Great Autumn Reads for Little Ones

A Reminder to Pray

There is so much reading material, business, distractions, to-do lists that finding time to pray is very difficult and can sometimes become a forgotten ritual.

I love books and blogs that teach me how to do my jobs as a wife and mother better. Ultimately, though, that power lies with Him.

May we all remember to seek Him first in prayer and in His word for His help in our lives.

Time for Sorting

It was so refreshing to sort through our belongings recently and find that we had plenty to pass on to others. We have so many toys, clothes, books, etc. that it can make life so difficult for a mom of several little people to clean things up. The term "clean up" was ambiguous since not everything had a home. Now that we've gone through our little peoples' belongings, it was time to put things back. The system I have come up with works wonderfully for us.

Toys:

I have created a box system in which some toys are sorted by kind (e.g. barn animals, or cars), and others by assortment (a coffee maker mixed in with a cash register). Everything is put into a box; all the boxes are labeled (contents listed on the outside), numbered and put into a closet. This works really well for several reasons. One is that clean up is much quicker because if something is out, we know it goes back in the box. Another is that the mess is much reduced. Also, when the children open up a box, it always seems new to them. The older children can remember some of the items they haven't played with in awhile and they really look forward to playing with them again.

Clothes:

I have learned that storing childrens' clothing is best done by size, gender and season (e.g. 24 month boy winter or 3T girl spring.) This makes passing hand-me-downs really easy and has also helped me get hand me downs we received ready for use in the future.


Books:
We leave almost all books out for accessibility and I have found that a bookshelf just for them out in the living room has really encouraged them to like books. We are very picky about what we read to them, knowing that everything we put in their hearts and minds must line up with Scripture. If you think this leaves many books left as a possibility, think again. As an example, here is one verse that makes a mighty tall measuring stick:

"Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness;"
-1 Timothy 4: 7

This one alone pretty much eliminates anything in your local childrens' bookstore. We are personally admonished by this verse to not read books with talking animals or animals wearing clothes. To us, those are obviously silly, irreverent myths because God gave mankind souls, not animals and to treat them as people is silly and irreverent. We don't do pagan myths either, including mermaids, leprechauns, witches, ghosts, or Santa, etc. We won't read about pirates as that would be endorsing theft and villany. I know that these are hard truths for much of society to even consider, but our family takes the raising of our young people very seriously. We are training them to be godly men and women for the Lord Jesus Christ. We have the blessing to choose what we want them to play with and read about. Why would we settle for the foolish, sometimes wicked toys the world offers?

Those are just a few notes that explain how we sort things in our family. I started out with the physical and ended with the spiritual. But isn't it all spiritual? Everything we do, we should do as unto the Lord. (Colossians 3: 23-24).

I will end with: "Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children." (Ephesians 5:1).

Let's imitate HIM.

A Republic, If We Can Keep It

As a Christian, I am most certainly against states allowing homosexuals to attain marriage certification. However, I am growing weary of reading Christian conservatives look to polls and votes to make their case against homosexual marriage. What a lame argument!

Our country is a republic, NOT a democracy. It doesn't matter what the majority of Americans are "into" at the moment. We look to the Bible for our Consitutional foundations. The Constitution is our rule of law, not voters.

Okay, so 30 states have voted against marriage rights for Sodomites (what they should rightly be called). What happens when voters watch enough Oprah and vote to allow it? Believe me, public opinion is fickle and would head this country in a dangerous direction. When you divorce God from our legal system and allow people the power to make decisions that was given to representatives in the Constitution, trouble will multiply.

Our Passing Nation

I don't post often anymore, but I think it is safe to say I'm spending time on higher priorities, such as child-rearing and reading through the Bible in a year again. It is such a blessing to do this and I encourage everyone to read their Bible daily. If I can find the time to read the Bible each day while tending to 4 littles ones 5 and under, who couldn't?

Recently, I read a passage in Job concerning the sovereignty of God. I found the passage comforting in light of my weariness over the state of our nation. The Bible is pretty clear: if a nation abandons God, He will abandon them, leading to their annhilation.

Read what Job says: "[God] makes nations great, and he destroys them; he enlarges nations, and leads them away. He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth and makes them wander in a pathless waste. They grope in the dark without light, and he makes them stagger like a drunken man." (Job 12: 23-25, ESV).

Our Congressmen and President have certainly been spending like drunkards on a gambling boat, but this verse is saying that even they are being used by the Lord; He has taken away their understanding and they are merely groping in the dark to find their way. Come on--can anyone really believe that spending trillions of dollars (TRILLIONS, mind you) of borrowed money in the middle of a recession will somehow help an economy? These are so-called leaders, passing legislation that even a kindergardner would find illogical and laughable.

God makes nations great and God destroys them too (v. 23).

No, I don't want America to land in the ashheaps of history as yet another short-lived experiment in democracy (remember those perverted Greeks?). Yet I find it nonetheless comforting to know that our nation's wickedness is not a sign that God is absent or snoozing on the job. Rather, He is patiently waiting, not wanting any to perish (2 Pet. 3:9). He is tolerating much, yet He knows the number of hairs on each citizen's head.

"Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming." (Matt. 24: 42)

Too Much Stuff

Today I just want to comment on how frustrating it is that Americans have so much stuff. I'm guilty just like everyone else. With little children, the enormity of the problem grows. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could go back to the days of simplicity, where a child had a few toys to treasure and no more? The sheer abundance of little pieces, corporately marketed characters, "learning" toys, etc, etc, makes a child less likely to appreciate the finer things in life.

So one of my tasks in the new year will be to routinely usher out the doo-dads that are not adding to the enjoyment or growth of my children (most certainly including the ones that I trip on!).

Maybe with the economy on the decline, fewer people will be buying cheap toys from China. That would definitely be a good thing!

My only complaint is who to give this stuff to? I know of no truly needy people. I reluctantly donate to places like Goodwill knowing that many of the shoppers are affluent ebayers hoping to make a profit off of their rummaging. I wish I could ship some of our toys to truly needy children overseas.

More Reason Not to be Swayed By Environmentalists

The Earth's not Warming!!!