Thank you for stopping by today
as I share with you a few things about
TRANSFORMING your parenting on
.TRANSFORMING THURSDAY.
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Be assured, I am no expert!
I don't profess to know any answers
other that those that GOD has blessed me with
on this parenting journey.
That's why on Wednesday nights at the Pitman church
we have a class specifically looking at
HOW GOD DOES FAMILY!
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This class is not how some doctor does family or
what some expert says but it's
How GOD does family!
We'll have one more class session in two weeks.
Since we were so far behind,
we combined 3 lessons last night.
What a lot of material!
Rest assured, I won't share it all with you here...
just the highlights.
Some things to help you think...
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As Steve and I were raising our children we taught them how important it was to be WISE. WISDOM comes only from GOD. In fact, this is what scripture says,
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James 1:5
“But if any of you lacks wisdom,
let him ask of God,
who gives to all men generously
and without reproach,
and it will be given to him."
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Steve chose 26+ WISE SAYINGS from the Bible book of Proverbs that would follow an ABC'S acrostic or acronym. We learned those verses as a family, memorized them, meditated on them, discussed them, and even used them as thoughtful consequences. You see, we also had a special chair in our kitchen. We had read the verse,
Proverbs 7:4
“Say to wisdom,
‘You are my sister,’
And call understanding your intimate friend…”
“Say to wisdom,
‘You are my sister,’
And call understanding your intimate friend…”
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The "special chair" in our kitchen was for SISTER WISDOM. We made a sign and hung it on the chair. If someone specifically needed more wisdom, the chair was a good place to sit and think about and pray for WISDOM or memorize some of those verses.
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Last night, we shared that list of verses after we had focused on looking again at verses in Genesis and Ephesians that show so beautifully HOW GOD DOES FAMILY. The rest of this post will be some of those scriptures from Genesis. Are you looking for some more TRANSFORMING PARENTING PRINCIPLES - in addition to praying for WISDOM? You can find them specifically in the bold words in scripture below and see how GOD:
- reminded that He had given boundaries
- allowed for creativity
- asked questions
- gave consequences (fair, firm, consistent)
- was consistent, consistent, consistent...
Genesis 2:19 “And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name.”
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Genesis 3:16-19 “To the woman He said, ‘I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you shall bring forth children; Yet your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.’ 17 Then to Adam He said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat from it'; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. 18 ‘Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you shall eat the plants of the field; 19 By the sweat of your face You shall eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.’ "
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Genesis 3:22-24 “ Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever" — 23 therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. 24 So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim, and the flaming sword which turned every direction, to guard the way to the tree of life.”
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Genesis 4:6-15 “Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? 7 "If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it." 8 And Cain told Abel his brother. And it came about when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. 9 Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" And he said, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?" 10 And He said, "What have you done?"
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LET GOD TRANSFORM YOUR PARENTING:
- give your children boundaries (firm, fair, and consistent)
- follow through with consequences when boundaries are not adhered to (firm, fair, and consistent)
- check your boundaries to make sure that they are not so rigid that they will break your child's spirit (some sense of flexibility models God's grace)
- allow for creativity by sometimes giving open ended boundaries that allow your child to be fluent, flexible, and explore many possibilities/options
- ask good questions
- be consistent, consistent, consistent....
HOW GOD DOES FAMILY:
IT'S TRANSFORMING!
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SOBERING NOTE: Yesterday, Marcel, a young adult pre-med student in Philadelphia collapsed and died. Although Marcel had some health challenges, we are still in shock! Marcel was the brother-in-law of one of our Transformed Moms in the slideshow above. We reach out in love and compassion to Marcel's mama, his brother Steve, Karelle, their children and Marcel's entire extended family. We soberly realize how important it is to cherish the time together as family! We soberly realize how much PEOPLE NEED THE LORD!
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