Three Easy Parenting Principles
From RonEdmondson.com:
I am asked dozens of questions about what we did or didn’t do as parents. I am amazed that God has allowed us to raise the two young men we have in our house, but there were a few principles we practiced consistently.
Here are three principles for parenting I think all parents should consider:
Be intentional – Parenting is hard work. Don’t try it without a plan. It’s amazing how we tend to plan for everything in life, but seldom for our parenting. I know men who have a plan to improve their golf game, but nothing to help them grow as a father. If you want to be a great parent, you must be intentional about that role. Have an overall plan for your parenting and an individual plan for each child, depending on their needs at the time.
Shape the heart – The Bible is clear that we should “Above all else guard the heart for it is the wellspring of life.” (Proverbs 4:23) I believe in firm discipline. I also believe in extending much grace. More than anything, however, the parent should learn to know, protect and shape their heart of their child. It is that heart, which will determine the decisions and directions the child eventually makes in life.
Enjoy the ride – Children are children for a very short time. Enjoy those days. Be a fun parent, balancing love with discipline. Laughing together with your children will help relieve the stress of your life and keep them wanting to be close to you well into the difficult teen and early adult years.
For my complete parenting philosophy see THIS POST or read other parenting posts HERE.
Which of these do you most need to improve upon as a parent?
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Categories: Front Page,He Saved The Day,River Dream Centre
Tags: parenting
Live Blog: The Power Of Asking
Scripture reading: James 1:5-8
If you need wisdom—if you want to know what God wants you to do—ask him, and he will gladly tell you. He will not resent your asking. But when you ask him, be sure that you really expect him to answer, for a doubtful mind is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. People like that should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.They can’t make up their minds. They waver back and forth in everything they do.
Last week we discussed Growing, Developing and Maturing. This week, we’re going to continue the thought in this message, The Power Of Asking.
Prov 4:7 says “Wisdom is the principal thing; Therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding.” This is much like Pastor’s testimony.
“When I found the truth of God’s Word -- not the religious does and don’ts -- but the truth that sets you free, it did indeed set me free, and this is what I bring every Sunday.” When you get understanding, when it finally clicks, no one can steal that from you!
-- Continue Reading + Comment »
Related:
Live Blog: Developing, Growing and Maturing
Scripture reading: 2 Tim 1:1-14
Growth is a necessity for life!
Pastor Michael recalls how he has loved God all his life (he’s 47 now) and never really had a defining moment when he ‘started’ to love God. He first began to preach on his own when he was 17 -- which makes it 30 years of preaching for him.
Being a disciple of Christ means that you are a constant learner. You never stop being taught by Jesus -- the Teacher. And the more you get of Him, the more you want of Him!
Micah 6:8 summarises much of how Pastor feels right now -- “He has shown you O man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
John 10:10 says that the thief’s purpose is to steal, kill and destroy but Jesus’ purpose is to give a rich and satisfying life. This doesn’t mean making you a multi-millionaire! If your life isn’t rich and satisfying -- there is something wrong!
If you aren’t living this life, Pastor suggests you revisit your expectations and revisit these scriptures to understand what Jesus is saying!
When we worry and stress -- our worry is a down payment on the troubles of tomorrow!
God wants to bring stability into our lives -- “He leads me beside still waters” is what David said in Psalm 23. We’ve got to get off the roller coaster and settle into a mature and balanced Christian life. In this settledness, we grow, develop and mature.
Jeremiah 29:11 tells us that God has a plan for us -- a hope and a future. His plan isn’t for us to live on antidepressants! His plan isn’t for us to live at the bottom of the barrel or live with stress! His plan is for us to wake up in the morning and see everyday as a precious gift for us to enjoy!
In Mark 4, we looked at the power of the casual invitation. A university did a study to see how much a farmer contributed to the development of a seed -- and discovered it was only 5%! Hence Jesus says “the kingdom of God is like a farmer who planted and seed and didn’t know how it grew, but it did.”
Pastor says -- take my son Gregory when he was 10. If I gave him everything he needed at 10 that he would need up until he was 20, it would be too much! You don’t get all the nutrients that you need right away, and you don’t get there right away!
You can’t make your body grow faster. If you pump yourself full of junk, it’ll hurt you and make you unhealthy. You need a stable diet to grow. Three things about growth:
- Growth is a mystery
- Growth is a process (See Mark 4:28 -- first, then, finally)
- Jesus Himself grew! (See Luke 2:52 “He grew in wisdom, stature and favour with God and man.”
-- Continue Reading + Comment »
Related:
Live Blog: Scatter, Gather, Matter
Scripture Reading: Mark 4: 3 -- 9, 13 -- 20
Over the last few weeks, we’ve looked at the casual invitation -- a seemingly obvious thing, but actually really grates against our culture because as Pastor said the other week, inviting people to church is weird in our culture! I really loved really getting into this parable. Jesus says that if you don’t understand this parable, you can’t understand the other parables. The ironic thing is that this is one of the most debated parables.
- Some people use this parable to say that we should only sow on good soil, because look what happens when we sow on bad soil.
- Some people measure -- quarter here, quarter there, then there’s 30/60/100 folder -- x times y =…
- One preacher even said that Jesus was telling a joke in this parable -- “A sower threw seed onto stoney ground? Pull the other one!”
Scatter
But as we’ve heard and understood this parable and the casual invitation, we’ve learned not only how the casual invitation works, but even more about how God works in our lives and how life works in general. You don’t even know which is good soil and which isn’t! In fact, when I generally think I’ve found good soil, it turns out to be the worst! In the parable, the sower just scattered. He didn’t choose to plant in good OR in bad soil, but he allowed it to fall on all soil.
How do we know that there is good soil? It bears fruit.
Once we understand this, we can now move on from scattering, to gathering.
Gather
I’m sure many of you have had fruit -- result -- in your life, but you didn’t keep it. We’ve had fruit in this church that we haven’t kept. As any Farmer will tell us, and as we see in the parables, once you’ve scattered, and the seeds bear fruit, it’s no longer the time to scatter, it’s the time to gather.
In the church context, gathering is about relationship. Building people into our family. Gathering together for greatness!
The same way we have the casual invitation and the intense invitation to church, we have the same thing with gathering -- some is intense, and some is casual. The intense gatherer says, whether you are gathering someone to you, or you yourself are gathering around church -- that it has to go in at this major height of spirituality!
But gathering, just like the scattering (the invitation) can be intense rather than casual. In the same way that the intense invitation locks off everyone else because you think it’s all about YOU and your invite, the intense gathering makes it all about YOU.
The casual gathering says, let’s grab a coffee, I’ll text you or Facebook you, I’ll keep in touch, sure let’s have dinner, my house is, well… you know! You have to gather your fruit to keep it. When you get some fruit in your life -- some result -- don’t become complacent. You have to gather to keep it.
Matter
Mark 4:30 Jesus said, “How can I describe the Kingdom of God? What story should I use to illustrate it? It is like a mustard seed planted in the ground. It is the smallest of all seeds, but it becomes the largest of all garden plants; it grows long branches, and birds can make nests in its shade.”
We scatter, we gather and then we matter. As the song says, “Take this life and make it matter.”
-- Continue Reading + Comment »
Related:
Categories: Live Blog,River Dream Centre
Tags: gather, matter, scatter
Interview with Michael Meyers
Our wonderful senior Pastor, Michael Meyers, has been tracked down by Elim’s national magazine to answer some questions that their readers have submitted. The article will be out in a few weeks, but seeing as we had the scoop on this one, we thought we’d share it with you now!
Question 1: I’m diabetic, but I believe that God wants to heal me. My friends have had a release of faith and prayed over me. Should I stop taking my medication?
Answer: Jesus is certainly the Healer for the whole man! He is moved with compassion when He sees us in pain and discomfort and this is evident through the release of faith that your friends have sensed toward you. After all, God uses people to accomplish His work on the earth. Thank God for giving us godly friends that care for us and pray for us! Taking medication or not taking medication is not a sign of the presence of faith nor a sign of the lack of faith. Our faith is based in our relationship with God and the promises of God’s word, not in stopping our medication.
When Jesus healed people in the Gospels He commanded them to show themselves to the priests where they would inspect and verify that the healing had taken place. In like manner, I would suggest that you go to your doctor to verify whether the manifestation of your healing has taken place. Once verified and on his advice you can stop taking/decrease your medication. If however your condition remains unchanged then don’t be discouraged. Keep on believing God and taking your medication.
-- Continue Reading + Comment »
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Categories: Blogs,Front Page,Michael Meyers,River Dream Centre
Tags: aspire, excellence, healing, interview
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