God is the best parent. He designed some very simple rules to follow that yield some powerful results. My favorite are his top ten. Do you know them? Can you say them backwards? I can. That is how I learned them.....as an adult. No one forced me to learn them as a child well because Jesus did away with the law. Right? So we do not need it. Right? Hold on cowboy, let's not throw out the baby with the bath water. Granted I do not need to accomplish a perfect life in order to enter heaven I do want to follow the rules to be pleasing to God and to honour Him. When our Lord was asked about the commandments He said loving God was the most important thing. Do you know why? If you love God you will naturally do the rest. Boy that would be nice.
I am always cleaning out my spiritual closet, always trying to improve, always attempting to do it right. I know it is the saving grace paid on the cross by Yeshua the Messiah that makes me perfect but I want to be better for Him. I want that for my kids too. Did you know all of the offences they break in the house can be dealt with using the 10 commandments. Maybe that is why they were in every school years ago. They were not just good moral code to memorize. They were the rules to live by. The boundaries set in place by God himself because he knew that we were incapable of loving Him enough and He knew that we did not love one another.
What are those ten?
10. Do not covet
9. Do not Lie about another
8. Do not steal
7. Do not commit adultery
6. Do not murder
5. Honour your father and mother
4. Keep YHWH's sabbath
3. Do not take the name of YHWH in vain
2. Do not make or worship idols
1. YHWH is One and the only God
As you can see they are great tools to parent a child. Using them as a parent I can see that each commandment correlates to a problem children have. This is a little of what I add in the explanation to train my children.
10. Do not think of taking your siblings stuff. It leads to all kinds of heartache.
9. Do not lie about someone else because they do not deserve your punishment for your gain.
8. Whatever your sibling has you can not take.
7. Do not even begin to develop lustful thoughts about anything because it will lead to divorce. If you fornicate you are sinning against your future wife and the person you are with and if you look lustfully at the TV magazines etc. you may fall prey to adultery in your head as an adult and you need to control that appetite always.
6. Do not hate your siblings or friends or anyone for it leads to murder.
5. If you can not honour your parents you will not develop an understanding of how to honour God.
4. The 7TH day from sun down to sun down you are to take a break and rest. Do not buy. Do not sell. Rest and remember God made the heavens and the earth so YOU do not forget because God loved you. He made you. Do not for get it.
3. YHWH is Gods name. Erasing it and replacing it with another term or using it to swear by all is wrong. Any name you use to refer to Him is holy because He accepts you and loves you and you should not use that term in any negative way.
2. There are many things that can become idols. We can make them or we can just worship them. We can even set ourselves up as our own idol when we put our self first.
1. YHWH is one. He is a being with many facets but He is a beautiful mystery that is to be above all other things including ourselves in our lives. We are to love Him with everything that we are and nothing less.
It is tough training kids in this manner. Other people have let me know just how wrong I am. They have called me names and hated me for it. It is not the most easy path when parenting but it yields great results. The most wonderful thing about using Gods rules is the realization that He knew we were not perfect and prepared these rules from the beginning and wrote them out with His own finger on stone tablets for Moses. Now that is truly cool. Oh I always include that part when parenting too. This was so important that God took His finger and wrote them down perminately just for us. Cool!
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
Dirty Little Words
Oh I love my dirty little words. I have nurtured, cared for and preserved them. I have lovingly embraced them as commas, exclamation marks, periods, extended pauses and friends. They are there when I am angry. They are there when I am hurt. They are there when I want to flirt.
I did not mean to take them on at first. It was dangerous to say one here and there. They were always said under my rebellious breath amongst my closest of friends. Lucky them. As I grew older, they grew with me. A symbol of the lost rebellion gone now from my spirit yet ever present, ever part of something in me. I grew cautious never saying these words in public but at home watch out. I relaxed my hold over my tongue and out they would fall like pebbles over a cliff. My children heard a word or two. Some took them as their own. The roots, the seeds have been passed down.
Oh what I would do to remove these words, yet will I? This is one thing I had no intention of passing on.
In an effort to change I am taking offence to these words. When my young people use these words they are punished and made to look up 50 words for each offence to replace those words. Then they are to use them to bless those that caused the circumstance to use the words. What about the punishment for me? First it is punishment enough to hear my children say even one of thee words but, I must learn new words as well and add them to my heart to bless others instead of cursing them under my breath. It is difficult to bless those who have caused offence. It is so easy to slip into anger and frustration and hate. God asked something different from me.
It is written (Luke:6:27-36) ",But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on the cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is it to you? Even 'sinners' lend to 'sinners' expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you sons of the most high because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful."
It steals my ability to be close to God when I return anger for anger and frustration for frustration even if it is only under my breath. And I want to be close to God. I want that for my children too.
Even if I don't really mean it I need to learn not to say it. It will be hard choosing to do the things Jesus asked of us in Luke 6:27-36 I must change. I must change for my children for I am their example. But more importantly I must change in order to grow closer to God. I'll let you know how it goes.
I did not mean to take them on at first. It was dangerous to say one here and there. They were always said under my rebellious breath amongst my closest of friends. Lucky them. As I grew older, they grew with me. A symbol of the lost rebellion gone now from my spirit yet ever present, ever part of something in me. I grew cautious never saying these words in public but at home watch out. I relaxed my hold over my tongue and out they would fall like pebbles over a cliff. My children heard a word or two. Some took them as their own. The roots, the seeds have been passed down.
Oh what I would do to remove these words, yet will I? This is one thing I had no intention of passing on.
In an effort to change I am taking offence to these words. When my young people use these words they are punished and made to look up 50 words for each offence to replace those words. Then they are to use them to bless those that caused the circumstance to use the words. What about the punishment for me? First it is punishment enough to hear my children say even one of thee words but, I must learn new words as well and add them to my heart to bless others instead of cursing them under my breath. It is difficult to bless those who have caused offence. It is so easy to slip into anger and frustration and hate. God asked something different from me.
It is written (Luke:6:27-36) ",But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on the cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is it to you? Even 'sinners' lend to 'sinners' expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you sons of the most high because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful."
It steals my ability to be close to God when I return anger for anger and frustration for frustration even if it is only under my breath. And I want to be close to God. I want that for my children too.
Even if I don't really mean it I need to learn not to say it. It will be hard choosing to do the things Jesus asked of us in Luke 6:27-36 I must change. I must change for my children for I am their example. But more importantly I must change in order to grow closer to God. I'll let you know how it goes.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
And Now For Something Completely Different
When you take a moment and listen to that inner voice what is it telling you?
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Top Ten Reasons to Teach Marketing/Business Management To The Kids
10. Every one buys things. Understanding marketing helps them understand why they want to buy certain things.
9. Great field trips.
8. Cost analysis is great preparation for their future business.
7. Even Dr.s and Lawyers are in business for themselves and need to be business savvy.
6. Politicians could benefit from this information to get elected.
5. I do not want some one taking advantage of my kid because I did not bother to teach him how this system works.
4. Free stuff. There is always free stuff when doing research.
3. Great opportunity to get them to think.
2. Stealth math by making them figure the cost of doing business, net profit and net loss, etc.
1. Sharing their testimony and telling others about God, my kids can use those skills in a positive way. Don't believe me. Check out this link: http://www.wayofthemaster.com/ Excellent marketing!
9. Great field trips.
8. Cost analysis is great preparation for their future business.
7. Even Dr.s and Lawyers are in business for themselves and need to be business savvy.
6. Politicians could benefit from this information to get elected.
5. I do not want some one taking advantage of my kid because I did not bother to teach him how this system works.
4. Free stuff. There is always free stuff when doing research.
3. Great opportunity to get them to think.
2. Stealth math by making them figure the cost of doing business, net profit and net loss, etc.
1. Sharing their testimony and telling others about God, my kids can use those skills in a positive way. Don't believe me. Check out this link: http://www.wayofthemaster.com/ Excellent marketing!
Marketing Research at Denny's and CEC
We did the Denny's after the Super bowl grand slam giveaway with all 6 kids, deep breath, and survived! Insert APPLAUSE now. No really we were discussing businesses and marketing and this was an excellent opportunity to see great marketing in action : One dish made for a specific audience served free, hot and quickly. We were seated in 15 minutes flat and were served within another 15. Not to bad for an over packed house. I asked the kids tons of questions. Is this meal free. (no, Not really) Why? (Because we ordered drinks.) How much did those drinks cost? ($3.95) How much does a gallon of milk cost? ( $2.30) Did we pay for breakfast? (yes) We sure did we covered their costs. We went on and on with the questions and then we went to Chuck E Cheese to redeem some coupons. Free play for 45 minutes. Then home for lunch and questions-we never buy the pizza. I think those cogs are turning in those future entrepreneurs' heads. All in all it was a great double field trip even though the kids thought the meal was gross. They only eat whole grain products so the meal was just to plebeian for them. They learned that it does not matter what you like it matters what the customer wants and that is marketing sort of. True marketing is convincing the customer that he has to have what you are selling but that is another story.
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