This week has been one of those that seemed like would never end or for lack of sounding repetitive like the winter would never end. So I tried hard to focus on the happiness around me. It was a bit of a challenge some days but I found that pursing joy was so much more fulfilling then filling in my time with "woe is me " thoughts. Not an easy task but needless to say a good one!
Several nights ago Danny was reading Finch's recent favorite book Everywhere Babies by Susan Meyers. Which we had received as a gift and it seemed like a cute little book about babies and their families.
I put in Finch's book basket and she just fell in love with it. We have only read it 100 times in the last couple weeks when the other night...Danny says " Jess, come here and look at this. Their are two men with their arms around each other." I was a little shocked but thought it's just guys being friends, it's good to see men showing their affection. He answered " well, maybe but I think there is some hidden agenda here." We thought about getting rid of it but it is her favorite book so we just thought the best of it and moved on.
So that brings me to tonight, when yet again the book is being read and Danny says " You won't believe it, I just found two women in bed together in THIS BOOK!" This time we both knew it had an agenda. Appalled by the fact that it was so slight that we had read the book a 100 times without seeing it!!
What do you think of these pictures??
So quickly we googled the book and it was on a list of books for gay and lesbian parents! I was just so thrown off by the fact that we didn't even catch it. It just was a reminder to me that the Devil is always scheming, even when it comes to the minds of my young children.
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.
—1 Peter 5:8-9
Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life.
-Proverbs 4:23
Learning to guard my heart and mind brings me to my next book :)
I've been reading an incredible little book called Well-Versed Family by Caroline Boykin. It's been such a GREAT read for me and a wonderful reminder of how much I need the Word of God all the time in my life. It's a simple, do-able book on how important scripture memory is to our lives especially the lives of our little ones. Joe White, an adolescent and teen expert says in his book, Faith Training. " Scripture memory is the single-most-effective life-shaping tool in a parent's toolbox!" That statement struck me to my core! I feel like much of my time is spent finding books about better parenting, reading blogs, or just plain"feeling things out" ...filling my toolbox with less effective less life-shaping tools. Kinda like filling it full of plumbing tools for a carpenter :) or just leaving it with enough room for a small-slightly-more-effective tool. Instead, I should be filling it with the Word of the Living God.
I'm so excited to be applying what I'm learning. The kids are eating up learning scripture, yes, even little Finch. I keep finding her saying things that she hears repetitively so I tried to teach her a verse and walla she learned it! It's just so precious to me to hear them speak the Word of God and to know that it's being impressed on their little hearts! Be encouraged that your little ones really do hear what we are teaching them and it is being IMPRESSED on their hearts.
Deuteronomy 6:4-9
(4)Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! (5) You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. (6) These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. (7) You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. (8)You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. (9)You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Be Diligent and Delight yourself in the Lord! God Bless!
