Passing on the Joy of Reading

     My friend, Patty, has encouraged me to start a blog on all the local events/programs that I know about and participate in with my son. Although being a homemaker involves a big portion of my time at home with my son and husband, there is always time for enjoying the wonderful educational and family building events that our area provides.  Our area provides many exceptional free programs. We are grateful for the many resources and programs. This area is a great place to raise a family. Please read on and find something your family will enjoy doing together.

     Anyone who knows me knows that I really like reading.  My Mother passed on her joy of reading to me. As a child, I would devour book after book. My Mom said I read at 4 and I never stopped reading  Many times my Dad would ask "Where is Melinda?" and my Mom would reply "She is upstairs reading.".  My son, Nehemiah also loves reading. Many times, I pick out five books for bedtime reading and Nehemiah picks out about fifteen more.  We read in the morning, at meals or after meals, at snuggle time, nap time, bed time and throughout the day. 

    My son and I find many activities we can do once we read a book. Sometimes, we get the playdough out and make figures to go with the ones in the story we just read. Other times, we make paper puppets to put on a puppet show. I have also heard of story rocks and occassionally we try to paint a scene on a rock from our story.   We take chalk (inside on chalk board and outside on sidewalk) and draw scenes from a book.  We sometimes do experiments from a Curious George book. We paint and draw pictures of what we heard. We ask questions and make up our own stories based on stories we read.  Once after reading Moses and the buring bush, we blew paint with a straw to make it look like a bush on fire.  We make gingerbread cookies after we read Gingerbread Baby or Gingerbread Friends by Jan Brett.  We have mittens we put on when we read the Mitten by Jan Brett.  We act and sing songs based on our books.  These are just some of the ideas we came up with but the options are endless. Using legos or blocks to build roads, scenes or animals from a book is another option. We also cook recipes based on certain books we read. (Hopefully in the future, I will list the books and provide the craft/activity we do. I also hope to provide a reading list.)

    The reason, I am writing about reading is that our Tri-Cities area is great at promoting literacy with our little ones. I would like to share some of the reading programs we are involved in as a family. Each of our libraries offers something unique (read below under libraries to find out more).  The List of Reading Programs below is just a quick inventory but as you continue to read the blog, you will find more information on each program and links for calendars, tally sheets and other information.

List of Reading Programs in the Binghamton, New York Area:

1.  Cuddle Up and Read Program - January 15, 2012 to March 31, 2012. Read 100 or more books and your child will be entered to win prizes. All show up at the Broome County Public Library on March 31, 2012 for a room full of hands on activities to participate with your child.  Go to this link http://www.uwbroome.org/ for a tally sheet or pick one up at the Broome County Public Library. We attended this last year and Nehemiah enjoyed all the sensory and educational activities. (This program occurs once a year)

2.  BOOKS Reading Program - earn prizes and gift certificates just by reading to your child.

http://www.booksprogram.com/events.asp  (This program occurs throughout the year. Visit the website for the form or to sign up).

3. LETS READ - a new community initiative as part of the Day of Caring.  Sponsors have started a lending library where you pick up a Lets Read Blue bag and can sign out books at places such as Discovery Center, Mall (outside of JC Penny) and other locations throughout Binghamton. You can return the books to any site.

4. Library Summer Reading Programs - starts usually around first week of July and ends second week in August.  Each member of the family earns a free book and a ticket to a METS game.  (This program is once a year in the Summer).

5.  Discovery Center - Tunes and Tales every Tuesday at 11 am.m.  They also have a book program each around around November.  In the summer, the outside story garden is loaded with books in each nook and cranny from mailboxes to houses and caves. Find a great place and read to your child.

6.  Family Reading Partnership of Owego-Apalachin 1st Annual Kids' Book Fest took place on November 19, 2011. Special guest included authors Suzanne Bloom, Katrina Morse and musician Johnny Only. The zoomobile was present. Children were able to participate in hands on activities from 10:00 to 4:00 such as finger painting, sponge painting, making homemake books, origami, puppets to go with certain books,puzzles, games, play with Melissa and Doug educational toys. Children were given many free coloring books, educational sheets, apples and much more. (I hope this program will occur next year).

7.  The Broome County Public Library has Lapsit Story time, Preschool Story time, and Family Story time. Nehemiah always enjoyed dancing to the songs and listening to the stories. A new program started which includes craft time on Third Thursday of the month.

8. Vestal Library has a Lapsit story time and craft and a preschool story time and craft. This requires registration.

9.  George F. Johnson Library has a toddler story time that includes stories, songs and crafts. The preschool story time includes stories, songs and puppets. They also have a special Mother Goose time from children age birth to two that is only twenty minutes long followed by juice/cookies and social time.

10.  Finch Hollow Nature Center has programs for a $1 a person. Many of their programs involve a book, craft and fun activities.  On March 8, 2012 there will be Jan Brett stories and a craft.

CUDDLE UP AND READ PROGRAM

   

    The "Cuddle Up and Read" program started January 15, 2012. You can go to the link in the below article to obtain the tally sheet. The Broome County Library also has sheets in their childrens' section.  I encourage you to participate and enjoy these snuggle times with your children. Books promote creativity, imagination, and critical thinking skills in addition to learning to read at a young age.

Broome County children through age 5 can win prizes if they read 100 or more books from now to March 31

The “Cuddle Up and Read” Early Learning Reading Challenge encourages parents and caregivers to read with their children daily.  It is sponsored by Building Brighter Futures for Broome, a coalition of over 30 early childhood providers that promotes healthy children, effective parenting, and quality child care and education

lollowm@binghamtonschools.org to request a Reading Challenge Tally Sheet to track the number of books read, or get one online at

http://www.uwbroome.org/.http://www.booksprogram.com/events.asp

A Challenge Celebration for the “Cuddle Up and Read” program will be held on Saturday, March 31, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Broome County Library, 185 Court Street, in Binghamton. Participants in the program through age 5 who have read 100 or more books will be entered into drawings for prizes related to reading and literacy. There will also be “hands-on” activities for young children.

Contact Mary Ellen Lollie at 762-8197 or

For children to become strong readers, they need a literacy-rich environment which includes parents and caregivers who surround them at early age with books and read to them daily.  This sets the stage for school readiness and successful future learning.

FREE PROGRAMS AT OUR LOCAL LIBRARIES

   

     When I was growing up, the nearest library was 2 towns away. It was a very small library. I don't think they had any free programs either. I was grateful for it but we sure are blessed in this Tri-Cities area to have four libraries. In addition to these four main libraries, there are many other areas in our surrounding towns.

Broome County Public Library

     My sons' favorite parts of this library are friendly staff, many puzzles, computers with many educational games, the penny machine, and play mats and blocks. There are also many nooks you can just sit and have snuggle time with your child.  They just started a new craft program on the 3rd Thursday of each month.

 http://www.bclibrary.info/children_events.html

Check out the link above to read about the following programs or to see updates:

Lapsit Story Time - Nursery rhymes and knee-bouncing songs are done and a story is read. Then it's play time! This provides a chance for children and caregivers to connect with one another. For children ages 0 to 3. Check the Library Calendar for dates.

Family Story Time - Bring the the whole family to enjoy this evening story time! For children ages birth through 6 years old. Check the Library Calendar for dates.

Preschool Story Time - Come enjoy some fun stories and songs! For children ages 4 to 6. Check the Library Calendar for dates.

BARK-9 - The "Books and Reading Canine" program helps to improve children's reading and communication skills by employing a powerful method--reading to a dog. BARK-9 uses

Here is the January Broome County Library Calandar:  http://www.gobroomecounty.com/deptcalendar/library

There is also a Summer Reading Program that starts around the first week of July every summer. This last year's theme was One World, Many Stories. We have participated as a family in this program since my son was born (three years in all). This program consists of:

1) Fun family events each week like zoo mobile, wacky chad, bubble extraordinare man, steel drum bands, bugs/stories/songs.

2) Reading books

3) Activities to learn and do with your children

In addition to all of the above fun for the Summer Reading Program, you earn free tickets for every member of your family to a METS baseball game. Each member of your family also chooses a book from their collection to keep. Our children can also earn prizes for certain activities.

Vestal

http://www.vestalpubliclibrary.org/Activities.html

  Preschool Story Time and Craft Program:

* Children must be born before January 24, 2009.

* Story times begin January 24, 2012 and end March 16, 2012.

* Each child registered must have a parent with a 4CLS library card.

* There will be no story time if the Vestal Schools are closed due to inclement weather.

* Adults are not permitted to attend story time sessions.

* Choose One Session:

* Tuesdays at 10:30 am.

* Wednesdays at 10:30 am.

* Fridays at 1:30 pm.

Lapsit Story Time and Craft Program: Fridays from 10:30-11:00 am.

* Children ages 2 are eligible.

* Story times begin January 27, 2012 and end March 16, 2012.

* Each child registered must have a parent with a 4CLS library card.

* There will be no story time if the Vestal Schools are closed due to inclement weather.

* Each child must be accompanied by an adult.

     You can visit the above link to see activities at the Vestal Library. They have a nice craft/storytime program. My son loves the big bed like platform loaded with stuff animals. We sit or lie down on the platform and read book after book. Sometimes, we just sit and look at all the stuffed animals. This library is quiet and very conducive to one on one snuggle time with your child.

    The Vestal Library is unique in that it has play bags loaded with educational toys you can sign out and take home to enjoy.

George F. Johnson

http://library.booksite.com/7198/events/?&list=EVC1&group=current

  

Toddler Story Time: Mondays @ 9:30am, 10:30am & 11:30am (1/16-3/12)Children 2 to 3 1/2 years of age and their caregivers are invited to join us for programs that will include stories, songs, and crafts. Registration is required. Call or visit the library on or after Tuesday, January 3 to register.

Preschool Story Time:Tuesdays @ 10:30am & 1:00 pm (1/17-3/13)
Children 3 1/2 to 5 years of age and their caregivers are invited to join us for programs that will include stories, songs and puppets. Registration is required. Call or visit the library on or after Tuesday, January 3rd to register.

Mother Goose Story Time: Wednesdays @ 10:00 am & 11 am

This program is from birth to two years old and their caregivers. This program includes a story, songs and finger puppets. This program only lasts for 20 minutes followed by a juice/cookie social time.

   My son loves this library because they have small round tables with stamp pads and stamps on them.  You can also sign out great games to play at the tables.

Your Home Public Library 

http://www.yhpl.org/

This Library does not have any childrens' programs as far as I know but it is an adorable, quaint library to visit.

    One of the greatest parts of our library system is that  Books may be returned to ANY Four County Library System Librar which includes: Broome County Public Library (Binghamton), Deposit, Endicott, Fenton, Johnson City, Lisle, Nineveh, Vestal, Whitney Point.  We do this often as a family as we travel to different programs at different libraries.

  Get out a good book, a cup of hot chocolate, snuggle with your family and enjoy passing on the joy of reading.

BOOKS Reading Program

   Earn great pirizes just by reading to your children.

Peace in the Home

Continuing Part 1 of Unless God Builds the House

PEACE IN THE HOME

I thought I was ready to go on and write about Ungodly v. Godly Counsel but I sense I need to write more on a topic I addressed in the last post.  In the last post, I gave an example of vanity in trying to build my own house by creating chaos in my family life by trying to make a meal and house look perfect for Holidays or guests. Proverbs 17:1 says “Better is a dry morsel with quietness than a house full of feasting with strife.” Proverbs 15:16-7 is similar to Proverbs 17:1. It says “Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble with it. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fattened ox and hatred with it. 

You can have nice, gourmet meals and a nice house with peace and love present, but I believe the instruction here is that it is better to have love and peace in the home rather than putting all of our effort into big meals, spotless house, great education plan, or great gifts. There is nothing wrong with those things but the problem is if we create strife or chaos in our home in doing those things. I was inspired to write more on this verse and how it is vanity to try to build our own home either without God or with God but in reality trying to do everything in our own strength and with our own “good ideas”.

A lack of peace in the home can take many forms. It can involve yelling at our spouse or our children. It can be focusing more on discipline rather than love and understanding our child.  It can look like a hurried, frenzied pace. A lack of peace can be present through a feeling of uneasiness with just sitting in the living room watching our children play. There may be thoughts or comments “I don’t have enough time.”, “I have to go do___________”, or “I can never have a minute alone.”. Many people may think there is peace because they never argue but that is not peace. Unresolved conflicts also show a lack of peace in the home. Others may feel like they don’t want to bring up an issue because they don’t want to rock the boat. They are constantly walking on eggshells. A lack of peace looks different in each home. A home should be a safe place where each member of the family is valued and respected.

In our home, I have to be careful with negative thoughts or with grumbling or complaining about what I perceive that my husband didn’t help me with. Even if I don’t say anything, this mindset can create stress in the home. It takes away God’s love and peace when I harbor negative thoughts or a grumbling attitude against my spouse. It doesn’t matter whether I am right or wrong, it matters that God’s peace is reigning.  After I wrote the first part of this post on the above verse, I heard a message that was in line with what God was teaching me about the home. I recommend listening to The Essentials of A Healthy Family (Focus on the Family with Jim Daly) by Tommy Nelson. You can find it by going to oneplace.com (Focus on the Family – March archives).

Without God, we cannot have peace. Many of us who have professed faith in Jesus Christ do not have peace because (1) we will not die to own wants and desires; (2) we are striving in own strength rather than trusting in the Lordship of Jesus Christ; (3) we are sin by continuing to fret and worry when the Lord has told us over and over in His Word not to worry or be anxious.

I am asking God’s peace to rule in my home and my prayer is that His peace rules in your home.    Even if our house has a quietness to it, our minds may be filled with to do lists and the next thing we have to accomplish. This is what steals my joy and the ability to hear the Lord. Many times the starting point for me is to ask God to quiet my mind so that I can truly be present with my family. I want to hear their laughter and the funny little things they say. I don’t want to just physically be present. After asking the Lord to quiet my mind, it is important that my mind is renewed. Romans 12:2 (ESV) says “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” We need to be able to hear and discern what God’s will is so that we as fellow workers recognize how God wants our house built. God always renews my mind through His Word. His Word reveals my own motives and how at times I am following the world’s way or my own ways. Third, peace comes from walking in His truth and repenting when I have blown it. It is asking God for forgiveness and telling others in our household we are sorry. It is not pretending something didn’t happen or never talking about it again. We want a true peace in our home. I pray true peace enters your heart and home as well.

Verses

Philippians 4:6-7
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Isaiah 32:17
The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever.

Laboring in Vain

Part 1 - Unless the Lord Builds the House, they Labor in Vain who Build it.

My computer shut off again just before I finished writing this post in Word.  My computer likes to make updates and barely give me a warning. I woke my husband up in desperation saying “help”. He said “this is really taking over” and now I am left wondering and seeking the Lord – shall I continue to blog? I am not sure yet but the first thought was that “I just need to save more often and be more organized what files I save things.” This may be humanly wisdom but I will have to spend some time with the Lord on this and let you know.

Psalm 127:1-5 Unless the LORD builds the house, They labor in vain who build it;Unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman keeps awake in vain.
 ²It is vain for you to rise up early, To retire late, to eat the bread of painful labors (Sorrows); For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep. ³Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, The fruit of the womb is a reward. ⁴Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one's youth. ⁵How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them;They will not be ashamed when they speak with their enemies in the gate.

During the last few months, my husband and I have been seeking God on how to put first things first and prioritize our life according to His design. We are doing a study by Chip Ingram. God has been humbling me as I see more and more my need for Him to order every area of our family life. I thought I consulted God on most things but I am realizing more and more where I depended on my own wisdom or earthly wisdom to make decisions concerning certain areas like what to eat, where to go on vacations, how many camping trips to take, books I read. Life tends to get chaotic or out of balance when I try to run our house on my own good ideas. The days that I seek the Lord in all areas of life and truly wait and listen to Him, there is peace in our home.

Definition of Vain

Websters’ defined vain as 1.having no real value : idle, worthless <vain pretensions>

2 marked by futility or ineffectualness : unsuccessful, useless <vain efforts to escape>

3archaic : foolish, silly and 4 having or showing undue or excessive pride in one's appearance or achievements. The Free Dictionary (online) defines vain as 1. Not yielding the desired outcome; fruitless: a vain attempt.or 2. Lacking substance or worth.

How I have labored in Vain

I would venture to say we, wives and mothers, do not want our family life to fail. We also do not want “our efforts” to have no real value, be ineffectual or not yield the desired outcome.  The Lord is the only one who can “build” our house. He is the one who created our family, and He is the only one who knows how to order it properly.

Over the last couple of years, I have learned that many of my very thought out “good ways” that even seem Biblical or spiritual are not always God’s way of building a  house. I remember thinking as a wife and hostess that I needed to prepare a huge feast for the Holidays or company. I always enjoyed being a hostess and cooking but the problem arises when I become short with my family because I feel  stressed by the demands I put on myself. One Easter after feeling exhausted and stressed, I called out to God about this situation. I thought I was being kind and helpful by serving others and providing a delicious meal, but I failed to realize the heart of the matter. As I was reading Proverbs 17, God answered my prayer through His Word “Better is a dry morsel with quietness than a house full of feasting with strife.” (Proverbs 17:1). I still enjoy cooking big meals and being a hostess, but God’s word reminds me that the most important thing is to share God’s love with others rather than lots of food or a spotless house.

Another area that I tried to build my own house was by sharing every word of wisdom that I learned from God with my husband. At times, I thought he should hear it, learn from it and grown through it as I did. The beginning of Proverbs started off with a dry morsel with quietness is better than a house full of feasting with strife and it ended with “he who has knowledge spares his words, and a man of understanding is of a calm spirit. Even a fool is counted wise when he holds his peace; when he shuts his lips, he is considered perspective.” (Proverbs 17:27-28). Again, it is not to go to another extreme and not share with our spouse but it is wise to ask the Lord and wait for Him to say what we should share and what we should not share.  When the Lord does say to speak,  I am reminded to pray asking the Lord for the words to speak and for my husband’s heart to hear and receive what I am going to share.

As you probably guessed, I could fill many posts with how I have chosen to build my house rather than be still and see God build my house. Many times I thought I was in the “right” because I sought God on the big things and small but I failed to seek him on everything. The areas I have neglected many times to pray for, ask and listen to were: (1) how many camping trips to go on and where; (2) how many times could we go to the children’s’ museum, zoo or other fun things in a week; (3) a Christian book I wanted to buy; (4) how to go about getting the house cleaned; (5) whether I should speak or not (even if what I was going to say was spiritual or not); (6) what to cook for dinner and this list too could go on and on with ordinary, everyday things. Praise God that He is our “Homemaker” and that He will give us wisdom if we ask. In fact, He is the one who builds. Psalm 127 says “GOD BUILDS.” If we try to keep building our house with our “good ways”, it will be fruitless, ineffectual and without any real value.  We will feel hopeless and depressed because all our “good efforts” were in vain.

These every day decisions from what to cook for dinner, what to read, or whether to go camping or not may seem rather trivial but they are not trivial because they take up how we spend our time and money and many times how we are relating to God and our family. There have been times that I asked the Lord what to make for dinner, and He brought something to my mind right away whereas prior to asking I was wasting time try to think, plan or decide to go out and spend money. There have been times that as a husband and wife we asked about a small purchase like a book or whether to go camping or not, and when the Lord answered we both were at peace and unity. Other times, we tried to do these things without asking and listening. If God does the building, we just want to be in a place of listening and obeying His ways.

Sometimes we listen to our own good ways but other times we are pulled in what seems a million directions from what we read or what we heard others says. Galatians 1:10 “For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Jesus Christ.” I cannot think of any other area where there is more advice than the area of Mothering. There are all these “debates” over: (1) cry it out v. not cry it out; (2) sleep with parent v. sleep by crib; (3) vegetables v. fruit for first meals; (4) make something child will eat v. require him to eat what is on plate; (5) comfort over all hurts v. toughen him up. This list could go on for pages. This area needs much discernment in seeking what the Lord has for your child. Of course, I have my own opinions just like anyone else but God knows what is best for your child. My encouragement is to seek God, listen to Him and He will direct your steps and tell you what to do. It is important to hear His heart and not come up with reasons why we chose what we did.  A mentor at church instead of telling me what to do about things would say “God gave Nehemiah to you and your husband and not to anyone else.” This taught me that we were the ones to train, guide and teach Nehemiah by seeking the Lord for those answers on behalf of Nehemiah. It would be vain to try to build my house by building up reasons, arguments and answers to things from my perspective or others perspective no matter how godly or good it sounds.

I am not an expert on all the mysterious ways of how God builds a house but I do take it at His Word that He is the one who builds. Ask him how and what He wants to build.  My place is to ask, wait, listen and be obedient to Him as His worker and servant in this building of our family.  God has used many ways to speak to me through His Word, fellow Christians, books, situations, employers, friends but it is important that we test all against His Word. Next time, I hope God willing to write about a couple of more things about vanity including (1) Godly v. Ungodly wisdom (testing what we hear); (2) building on the rock and (3) the place of praise/worship and gratitude in God building our house.

Verses to Read

Psalm 127

Proverbs 17

Galatians 1

Questions to think about:

1.  Where have you been a pleaser of men rather than God?
2. How do I tell the difference between Godly v. Ungodly wisdom (even if it sounds and looks good)?
3. What is the place of praise and worship in the home?

God will direct your steps and He will build your house. May you be encouraged that you are not meant to carry all the burdens you carry. My prayer is that you trust Him.

Letting Go and Letting God Build My House

Letting Go and Lettting God Build My House

Introduction

My computer decided to make updates without warning me that it was going to shut off and thus the first blog entry was not saved or published. At first, I was discouraged because I spent an hour writing but then realized two things in the meantime. First, I started writing the blog without truly seeking God and spending time really listening to Him as to what He desired. Many times I say quick prayers but then just want to get started. I do this with Mothering too at times instead of listening to the Lord and seeing Him order my steps. This rewrite gave me another opportunity to seek the Lord and His will.  Second, just before my computer made updates and shut itself off, my son heard a garbage truck outside our house. He wanted me to pull up the shades so he could see the garbage truck.  As we looked out the window, the sanitation engineer saw Nehemiah and gave him the biggest wave and smile. Nehemiah’s little hand raised, and he returned the friendly hello. The man waved again as the truck headed off down the street. This experience showed me once again how being a Mommy is about dying to my own desires, wishes and experiencing the joy of seeing joy in every day moments through my child.

Of course getting up from writing to see a  garbage truck is a small way of dying to self but it reminded me of a story that I recently read in “3 Things Kids Need The Most” by Fred A. Hartley III. The story was about a woman whose face was scarred severely in a fire. She was badly disfigured. The daughter was embarrassed by her mother and she refused to be seen in public with her mother. She also would not bring her friends home to play. She would not give her mother affection, and she also made cruel remarks to her mother constantly.  After the daughter went to college, the mother lay sick and dying in a hospital bed. The father told the child to come home to say goodbye to her mother.  Before the daughter entered the hospital, the father met the daughter and told her it was time she knew something about the mother. The father said “All these years she has made me promise not to tell you the truth about her scars. Now I think you need to know. When you were only six months old, our house caught on fire. You are so pretty, and you look just like your Mother once did. She could not bear the thought of losing you. Willing to lay down her life for yours, she broke through the arms of the firefighters, entered the burning house and rescued you. Tears coursed down the melting skin of her face as she emerged from that raging inferno severely burned and forever disfigured. However, your mother was overjoyed that you were safe and unharmed. Maybe now you can understand why she did not want you growing up feeling guilty every time you looked into her marred face.”  The daughter ran to her Mother and said “Mother, I am so sorry! Can you ever forgive me? I never knew how much you suffered for me. I am so ashamed.”  The Mother had waited patiently for over twenty years for her daughter’s love and with a smile the Mother said “Honey, I have already forgiven you.”(3 Things Kids Need Most,pg. 164-166).

This story of course brought tears to my eyes knowing that I have a heavenly Father like that. Our Lord Jesus left the comforts of heaven and laid down his life for you and me. He too was disfigured and marred as he was severely wounded and beaten for our sins. He chose to lay down his life for the joy set before Him of knowing that He would save us and provide a way of restoring our relationship with Himself. Without him, love would not be possible. Although we may be like that little demanding daughter who does not want anything to do with Jesus, He is patient. At the Cross, He has already forgiven everything we have ever done. He is waiting for all of us to return to him and He is waiting for you to hear “You are forgiven child.”

Therefore, God is the ultimate homemaker. He will teach us how to lay down our lives for our families and how to receive them as a blessing. His presence gives a joy and strength in the midst of difficulties and frustrations. God calls children “ a gift and a reward.” He calls us parents blessed to have children. I wonder how many of us parents don’t feel blessed or we don’t always see our children as a gift or a reward because we are trying to build our own house with our own ideas and ways. I remember that the Lord calls children a reward, a gift and a blessing but many times I fail to remember that the verses on children being a reward are after the verses on the Lord building the house. The verse I will be focusing for Letting Go and Letting God build the house is Psalm 127:1-5.

Psalm 127:1-5 Unless the LORD builds the house, They labor in vain who build it;
Unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman keeps awake in vain.
 ²It is vain for you to rise up early, To retire late, to eat the bread of painful labors (Sorrows);
 For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep. ³Behold, children are a gift of the LORD,
 The fruit of the womb is a reward. ⁴Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
 So are the children of one's youth. ⁵How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them;
 They will not be ashamed when they speak with their enemies in the gate.
            The next entry I write will start to explore what it means for the Lord to build our house. Lord, this morning I mumbled to myself that I needed prayer and then I heard my two year old immediately pray “Lord Jesus, help my Mommy.” You are my strength and an ever present help in time of trouble. May you open our hearts to hear You. The prayer I hear my son pray most often is “Lord Jesus, asleep on the hay.” Thank you for being so humble and patient with us. May we come to know you more and more and may we learn to humble ourselves as Mothers and Wives and to lay down our lives for You and the precious people you put in our life.

Questions to think about before next post:

1.      How am I trying in vain to be a homemaker and build my house without the Lord? What do I need to let go of?

2.      What does the Lord mean “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it?

Be encouraged, God has forgiven us. His Joy is our strength.