ME....ME...ME!

Me first! That’s mine! Don’t touch me!

Ahh…..the sounds of playing children echo through the house.

The US Army has nothing on motherhood. “The hardest job you’ll ever love!” I think they stole the motto from a mom. The hard thing about raising a child is the delayed and intangible results. God is using me to shape these little boys into future men. It is not as much about the children they are today, as the adults they will be in the future. I am thankful that my boss, God, has given me the guidelines, the Bible, to carry me through this endeavor.

In recent years, God has created a hunger for His Word in me. (That will be a subject of another post on another day!) This has changed parenting. It has helped me to point the way to the final authority, God. It lets us show our children a God that cares about everything in our lives. It shows God as He is, loving, merciful, and yet just and disciplining. Our oldest has some problems with fear, and when he has problems, I always ask “What does Joshua 1:9 tell us?” and he can quote it and tell you that there is no reason for fear, for God is always with us. I also point out, that God knew Joshua was scared or He would not have told him not to fear. Another example is the MEMEMEs! This is a battle right now. We need to think of others first. We are working on Matthew 20:25-28 right now. We need to learn to be a servant. It must be sinking in a little….my youngest came into the kitchen the other week and wanted a juice box. I told him he could get one out of the fridge. I watched as he walked back out, arms full of four juice boxes. He had taken one to his brother and cousins that were playing in another room. It might be something small, but it showed me his heart, that he was thinking of them.

Now, just so you don’t think I am preaching, I could write pages on things I have done wrong. I could not tell you how many times I have answered “Because I said so!” instead of taking the time to look at my children’s hearts. I am sure I have ignored things I should have dealt with, but I know they will come back again.

In case you didn’t know, God has a wonderful sense of humor. The exact behavior He is disciplining me over, He has me discipline my children over. He wants me to get the point…..it’s not pretty to act that way. The lesson He is trying to teach me, He does so through my children.

You see the lesson of “Me first” is a lesson of dying to self. The lesson He teaches me today and everyday…. Galatians 2:19-20 “For through the law I have died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

I am not trying to stop a behavior from my boys; I am trying to change their hearts. God wants the same thing from me, my heart.