One of the things parents should be concerned about is preparing their kids to handle peer pressure. We want kids who will do the right thing, regardless of pressure from friends to do something other than the right thing. So how do we teach them to do this?
I would suggest that we teach them by learning it ourselves. We parents are not immune to peer pressure. Think about it. How many times do we feel an urge to do something, or buy something, because are friends are doing it? Our friends are traveling to Europe. We should go to Europe. Our friends are building a new house. We should build a new house. Our friends Continue reading ‘Peer Pressure’
Dear Readers and Commenters All,
So I’ve been going along and supposing that I had cleared all the comments coming in when Bekah called and said something like, “Mom, did you know there are over 70 comments waiting to be cleared?” Yikes! I’m so sorry everyone! I didn’t mean to leave your comments high and dry. I’ve cleared a bunch now, so they’ll see the light of day.
Those of you who have requested the Minister’s Wife….it’s coming!
Also, a few of you have asked for some personal advice. So, as soon as I can, I will answer those. (Meanwhile, I’ll leave those off the blog.)
And finally, keep on commenting! I’ll try to keep a closer eye on things.
I was recently telling my husband how surprised I have been to realize how many young Christian college women are feeling at sea when it comes to understanding what it is they are doing. What is an education for? We used to view an education as preparation for life. Now it is viewed as preparation for a career.
My husband pointed out that there are no cultural cliches to reinforce the calling of the wife and mother at home. All the cultural cliches today are the savvy, sexy career woman, married or not. And it doesn’t much matter how many sermons women hear if they don’t have any cultural reinforcement. They need to see the value and potency of the calling of wife and mother, and they are not going to find this in films, sit-coms, or magazines. Women have been successfully driven out of their homes in our culture, creating a vast vacuum in Continue reading ‘Cultural Cliches’
We mothers are tempted in many ways, but one of those ways is to be worriers. What do we worry about? Oh, we are very imaginative! If we don’t have any real situations on our hands, we can come up with all kinds of potential stuff to worry about.
Now, worry is bad for us. And it’s bad for our kids. It’s an uglifying sin (like all the rest of them). Worry is antithetical to biblical femininity. It is never pretty. It sucks the joy out of our lives, disturbs our peace, and disrupts a gentle and quiet spirit.
How do you know if you are worrying? A worry always begins with “What if…?” And you cannot answer that kind of question. So don’t ask it, don’t listen to it, and don’t get in a discussion over it. Ignore it and let it go find somewhere else to roost. Continue reading ‘Worrying the Kids Away’
I love the analogy of seasons to describe our lives. The glories of Autumn are filling my windows with a breath-taking view right now, but in a few weeks the leaves will be gone. Middle-age is often compared to Autumn, and it has peculiar temptations like every other season of life. So I hope this little post, though targeting women who are in lower-middle, middle-middle, upper-middle or over-the-middle age, will get us thinking about some of the common bumps in the road, so we can steer clear. (Of course, women of all ages can be tempted in many of these same ways.)
These are common temptations, nothing new or tricky.
1. Over-sharing can be a sin. It’s tempting to share more than we should. We may be looking for sympathy, but we have an obligation to love our children and our husbands, and we ought to maintain a nice hedge around our family and be loyal. Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?
2. Forgetting is a sin. We should not forget what we are called to do! This is a high-impact time of our lives, and we are to continue to affect our family culture and church culture by being focused and faithful women. We should be a powerful force for good.
3. We can become self-absorbed. Because our children are grown, we may have more time and more money to spend on ourselves. This is not a bad thing in itself if we manage it properly. But we must be good stewards of our time and resources. Working out in the gym is fine. A pedicure is great. But we must not get too absorbed in ourselves, our weight, our looks. God has important business for us to be about.
4. Worry is a still a sin whether we are new mothers or grandmothers. We should not pick up new things to Continue reading ‘Middle-Age Temptations’
Now’s the time to shop at Canon Press at their Fall Sale. I’ve never seen prices this low on some of my own stuff….I think I’ll stock up! Some of the audio sets are priced at $1.50! Loving the Little Years audio is, I kid you not, $1.87. My book for unmarried women and Doug’s dad’s book on Bitterness are each going for three bucks! You can also pre-order the CD set from the Femina Conference. And lots of other cool stuff. Go shop around!
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