Tag Archives: Christ

July 12, 2013 · 2:44 pm

One Word for 2013– The 6 Months Check-Up

Commit.

That’s my word for 2013.

The year is going by quickly– over half gone already. If you’re like me, you find that hard to believe. Something about becoming a parent, or perhaps just growing older, causes time to fly.

So it’s time to evaluate how the word commit has influenced me so far.

I chose the word with the intention of using it to force me to change certain behaviors, adapt to new behaviors, and make me stronger both physically and mentally.

Some of the commitments I made for 2013–

I’ve committed to seeking God with every part of my life. Not that I wasn’t doing this before, but I will thread Jesus into every fiber of my being so tightly that when others look at me, especially my children, they see that my life is nothing without Christ. I am nothing without Him. I’m only held together by Him.

My children are eager to learn scripture and read Bible stories. They love talking to, and about, Jesus. This is not of my doing, but I hope it’s partly because we’ve set that example in our home.

I’ve committed to exercise and health. I will lose all this baby weight, and I will be healthier than I’ve ever been in my life.

Because I’m eating healthier, my entire family is eating healthier. We’re not perfect (I refuse to give up chocolate), but I’m thankful that my family appreciates some healthy foods. My boys watch me exercise and I encourage them to join in. Their little bodies being a temple and all– I want them to establish healthy routines early.

I’ve committed to service and teaching. I will serve when God asks.

God has opened several doors for me in this area. Not only am I now teaching Sunday school, I will soon be leading a Bible study and re-launching the Women’s Ministry at my church. Big things are happening.

I’ve committed to writing. I will carve out time to write new material. I will be more active in the writing community than I’ve been in the past year.

Because I’ve spent the first half of this year either being pregnant or caring for a newborn (he’s three months old already!), I haven’t gotten very far on this one. I have story ideas popping in my head all the time, but I haven’t been able to establish a routine that allows me good writing time– yet. School starts back soon so my oldest 2 will get back to their normal routine and the baby will adapt to our routine. I’m looking forward to carving some writing time in there somewhere. I’m committed to it.

What has inspired me most about this word for 2013 is that along with it comes determination. I can’t “commit” to this word without directing that I will do certain things. It has forced me to do exactly what I’d hoped– change behaviors, make new behaviors routine, and seek out opportunities.

I can’t wait to see what the rest of this year brings.

Share with me: What is your word for 2013? How has it affected your life so far this year? (It’s not too late to choose a word if you don’t already have one!)

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Filed under Parenting, The Christian Walk, Writing

Tagged as 2013, bible, Christ, commit, health, one word, parenting, spirituality

March 2, 2012 · 6:00 am

How Do You Raise a Disciple?

This is not the post I had planned for today, but something really wonderful happened in our family this week and it changed the direction of my thinking.

Earlier in the week, our oldest son who is nearly six, prayed to ask Christ into his heart.

We are celebrating!

We’re celebrating because we know that he’ll spend eternity in the presence of God and celebrating that he’s chosen this path.

But now what?

The focus moves from leading him to Christ to helping him become a disciple. But just exactly how do we do that? I’m assuming with a lot of prayer, because that’s how we’ve been doing it all along.

Although my husband and I aren’t necessarily surprised by our son’s decision to follow Christ as his Lord and Savior, we were somewhat surprised by the timing. We thought it would take longer for him to make this decision.

You see, our son is incredibly logical. Logical to a fault, most times.

When we first started mentioning the idea of “accepting Christ” or “asking Christ into your heart” or “following Jesus”, our son saw no need for such things.

In his young mind there was no other option but to follow Jesus. As he reasoned to us, Jesus has always been in his heart. His five year-old self saw no other possibilities in life but to love, honor, and follow Christ.

This is a wonderful, enviable view on life.

So it took us awhile to help him understand that the choice to follow Christ is just that–a choice. Yet again he reasoned that for him there is and was no other option. For awhile he even argued that there was no reason for him to accept Christ into his heart–He was already there.

This has been an ongoing, on again-off again discussion for several months in our house. My husband and I have prayed since the moment we found out we were expecting a child (both times) that we’d raise our children to love the Lord. So, when the right moments presented themselves, we discussed it and our son reasoned.

Last Sunday morning as we were driving to church he suddenly piped up from the back seat, “Hey Mom, Dad. I’m ready to be baptized.”

We spoke about it for a few minutes and asked if he was ready to pray to ask Jesus into his heart. In his unique style he said, “I am. But I’m going to do it on Saturday.”

My husband and I smiled at each other– he’s not ready, we thought.

But the very next night at bedtime, once we’d settled in to say prayers, unprompted our son says, “I’m ready to say a special prayer now.” And he did.

Although I couldn’t help but get a little weepy, my son was very logical about it. (No shocker.) He approached the whole thing from the attitude that “I’ve always loved and followed Jesus, and now I’m just confirming that this is what I want to do with my life.”

And now that he’s made this decision, we’re looking forward to his baptism (not sure when that’s going to happen yet) and our focus shifts just a little bit.

Now we must raise him to become a disciple of Christ. I’d love your feedback in the comments about any books, ideas, etc, that have helped you do this with your own kids.

One of the things that has really stimulated conversations about Jesus is this Bible. It was given to our boys by their aunt and each and every story in it ties back to the sacrifice and redeeming salvation of Christ, but on a kid’s level.

Click here for the link to Amazon.com

We love it because it’s easy to read, it’s interesting, and for me, it’s made me consider new perspectives on stories I’ve known since I was my son’s age.

Even though we’ve had other picture Bibles, this one, by far, has offered the opportunity to discuss the idea of sin, redemption and grace more than any of the others. If you’re looking for a good kid’s Bible, I recommend that you check this one out.

As my husband and I continue to pray that we’ll raise our sons to love and serve the Lord, we’re celebrating this special blessing. And we pray that our two year-old will follow in his big brother’s footsteps.

I know there are other parents out there wanting encouragement as to how to lead your child to Christ, and then after set them on a road of life-long discipleship, so…

Share with me: When it comes to teaching your kids about following Christ, what worked for you? What books and other things do you recommend? When teaching your children about discipleship and the life-long adventure of Christianity, what do you recommend?

Don’t forget about my giveaway going on until 3/6/12. Have you entered yet? If not, do that here.