There is so much in the Bible that I want my kids to understand that sometimes I just become overwhelmed at the thought of writing it all in their hearts. I wonder where to start. I wonder what to focus on. We have got the Old Testament stories down really well by now. My son has repeated back to me nearly the entire book of Genesis. I am so thankful that this foundation is laid.
I took a queue from Janice Beeghly, who seemed to answer the question of where to go next. She nearly commanded me to begin to whisper God’s truths into my children’s ears every night. So I have said nearly every night since, “Davis, did you know that ‘you are God’s masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which He has set aside for you to do’?” (Ephesians 2:10) He asked a couple of times why I kept on saying that. I told him that it was because it was true. Now I whisper in his ear, “Do you know what you are?” And he says, “God’s masterpiece.” And then he finishes the verse for me.
So I started wondering, what else does the Mighty God say that “you are.” Oh my lands, it is the most wonderful word study you will ever do. Just simply typing those two words in my favorite online concordance (crosswalk.com) yielded me dozens of “you are” statements that I can’t wait to write on the hearts my children. And as I read them I saw just how precious God the Father sees them. And me. I want these Truths written deeply in their hearts so that if ever they begin to err in their thinking about themselves (“Maybe I am worthless”) the truth that is in them will shout out “No!” and they can take such thoughts captive and replace them with the truth: You are holy and dearly loved! (Col 3:12)
Janice spoke in September of 2005 about praying scripture for our children. So I can take that same verse from Ephesians and say, “Thank you, Lord that Davis is your masterpiece….” But praying a scripture like Jeremiah 32:38-40, which says (and I am paraphrasing now) that God is going to make an everlasting covenant with my kids and that He will not turn from them and that He will put the fear of God in their hearts so that they will not turn from Him – now that is a harder scripture to pray. Why? Because my youngest has not yet accepted Christ, and my oldest may have accepted, but who is to say that he will not turn from God someday? What puffed up audacity I would have to have to pray such a thing! And besides, that was a verse about God’s chosen people, Israel, some 4,000 years ago. Not only did I really struggle praying it, I also struggled with saying to my sons such things that were not yet true.
Janice was quick to give an answer: consider the myriad of things you can pray and speak to your children. We know that the Bible is by definition the will of God and that whenever we pray using direct scripture, we are praying God’s will. So we can know for sure that it pleases God to claim these promises for our children and (here is the hard part) BELIEVE THEM TO BE TRUE. What we tell them about themselves they will see as truth.
So onward I go, writing on the tablet of their little hearts that:
“you are in the Father, and the Father is in you” (John 14:20).
“Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God.” (1 Cor 6:19)
“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph 2:8-9).
“For you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness” (1 Thess. 5:5)
“But even if you should suffer for righteousness, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear or be disturbed” (1 Peter 3:14).
“You are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God” (Gal 4:7).
“You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” (1 John 4:4)
“You are a chosen people. You are a kingdom of priests, God's holy nation, His very own possession. This is so you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9).
Onward indeed!
Showing posts with label M2M Newsletter Articles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label M2M Newsletter Articles. Show all posts
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Corn & Toast, Anyone? (Meal Planning 101)
(Another installment in a series of articles you probably read a Mom to Mom newsletter of yesteryear.)
One of the best wifely tasks I do every week is plan the dinner meals. Now, I know what you are thinking because I thought it too: “Ugh. Why would I want to take the time to do that?!?! I dread cooking dinner enough as it is!
For six long years of marriage, I, too, resisted planning a weekly dinner menu, preferring instead (oddly enough) the hungry-stomach, blank-stare-into-the-freezer nightly ritual. Nothing sounds quite right when you are starving – except of course take-out. I would open the freezer then close the freezer, open the fridge then close the fridge. Sigh. Then open the freezer once more only to close it again, more quickly this time. Then walk to the food pantry, stare at the random selection of cans and wish, in vain, that mealtime inspiration would hit. But the truth of the matter is I am not —and never will be — an inspired cook.
As I stared night after night, year after year, into my fridge, freezer, and pantry, the process never got easier. In fact, it got more difficult because I had kids. Frequent trips to the grocery store with kids were more trouble than they were worth, and the kids were hungry even sooner than I was.
Further impetus for planning a dinner menu was a comment a dear friend said to me: “I only go to the grocery store once a week. If we run out of something, that’s just too bad.” I was flabbergasted at what I thought might be indignation. In truth, the reason she could say that and not regularly feed her family a can of corn and toast is because she had planned for the whole week already. I considered all the last-minute trips to the high-end grocery store nearest my house that I make in a month (our checkbook tells no lies) and decided to start planning our meals.
Becoming a “once-a-week-Winco” girl I now sit down at the table with my recipe books, grocery list, a thick piece of paper (my menu) and a pen. I write the days of the week down the side of the menu and glance at the family calendar to see what I have written in it that pertains to meals (going over to the in-laws Saturday night, date night Tuesday, snacks for Women’s Bible Study Wednesday, etc) and I write that down on the days they apply.
Inspiration via cookbooks I find main dishes that are simple and sound good and write them on the menu, along with the book name and page number that the recipe came from. I go through the ingredients list and record what I need to buy at the store, filling in the side dishes as I go. HINT: Don’t forget to account for leftovers! If you make lasagna for Wednesday, write “leftovers” on Thursday – make sure the family knows that you did not intend for the whole meal to be devoured in one sitting.
Baby steps When I first started, I committed to cooking a new recipe one or two days a week because our family needed to change what we were eating. I have three recipe books that I primarily cook from. I use them because they contain relatively simple recipes and the family nearly always likes them. Often I use just one book for any given week to keep things simple. On the days I was not trying something new, I cooked old stand-bys.
Save the menu! I post my menu on the fridge (amidst the sea of colored alphabet letters and family photos) and refer to it all week. At the end of the week, don’t throw it out! I keep all my week’s menus, because they come in handy again (say in about four weeks)!
Create a cheat sheet. One final superb thing to do: start making a list of dinner ideas that you enjoyed cooking and your family liked. Post the list - with the cookbook name and page number next to it – on the fridge for easy reference. I also underline the type of meat that it takes, again, for easy reference.
How long does it take? Well, a better question is, “How long did it used to take?” I used to agonize every day about what I will cook for at least an hour. Now, my planning takes less than ½ hour a week, and my think time each evening is zero. I just look, and cook!
All corniness aside, what I really like about planning our menu is that it requires thoughtful consideration for my family – especially my husband. I know what I am cooking will please him because I thought about that when I selected the meal earlier in the week. In the end, the whole family benefits because I took a little time to plan!
For other meal-planning tips visit the newly updated Seriousmoms.com.
One of the best wifely tasks I do every week is plan the dinner meals. Now, I know what you are thinking because I thought it too: “Ugh. Why would I want to take the time to do that?!?! I dread cooking dinner enough as it is!
For six long years of marriage, I, too, resisted planning a weekly dinner menu, preferring instead (oddly enough) the hungry-stomach, blank-stare-into-the-freezer nightly ritual. Nothing sounds quite right when you are starving – except of course take-out. I would open the freezer then close the freezer, open the fridge then close the fridge. Sigh. Then open the freezer once more only to close it again, more quickly this time. Then walk to the food pantry, stare at the random selection of cans and wish, in vain, that mealtime inspiration would hit. But the truth of the matter is I am not —and never will be — an inspired cook.
As I stared night after night, year after year, into my fridge, freezer, and pantry, the process never got easier. In fact, it got more difficult because I had kids. Frequent trips to the grocery store with kids were more trouble than they were worth, and the kids were hungry even sooner than I was.
Further impetus for planning a dinner menu was a comment a dear friend said to me: “I only go to the grocery store once a week. If we run out of something, that’s just too bad.” I was flabbergasted at what I thought might be indignation. In truth, the reason she could say that and not regularly feed her family a can of corn and toast is because she had planned for the whole week already. I considered all the last-minute trips to the high-end grocery store nearest my house that I make in a month (our checkbook tells no lies) and decided to start planning our meals.
Becoming a “once-a-week-Winco” girl I now sit down at the table with my recipe books, grocery list, a thick piece of paper (my menu) and a pen. I write the days of the week down the side of the menu and glance at the family calendar to see what I have written in it that pertains to meals (going over to the in-laws Saturday night, date night Tuesday, snacks for Women’s Bible Study Wednesday, etc) and I write that down on the days they apply.
Inspiration via cookbooks I find main dishes that are simple and sound good and write them on the menu, along with the book name and page number that the recipe came from. I go through the ingredients list and record what I need to buy at the store, filling in the side dishes as I go. HINT: Don’t forget to account for leftovers! If you make lasagna for Wednesday, write “leftovers” on Thursday – make sure the family knows that you did not intend for the whole meal to be devoured in one sitting.
Baby steps When I first started, I committed to cooking a new recipe one or two days a week because our family needed to change what we were eating. I have three recipe books that I primarily cook from. I use them because they contain relatively simple recipes and the family nearly always likes them. Often I use just one book for any given week to keep things simple. On the days I was not trying something new, I cooked old stand-bys.
Save the menu! I post my menu on the fridge (amidst the sea of colored alphabet letters and family photos) and refer to it all week. At the end of the week, don’t throw it out! I keep all my week’s menus, because they come in handy again (say in about four weeks)!
Create a cheat sheet. One final superb thing to do: start making a list of dinner ideas that you enjoyed cooking and your family liked. Post the list - with the cookbook name and page number next to it – on the fridge for easy reference. I also underline the type of meat that it takes, again, for easy reference.
How long does it take? Well, a better question is, “How long did it used to take?” I used to agonize every day about what I will cook for at least an hour. Now, my planning takes less than ½ hour a week, and my think time each evening is zero. I just look, and cook!
All corniness aside, what I really like about planning our menu is that it requires thoughtful consideration for my family – especially my husband. I know what I am cooking will please him because I thought about that when I selected the meal earlier in the week. In the end, the whole family benefits because I took a little time to plan!
For other meal-planning tips visit the newly updated Seriousmoms.com.
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