Depending on where you live school will be starting this month or next month. A new school year is usually exciting and scary at the same time. Most children won’t admit it, but they are ready to get back to school and see their friends. As much as I love not having a rigid schedule in the summer, I do miss the structure of the school year. We get up later in the summer and go to bed later as well.
When you think of a new School Year what are your first thoughts? Back to school shopping for clothes and school supplies. A big transition from elementary to middle school, or to high school, even college. A new teacher who you heard is strict or not strict enough? There can often be lots of anxiety with a new school year for parents as well as children.
Can I offer a few suggestions for your back to school list? Remember whose children they are. Yes they are our children, but they are God’s children. He cares about them and loves them more than we ever could. Pray for your children. Pray for their academics, choice of friends, study habits, and wisdom to make Godly choices. Pray for their teachers. If their teachers are not Christians, pray that God can use you to be an example to their teachers. Pray for the administrators in your child’s school. Pray for the safety of your child and all the children at their school. Pray that your children will see a Godly example in you, with how you handle school difficulties or problems with your children. Begin praying with other mothers for their children as well. We don’t have to carry the burden alone. Above all remember God is in control. I often have a difficult time remembering that principle.
In closing, God is a mighty God and he cares about our concerns. I often pray on the way to taking my children to school. I pray when my children are having difficulties with friends. God cares about everything in our lives and He truly cares about our children. My mother is a prayer warrior for my children and myself. May we all become prayer warriors for our children. Take your problems to Him and leave them there.
Help My Preteen/Teenager is Driving Me Nuts!!!
Do you feel like someone has abducted your sweet, innocent child and replaced them with a monster? Are you confused that somehow you have gone from knowing everything as a parent, to knowing absolutely nothing? Welcome to being a parent of a preteen/teenager. It is a brave new world. Being a preteen/teenager is difficult and being a parent of one is difficult as well. In this article, I will address just a few of the many “normal” aspects of adolescence and how to survive as a parent.
Guilt Free Parenting
I don’t know about you, but I do guilt very well. At times, it seems like I can feel guilty for almost anything. Also, as a parent I mess up routinely. I can be short with my temper and my words are not always pleasant. Also, there seems to be a new parenting article out daily that tells you how to parent and of course it feels like to me anyway that I always come up short. My hunch is I am not the only one that feels that way. So, how do I have the audacity to come up with an article entitled, “Guilt Free Parenting”? Actually, it wasn’t totally my idea. God placed the idea and burden on my heart to share it with you.
Another View of Christmas
Christmas is a blessed time and one when we honor the birth of our Savior. We often have warm fuzzy feelings when we look at the nativity scene. I think we need to take a closer look. Mary, the mother of Jesus, gave birth in a cave with animals all around her and really no privacy. Can you imagine the smell in the cave? She certainly did not have any drugs to relieve the pain of childbirth. Some Bible scholars believe Mary was 14 years old. Picture being 14 and giving birth in a cave. All she had was Joseph to be with her, no mother or sisters to comfort her. She was very alone. Yet, she was not alone – God was with her.
