Dilemma



What do you do when your 5 year old begins to have better arguments than you?  Lately, when I have asked GraceAnna to do certain things, she has come up with, actually, really good reasons not to.  So, do I continue and make her obey because I'm the mom and that's what I said to do and she needs to obey me without question?  Or.... when her argument makes a lot of sense and actually makes what I'm asking her to do look silly, do I relent and back down on what I'm asking of her?  Hmmmm...... here are some recent conversations:

"GraceAnna, you need to finish your dinner.  You are not allowed to eat anything else tonight unless you finish your dinner.  It is perfectly good food and if you are hungry, that's what you can eat."

"Mommy, is that the MOST healthy thing that we have that I can eat?"

"Errrrr, uhhh, no, not the MOST healthy thing that we have in our house..."

"Well, I only want to eat the most healthy thing that we have.... can I have a banana instead?"

(She won that one)


"GraceAnna, we are learning this hymn for school, and I can't hear you singing it - you are just mouthing the words.  You need to sing it out so I can hear you."

"But Mommy, I'm singing it to God, and HE can hear me...."

(She won that one as well)

Now, I just want to clarify that each time, she was not disrespectful in the way she presented her case, just more, I guess, wondering why I was insisting on one way.

I still have a whole lot to learn as a mama.......

Finding GraceAnna's Ministry Niche


I have been wanting to get involved in a ministry with my kids.  I feel strongly that ministry isn't just something I do, and get a babysitter for my kids while I go "minister" to others.  So, I have been in process... trying to find the right area to minister with my kids.  We tried out my church's food pantry/ clothing provision for our community.  I figured it would be an easy thing for the kids to do (GraceAnna is 5 and Malachi is 3).  I figured we could go, sort clothes and food, they wouldn't get in anyone's way, and the hours could be do-able.  We went 2 times.... both times they were bored in a matter of minutes... and no coaxing on my part (how we are helping others, this pleases Jesus, etc.) could help the situation.  After the second time, GraceAnna came to me and said, " Mommy, I really want to help people and make Jesus happy, but I don't think this is my thing.  I just don't really like it.  I am trying to like it, but it is hard.  Can we find something else to do together?"  I was so happy to hear her say that.... and it was true - a wake-up call for me.... why was I trying to force a "ministry" on my kids just cause it was "something they could do at their age", instead of it being something they loved and thrived in?  So I began praying that the Lord would open my eyes to another ministry that would utilize my children's strengths.
Fast forward to today..... we visited a nursing home.... and it was amazing for me to see my daughter absolutely shine Jesus with a willing and happy heart.  Our church conducts a church service one Sunday a month at a local nursing home.  GraceAnna and I went.  She was so excited to go, had made pictures to give to some of the residents, and couldn't stop talking about it and anticipating it.  She had also practiced Amazing Grace to sing for them :)  I was astounded watching her working within her strengths.  At the end of the service, we were able to go and talk with the people that came and ask if we could pray for them.  I walked with GraceAnna and we met Carol who asked us to pray for her health.  I asked Grace if she would like to pray, and without hesitation, she bowed her head and prayed for Mrs. Carol and that she would be happy and feel better.  When she was finished, Carol asked if she could just talk to me, I said sure, and Grace, to my amazement, moved on to other residents on her own.  She would ask their name and what she could pray for, bowed her head and prayed with them.  She walked around giving and getting kisses, holding hands and patting arms and shoulders.
It just goes to show that no matter WHAT age you are, if you are ministering within your strengths and gifts, Jesus will use you and bless you in the process.  I praised the Lord over and over again that I was able to see this so clearly in my daughter.  I pray He holds her heart close and she follows Him all the days of her life!!
When we were leaving, she said she loved it and asked if we could come back and visit very soon?  I am determined to make that happen!!

Languages


Recently, I was out to lunch with GraceAnna and Malachi and one of the employees at the restaurant had a foreign accent.  Malachi commented, "He talks funny."  I tried to explain that he was from a different country so he sounded a little different when he spoke, because he was used to speaking a different language.  GraceAnna thinks on that for a minute and then says, "  So, maybe he speaks German, or New Jersey, or Latin?"

Malachi was drinking soda from a can and it was dribbling out his mouth and down his chin. I took it from him and he protested saying he didn't get any in his mouth yet. I said, "Chi! How is that possible? How could it be dripping all down your chin and onto your shirt and not get in your mouth at all??" GraceAnna, standing by, examines her brother, and quickly assesses," Maybe he has a hole in his neck!"

Why Grace Loves her new Bible

Me: Do you like your new Bible?

Grace: Yes, it's wonderful.

Me: What do you like about it?

Grace: The pictures are so beautiful. I LOVE them. They are like, so real. It looks like I could just BLAST right into the book!

From Streams in the Desert - Jan 9

"For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." (Rom. 8:18)

"I kept for nearly a year the flask-shaped cocoon of an emperor moth. It is very peculiar in its construction. A narrow opening is left in the neck of the flask, through which the perfect insect forces its way, so that a forsaken cocoon is as entire as one still tenanted, no rupture of the interlacing fibers having taken place. The great disproportion between the means of egress and the size of the imprisoned insect makes one wonder how the exit is ever accomplished at all - and it never is without great labor and difficulty. It is supposed that the pressure to which the moth's body is subjected in passing through such a narrow opening is a provision of nature for forcing the juices into the vessels of the wings, these being less developed at the period of emerging from the chrysalis than they are in other insects.

I happened to witness the first efforts of my prisoned moth to escape from its long confinement. During a whole forenoon, from time to time, I watched it patiently striving and struggling to get out. It never seemed able to get beyond a certain point, and at last my patience was exhausted. Very probably the confining fibers were drier and less elastic than if the cocoon had been left all winter on its native heather, as nature meant it to be. At all events I thought I was wiser and more compassionate than its Maker, and I resolved to give it a helping hand. With the point of my scissors I snipped the confining threads to make the exit just a very little easier, and lo! immediately, and with perfect ease, out crawled my moth dragging a huge swollen body and little shriveled wings. In vain I watched to see that marvelous process of expansion in which these silently and swiftly develop before one's eyes; and as I traced the exquisite spots and markings of divers colors which were all there in miniature, I longed to see these assume their due proportions and the creature to appear in all its perfect beauty, as it is, in truth, one of the loveliest of its kind. But I looked in vain. My false tenderness had proved its ruin. It never was anything but a stunted abortion, crawling painfully through that brief life which it should have spent flying through the air on rainbow wings. I have thought of it often, often, when watching with pitiful eyes those who were struggling with sorrow, suffering, and distress; and I would fain cut short the discipline and give deliverance. Short-sighted man! How know I that one of these pangs or groans could be spared? The far-sighted, perfect love that seeks the perfection of its object does not weakly shrink from present transient suffering. Our Father's love is too true to be weak. Because He loves His children, He chastises them that they may be partakers of His holiness. With this glorious end in view, He spares not for their crying. Made perfect through sufferings, as the Elder Brother was, the sons of God are trained up to obedience and brought to glory through much tribulation." - Tract

- Mrs. Charles E. Cowan