mommy = BIG responsibility

Being a mommy today can be a tough job. From the moment you find out you're pregnant the advice starts rolling in.

“Eat more folic acid”, “relax”, “you shouldn’t be walking”, “you should walk more”, “do it all natural”, “take the epidural”, “home birth”, “hospital birth”, “nursing is the best”, “formula is the way to go”, “you’re not holding him right”, “he looks too thin “, “she looks too thick” ,“make sure she is crawling”, “organic?”, “don’t talk baby talk to him”, “spoil her”, “don’t hold him so much”, “family bed”, “let her cry it out” and it continues throughout your child’s life… “time out”, “spank”, “preschool”, “Montessori school”, “public school”, “private school”, “home school” …

The advice comes from everyone; friends, family, facebook, and random people on the street. All telling you the way they see things and all with the most noble intentions.

After hearing from countless advisors and given numerous books, I began to think, where should I be getting my advice from? Who really knows best about how to raise this little one? The answer is the one who created this little one. Who formed him in my womb, who knew him before the existence of the earth.

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.You saw me before I was born.Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. Psalm 139:13, 16

Being a mommy and a daddy is a BIG responsibility. We only have a few years with them and what we teach our children will impact them throughout their whole lives and into eternity. Studies say that they will only retain 7% of what we say, 18% of what they learn in shared experiences, and 75% through modeling.

After reading through every verse in the Bible about parenthood, Jonathan and I asked God what He wanted us to teach our children. That is how the 4 goals below came about. Though I am sure there are a billion other “goals” we can have I think if we get these four.. we will be doing well…. and if our kids only retain 4 things from us, these are the things we want them to understand and to grasp for their lifetime.

We want to teach our children…

1. Who God is.

“That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height… to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Eph. 3:17-19

2. What a love relationship with God is.

“Love God with all their heart, with all their soul, with all their mind, and with all their strength.” Mark 12:30

3. Love others as God does.

“And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:31

And the King will tell them, `I assure you, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!' Matthew 25:40

4. Live life with no regrets.

“Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom.” Psalm 90:12

“This is the day that the Lord has made and I will rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24

“My life has been poured out as an offering to God. I have fought the good fight and I have finished the race, I have remained faithful.” 2 Timothy 4:6-7

If they can learn these 4 things from us they will understand how to approach every decision life will present them. For each goal we have been writing down and implementing “action points”. We would love ideas and input from readers. Our “action points” are family traditions, routine practices, activities, and teaching opportunities that support the goal or concept we want our children to learn. If you are working on fun ways to teach your babes… maybe we can swap ideas. I will post our “action points” soon.

We feel so blessed that God would place these children in our home for us to love, teach, and raise. The weight of that responsibility forces us to be pro-active parents. Just like I want to think like Jesus thinks, I want our kids to see the world through His eyes too.

The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Deuteronomy 6:4-9