Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Reminder for Today

"God knows better than any of us do what furthers our salvation. Our true happiness is to be realized precisely through his refusals, which are always mercies. His choice is flawlessly contrived to give the deepest kind of joy as soon as it is embraced"
-Elizabeth Elliot, Keep a Quiet Heart


Struggling with Asher and his attitude, defiance, disobedience a lot lately. Really frustrated and discouraged. Reminded today that my salvation is being worked out through parenting him....and through God's "refusals" to have him obey immediately. :) Even though I don't understand all of His reasons, I do see that my selfishness, impatience, anger, weaknesses are rising to the surface and (hopefully) being refined through these struggles. I choose joy and I choose to embrace whatever God wants to reveal. Lord, give me grace!

4 comments:

Mandy said...

"His refusals which are always mercies" love that.

you're doing good my friend. what a good mommy asher-man has! love you

oh, and joanna...if you are reading this...i need some of those thanksgiving books! :) hahahahaha

Irene Joy said...

You are an incredible Mommy and made to be your sweet boy's perfect match. No one else could ever do a better job for him than you could. Parenting certainly isn't always easy and there are rough patches that can last a while but they only make us better and prepare us for when they are older. Think about what if being a Mom was easy and our kids listened always all the way up to adolescence and then all of a sudden it became hard...we would totally screw up and wouldn't be able to handle it! So just as A-man is learning in small ways we are learning too. It honestly (in my opinion thus far as a Mom for 5 years) gets harder but we also get stronger and continually grow to be prepared to face the challenges that lie ahead. I wouldn't of been able to deal with my 5 year old's intense tantrums if I hadn't learned first to deal with his tantrums when he was 2. You know? So when things get hard and challenging say thank you that he's not behaving perfectly, in order to teach you a lesson for the future. It's helped me a lot to look at it that way. Love you and you are amazing!

Joanna said...

1. I agree with Irene.

2. Mandy, those teachers are brutal! Apparently you have to reserve the books weeks in advance, which I did not know for Johnny Appleseed Day or Columbus Day (which made me have to explain the story of Johnny Appleseed on my own...which went "so there was a guy and he traveled across the country planting apple trees and wearing a pot on his head"...yeah not the most interactive lesson). So I was not taking any chances for Thanksgiving...but since kinders cannot read :/ we will only be reading them once in class and then I will pass them along. And heard you are doing amazing fabulous activities with your daughter. I will give you thanksgiving books if you give me ideas. :)

Joanna said...

And Dan, you ARE an incredible mommy!!! Forgot to say that. :)