Book Review & Recommendation, When Parenting isn’t Perfect

When Parenting isn’t Perfect

By Jim Daly

Well if your a Focus on the Family listener then you know anything by Jim Daly is a sure win!  His encouraging spirit come out once again in this great book about God filling the gap.

We are not going to be perfect 100% of the time and Jim gives us permission to let that worry go.  To shake off the pride and allow our feet to touch the ground.  He says its going to be ok, just keep loving your kids and working as a team with your spouse and pray.

I was encouraged to let go of the illusion that you an control your kids and instead focus on guiding them and teaching them to understand responsibility.  They have minds and a will of their own and your needs for control over who your kids will become or how they behave can’t get in the way of Grace.  Keep building a foundation of acceptance and love and lots of grace and do overs.  For both parents and kids.

I will read it again once my kids are per-teens.  It was bit other ahead of where I am right now but gave me lots of good things to chew on as I lay the foundation for years to come.

Completely recommend this book!  Especially for those of you with teens and tweens!  Its a great call to let go of your worries as far as the statue quo is concerned.  That just because conditions might not be perfect in your life you can still be a great parent.  Wether you feel your limitations, to fully bless your child is because of a lack of funds, time, energy, wholeness in your marriage, what ever your sad story might be…  God is still working out His good will for your children through you, or despite of you.

Super Book, Read it!!

One Body, Forged by the Faithful, Fuelled with Youth

As a body of believers we are like a rolling ocean.

Some are in the adolescence of faith, frothing and breaking at the peak of the swell with passion and energy.  Riled by injustice and quick to spring to action.  Sometimes causing a splash and a crash, or creating a crest of rolling beauty.

Others are in the quiet of resting in Life with Christ.  Settled into the harbour of God Grace.  They have seen and discussed all theses things bombarding the church now and have seen it all before.  By faith and experience they know the Lord has provided and His Word had stood true this long.  They need not make much of a ripple now.

Also there are those in the deep dark places, reaching for the light and hope.  Those that are dwelling underneath the surface.  Christians get sad and get low and it is up to the rest of us to look beneath the surface and send undercurrents to prayer and love to move and stir those disconnected from the Joy of life with Christ and his children.

And then there are those far away lost at sea, searching for the secrets of this great and mysterious body that moves as one and as many at the same time.

Romans 12:5      So it is with one body. We are many parts of a body, and we will belong to one another. 

Young don’t look at the old as complacent or disinterested.  They have patience and wisdom on their side.

Proverbs 19:20      Listen to advice and accept discipline, and in the end you will be counted among the wise.

Like wise, you older, don’t disregard the passion and conviction you see in the young at faith, as folly.

I Timothy 4:12     Don’t let anyone look down upon you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity.

Rather look to each other to glean wisdom and to gather excitement.

Look into the water that rolls and shimmers with the spirit and soul of a great nation and dive deep.  Baptizing your whole being in the living water that is to flow into the bare and desert land.

Only when we accept the church, graciously, as flawed and sinful, as a band of brothers and sisters, can we work as one.

If the family of God is a ocean, then the filling of the body comes from many different sources.  Rivers, streams, lakes, and ponds.  We are all running clear to the same destination, splashing and overflowing many banks on the way.

Look upon your brothers and sisters and realize they are not just like you….  Yet we are drawn to the same destiny of life reconciled to Christ.  Though we all have different struggles and interests and stories and ambitions.  All streams lead to the sea but every kind of water fills the basin of Gods great grace.  If we are to be a body, that is pleasing to God, we are to endure patiently, regard respectfully, listen more then we talk and give more then we receive.  Its the Golden rule and it is true for the flourishing of our Christian family.

Luke 6:31   Do onto others what you would have them do to you.

A loving display of acceptance of every person, in the sea of faces that ebb and flow through channels of faith, on our way to the sea. Each is a important key to bringing water to a desert place and quenching the thirst.  Flow with the grace given us with Christ and filter His love to a parched land.

 

Book Review & Recommendation: the Unhurried Homeschooler

The Unhurried Homeschooler                                                                                                             By. Durenda Wilson

I will admit the first couple of pages didn’t impress me.  I kinda thought this woman must ware a head covering and not have much value in her children pursuing post-secondary education…

But then as I continued I realized that her philosophy was really everything I have been holding onto as my mantra.  Just what we all cling to when our baby docent crawl or talk right when their tiny peers start to.  We tell ourselves that every baby develops at its own rate and thats just fine.

So Durenda remains us, that just because its time to start school the standard dose not suddenly change.  Your kids have their own unique learning trajectory.  As moms and home educators we can’t lose sight of that.  So don’t get in a hurry to race through to the end.  It will come in due time.

She shared how her family starts those early elementary years focusing on the basics and focusing on the responsibilities of life as a contributing member of the family.  So that her kids can grow to be contributing members of society weather they pursue higher education or not. (FYI, her grown kids are in collage now so I totally read her all wrong)

I loved this book in the end and have been added her suggestion to my families schedule and sequence already. I see my kids embracing their new structure and responsibilities in our home as students of home life and home school as well!

Its a super short and easy read and one I will re-read to be reminded of why I wanted to homeschool in the first place.  To avoid the pressure to press through the little years before they are ready to really glean what they need for the years to come.