Parenting Thoughts

1 Peter 5:3
...nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.

1 Peter 5:5
...Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble."

1 Peter 5:6-7
Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all you care upon Him, for He cares for you.

Being a parent of two teenage boys can be frustrating. The above verses spoke to me...

1. Being an example to our kids is important.
2. Teenagers are not always submissive or humble, but I need to be.
3. Accepting my teen's advice regarding electronic gadgets is modeling a submissive attitude.
4. Letting my teen know more than me in certain areas shows humility.
5. God resists the proud. I better get humble because I need all the grace I can get!
6. Being humble is not complaining about what I have to do for everyone.
6. I need to wait on God to lift me up, I don't need to do it myself.
7. I need to cast all my parenting struggles upon Him because He cares.

Things to Think About

Ways to Put God First

Always pray before planning.
Always love people more than things.
Do all things to please God.

Those who lay up treasures in heaven are the richest people on earth.
~Dennis De Haan

Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
(Matthew 6:33)

This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.
(Mark 7:6)

Phoniness before God is unacceptable.
Whether we're happy or sad or mad, honesty is essential.
~Julie Ackerman Link

Reaching Forward

Forgetting what lies behind

And reaching forward to what lies ahead,
I press on toward the goal
For the prize of the upward call of God
in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:13, 14

Today I have been cleaning house, digging into areas I have not touched in a long while. Since I have been married 25 years we have a good deal of memories. In amongst the boxes of pictures I came across some old journals and began reading. Looking back in the past I saw how many struggles I have come through. I realized that I have been in pain most of my life. The overcoming of all the trials and tribulations is all the Lord's work. Today I decided to shred all those old journals in an effort to forget what lies behind. The only thing I need know is that the Lord was there and He helped me through. And as we all must do, I move forward, following His call, my prize being His pleasure.

Little Birds

Matthew 6:26

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap
or store away in barns,
and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not much more valuable than they?

Trials Turned to Gold

By Keith Green
(click here for music on YouTube)

He's brought me here, where things are clear
And trials turn to gold
He shared with me, His victory
He won in days of old

Oh Lord I don't deserve
The riches of your word
But You've changed my filthy rags
To linen white as snow

The view from here is nothing near
To what it is for You
I tried to see Your plan for me
But I only acted like I knew

Oh Lord forgive the times
I've tried to read your mind
Cause you said if I'd be still
Then I would hear your voice

My Lord, my Kind, my urge to sing
And praise the things above
No words can say the glorious way
You changed me with your love

He's brought me low, so I could know
The way to reach the heights
To forsake my dreams, my self esteem
And give up all my rights

With each one that I lay down
A jewel's placed in my crown
Cause His love, the things above
Is all we'll ever need

He's brought me here, where things are clear
And trials turn to gold

Things to Think About

"God remembers us wherever we are. Our concerns are His concerns. Our pain is His pain. commit your challenges and difficulties to Him. He is the all-seeing God who remembers us as a mother remembers her children, and He waits to meet our needs." C. P. Hia

Casting all your anxiety on Him, for He cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7

"John answered and said, "A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven."" John 3:27

"He must increase, but I must decrease." John 3:30 Authentic humility (the attitude of John in John 3:30) is characterized by a servant's heart. When we follow Christ's example of servanthood (Phil. 2:5-7) our lives are filled with joy. ~Dennis Fisher

"Life is a place of service. Joy can be real only if people look upon their life as a service and have a definite object in life outside themselves and their personal happiness." Leo Tolstoy

Philippians 4:8 - whatever is true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, and praiseworthy, think on these things.

The Father's Will

I have been doing some reading in the book "Changed Into His Likeness" by Watchman Nee. Here below is a quote from the book...

"In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus knelt and prayed saying, "Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done" (Luke 22:42). This request of his that the cup might pass from him does not represent fear of the cross. We cannot doubt our Lord's courage. If martyrs have gladly died for him through the ages, certainly their Lord did not fear crucifixion.

But there is a distinction here between what Jesus called the cup and the will. The cup was surely the work that God had sent him to do, and this included the cross. The will was something lying behind that, in the heart of God himself. The cup in this passage is just one work - redemption. Jesus knew he had come for that work, even before he left heaven. Yet he had not become so bound to it that he could not let it go. There was an "if possible" in it, and of course there were real human reasons why some other alternative might be welcome, if God so willed. But for him there was no "if possible" about God's will; that must be done, "possible" or not. Right up to the night before his crucifixion, Jesus never thought, "I must be crucified at all costs," but only, "I must do the will of him that sent me." The one is subsidiary and might possibly be changed; the other, the will of God, is something in God himself, and must be done. Important-nay, vital-as the cross most certainly was, the Lord Jesus had not grasped it to himself. All that mattered to him was the Father's will, and the decision of how that will should be fulfilled remained in the Father's hands, not his.

So the cup represents the work, and the will represents God himself. We are concerned with God himself, not with the thing he wants us to do. With Christ the will of God was an ever-present thing, ever to be done. He was not even tied up to a single point in that will, such as the crucifixion." By Watchman Nee ~ Changed Into His Likeness

We must come to know the Father, not simply as a giver of gifts, but as the source of "everything". ~Watchman Nee

Palm Sunday

"Just as you enter," he said, "you will see a donkey tied there, with its colt beside it. Untie them and bring them here. If anyone asks you what you are doing, just say, 'The Master needs them,' and there will be no trouble." This was done to fulfill the ancient prophecy, "Tell Jerusalem her King is coming to her, riding humbly on a donkey's colt!" The two disciples did as Jesus said, and brought the animals to him and threw their garments over the colt for him to ride on. And some in the crowd threw down their coats along the road ahead of him and others cut branches from trees and spread them out before him. The the crowds surged on ahead and pressed along behind shouting, "God bless King David's Son!...God's Man is here!...Bless him, Lord!...Praise God in the highest heaven!" Matthew 21:2-9

"So they brought the colt to Jesus and threw some of their clothing across its back for Jesus to sit on. Then the crowds spread out their robes along the road ahead of Him, and as they reached the place where the road started down from the Mount of Olives, the whole procession began to shout and sing as they walked along, praising God for all the wonderful miracles Jesus had done. God has given us a King! they exulted. 'Long live the King! Let all heaven rejoice! Glory to God in the highest heavens!" Luke 19:35-38

Things that stand out to me in these verses:
1. A colt was provided.
2. That Jesus was humble.
3. That people laid down their garments.
4. Jesus laid down His life.
5. We need to lay down our life for Him.
6. As we lay down our lives we give honor to Him.
7. We should sing and shout our praise to Him.

Blessed Palm Sunday!