I know part of that is because I am a mom and I stand amazed at how fast time flies with my children. Just today, I looked at Dane and saw that he had completely dressed himself-- camo underwear and socks, blue jeans, camo belt (done the correct way), camo shirt, camo jacket, and camo boots and I was amazed that my baby can handle getting dressed, that well, all by himself.
Did you make any resolutions for the new year? I always think of ways I would like to better myself. This year here is a list of mine:
1) Get up in enough time each morning that spending time with the Lord is doable and I don't feel rushed. I want to feel like I have all the time in the world to be still and hear from the Lord and finish my Bible study for the day.
2) To be a more patient mom. I find that it is so easy to get annoyed or frustrated. What am I teaching my children when I react this way? Impatience, of course. I want to teach them patience.
3) To better love my husband and children the way they each need to be loved. Seriously though, we do not know my husband's love language. We even took an 8 week class at church and during that time, we couldn't figure it out. He swears it is "Receiving" which is definitely not a language of love! LOL. My love language is gifts, so I think he has just found a way to get more gifts!!! I think it is a close tie between acts of service and quality time. I also feel loved with acts of service (a close 2nd for me) and so it is easy for me to love him that way. Dane's is definitely touch and Webb is too young to be determined. My goal is to show all the languages of love to each of them and to shower them with love in their language.
4) To join the church we have been visiting. We have filled out the papers to join, but I will only join with my husband there with me and him awake. LOL. The last Sunday he was there (not working), he had just gotten off work and he was exhausted. I want to wait and have him awake and in a "talkative mood". This Sunday, he works, so who knows when it will happen. Not only do I want to join, I want to get involved. The boys will start AWANA in January, Brent and I will start a Discipleship Class in January, and we had the sweetest older couple ever!! offer to Disciple us one on one in Feb. or March and we both want to do that. I just want to be used how God wants me to be used other than that.
5) To find joy in the simplicity of life. I do not want to be consumed with materialism. I want to be satisfied with what I have and find contentment in what we have. I think it is so easy to "want want want" and I want to focus on teaching my boys contentment.
6) To get organized and start a very (VERY) low key homeschool in August. I need to get my butt in gear because I want to have it all planned and be prepared. In the state of GA, we do not turn anything in until the child is 6, so technically, I have another year. Dane LOVES to learn though and so I would like to use this year to get us both accustomed to a school schedule. I also want to get involved in the homeschool community here because there is a huge one.
7) To teach my boys more about Jesus, prayer, values, manners, and responsibilities (more on this later). Dane is already learning and comprehending so much about Jesus and Heaven. Our church does an amazing job of reiterating what we teach at home. More importantly, I want their childlike faith to play out. I am praying fervently for my children to get saved. I believe the Lord could come back at any time and if it is not while they are still at a young age that has not reached accountability, and they are old enough to understand, I do not want my children to be left behind. At that point and time, they don't get another chance. I could never ever live with myself if I did not take my God-given responsibility and teach my children about Jesus and how to get to Heaven. That would be like me choosing to send my children to hell. I want to look around me in Heaven and see my entire family, but especially, most definitely, my babies. I am trying very hard to get my boys to pray on a regular basis at any time of the day. If we get asked to pray for something, I ask my boys to pray with me about it and we will pray right there. Generally, I will ask them to say a sentence to God about that prayer request. They both have prayers they have learned in Bible Study and at each meal they both HAVE to say their prayer. I love it! I just want them to realize we pray more than over a meal and we can pray any time we feel led. We pray many times while driving and I remind them we don't have to close our eyes to talk to God. I am also working on values and manners. We recently taught Dane the "Golden Rule" and so I use that a lot in disciplining. I also use scripture and let Dane know that when he sins, he doesn't just make mommy and daddy sad, he makes Jesus sad. I make him apologize to us all. With the manners, I am really working on instilling "mam" and "sir". Words I swore I would never make my children say. I am finding though that children sound so well-mannered and RESPECTFUL when they use these phrases. Along with things like, "excuse me", "thank you", "no thank you", "I'm sorry", etc. I am also making the boys tell me "thank you for my breakfast (lunch, dinner, etc). It was good." I know one day that will come natural and their wives will thank me ;-) along with other adults who work hard to cook for others. One thing children lack the most of these days is respect. Especially respect for their elders. I want my children to respect God, me, authority, and their elders. It is that simple. As for the responsibilities, I mentioned last post I am practically a single mother these days. I realized really quick that I was going to need help and there is no reason Dane and Webb can't be my helpers! They actually love it and I praise them and reward them. It works for us!
8) I have said it before and not done it and here I am saying it again. I want to memorize scripture. I want to know the Bible and have references to back me up or to help me through.
9) I want to take more time to just relax and not be so OCD about my house. I want to take the kids to the park, have a movie day, have picnics, and play games. I want them to remember me being with them and helping to make life fun!
10) I want to be a light. I have never felt such a burden to witness to my lost family and friends. Like I said before, I believe this could be the year Jesus comes back. It is close folks. I am learning things and seeing things for the first time. I finally understand that those who have heard the name of Jesus and have had the opportunity presented to them before to get saved and don't take it, after the rapture, they don't get any more chances. I have many lost family members and friends. What am I doing by not witnessing my heart out? Trying to keep them from being mad at me? Seriously?? I am ashamed to say that yes, I am afraid for them to get upset with me. With a couple family members, we have had the discussion numerous times and they don't want to hear it. They do not believe a loving God would ever send people to hell and they don't even know if there is a "heaven". They don't want to see Bible references, they don't want to talk about it. They believe what they believe and I am not going to change that. My burden is that the rapture could happen right this second and there are precious lives that will be left here, that I don't get to spend eternity with. That will burn forever and ever and ever in hell, separated from God forever and the saddest part is, when that happens, oh, they'll believe. They will see for themselves that Jesus Christ is Lord and there is a REAL heaven and a REAL hell and more than anything in the world they will want another chance to choose JESUS, but... it will be too late. How many of them will also have their children by their side. Precious, precious babies that could have heard about Jesus from me?!! As you can see, I am burdened. Please pray that I will take advantage of every opportunity presented to me to spread the news of Jesus.
I mentioned the responsibilities earlier. We started this last month and it worked wonderfully. I will share the chart that we leave on the fridge, the individual responsibilities, and the rewards.
Dane's responsibilities are to take his plate to the garbage after he eats, dump the food, and put the plate either in the sink or dishwasher, pick up his toys at the end of each day, and to feed and water Rosie (the dog) twice a day. He does all of this each day and he is 4. He also does it wonderfully.
Webb has the same responsibilities except he doesn't feed the dog, he takes all our clothes to the laundry room at the end of the day. He is 2 and he does a wonderful job with this.
They can earn up to 3 stars a day. If, at the end of the week, they have 21 stars, they receive $1.00. If they have less than 21 stars, they receive $0.50. So, I'm out, at most, $8.00 a month in return for instilling in them some work ethic and reward for hard work.
What do they do with that money you might ask?
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The first part of every thing they makes, goes in the their Give jar. This is God's money and they take it to church and tithe. We do a little more for the boys than the 10% God commands us to. They give $1.00 to God each month regardless of what they make. Then, they put money in their save jar (they will generally put $2.00 here). It is never to early to start saving (I'm thinking car and college fund. LOL I can dream!). The last jar they have is spending. They can save up and go spend their own money on something they like. I like this because it teaches them the value of a dollar and more importantly, it instills in them who the money belongs to. My parents did a GREAT job of teaching me to tithe and Brent's parents did also. That makes tithing something we don't ever NOT do. It is 2nd nature to tithe 10% off our first earnings. We don't give God what we have left or worse, give God nothing. For us, we tithe and then we use the money we have left for bills and whatnot. I can say though, there have been times it was hard to write that check out. I wondered (especially during unemployment) how we would survive if I gave God that much. However, our parents instilled in us, we didn't have a choice. In all honestly, I have seen God provide for a bill the minute after I tithed all that was left in my account. He is faithful and one thing I have learned is, He doesn't provide so I will have faith and tithe. He provides after I have put my faith in action to show Himself faithful. He is just awesome and after what I have seen Him do and the ways I have seen Him provide, I could never go a week without tithing. I want my boys to be the same way.
I am thankful for the help the boys are proving to be to me. They are amazing little people and I am honored to be their mommy!
Today, we have no big plans. We have been lazy all day and we will continue being lazy. I have not turned on cartoons for the day and I plan on leaving them off today. The boys have played soooooo well together. We cooked our favorite banana bread this morning (It is to DIE for!!) and it makes 2 loaves. You all know my love of dessert and this is like a dessert IMO. So, I am taking a loaf to the station so the guys can have some healthy New Year's dessert (It really is as healthy as a banana bread can get. I use pure ingredients). That way, I don't eat 2 loaves today! LOL.
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| I replace the pecans with pure, dark chocolate chips because... well, why not??? |
This evening we will go to my in-laws for beans, greens, cornbread, and meatloaf when Brent gets off at 7pm (hopefully. He might have to stay for 24 though and we will go without him). I did the honors of buying hog jowl to cook. Yummy!! My MIL is thrilled. LOL.
I hope you all have a healthy, happy, wonderful 2013! Make the decision to make this the best year yet!
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