A prayer for our children

As another school year begins, I wanted to write a prayer for my own children. I pray that this may help and encourage you too. God bless.

Dear Lord,

As our children begin another year of school, we pray that you would fill them with confidence, peace and the willingness to learn. 

We pray for their teachers, coaches, mentors and friends, and that each of them would be able to positively contribute to the growth of our kids. 

We acknowledge that not all learning is academic, and that our children need to understand the value of listening to others, coping with disappointment, helping those who struggle, encouraging a wary teammate and, that genuine kindness can break down many barriers.

Gracious God, we ask that you place your great arms of protection over our kids, and that you would give them strength to overcome the obstacles in their paths. 

We also ask, that where we cannot be, that you would keep watch over their lives. 

Give them courage to stand by their faith, principles and convictions. 

Lord, help us to nurture our kids as best we can, and to allow them just enough freedom to spread their wings, but enough guidance to make wise decisions. 

As they begin this new year of studies and adventures, we intentionally place them into your loving care.

Lord, in your mercy, please hear our prayer.

Living in Grace

D3LM3

When the Time is right

 

It struck me this morning how young children are not conscious of time like adults are. As adults we are so focused on time that we rush here and there always watching the clock. Yet, for kids they are secure in the knowledge that their parents will deal with Time for them - so when they get up, go to school, eat, play sport, go to friends, etc - we are the ones who worry about TIME for them.

Isn't that a lovely image of how we should trust God with the timing of all things in our lives. If we could just learn to walk in obedience to his 'Calling' and WILL, then we will always be ready at the right time. And course, when we are called home, to begin our Heavenly adventure, it will also be at God's perfect time.

What do you think?

Romans 5:6 -  You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.

Living in Grace
D3LM3

When you were a child

I had to laugh the other day. I was taking Josh (8) and his friend home from school and they were having a great chat in the back of the car. At one point I overheard them speaking about which playschools they had gone to and this is what I heard:

"When you were a child, what school did you go to?"

I had to laugh out loud, because they are only 8 years old themselves, so I wouldn't want to know what age a "child" is for them. Sometimes our kids can be so funny.

Matthew 18:3 - And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

1 Corinthians 13:11 - When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.

Living in Grace
D3LM3

When the Tooth Fairy doesn't show up!

Parenting tip of the day - if you have young kids who still "believe" in the Tooth mouse/fairy, please make sure that you actually take the tooth out the pouch and replace it with some cash! #justsaying

Yes, you guessed it, we made this blunder last night. We were so exhausted last night that we went to sleep and forgot all about the Tooth mouse. That was until this morning at 5am, when a dejected little boy came sobbing into the room saying, "He didn't come, he didn't come!"

After wiping the sleep out of our eyes, we looked at each other and tried to figure out what happened and then it hit us between the eyes - we FORGOT about the tooth mouse! Well, parental guilt came crashing into our hearts and we tried our best to make up for the bad faux pas we had just committed. It is amazing what thoughts come racing into your mind at that time of the morning.

But, how do you come back from forgetting the Tooth mouse!? Can you ever come back from that? Well we tried .....

We blamed it on the Rain (we all know that mice struggle to travel in the wet conditions - don't they?)
We suggested that we need to put cheese out tonight, as this will help him smell were the tooth is hidden.
We fumbled our way through a few more excuses, while we secretly set 10 reminders on our mobile phones for later on :)

In the end the little guy seemed to be ok and we breathed a sigh of relief. However, it did get me thinking of a few things. Here are some of these random thoughts.

1. I know that we play these harmless fantasy games with our kids to keep their hopes and dreams alive, but it is hard to keep making up stories to cover the truth.
2. Which, leads us onto the point of lying - Keeping the truth from people is a tiring past-time - you have to keep covering your tracks and this gets you into all sorts of trouble.
3. Do we ever feel that God is like the Tooth mouse/fairy? We give him some little things and then we expect him to do other things for us?
4. Have you ever been disappointed in God? Maybe you felt really let down by God - how did you make peace with that?

Let me finish with this promise. God will always SHOW up for us. It may not be in the way we expect or imagine, but GOD ALWAYS keeps his Promises.

Joshua 23:14 - You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed.

Living in Grace
D3LM3

I'll get you for that!

We have all heard kids talk on the playground before - one child does something mean to another playmate and the response is, "I'll get you for that!" Revenge is the first thing on their minds and they seek to dish it out as fast as they can.

As we become adults, nothing really changes. People hurt us and our gut response is, "I'll get you for that!" We conjure up schemes as to how we can get some revenge and nothing can get in our way.
However, the Scriptures remind us of another way to respond - it requires patience and a firm belief in God's sense of justice.

Solomon wrote these words in Proverbs.

"Don’t ever say, “I’ll get you for that!”    Wait for God; he’ll settle the score." - Proverbs 20:22

I am not sure how you feel about this? It is a hard thing to practise, but worth contemplating.

Living in Grace
D3LM3