Category Archives: Being a Daughter

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Got Milk?

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Our new granddaughter is now 3 months old. She is starting to respond to her surroundings, especially her family.

Those first smiles make it all worth it, don’t they?

SO PRECIOUS!

She doesn’t cry much, which is a HUGE blessing since her 4 older brothers need a lot on supervision right now. They are at the “let me see what happens if I do this….” stage.

You will remember this stage if your children are older now because you found yourself saying things like:

  • What were you thinking?  … they weren’t thinking
  • Why did you do that?         ….there often is no reason
  • I can’t believe you did that! ….they can’t either
  • What is the matter with you?…they are children

Does God ever throw up His divine hands in exasperation? Knowing that His eye is on me… I’m sure He does.

But He never gives up!  Praise God!

Neither should we.

Back to our new granddaughter – she does let it be known when she is hungry. She is also quickly satisfied when she receives her mother’s milk. Babies are designed to crave the very things they need for healthy growth and development.

Peter has some words of instruction for us as we grow as Christians –

1 Peter 2: 1-3 (NLT)

2 So get rid of all evil behavior. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech. 2 Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment, 3 now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness.

We are encouraged to “cry out” for the nourishment we need from the Lord.

Notice that it says – “we must crave pure spiritual milk” so that we can grow into a full experience of salvation. It is an ongoing process.

I am also struck by the phrase “now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness.”

It is the kindness of the Lord that leads us to repentance. Kind speech is the best way for us to reflect God’s kindness as we interact with our children, grandchildren, and each other.

Our challenge is to drink in that pure spiritual milk ….and let kindness pour out.

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Elders

Caleb P 4

“She’s the top of the family tree”

What a wonderful description of a lovely great-grandmother! Caleb is 10 years old and has learned the importance of valuing his elders. Caleb is the grandson of my friend, Alice Marie. She recently took Caleb to see her mother and Alice Marie told me how patient Caleb was in waiting as “Nana” walked carefully everywhere they went. He opened the door for her and held her hand as she got herself completely out of the car and steady. Alice Marie took the following pictures and I thought how well they show respect for our elders.

Caleb P 1 Caleb P 2Caleb P 3

This is something we must make the effort to instill in our children and grandchildren – respect for their elders. Our culture does not celebrate aging. In fact, our culture tends to worship youth, with aging something to avoid, hide, surgically alter, even lie about. There is absolutely nothing wrong with staying physically fit, looking our best at whatever age, and practicing good health habits. Yet aging is part of living – the alternative is…not living!

Some practical ways to teach our children respect for their elders are:

  • be an example of respect, model respect yourself for your elders
  • give up your seat, if needed, to an older person
  • let the elders go first in line, standing long periods can often be hard for them
  • serve them food first, this shows deference, but elders also often eat more slowly
  • LISTEN when they speak
  • turn off mobile devices, they deserve your full attention
  • play games together that elders want to play
  • try to minimize background noise when visiting with elders, it will make them hear you more easily
  • let elders have the best chair/sofa seat – show them you know they are special

The greatest influence will be our personal behavior. Yet we should also ask our children and grandchildren “How can we make Great-grandma feel welcome?” “What do you think Great-grandpa would like to do?” Children are very insightful and will be more engaged in doing things if it is their idea.

In the Bible Paul gives advice to Timothy who he is mentoring as a follower of Christ. Paul tells Timothy to treat people certain ways according to their age and gender.

I Timothy 5: 1-4

Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, 2 older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity. 3 Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need. 4 But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God.

The BEST reason for teaching children to show respect for their elders is that it pleases God.

Alice Marie told Caleb how proud she was of they way he treated his great-grandmother.

“Well,” said Caleb “She is the

Center of our Family,

Top of the Family Tree,

The one who gets us all together.”

How thoughtful!

May we please God by honoring our elders.

 

 

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Yes, Lord

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“You can’t say ‘Lord’ unless you say ‘yes’.”

It was December 1973 when I heard Elizabeth Elliot say those words to over 10,000 college students at Urbana ’73. I was one of those students about to start my last semester of college.

You can’t say:

  •  “No, Lord”
  •  “Wait, Lord”
  • “Later, Lord”
  • “I will if….., Lord”
  • “Not now, Lord”

If I say any of those things to the Lord – Jesus is not Lord.

The ONLY response I can make if Jesus is Lord is “yes’.

How do we feel when our children make excuses when we ask them to do something? We realize that they do not want to obey – so they have an excuse. We don’t like it.

Neither does our Lord.

We want our children to obey because we have their best interest at heart, even when they don’t understand why they can’t have ice cream before dinner, or wear shorts in the snow, or watch three movies a day.

It is because we love our children that we withhold certain things.

It is because God loves us that He withholds certain things.

Jesus was nearing the end of His earthly ministry. He was trying to communicate some very important truth before He left His disciples. (We do that as well with our children, don’t we? “Now one more thing before I go …”)

Luke 9: 57-62

57 As they were walking along, someone said to Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go.”

58 But Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head.”

59 He said to another person, “Come, follow me.”

The man agreed, but he said, “Lord, first let me return home and bury my father.”

60 But Jesus told him, “Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead![c] Your duty is to go and preach about the Kingdom of God.”

61 Another said, “Yes, Lord, I will follow you, but first let me say good-bye to my family.”

62 But Jesus told him, “Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.”

In each of these situations, people wanted to follow Jesus, BUT….

Jesus tells them that is not how it works.

When we ask our children to obey us and trust that we know what we are doing – it is just what God is requiring of us as parents. We are actually training our children to obey God when we have them practice by obeying us as their parents.

The biggest difference – God is perfect. God’s ways are perfect.

As our children say “yes” to us, they will learn to say “yes” to the Lord.

When we say “YES” to the Lord, we are modeling what it means to follow Jesus.