Raising boys to be men

Quinn and I find this Pastor very real and practical...

I was thinking the last couple days about how demoralizing our culture is becoming, that presents a threat to me when it comes to raising our own child...but, we do have Someone who is a model, a great example of what a real man is (thankfully his earthly Dad and Jesus).

Here's one of his articles on boys becoming men...

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/mark_driscoll/2010/08/the_world_is_filled_with_boys_who_can_shave.html

connections

I saw this story on the news the other day...

(http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Health/20100806/religion-stress-study-100808/ - "Thinking about God can make you less upset about making mistakes, but only if you're a believer")

The way the study was conducted boggles my mind, as to whether their "evidence" was measured correctly or not. However, as I was reading, these verses jumped at me to "prove" the theory...

Romans 8:6

The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace

vs 9: You however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10: But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.

(emphasis mine)

Also, going through my mind the last while has been the God-child relationship, and how neatly it shows the relationship between us as parents to our child. My love for Caden runs sooo deep, I've said before, I can't imagine how much more God could love us as his children. How??

vs 13: For is you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14 because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship (or adoption). And by him we cry, "Abba, Father".

17 Now if we are children then we are heirs-heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ

I'm grateful for my parents, and my earthly Dad, I know he loves me and he's definitely delighted in giving us (his kids) good things. It's hard for me to comprehend how God (my perfect Father/Dad), loves me more and is exceedingly JOYOUS at giving me great things and He gives me greater things, like a great husband, (who is more than I could have asked for or found myself), and a child, that He entrusted to us to raise. Me?

Maybe I'm the only one who finds these things hard to comprehend. I think God's really tried to illustrate this to me through giving me Quinn and Caden. And now through these vs...he said in the Bible, we are his kids and heirs of Him.

Obviously we will be seperated from our earthly Dad's at some point, or some people already have lost their Father's, or maybe it just wasn't a good relationship, some earthly Dad's can be far, far removed from perfect. Others are pretty close.

Regardless, we're adopted into the perfect one.

vs 35 Who shall seperate us from the love of Christ (the perfect Dad) ??

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ

mayhem monday

we're back from another busy weekend and maybe now summer will slow down...?? probably not. That's ok, we've had a really great summer, so many good experiences, loads of fun with Caden. Never knew before becoming a parent, how much sheer JOY it is to see your own child grow and develop, reach new heights, lift something we didn't think he could, pull something or reach something. Helps me see the God-God's children relationship even more. How thrilled God is to give us (his children) good things---I can now relate being a parent with a child the same.
Over the summer I've come across so many books I'd just love to read (Grace Based Parenting, something by Josh McDowell, loads more of the Bible, finish my Ravi Zacharias book)...where do parents find time?, I don't understand it. Yesterday Quinn and I were watching Caden and thinking how chaotic it would be to have another child. We threw out a few families who have more children than 1 and they seem to function so well, but we think maybe their kids aren't as busy as Caden??? ;)

As I commented on Tiffany's blog about prioritizing the day, I really do think that praying about it, asking God to please help us make wise decisions of our time, really helps me throughout the day.
Sometimes I think the lack of reading or finding time to read is my own issue, (like blogging), some of it is a time management issue/prioritizing, then other times, I would rather have a nap than read.

(i wanted SOOOO bad to get a family pic for a Christmas card, how about this one?) oh boy

(my bad decision, i wanted the pic against that building and there was no spot the sun wasn't!)

So excited we found a suit (inexpensive!) for Caden, I love, love, love it.

My great Mommy moment on Friday was ironing Caden's first pair of dress pants!