Saturday, January 08, 2011

Thoughts and Ramblings

As I started thinking about 2011 and some goals I wanted to set for myself and my family, I was a little overwhelmed at how many things I came up with. Looking back over the list, they all boiled down to one thing-spending more time with God. By myself and as a family. I came across 2 blog entries recently that I thought I would share. I came across this blog over a year ago and follow up from time to time because I'm always inspired! I love how purposeful this girl is with her children.

One thing I've been recently convicted with is praying for Ella (and this new baby). I feel like I should be praying daily for Ella but there are times when I can't remember the last time I just sat down and prayed for her (I hate to admit). So when I came across this idea, I had to share it. Here's a
link for an awesome idea-a prayer journal for your children. I really want to try this! I think it will help me better relate to Ella and be more patient with her. As her mother, I am called to pray for her and will be held accountable before God on how I raise her.

Another great idea this same girl had was creating a morning routine. We have a very loose morning routine, I don't like it. I feel like I'm constantly on Ella's schedule, especially lately. I feel like there has been a very definite change in Ella's behavior lately-she has become very defiante and is constantly testing boundaries. I think having a set schedule every morning would really help. Here's a
link for this one. I find this a little overwhelming, but very inspiring. I'm not exactly sure how we would implement this since a lot of play dates, outings, etc. take place in the morning for us. Plus Ella wake up around 5:30 and I'm barley coherent at that time of day! But I'm sure I could do something more that what I'm doing now. I love that this incorporates bible time and chores-neither of which are things we do on a regular basis.

These are both BIG steps for me and are a big time commitment. But as I looked back on 2010, I was asking myself "what area of my life have I grown in?" I really couldn't come up with anything. I had not been in the word more, fallen more in love with Christ, or grown as a wife or mother. What did I do in 2010? I was not purposeful. So...these are just a few of the areas I would like to grow in for 2011. Being a mama is a priveledge and I want to honor God in how I am raising these children that He has blessed me with.


One thing Rusty and I have started doing as a family is family devotion time before Ella's bath time. We've only done it a few times but hope to do it every night except Wednesday and Thursday when we have Awana and Life Group. But even after just doing it the one time, Ella remembered it and was excited about doing it the next time. She knew where to get the bible (we just use her children's bible), and that she needed to go sit on the couch. We're still working on not letting her bring any toys (tonight she wanted to bring her farm animals with her), but it's a work in progress. We also have a short prayer time afterwards. She still hasn't said her first prayer by herself, but I will ask her who she wants to pray for and then I will pray. I try to get her to repeat prayers but so far she hasn't wanted to. Tonight when we asked who she wanted to pray for, she said "Aunt Lori"-one of Rusty's sisters. So, we prayed for Aunt Lori!

I'm excited to see how God will work this year in our family!

1 comment:

Dan and Megan said...

Thanks so much for the new blogs to read! If you go to http://www.momandlovingit.org/ and scroll down the page you will see a prayer calendar for your kids. It has a simple prayer for each day. They suggest you put it in the bathroom since you're in there everyday. I thought it was a good idea and I love it when other people put things together for me. =)