Parenting The Wholehearted Child - Chapters 5,6,7

Chapter 5 -
"He searches me and knows my heart." I think this is so important because as hard as our days get the easier it is to end in an emotional mess.  But I find that as long as I stick firm to the fact that he does know the desire of my heart to parent my children in a calm and christian way, I can take a deep breath and realize I can not do this without him.  There is just no way.  I love the concept of praying scriptures over our children.  Even just using the verses I have already printed and inserting the child's name in them helps a lot for direction in prayer life for others.  At dinner I think I am going to start with the "High, Low Game"  Have each child tell me the highlight of the day and the lowlight of the day and have us pray for them right then.

Chapter 6 -
"As I meditate on God's words, my courage increases, my heart softens, my guard comes down, and my trust grows."  This is huge because his words are the light to my path.  If I am not looking for the light and just fumbling around in the dark, I'm not so sure I am doing anyone any good!  I need to start my day with some light and make sure to read the word and spend some time in prayer.  I need to feed myself before I can feed others.  The end goal is for my children to see God's light in me and spread it to him.  I guess I need the light first!

Chapter 7 -
Ephesians 6:17 "The sword of the spirit, is the word of God"
I have spent some time looking on the web and was flooded with all kinds off free printables.  I am aiming for one a week and have them out.  We will see how this goes.

Phil 2:13 "Lord please work in me and give me the desire and power to please you."  This is huge for me daily.  Who am I pleasing?  Is it God or people.  Nine times out of ten it is people.  I find when I search my heart, I am fast to see that I am following my own desires and not his.  I am looking for gratification from people and not God.
Psalm 139:14 "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made, your works are wonderful"
We have to have a confidence in who God made us and why, before we can look in the mirror and be pleased with what we see.  Are there improvements?  Of course, and our journey to the improvements can be the exact thing God uses to share his love with others.
Jeremiah 29:11-13 "For I know the plans that I have for you, plans to prosper you and not harm you."
This is it!  He wants us to prosper.  I would have loved to have verses for my children.  I am going to really look through some journals to see what God gave me during their births.

Parenting the Wholehearted Child - chapter 2,3, &4

Chapter 2 -
".....my love for him was unfazed by his wrong actions"
I see this daily with my children, yet why am I so blind to see this in my relationship with the Lord?  No matter what wrong actions I make his love for me is unfazed. He may have to use his hand of obedience to get my thinking back in line, but he still loves me and knows the desires of my heart. If I can truly embrace this daily, I am sure that the fruits of the spirit could flow a little better through his grace that he gives me.  This would build up my confidence in doing the hard and new things that need to be done to change the patterns of behavior in my household.
"....obedience can change the heart."
I have found when I have had obedience in training for athletic goals, I tend to meet the over all goals if I stick with the training plan.  Why can I not view this in my pârenting patterns? Why do I tend to fly by the seat of my pants with my emotions and my children's? This book has already made me see the value in creating a parenting plan and an action plan for success.



Chapter 3-
".... But when his grace begins to transform our hearts, it also begins to transform our parenting. It's not about what we do, it is about what his grace does through us."
Sometimes humbling ourselves allows us to see gods greatest wonders.  If we are constantly looking to ourselves for strength and direction we will fall short of the glories that we have in store from him. By forgiving ourselves and others we are forgiven. So the more we live in this grace instead of just looking at it, the more we can really begin to feel the faith moving in us and around us.  This application can be the one thing that leads to our children actually seeing the spirit move in us.  When faced with trails do we look down, where we are, then look up for his guidance, and then look in front of us for his action plans and not our own.   I have had a bad problem on not pausing before reacting. He is a big surprise my reactions are often based on my feelings and not my faith.

Chapter 4-
This chapter really made me realize That I need to action plans on how to show my children the fruits of the spirit.  I can do this by starting the day with my gratitude jar and asking them what they are thankful for.  I can also start the day by reading my scripture verse allowed and including them in on what I am doing daily to seek God's spirit in my life.  I am going to make an action plan for the next week to address one of the fruits each night at dinner. These will be our topic at dinner.  Ps - this will hold me accountable to actually sit down myself.

Parenting The Wholehearted Child - Chapter 1

Please visit this you tube video and get an introduction from author and book.

http://youtu.be/VpLJuXbmy4s

"...the more focused we become on perfect parenting the worse it gets."
This really hit home for me. Since I am a mother of three young children I find the more I focus on all the small details the worse it seems to get. I find myself focusing on what they are wearing and what they are doing instead of who they are and who God wants them to be.  I find myself focused on the outside of parenting instead of focusing on what parenting I'm doing on their insides.

"...confession leads to the naked truth."
I really need to focus on confessing my faults to God so I can see the naked truth of my parenting. I have found that it is more me focused, than God focused. I find I am self seeking gratification in my parenting plans and action instead of his.  When I daily fail, I need to finally realize that this is the most important thing I am doing and I'm not really doing it that well.

"God doesn't want something from us, he wants us."
I want my children to want God in their lives. What am I constantly telling them when they do not see him in mine.  I am so excited about starting this journey of learning how I can insert activities, faith, and readings into our daily lives.  I'm also realizing that God is my parent and I am his wholehearted child! 😋