Well folks this has been a hard week, but God is good! My hubby has been out of town all week and I am telling you there is a reason Gods plan is for 2 people to raise children. My helper is gone, and I am exhausted. Everything takes longer. Dishes do not get done until they are in bed and bedtime itself takes more time.
Today I took the kids to a splash pad and to get pretzels at Ben's and when I got home I said, "Lets do a 10 minute tidy and clean up the clutter around the house. What do you think happened? They jumped on their bikes and started riding around the culdesac. So I said again, "alright guys you need to obey." They responded with bickering and saying, "I don't want to clean." I was taken back that I did something fun for them and they could not give me 10 minutes of work. Now, I will say that they all do have chores and Tough Guy can clean one mean bathroom. I know they were tired from being in the sun, but I am really afraid of the entitlement that is happening in society right now. I want our children to know that life is 80- 90 percent work and 10-20 percent fun.
I enjoy having fun and taking the kiddos to great places to build memories. I want when they lay their heads on their pillows at night to go to sleep that they are thinking about what a great day it was. We are a very busy family, but we are busy being together. One of our favorite things to do is have a family kickball game in the back yard. We laugh so hard, but we are competitive enough that we are playing to win, although when we told Little Lady to run home and she literally ran to the house I thought I was going to pee my pants.
I want to be careful that we are not raising our children in a place where they feel they deserve to be entertained on a regular basis. My children know how to play without screens entertaining them and they know how to use their imagination, but can they buckle down when its time without whining and complaining and work as a team to get responsibilities done around the house? I love to have fun and build memories but I wonder if sometimes if we make too much of an effort to make life fun for our children. Are we giving them what they really need to be servants in this temporary world? Are we giving them the tools to be able to go into the world and work and not expect a hand out? Are we teaching our children to be content with what they have and not going into debt because they think whatever they want they can have?
So many of us make sure our kids are involved in some type of extracurricular activity. We want them to be prepared and trained in case there was ever a chance of them becoming a professional baseball player, or pianist, soccer player, etc. I do believe that playing a team sport can teach some great qualities, but are we playing for the right reasons? I have witnessed parents screaming and yelling at their kids or the coaches because of a wrong call or maybe the child was having an off day. In my mind playing a sport is to get exercise, have fun, and learn to work as a team. Kids learn to work hard by playing a sport, but the chances of a child becoming a professional in a sport is so slim, it may happen, but probably not likely. I think we need to be more diligent in training up our children to know the Lord and serve others than we do in training our children to run from one sport to another and travel here there and everywhere and miss church on Sunday because our child could be a professional someday. I know this sounds harsh and please know that my kids play soccer and baseball. My boys play piano. My daughter was in ballet, but I want my kiddos to know that sports are something you do, it is not who you are. Whether you excel in a sport or not does not make you a better person. What are we teaching our kiddos?
We need to not be afraid to teach our kids how to work! We want to becareful that we are not raising our children to think that life revolves around them. In the Declaration of Independence we find these words, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Our forefathers worked hard starting this country. They did not sit back drinking coffee and telling others what to do. They made it happen by going out and working themselves, and it was not easy. Life was not promised to be easy. I think so many people today want it to be easy. They do not want to put the work in that needs to be put in.
I love what the Bible says about laziness in Proverbs 26:13-15 "The lazy man says, "There is a lion in the street! A fierce lion is in the streets."" As a door turns on its hinges, so does the lazy man on his bed. The lazy man buries his hand in the bowl, it wearies him to bring it back to his mouth."
In Philippians 2:14 it says, "Do everything without complaining or arguing so that you may become blameless and pure children of God." I think I say this daily in our home!
Zig Ziglar said it best when he said, "You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want."
The satisfaction that comes when we are serving and giving is a feeling that is indescribable. That is what our kiddos need to learn. We need to die to our own selfish desires and serve one another in love. It is hard for a child to grasp this concept. It is hard for some adults to grasp, but that is our job as we train these little people to know and follow Christ.
What do people see when they look at us? Do they see entitled lazy people who call themselves Christians, or do they see hard working, non complaining people with servants hearts? People need to see Jesus in us!
I know my kiddos are excited about daddy's arrival just as I am, but the learning and teaching never ends. Parenting is a job that does not pay and there is not much appreciation, but it is the most important job God has given us! Work first and play later!
Today I took the kids to a splash pad and to get pretzels at Ben's and when I got home I said, "Lets do a 10 minute tidy and clean up the clutter around the house. What do you think happened? They jumped on their bikes and started riding around the culdesac. So I said again, "alright guys you need to obey." They responded with bickering and saying, "I don't want to clean." I was taken back that I did something fun for them and they could not give me 10 minutes of work. Now, I will say that they all do have chores and Tough Guy can clean one mean bathroom. I know they were tired from being in the sun, but I am really afraid of the entitlement that is happening in society right now. I want our children to know that life is 80- 90 percent work and 10-20 percent fun.
I enjoy having fun and taking the kiddos to great places to build memories. I want when they lay their heads on their pillows at night to go to sleep that they are thinking about what a great day it was. We are a very busy family, but we are busy being together. One of our favorite things to do is have a family kickball game in the back yard. We laugh so hard, but we are competitive enough that we are playing to win, although when we told Little Lady to run home and she literally ran to the house I thought I was going to pee my pants.
I want to be careful that we are not raising our children in a place where they feel they deserve to be entertained on a regular basis. My children know how to play without screens entertaining them and they know how to use their imagination, but can they buckle down when its time without whining and complaining and work as a team to get responsibilities done around the house? I love to have fun and build memories but I wonder if sometimes if we make too much of an effort to make life fun for our children. Are we giving them what they really need to be servants in this temporary world? Are we giving them the tools to be able to go into the world and work and not expect a hand out? Are we teaching our children to be content with what they have and not going into debt because they think whatever they want they can have?
So many of us make sure our kids are involved in some type of extracurricular activity. We want them to be prepared and trained in case there was ever a chance of them becoming a professional baseball player, or pianist, soccer player, etc. I do believe that playing a team sport can teach some great qualities, but are we playing for the right reasons? I have witnessed parents screaming and yelling at their kids or the coaches because of a wrong call or maybe the child was having an off day. In my mind playing a sport is to get exercise, have fun, and learn to work as a team. Kids learn to work hard by playing a sport, but the chances of a child becoming a professional in a sport is so slim, it may happen, but probably not likely. I think we need to be more diligent in training up our children to know the Lord and serve others than we do in training our children to run from one sport to another and travel here there and everywhere and miss church on Sunday because our child could be a professional someday. I know this sounds harsh and please know that my kids play soccer and baseball. My boys play piano. My daughter was in ballet, but I want my kiddos to know that sports are something you do, it is not who you are. Whether you excel in a sport or not does not make you a better person. What are we teaching our kiddos?
We need to not be afraid to teach our kids how to work! We want to becareful that we are not raising our children to think that life revolves around them. In the Declaration of Independence we find these words, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Our forefathers worked hard starting this country. They did not sit back drinking coffee and telling others what to do. They made it happen by going out and working themselves, and it was not easy. Life was not promised to be easy. I think so many people today want it to be easy. They do not want to put the work in that needs to be put in.
I love what the Bible says about laziness in Proverbs 26:13-15 "The lazy man says, "There is a lion in the street! A fierce lion is in the streets."" As a door turns on its hinges, so does the lazy man on his bed. The lazy man buries his hand in the bowl, it wearies him to bring it back to his mouth."
In Philippians 2:14 it says, "Do everything without complaining or arguing so that you may become blameless and pure children of God." I think I say this daily in our home!
Zig Ziglar said it best when he said, "You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want."
The satisfaction that comes when we are serving and giving is a feeling that is indescribable. That is what our kiddos need to learn. We need to die to our own selfish desires and serve one another in love. It is hard for a child to grasp this concept. It is hard for some adults to grasp, but that is our job as we train these little people to know and follow Christ.
What do people see when they look at us? Do they see entitled lazy people who call themselves Christians, or do they see hard working, non complaining people with servants hearts? People need to see Jesus in us!
I know my kiddos are excited about daddy's arrival just as I am, but the learning and teaching never ends. Parenting is a job that does not pay and there is not much appreciation, but it is the most important job God has given us! Work first and play later!
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