“Mom”, she said
“What about you?
Who tells you
What to do?”
You tell me,
You are my guide.
Right or wrong
truth never hides.
You are right there
to let me know.
You actively love
You never let go.
You never quit
You never give in
You always care
teaching me about sin.
Letting me know
the easy way,
is usually wrong
and sin will pay.
Choices balance out
and regret will find
me weighed down
by a sinful mind.
“Be sure your sins
will find you out!”
“And easy choices
will make you pout.”
It’s a harder path,
sometimes standing out,
Choosing right
Might make you shout
“Why the pain?
why the sorrow!”
I made good choices
a happy tomorrow
and yet this crap
happened again
I thought I’d always
life-long-win?!?!??!
Those are my earthly
expectations
Those are my demands
and now frustrations.
That’s what you meant
to continually learn.
Commit to a pattern
that helps me burn
Into my mind
healthy choices
So that I walk
a path that rejoices
And when I can see
even in my struggles
That there’s a lesson
that usually doubles
It’s reward is
up in heaven
and that’s my joy
a million times seven.
Shining His light
continually grow
Blazing strong
saying, “NO!”
Denying wrong
living within
Christian rules
repenting of sin.
Creating boundaries
Loving tools
Committing to
Christian rules
“Yes, my child,
life is tough.”
The choices we make
are mostly rough
But, learning is healthy
so abide in HIM
keep your light
from growing dim
Don’t give up
and say “I’m done.”
Learning over –
lazy bum.
Life is better
when you commit
to healthy learning
a Church Crossfit
Creating synapses
to life’s tough times
Knowing the answers
to messed up rhymes.
Promise yourself
this thing today
Commit to strength
when you pray.
I’ll never stop learning,
mommy dear,
I’ll always crave
my lessons here
I’ll go to church
and learn HIS way
and I’ll commit
to always pray
and ask for guidance
and teachable times
continue this path
Work through sin’s crimes
Disipline results
in grand solutions
Recipes of life
are contributions
Into your learning
and committing yourself
To never ending
your personal growth.
“Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get”
…. unless you read the box map. That’s why you look and see what’s inside before you bite into your chocolate, you goose.
My daughter got me thinking the other day. She asked, “Who teaches you, Mommy? She said that I am always teaching her, so who is teaching me? I told her that God teaches me. She told me that she feels sad when I am doing discipline. I asked her why? She said that she doesn’t feel love. I knew it was a time for thinking questions.
I asked her how she would feel if I just gave up, said “I quit” and stopped teaching her what’s right and wrong. I asked her if she would feel scared or safe? She said, “I would feel scared”. I asked her why? She said that if I stopped teaching her the difference, she would end up being a bully and that would be scary. She said that bullies don’t know what’s right and wrong and they are scary people.
That’s straight from a 5 year old’s mouth y’all.
Love is an act, it’s never giving up. Just like God loves us, without giving up, we need to love each other as a family. I’ll never give up on her and she will never give up on learning.
If we all approach life like a bunch of bully-toddlers we fail. We must never stop learning.
Here is a thinking question – Has anyone ever entered marriage with their own internal expectations only to end up in an epic failure relationship?
This is what you told yourself – “Well, he’s got issues, but after we get married, he will be stuck in the relationship and then he will realize he has to change all his bad habits, so we will be all better.”
Or – Have you tried to parent your children with your own set of guidelines or expectations without healthy communication with your partner and God?
Examples are plenty when it comes to life and what results when we approach it with a lack of guidelines, rules and regulations.
Life is crazy, unexpected, all revolving, uniquely experienced and unbelievably difficult. I can’t imagine life without my boundaries, guidelines and road maps all provided by my personal relationship with God, the Bible and my life lessons provided by the awesome pastors at my church.
Here is an example of what I experienced from my past. The Epic Failure of an ignorant and cocky, hurting and lost, no boundaries – no rules kind of life.
I couldn’t wait to finish University. As soon as it was over, I said, “Ah, I’m finally done. I never have to open a textbook again.” I was super pumped that I had moved away from the “relentless and irritating” guidance of my parents, left the professional classroom and, thus, I stumbled out into life – an arrogant and idiotic 20-something.
I completely stopped learning. I craved no rules, no regulations and epically failed so many times, I can’t count.
My life, lived without boundaries, without guidance, without rules was utter failure.
I didn’t know that personal success = constantly working on myself, on my choices, on my habits and how I related to myself and others.
Can you relate?
Without constant work, we fail, we fall into sloth and sin will choke us until we have destroyed everything in our path. That’s sinful nature, the stuff we are BORN into. Life is a constant battle against that nature. We need guidelines or else we will unintentionally and constantly bite into that strawberry-fluff-filled chocolate that we all hate.
Without the constant massaging, exercising and building of our minds, the mind will deteriorate. It will turn to mush and end up failing. We need to be creating synapses that are healthy and teachable. Especially us as parents. We have the epic responsibility to guide our children – by example. Words are useless and stupid if we don’t act on them. If we say and not do, the result is no trust, no safety and a very unhealthy relationship.
As Christians we have the amazing opportunity and blessing to have a rulebook already written for us, designed perfectly to provide solutions to ALL of life’s problems, not some – ALL. It is the written instruction book of life. The Chocolate Box Map if you will – so we can work through any situation, in whatever form they come.
NOW LISTEN HERE>I’m not saying that Christian life is all chocolate candy exactly like we like and we can completely avoid all the strawberry chocolate disasters of life. Absolutely NOT. Chrisitan life is brutal. Cause it’s life. Life is ridden with sin and we are subject to sin right from birth. What Christian life promises is that GOD will NEVER leave us or deny us. We have comfort and solutions that guide us through the crap piles of sin.
So there.
Go to a church that preaches the Bible and doesn’t deviate from it. I challenge you to approach it with an open heart and an answer to life’s scary – no right and wrong attitude that you had before – that isn’t working for you. I promise you it isn’t working.
Accept boundaries, rules and regulations, a map and guidelines. Stop doing life without the instruction book, or else you’ll just stay frustrated and unhappy.
There is joy in not giving up on yourself. There is joy in continual learning and challenging your mind and spirit. There is JOY in Christ. In HIS promises and in Christian Faith. Again, this I promise you.
