This year I have loved reading Amy Carmichael’s books. If we’re friends on facebook, or in real life, you’re probably a little sick of her. Oh well. I do try to balance things. But seriously. Sometimes an author just grabs us (me), and I have to tell everyone!
This bonding and attachment stuff has been one of the craziest things I’ve experienced. I mean, four new people in our family all needing to feel that they belong here, all at once. Some days it feels like our whole family is on a giant emotional roller coaster.
There are so many great Dads out there, and they are the heroes of their families. We are grateful for them. Michael and I were both very blessed to grow up in homes with wonderful Dads. This has been a life-long gift to us.
Today I wanted to share a few things Michael does for our family that makes him such a wonderful Dad. I bet a lot of you will relate to this list, and recognize many great dads who have shown us these qualities.
It seems unwise to talk about parenting just now. Anyone observing what occurs on the way to and from church each week would see that I need my head examined.
My usual disclaimer still stands: There is not a single perfect person living here. I continue to be aware of this, from morning till night.
For the past several months, I have spent an enormous amount of each day training children to obey, listen, and be kind. I have respect for all of you out there doing this every day! It’s so difficult. Especially when we’re trying to replace some very BAD habits, not just creating new ones.
But there is good news: persistence brings results!
I hope all of you mothers have a wonderful weekend!
This post is very similar to the Valentine’s Day post, with the proper adjustments, so this will be brief:
We can’t forget that the way to have a wonderful Mother’s Day is to forget all about ourselves!
These are days I’m pretty sure our family will never forget.
Adding four small children to our family (for however long they stay) has been life altering for sure! Because I am not able to share many details about these children on the blog, I’ll share a few words that have given me some encouragement.
So much craziness around here.
So. There’s this thing with women on Valentine’s Day…
For a day that’s all about celebrating love, it can sure take a weird turn for the ugly sometimes.
If you don’t have a special someone, it can seem like you can’t have a good day since nobody is paying attention to you.
It can be easy to romanticize being married or dating on this day, because women who have a “special someone” are of course showered with love and attention.
Right?
Now wait a second before you get all upset.
Are husbands idiots? No?
Think about how we look at and speak to them on occasion. (Sometimes regularly.)
Could we conclude from the way we give them that glare and eye-roll, or from the thinly veiled disgust in our voice that we sometimes treat our guys like idiots?
The longer we live, it seems like the more we recognize the ridiculous effort we go to in order to pretend it’s all about us.
We have God’s written Word to confront this ugliness in ourselves, as well as the Holy Spirit, and the wisdom of other mature Christians.
And still we persist.
But thank goodness it’s not about us!
At times it’s tempting to wonder if the efforts we make to serve our families are worth the trouble.
We might be tired of being relied on for comfort, stability and cheerfulness. Sometimes we want to give up on creating an environment of comfort and peace for our people.
The Dutch Rush 