PARENTING/DISCIPLINE IN PROVERBS - CHAPTER 3

3:1-2 "My son, do not forget my teaching but let your heart keep my commandments, for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you."

~The goal of my parenting is not only outward behavior. The goal is a child whose heart delights in my teachings and commands (which ought to be coming from God).

~My teaching must go beyond rules...to Scriptural Principles and beyond that to the very nature and character of God. Rules change when the authority (rule enforcer) is removed. The character and nature of God will stay with my child regardless of where he moves in life. (Previous post dealing with these thoughts "Where's the Grace?")

3:3 - 11 Things that I'm to teach my child
~kindness, truth, to trust in the Lord, to fear the Lord, to honor the Lord with his wealth, not to reject the discipline of the Lord or loathe His reproof.

3:12 "For whom the Lord loves He reproves, even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights."

~The discipline/teaching described here will take TIME. First, I must learn of God. Second, I must know each individual child. 3rd, I must meditate, pray and search the word for wisdom and creativity to teach each individual child God blesses us with. Fourth, I must spend my days with my children - interacting, guiding, mentoring pastoring their heart. Fifth, if I look for an easy way out or focus only on the external, my child's heart will not delight in my commands. I will have failed my child.

Heart - in scripture means the center of man...seat of emotions, will and intellect.

~My discipline of each of my children must be individualized. I'm not finding a formula in Proverbs. I'm finding an emphasis on relationship. I must have a relationship with God. My goal is for my child to have that relationship with God and to have a relationship with me as well - a relationship that is full of honor and respect.

~ God wants ME to seek HIM for the best way to partner with Him to raise each one of my children. To excel as a parent I am forced to search out each child's gifts, weaknesses and bents. This knowledge will come from interacting with my children and from time spent in prayer for and with each child. God wants ME on my face for each of my children, searching His Word and communicating with Him about what each of my children needs.

~God doesn't give me a formula because he wants my parenting , as every other area of my life, to be spirit-led; not expert-led. (Gal 5:25). He wants relationship from me and my children.

~God's way of discipline (oral instruction that is God-centered and God natured) forces ME to seek Him....above all else.


Further study:
*Do word studies on reproof, discipline and corrects

**Sorry to those on SHS who have heard me say things like this again and again.....

Thursday

The earlier post gives a glimpse into our schooling day.

We spent a bit of time planning our costumes for tomorrow night. I think we're ready. The older three boys aren't going - and that is still sad to me - but that's the way it will be. {G} Arielle and Nolan are very excited to go to this Redwall feast. Of course, it involves dressing up and going to a friends house. I'm even getting excited about the costumes...I like dressing up too. {G}

I made bread today. I made 3 loaves of 7 grain, added cinnamon and rapadura to a 4th loaf and then garlic and Italian seasoning to the 5th loaf.

The menu thing has been strange this week. This week sort of took of without us and I've been feeling like I was chasing behind the days all week.....we've managed to eat in every night. Tonight we had German Pancakes/Dutch Babies and veggie sausage. The little ones loved breakfast at night; Jamin wasn't real impressed. {bg}

Stacia has a strange rash. I'm really not sure what it is. It's little tiny, raised, red bumps. I'm thinking it's an allergic reaction to something but for the life of me I can't figure out what. It could be pears or plums but she's had those before today....earlier this week. Or glue...those are the only new things I can think of that she's eaten. I don't think it's hand, foot and mouth because it isn't blistering.

Lapbook!!! Books of the Bible

Here you go, more photos and details of our first lapbook. We made this one very simple, no special folds etc.

Here's a photo of the completed product:

On the outside we colored a sheet I found online by searching "books of the Bible" at google.com/images. We punched holes and tied our books with some leather lace.

On the inside we made little books with the labels of the major types of Biblical literature. I found this list at www.blueletterbible.com through a google search as well.

We changed some of the "labels" so that the children understood what they meant. In the OT we have books of "law, history, poetry/wisdom, major prophets and minor prophets". In the NT we have "stories (narrative/history), Paul's letters, letters to Christians and apocalyptic" books. Inside each book is a list of the books of the Bible that fit that category....they are all in order (nice of the church fathers to organize it that way for us - wasn't it? LOL). I printed the list from Blue Letter, the children cut and pasted it into their books. Our last book is titled "tidbits" and here they wrote the number of books, chapters and verses in the Bible.

Observations from a former lapbook phobic:

This was very simple and took maybe an hour tops of our time.

I realized a big part of this will be for ME to limit myself. I want this to be the CHILDREN'S project...not them watching me make fancy folds and such. In other words, this could become a scrapbooking type creative outlet for ME, while the children watch and that I must personally guard against. ::snort:: I thought some more clip art would have been nice, I also thought matting the cover picture or a few of the books would add zing... but they were done. I think that having a color printer that works will make this much easier (printing colored photos and icons on sticker paper) but then it may become an exercise in cutting and pasting and ME collecting graphics from the web.

Debbie asked if I'll do another one....IF I see the children using these to learn and remember the books of the Bible, or IF they seem happy to show them to others...yes. LOL I will have to weigh the time the project takes, with the benefit to our education. If it helps them remember what we've learned...GREAT. If it becomes busy work they don't enjoy....I won't do as many.

This has GOT to help Nolan's fine motor skills. That's a benefit. I'll probably have one who does more of the fancy folds and one who sticks with easy folds and books...and I want it that way to maintain the aspect of it being THEIR project. Can you tell in the past that I've done a lot while they watched???? That bores them and really defeats the purpose...I'm learning.

The children are now wanting to read *How the Bible Came to Us* again and that could lead to several lapbooks...so lapbooking may be detrimental causing us to jog off on many bunny trails....

We discovered that Stacia is a glue glutton.

This a.m. I heard this conversation:

A - "I've learned all the law books and am working on the history books."

N - "I'm still working on the law books."

I think this is a good thing. ::snort:: (OK I'm not sure why it ran everything together...I've fixed it three times....not enough time to be obsessive about format today).

Parenting/Discipline in Proverbs - Ch. 2

Discipline/Chastisement (4148 - muscar, muwcar, musar) oral instruction based on a covenantal relaltionship that is theocentric (God centered) and theofugal (God natured).


2:1 "my son if you will receive my words and treasure my commandments within you....2:5 Then you will discern the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God. 2:6 For the Lord gives wisdom; From his mouth come knowledge and understanding. "

~My instruction and commandments should lead to my children discerning the fear of the Lord.

~*I* must first fear, reverence and worship the Lord on a consistent basis before my parenting will lead my children to fear the Lord and find wisdom.

~No book, formula or chart will produce wisdom in my child. Wisdom comes after my child has entered into a living, passionate relationship with God. Before my child fears the Lord, I am simply tweaking externals, modifying his behavior and not touching his heart.

Prayer for my older children - I have found myself praying this most often for Josiah lately, as he enters the workforce and makes so many decisions about the future....but I also pray it often for BreAnne, Krista, Amanda and the younger ones. I love to pray Scripture for my family.

Proverbs 2:10 -11 - May wisdom enter your heart; may knowledge be pleasant to your soul, may discretion be your guard and may understanding watch over you.

*Remember, I am simply sharing devotional thoughts I have this month as I read through Proverbs and pick out how it speaks to me as a parent. I am not even pretending this will be a complete treatise on parenting in Proverbs.

Wednesday -

What have we done today?

School.

Our first lap book. This is momentous!!! Arielle has been trying to memorize the books of the Bible. I enjoyed checking out Southern Belle's blog on lapbooking and decided the one they did on books of the Bible looked doable. I'm not sure SB wants her blog url public???? So....if ya'all want to go to homeschoolblogger.com you could search for Southern Belle and see what you get...or she could let me know if she wants me to add a link in this entry. {G} Here is a picture of Arielle working on her lapbook...I'll post photos when we are done. We want to do something to make it a bit "spiffier". {G}

We discussed costumes for the Redwall Feast that we are attending on Friday. I'm at a bit of a disadvantage, having never read the books. Our older 3 have read them. They are divided as to whether they'd recommend them....we've had some GREAT discussions from their reading of the books, though.

I took Arielle, Nolan and Jared for haircuts. Zander did NOT get a haircut but wanted in the picture...
At the beauty salon a 15 yo girl decided to sit down next to Jared and commence to flirt. He didn't realize that is what she was doing - he just thought she was strange. She said he looked interesting and asked some fun questions....I told him it was time to read *I Kissed Dating Goodbye*. We were laughing over dinner about this and Josiah told me there is some girl at the mall who keeps wanting to give her phone number out and such. What are parents teaching their daughter's these days? What ever happened to a guy pursuing a girl?????

Due to an unforeseen accident, the pizza dough fell out of the freezer and defrosted, we moved pizza night to tonight. This works well for the younger set and I as we have an engagement on pizza night. Jamin took over. He has been having fun with his Culinary Arts book. He now understands WHY I want to set a table and not just have buffet every night. ::snort:: Here is the "bishop's hat" fold....

And here's some paddle action in our household {G}....

After dinner we showed Cy how to play Ruckus. He missed out last night. He seemed to like the game as much as the rest of us do.

We ended the night with a couple more chapters from Pinochhio. Jamin and Josiah went out to see how far Jamin had run earlier...6.5 miles. When they got back they asked me what happened in the book. I had no clue. I slept through the last chapter again. ::snort:: Now if I could just get Stacia to wind down...her naps are off with the time change.

Parenting/Discipline in Proverbs - Chapter 1

Discipline - Chastisement (4148 - musar/muwcar, muscar) - Oral instruction based on a covenantal relationship that is theocentric and theofugal (God centered, God natured)


I realize that some may be feeling I made light of Proverbs in my parenting study. I didn't. I value this book. I've read through it often and gleaned all sorts of different insights. Once I read it and noted all it said about heart, covenant, fear, etc. I thought this month I'd share what I see in the book of Proverbs on parenting/discipline. I currently use the New American Standard Bible for my devotional a.m. reading. Note these are devotional thoughts and not an in-depth study as the "rod" posts were. In other words...this is my early a.m. reading....though I reserve the right to dig deeper at any time. ::snort:: Don't expect a deep theological treatise...expect to hear how the Holy Spirit is applying the book of Proverbs in my mothering. Also - my focus is not my CHILD'S responsibility this time through Proverbs - but MY responsibility. I'll assume the child is living up to his responsibility. {G}

Proverb 1:8-9 "Hear o my son, your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's teaching; they are a graceful wreath to your head and ornaments about your neck".

~Son - yes male, but also used in the generic sense and means "children of all ages".

~What is my instruction like? Am I instructing? If not, I'd best begin. Am I taking the time to teach my child in a way that is God centered and God natured or am I simply barking out commands? Am I nurturing obedience or compliance (see previous post on this {G})? If I'm not careful I veer into compliance over obedience/submission.

~I must be instructed of God before I am able to instruct my children.

~My teaching is to be GRACEFUL and ORNAMENTAL. Are my instructions a club of condemnation about my child's head or a graceful wreath to his head? Are my instructions a noose around my child's neck? Am I strangling his God-given zeal and personality in the name of "discipline"? Or are my teachings an ornament around his neck, worn gracefully and enhancing his God-given personality and spirit?

Father, today I desire my mothering to bring glory to You. I desire for my parenting to accurately portray Your character and nature. Give me strength and insight to diligently teach my children. Help my flesh to stay out of the process and may my instructions be graceful and ornamental in my children's lives.

Praise

Stacia slept through the night! YaHOO!!!! She doesn't seem to have a fever. She woke, ate and went back to sleep so I even had lots of quiet time for Bible Study this a.m.