This Christian Life

Upon studying the life of David recently, I have been renewed in my resolve to not be weary in the child-rearing department--and my utter dependence upon God's enablement. With all the battles David faced, when he remembered God's deliverances there was success--and utter failure when he relied on his own wisdom and strength.

The battle over our children is one we can't afford to loose as parents! Toddlers or teenagers: which do you think is more wearisome?

Either way, thanks for the great verse to go along with my renewed commitment!!

Funny, Shari. I was just talking to my mom last night about the difficulties we've been having lately with Lydia (talking back, throwing tantrums, etc). My mom said, "hey that sounds like the teenage years"(since she still has a 16-year-old of her own). i'd hoped i wouldn't have to deal with teenage issues w/ a 3 year old, but i think there are a lot of similarities - although I haven't had a teenager yet to compare with a toddler. got any suggestions/ideas?

CONSISTANCY AND PERSISTANCE!! :)

Lots of love, too--which is really hard when their needs are so demanding and you're sOOOO tired! We're trying to discover individual love languages (i think even at 3 this is possible)and communicate on that level. I'm relatively new to the teenager stuff--but i'm definitely seeing similar tendancies from when they were toddlers (sorry to say! :) )

word of warning--katy's worst moments were when nursing emma!

it's hard to be consistant--but when i think about the grief david went through because he didn't step up to the plate and discipline ATTITUDE (look at Absalom's attitude over "his rights" and the actions which ensued as a result in II Samuel 15 and david's lack of anything (quite frankly!!) to stop it, -- i don't know.) thinking back to 2,3,4 in my kids it's hard to balance praise and self-esteem issues with creating a "wise in their own eyes" mentality that proverbs talks about as being so disasterous! Yet that is the very thing that keeps biting us--teenagers who think they have all the answers !! the world seems to offer so much "self esteem" guilt on parents--I think it's easy to slip into building that into our children to the point we skew the reality of the depravity of man which the world wants to believe doesn't exist.

having said all this: grieving over my sin is only possible because of the Holy Spirit, right? Do you think there is a way to teach that part of it to our children at ANY age? I don't know!

given the choice in the flesh, we tend to think more of ourselves than we should-- no matter what the age!