Counterfeit Culture

I don't remember where I read this recently. Above Rubies? No Greater Joy? Not sure. But I thought it was so good . They posed the question. How do you best recognize a counterfeit? It is not by studying the many examples of counterfeits out there. It is by studying the real thing. Don't you love that?

So many fellow Christians truly think their kids need "street smarts". They think I am doing my children a disservice by "sheltering" them from the current culture. If they don't fit in with the other kids how will they have an opportunity to witness? I so disagree. Instead of studying the culture they should be studying the examples of Christian living found in the Bible. I would venture to say that most Christian children today have a closer resemblance to Hannah Montana than Jesus. How sad is that? May that never be so of my girls.

So how do we train our children to be the real thing? How can we set ourselves apart from the current culture? I think a good first step would be to turn off the TV and open the Bible. How does the Bible say we should dress? What does the Bible say we should talk and think about? Would Jesus watch the shows we're watching? Would he read our books and wear our clothes?
If He wouldn't should we?

This is a hard thing. I pray that God would help me to be set apart, to not resemble the world but Him. I pray that He will direct my parenting and protect my girls from my mistakes. I'm still learning. It's a daily effort to go against the flow. May I have more of Him and less of me.

So Very Thankful

The challenge At The Well was to post about your husband. I love this challenge because my husband is so easy to brag about! :)

I thank God for my husband because...

1. He is an awesome Dad! He loves his girls and is so good at loving them. He takes them on fun "daddy dates" to places like IHOP for breakfast, and the ice cream store.

2. He is such a good communicator, so much better than me. He seems to always know just what to say. He is quick to encourage me with his kind words.

3. He is faithful and dependable, and such a hard worker. He finishes what he starts. I am trying to be more like him in this area.

4. He loves God. He is the spiritual leader of our home and makes it a priority to read the Bible to the girls daily. He will stop whatever he is doing to pray with me about anything!

5. He thinks Mom and Dad dates are important. I do too!

6. He supports me in homeschooling.

7. He provides for our family financially so that I can be home to train up our girls.

In May we will be celebrating our 15th anniversary. They have been a wonderful 15 years. God has been so gracious to me in blessing me with such a handsome, godly, loving, man. I love you Seth!

Crazy Hair Contemplations

Last week at Sparks was Crazy Hair night. Emma and Megan loved getting their funky look. They have fun at Awana but Seth and I have been talking about not continuing with the program next year.

Here are my thoughts...

1. I don't like the "drop off" feel to Awana. I like to be with my kids and know what they are doing and learning. I can volunteer to be a helper but they segregate ages so I couldn't possibly be with all the girls at the same time.

2. I love scripture memorization but I feel, and my girls feel, the pressure of completing a book to get an award. This takes learning several verses each week. I just don't see them retaining those verses when they have such a short time to learn and recite them. We incorporate scripture memorization as a family during Bible time. We learn longer passages sometimes but we are not on a time schedule with learning them. We practice every day and when the girls can say the verses and reference easily I know it is time to move on. No pressure, and I feel like it is actually sticking with them. It is hard to expect them to memorize Awana verses on top of our family verses. And if I have to chose I will chose our family verses. I like us all learning the same thing together. It bonds us and we are able to help each other remember because we are all learning the same thing.

3. Along those lines we like our girls to memorize in King James and Awana uses NIV.

4. I don't like how they have changed the program from seperating girls and boys. When I went to Awana (long, long ago) the girls had a different program with different books. Now they are lumped together. I don't like the blurring of lines of masculinity and feminity that is so typical of our current culture.

So, we are thinking about giving Keepers of the Faith a try next year. I ordered the books to check them out. We would just need to find a group of families to join, or start our own group. We are praying for God to lead us. We know He has great plans for our family!

Cheri

Blog Newbie

Now I'm thinking this is harder than it looks!