What I know ......

Reflection. A pause to ponder things of the past. Lately, things have come across my path - blogs, conversations - that have caused me to reflect. I will celebrate my 25th wedding anniversary this year. Amazing! It sounds so cliche' but "Where has the time gone?"  I have changed so much in 25 years. My ideas. My beliefs. My goals. Where is the 18 year old girl that thought she would be a pediatric psychiatrist and put her children in daycare? I look and see that she and I are so different. Yet a part of her still dwells in the shadows of me. 

How times change! When we swaddled that first child and brought her home, we were the progressive parents and we were going to get it right unlike the generations before. Progressive would have been better titled permissive and child-whipped. By the time child number two was coming home, we came to the conclusion this isn't working. We joined a parenting class that taught us a lot about discipline, but not much grace. This was definitely it! God has a way of changing our minds. Child number four had challenges I could have never prepared for. She shook our parenting world and knocked it upside-down. Gentle parenting definitely the answer or is it? God never fails and His work in us never ends. Twenty five years of parenting and still balancing out truth and love! The perfect mix that is taught by the only One in which it exists. 

As I have seen our parenting pendulum swing both ways over many years, I have also seen that the swing is less dramatic. God changing me from my extremes into a softer sculpted image better reflecting His work in my life. 

I have realized that what I believed may have changed some over the years. I have also learned that some things become stronger, more defined and have greater conviction. As a child of God I know:
  • Who God is matters! Not the god man makes or believes is him, not the newest theological fad .... God is truth and His character NEVER changes. Know Him!
  • When I don't like what I learn about who God is or His truth is .... He always has a way of changing my mind.
  • Learning who God is will change you.
  • We were saved for holiness
  • God never leaves us and will complete a work in us. He is sovereign. 
  • It is okay to not have it all figured out.  God has got it handled. 
  • Grace and Mercy are incredibly powerful and life changing. Seek to understand it and in the gift of understanding comes great responsibility to give it. 
What I know is some views will change in the years to come. I was born desperately stupid and it has taken God forty five years to remove some of it and He has a lot more to go. I might not be finished. I might still struggle with things that in five years I decided are not important. I know that the God the dwells within me will continue to lead me, love me, change me and my family and friends AND that is more important than everything I know or don't know. 

Comments

  1. Thank you for sharing, Kristin. I have been parenting for over 34 years now and I have seen myself make so many changes. I am down to raising my last one and I still don't get it all right. God has the final say in the lives of our children.

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  2. Right there with you..... 29 years of parenting, and I'm still figuring it out. God is merciful! Since the youngest is 15 months, perhaps I'll do better yet.....

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