Faith in Parenting

Phone Number for “Tuesdays at 2:00″: (218) 486-1300

Access Code: 669379

What are some of the things that you need to succeed as a Christian mom? I think some of our biggest needs are support, prayer, Scripture, fellowship with other believers, and a sense of deep purpose in our work as moms. How about you? What do you need?

Wouldn’t it be great to just “sit down” with some other Christian moms and support one another? I know it’s not always easy to get out to a church group or make it to a Bible study. And I do believe those things are important! But I also want to give moms a chance to “gather,” so to speak, and support one another. So I’m going to begin a program called “Tuesdays at 2:00 (ET): Support Calls for Christian Moms.”

Here’s how it works. I’ve set up something called a “telebridge” line. That just means that there can be multiple people on the phone call. In advance of the call, I’ll post the telebridge phone number and access code here on the “Faith in Parenting” blog. To participate, just call in at 2:00 pm (ET) on Tuesdays (beginning October 9, 2007). Or, if you’d like to receive a weekly reminder/invitation to call in for “Tuesdays at 2:00,” just enter your e-mail address in the box under “Getting Started.”

My intention is to create a support system for Christian moms. It will be very low-key and casual; you don’t have to have any knowledge of Scripture to benefit from the call, and it’s open to women of all denominations. Each week we’ll talk about a different topic related to Christian parenting. I imagine that it will be similar to some of the radio programs for parents, like Focus on the Family and Family Life Today, except that you’ll be able to participate in the discussion, ask questions, and share stories from your own experience.

I hope you’ll join me! The idea of “teleconferencing” may be new to you, and that’s okay! Don’t worry if there are little ones in the background; I’ll show you how to turn the “mute” feature on or off as needed!

Also, if you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

Blessings,

Jennifer

My daughter’s preschool class is doing a unit on butterflies, so there’s a butterfly kit hanging in the room with twenty chrysalises in mid-transformation. Madelyn couldn’t wait to show it to me! She took my hand and led me right over to the display. And as we got closer, I couldn’t help but notice that they look kind of, well, gross! I mean, they look a little bumpy and furry and sticky. (I bet they smell, too, although I really didn’t get that close.)

And so I told Madelyn what I thought - that they were awesome, and also kind of gross-looking.

“Isn’t it neat that God can take something that looks kind of gross and turn it into something so beautiful?!!”

She just laughed and went on her merry way, picking out the clothespin to match the station she wanted to go to first.

But as I drove home, I kept thinking about those butterflies, and how they relate to us as human beings. Do you have anything icky and gross hanging around in your life? Something bumpy, furry, and maybe a little sticky? What’s God preparing to do with that?  Can we even imagine?

Lord, we’ve all got places in our lives that look a little dead or gross or ugly, and we want to give them over to you. You are the giver of all life, and you can transform our unsightly bumps into creations more beautiful than butterflies. So we just hand them over to you now, Lord, and wait with expectation and faith, to see what you’re going to do. “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20)

This is a great question! Many of us bring a lot of formal routines to our prayer life, and to what we teach our children about prayer. These ideas include thinking we “have to” have our eyes closed when we pray, or kneel, or begin with “Father,” or close with “In Jesus’ Name.”

And for many of us, as adults, these routines are helpful. Closing your eyes and bowing your head may make it easier for you to shut out the busyness of your day. And you may feel more reverent of the Lord when you’re on your knees. That’s absolutely valid! And, I might add, these are practices that we do want to introduce our children to at some point.

But I’d also encourage you to consider timeliness. There will be times when it feels right to get on your knees together as a family. When I’m teaching Sunday School (to four-year-olds), I’ll often make a big show about spreading our arms out wide and then folding them in our laps for prayer, because it helps mark the transition for the kids between the time that we’re going around the circle and sharing prayer requests, and the time that we’re actually going to the Lord in prayer.

But that doesn’t mean that we always have to have our hands folded, our heads bowed, and our eyes closed.

My son has a book that really illustrates this concept, and it’s one that we like to read together as a family. It’s called Am I Praying?, by Jeannie St. John Taylor. The main character, a little boy named Erik, experiences lots of tumultuous ups and downs during the course of a field trip to the zoo. First he’s excited to go, then he forgets his lunch box, then he gets lost, and finally - because he forgot his lunchbox - his mom arrives at the zoo and finds him sitting in the main office. What’s so great about it is that it illustrates to children that we can pray to God in many different ways, whether we’re talking out loud, in our minds, literally crying out to God, or rejoicing. No matter how or why we communicate with God - it’s still prayer!

Log onto your local library’s web site and see if they have a copy of it, or click on the link below to order it online. It’s a great way to help your kids discover all the ways they can - and do - communicate with the Lord over the course of an ordinary day, whether their hands are folded and their eyes closed or not.

(And I have to tell you, too, that when I looked up the book on Amazon just now to get the link for you, I discovered that Jeannie St. John Taylor has some other great books about little Erik, like Am I Trusting? and How I Pray for My Friends. I can’t wait to check them out!)

Today is Friday, and at our house, that means Pizza Night! In fact, I just called it in a few moments ago. Traditions like this can be a lot of fun for your family. It’s simple, everyone enjoys it, and your kids know what to expect.

Do you know that the same can be true of our spiritual traditions? We can build some regular faith practices into our family life just as easily as ordering a 14″ cheese pizza on Friday nights.

If this is something you haven’t considered before, take a look at these ideas to help you get started:

• Pray over your children before they walk out the door each morning. Or, if you drive them to school, pray for them in the car each day. This is a great way to let your kids know that you’re praying for them continuously, and you’ll also appreciate the unique prayer requests that your kids will share with you!
• Pray for one another while you fold laundry together.
• Ask your children to consider what it means to serve while they’re doing their chores. When you’re all finished, sit down and talk about it together.
• When your child is preparing to go to a birthday party, say a prayer together for the honoree while your child signs the birthday card.
• While you take a walk around the neighborhood together, pray for your neighbors.

There are countless ways that we can begin to weave our faith into the everyday tasks we do with our children. But don’t let yourself be sidetracked by the idea that your spiritual traditions have to be “perfect.” They don’t! Start by applying some of these small and simple ideas, and see where your family’s faith journey takes you!

Lamentations 2:19 says:

“Arise, cry out in the night,
at the beginning of the watches!
Pour our your heart like water
before the presence of the Lord!
Lift your hands to him
for the lives of your children,
who faint for hunger
at the head of every street.”

I encourage you today to “pour out your heart like water” to the Lord on behalf of your children. They may not be facing physical hunger this very moment (although given the way my son’s lunch box keeps returning to me more full than empty, it’s possible that he might be hungry), but we know that our kids do face real and untold dangers every day.

So let’s take that direction from God’s Word literally.

You know, as a mom, it can be easy to be overwhelmed by the seen and unseen dangers our kids face. We can even begin to worry excessively about their welfare, as though imagining worst-case scenarios ahead of time could somehow protect them.

But the Lord is faithful! In Philippians 4:6-7, His Word assures us:

“Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

What does that mean for us today?

• Have no anxiety about your child’s developing friendships, but take it to the Lord in prayer.
• Have no anxiety about whether your child will do the right thing, but take it to the Lord in prayer.
• Have no anxiety about your child’s health, but take it to the Lord in prayer.
• Have no anxiety about your child’s heartache, but take it to the Lord in prayer.

Friend, by encouraging you to “have no anxiety,” I’m not suggesting that you shouldn’t be concerned or that your fears aren’t valid. They are, and this Word is not encouraging us to turn a blind eye to the danger and heartache our children face.

But the Lord is good, and He will be faithful when we come to Him with these needs on behalf of our children. Incredibly, almost unbelievably, He loves them even more than we do. So let’s be faithful and take our concerns to the Lord in prayer this day.

Do you have faith in your parenting? Do you work to put faith into your parenting? That’s what this site is all about! My name is Jennifer Wolf, and I’ve been a Christian now for 22 years. I’m also the mother of two wonderful children, and - like you - I wear many hats. There’s the chauffeur, the cook, the nurse, the wife, the organizer, the writer, the coach, the decorator, the planner, the - need I go on?

You probably know where I’m going here, because it’s true for you, too. As many tasks as we cram into each day, there’s just nothing more important than sharing our faith with the precious children we’ve been entrusted to raise. But how, exactly, do we do that?

Here at “Faith in Parenting,” we’ll explore what’s working and what’s not… Where we want to go, and what we want to share along the way. I hope you’ll join me for this work of the heart.

Warmly,
Jen