Honesty in the Family

 

With my experience, if you are honest with your kids, we will be honest with you. My mother and father have enlightened me on many aspects of their past and not only have I grown and learned from their experiences, the good and the bad, I have also learned to trust them more than anyone else. I have come to them with everything I am/have done/or wanted to be since I was a kid and if I had to pinpoint why my relationship with them is as strong as it is, it would have to revolve around the fact they were open with me - they revealed their humanity, their Christianity, their faults and their pasts and their faith so there are very few things that are a divider between us.

I guess my main focus is that if you want your children to have an open and trusting relationship with you, be the bigger person and have one with them first.

With my Love and His~ Arial Alexis LionessofGod

In Focus

This is something God has been dealing lately with me over, the concept of keeping things in focus. You see, even since I was eight, my sole goal in life was to be a great woman of God, a good wife, and a loving mother. Since then my goals have obviously developed – now into getting a degree in Christian Psychology and later branching into either US Government/Law/Political Science. Following a career in outreach, advocacy, public affairs. (Who knows, I might even find myself in a Governor or Senate position one day.) All of that is great – the dreams, the hopes, the drive. What isn’t okay is allowing the worries of tomorrow to interfere with today. While all the fine print of those goals is running through my mind and the “If that paper doesn’t come by November I can’t even go to college this Spring even if I was ready and not busy with (insert blank) ” thought peeps in every hour or so, God had to remind me of something very crucial.

I’m publishing a novel – at 17 I have joined the rare rank of professionally published teen adult fiction writers. I have 7 months of development and publishing processes ahead of me, months of local book signings and promotions, and another novel to submit this coming summer – not to mention an entire series I am working on. With all this going on, for some reason I felt the need to start ‘worrying over tomorrow’ – the guy, the career, the family, the school, the car, the house, the lifestyle, – yep the whole nine yards. In my petty humanity (womanity?) I let my mind go out of focus on the here and now.

Jesus promised that we need not worry over certain things of tomorrow. Why waste so much time and energy on it when Our Savior assured us there is no need?

God gives us today – and even that isn’t promised. Carpe Diem may be one of the most overly used statements of the last 2 years, but it is also very true. Keep your thoughts and your actions in focus on what God has you dealing with and has blessed you with right now.

Being Love

From a very dear friend of mine:

"So, I just went out to get an oil change. While waiting and looking out the window I felt a tug on my leg. The most beautiful blue eyed blond, about 4 years old, looked up at me and said, "Are you grandpa." I said sure, I'm everybody's grandpa. She tried to climb up so I picked her up and found a chair to sit down. Soon a young woman, the little girls mother came over and asked, is she bothering you. I said no, but she is looking for her grandpa. Her Mom said, Katies grandpa died in June and she looks for him everyday and everywhere. So i said if it's OK with you, Katie can stay with me till one of has to leave. When that time came, it was the most difficult separation I have ever had. About 30 minutes of absolute heaven."

There is a story about a young boy who once traveled out to find God. He came across a man on a park bench, and ended up spending the whole day with him. Both went home saying they had met God that day. We sometimes forget that we can be God. Not play God. Not claim any Glory. But be God's hand in the world. That little girl got to spend a few precious moments with her 'grandpa' - she got to feel that love and protection again. My dear dear friend got to be God. He had the beautiful chance to be someone's glimpse of Love.

Now, if only the rest of us would learn to slow down and gently seize the same chances God gives us every day, the world would not be such a dire place, if only the people of God would learn to be the hands of God.

Relationships start with the Parents

We need to teach our daughters to distinguish between:
A man who flatters her -and a man who compliments her.
A man who spends money on her -and a man who invests in her.
A man who views her as property-and a man who views her properly.
A man who lusts after her - and a man who loves her.
A man who believes he is God's gift to women - and a man who remembers a woman was God's gift to man.

...And then teach our boys to be that kind of a man.

Promise of God

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 “Because of Christ and our faith in Him, we can now come fearlessly into God’s presence, assured of His glad welcome.” Ephesians 3:12

" I have come into the world as light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." John 12:46 

" Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, He gave the right to become children of God." John 1:12 

" God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble." Psalm 46:1 

" I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart ! I have overcome the world ! " John 16:33 

" Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Matt. 11:28

" He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak " Isaiah 40:29 

" Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine" Isaiah 43:1

" I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life." John 6:47 

" And this is what he promises us--even eternal life ." 1 John 2:25 

" Jesus said: 'I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies'....." John 11:25

 "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see" Heb.11:1

"You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus" Gal. 3:26

"Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands." Deut.7:9

"Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be moved, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed." Isaiah 54:10

" I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you." Psalm 32:8

" I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them, I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them." Isaiah 42:16

"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him." 1 Cor. 2:9 

"...the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him! " Isaiah 30:18 

" Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you. I do not give as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." John 14:27 

" And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Phil. 4:7

" Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you." Jeremiah 29:12

"The Lord will keep you from all harm--he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore." Psalm 121:7, 8 

" When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze." Isaiah 43:1,2

 " But when the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour. " Titus 3:4-6

 " Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3: 5,6 

"Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust...." Psalm 40:4

"For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding." Proverbs 2:5

" All scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training and righteousness. " 2 Tim.3:15.16 

" The word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." Hebrews 4:12 

" Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. " Acts 20:32