Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Butter and Honey

Isaiah 7:15 Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.

I was reading the other day in Isaiah, and this verse stood out to me as a great parenting scripture. Isn't being a good parent all about providing good experiences for your children (butter and honey, so to speak)? When you've gotten used to eating top quality food, it's hard to go back to generic mac & cheese on a daily basis.  Wouldn't it be wonderful if our children are so used to being surrounded by good people and good environments and experiences, that when they are confronted with evil, they automatically refuse it and choose the good instead? We can't force our children to choose good, but we can certainly do our best to make sure they know what is truly good so that the differences are obvious.  That can be a good goal for me - to ask myself each day, "What good thing can I expose my child to today?"

Friday, September 10, 2010

Benefits of a dirty house

Today (as I was actually cleaning my house), I thought of all the benefits of having a dirty house.
1 - My kids are building up a great immunity to germs.  By not having everything bleached and sanitized on a daily basis, I figure it's helping their bodies learn to fight germs better.  By the time they get to school age, they should be set!
2 - Cleaning is still fun to my kids.  If you don't clean too often, your kids get excited to help out.  I frequently have arguing over who gets to clean the mirror, who gets the green sponge, who gets to dust, who gets the spray bottle, etc.
3 - So much extra time.  It's amazing how much you can get done in the 15 minutes you don't spend cleaning every day.  There's extra time to play with my kids, shower, read that magazine that's been sitting there for 4 months.
The next time I get the urge to clean my house, I'll have to remember all these and save myself the trouble. :)

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Ignoring my children

So...the other day I ignored my children for most of the day.  I still took care of their basic needs, but I spent most of the day reading a book.  I was in escapism mode, and thought it would be a nice break.  It wasn't.  I was reminded that I really do enjoy spending time with my children.  They're not going to be little like this for long where I have a chance to play with them and have them want me to spend all my time with them.  I know I still need a break every now and then, but for me, apparently, taking a whole day to read a book is not the way to do it.  I'm pretty sure I would have enjoyed the book more if I had still played with my children and read all night after they were in bed.  I'll have to remind myself of this when I'm reading another book that is hard to put down.