the sake of our career or status or popularity, but for the sake of your Word.