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Are You CRAZY???
How many times have I heard just that? Are You CRAZY??? I don't know, but many. Lately, with the birth of our 8th, it seems like it has been even more prevalent and people are commenting even more. But to tell you the truth, some days, I wonder just how crazy I am. If I look at what I am doing in the natural, I can easily get overwhelmed by the whole thing. But if I start to rely on God and not look at the natural course of events, then I all of the sudden find that I can handle all the craziness of raising a large family.
Sometimes, being a mom of many is the seemingly most difficult job on planet earth. But mostly I find it to be the most joyful job on planet earth. I give so much credit to mom's who work and raise their family. I couldn't imagine working a part-time or full-time job and taking care of even two children. My hats off to working mom's who through circumstances of life have to work to provide for their family. My husband came from such a situation and he turned out terrific! So you mom's who find yourself working, your kids can turn out wonderful too. Don't put yourself down because you are not a stay-at-home mom. You are a blessing to your child(ren) even today as you go to work and help with the homework. So I don't know who has the harder job, but parenting can be tough no matter what situation you are in.
Trying to raise your children in a world full of sin and selfishness is one of the toughest jobs of a Christian Parent. Sometimes this can be seemingly impossible. I know, I have children who respond wonderfully and others that I am constantly on my knees praying for that they won't fall prey to the traps of Satan. How can this be? How can one family have some children who are doing well, while another child is struggling along?
While this might seem simple to some, we all have different personalities and different giftings that God has given to us. With this combination come different ways of dealing with life and the curve balls life can hand us. The way one person responds in a situation won't be the way another person responds in the same exact situation. I watch my daughter and how she responds to correction compared to one of my sons and she is so quick to cry and get emotional whereas you can't even get a response out of our son if he is corrected. Is one better than the other? By no means, just different in how they go about responding to situations. I have watched my children over the years and I can tell you that each one is unique and different and while they have similarities, they are not carbon copies of each other.
This means that how I deal with one child might not work with dealing with the other. I have one child that no matter what way you try to get him to do something, through positive or negative (grounding, spanking or whatever) reinforcement, he still does whatever he pleases. While the next one responds well with having privileges taken away and being restored once he has proven himself to be faithful with the area that he was doing poorly in.
Trying to discern what your child is motivated by helps a lot, but this goes back to knowing how your child is wired, his or her personality combined with their giftings. My daughter is wired with a melancholy personality that likes to please and be helpful, but she has an artistic gifting. So she is not one to sit and learn her alphabet in the structured way, but by using lots of different colored crayons and determining that it is time she learns her alphabet. But my son who is also melancholy, is very much a wiggle worm and doesn't care for art much. He would rather you planted him in front of a computer with a game to learn from.
While this is not a solution to the problems of being a Christian parent in the world today, it is a starting point. If we focus on what our child's strengths are instead of always looking at their weaknesses, it can change the way we see our children. I know from my point of view, that when I work with my strengths that my weaknesses become less of a focus. Christians parents carry the responsibility of training their children in the way THEY should go, not what we think they should do.
So, to answer the question that I posed at the beginning of this page... Yes, I am crazy! I am crazy in love with my Maker who Makes all these beautiful blessings called children. He never makes a mistake, people make mistakes in training, but He never makes a mistake when He makes a child and brings them into this world. I find that with each child, it gives me the opportunity to be MORE productive for the Kingdom of God. It is a way to multiply the Kingdom and what God is doing on this earth. While the training time can be difficult, it is a time for stretching as a parent and I sometimes wish it was easier, but would that be the best thing for me or my child? Sometimes the hard times are the best training grounds and I know that I don't like them anymore than anyone else, but yet God is faithful and pulls me through these times.
Go now and train those children and remember just because the world thinks your crazy doesn't mean God agrees!
Galatians 6:9-10 NIV Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
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Are You Crazy???
04/24/09 02:09 AM
