Bible study

Our homes should be havens of rest. I know there are a lot of times when mine isn't. Lately, it hasn't been the messiness, but the quarreling and striving of my children. I tend to just snap at them and say, "Get along. Quit that." or even, "Knock it off." But I'm not reaching their hearts. I read a really good note on that today.

Sometimes these issues take more than a quick snappy response.  They take time invested to get to the heart of the matter. May I be honest? I don't want to. There are other things I would rather do with my time than sit with a teen-ager who doesn't want to answer me because he's mad at a sibling. It's hard for me to know how to handle these things.

But I better learn. I've only been the mother of a teen for two years (not even), but I have 16 more years to go. So I need to step up and ask the Lord for wisdom in this area, for patience, for understanding. It's been almost 20 years since I was a teen ager and 26 years since I was a young teen. Honestly, I remember the awkwardness of it all, but I don't really remember what it's like.

When I was a teen, I was living in a third world country.  Things look pretty different over there and if memory serves, a lot less petty, well not really, I guess - we're all human.  But it seemed that way to me.  The struggles of going to a dorm and only seeing my parents at break are not things that my child is going to deal with.  So I even have a cultural barrier to hurdle.

Prayer is key, because from what I'm seeing, God needs to work BIG-time on this heart - MY heart first. If I let Him, He can do the work in my heart, and that in turn will pave the way in my children's hearts. It will make things a lot easier.

Making the most of today,



Steph