His Banner Over Me is Love

So Tuesday I dropped Jonah off at preschool and he cried. Again. For the bazillionth time. I've mentioned this before but I've never known what to do about it. I've pretty much just been ignoring it and not making a big deal thinking that when he realized he wasn't getting anywhere with it, he would eventually stop. Can we say 'persistant'?

His teacher mentioned something to me about his negative attitude in class when I dropped him off and I realized that it had to be addressed. We had a brief but serious "Come to Jesus" meeting in the teeny preschool bathroom and then I went to Bible Study. (If anybody can guess where this is going, I'll give you a free prize!)

So, this week in Isaiah (Ding! Ding! Ding! If you guessed correctly, you get an automatic page refresh. Click on your browser bar to reclaim.) we're looking at chapters 11 & 12. In chapter 12, the Lord spoke to me. I knew just what to do.

"In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples..." Isaiah 11:10

I put EG down for her nap and got busy. I showed Jonah in the Bible where Jesus is our banner.

banner: (noun) anything regarded or displayed as a symbol of principles; a flag formerly used as the standard of a sovereign, lord, or knight; leading or foremost

standard: of recognized excellence or established authority

Jesus is to be our prinicple, our Sovereign Lord, our leading cause for life! When He is the established authority in our life, His excellence will be recognized in us!

Now, this revelation was for me. I didn't exactly use these definitions with my three-year old. But we did talk about how soldiers fight with shields that have symbols on them. These symbols let others know who the soldiers are fighting for. Jesus is Who we should be living for! How will others know this if His love is not overflowing from us to others? He needed a standard, a banner to help remind him that his cause is Jesus.

This is the result of many focused glitter applications. :) It's a badge of excellence because when we love Jesus, His Excellence radiates from us to others. He gets to wear it to school, so long as it's not a distraction, either on his bookbag or his shirt. And when others ask about his badge, he can proudly say, "I'm loving like Jesus does."

"This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith." 1 John 5:2-4



Speaking Softly

Becky over at The Word of God and a Cup of Joe (one of my favorite blogs if you haven't guessed already) posted today on how God uses music to speak to us. That got me thinking...

The other day, Jonah was doing something in the kitchen and Esther Grace was hanging off of me as usual. Jonah's been into the crashing, smashing, hi-ya!, blow 'em up kindof mood lately. I couldn't take it anymore! I could feel the tension in my just building and I was trying to keep it under control. Did you catch that? Me. No prayers. No verses in my mind. (Psalm 119:11) Just me. You can guess what happened next?

Yep. Lost it. Really lost it. He took off running to his room and slammed the door. His bed is his "quiet place" and I've noticed that when I sin against him, that's his refuge. (It's bad that I know this. It should tell you how flawed I am in my parenting.) I knew I'd gone overboard but I'm the Mom. He's got to learn to respect authority, right? I always have music playing in my kitchen and right at this point Watermark's "Who Am I?" was playing in the background.

Over time You've healed so much in me

And I am living proof

That although my darkest hour had come

Your light could still shine through.

And though at times it's just enough to cast

A shadow on the wall

Well, I am grateful that you shine your light on me at all

Who am I that You would love me so gently?

Who am I that You would recognize my name?

Lord, who am I that You would speak to me so softly?

Conversation with the Love most high...

Who am I?

Well, amazing grace how sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me

I once was lost but now am found

Was blind but now I see

And the more I sing that sweet old song the more I understand

That I do not comprehend this love that's coming from Your hand.

Who am I that You would love me so gently?

Who am I that You would recognize my name?

Lord, who am I that You would speak to me so softly?

Conversation with the Love most high...

Who am I?

There's more but the chorus spoke the most to me. Discipline is love. (Proverbs 3:12, Hebrews 12:6) I've just been studying that in Isaiah 10. (I haven't mentioned Isaiah in a while. Had to throw him in!) My discipline of Jonah should be a picture of God's discipline of His people. That's my job as a parent: to make God real and relevant. My discipline should be consistent. It should be just, guiding him in the correct path. It should be gentle and loving. Yeah- ouch.

I went to his room, apologized, and asked for forgiveness. Because as a parent, I also model our relationship with the Lord. And when we sin, we must approach Him, repent, and ask for forgiveness. It's not a sign of weakness. It's a sign of growth.

How has God used music to speak to you? Any favorite artists or songs? I'm always looking for more to listen to!

No Sweeter Word

Yesterday we had one of those mornings. Bible Study starts at 9:30 but we have to be there early so we usually head out of here around 8:20 or so. Not yesterday morning. It all started out fine. I got up and got myself ready before the kids were up. Around 7:40, I woke Jonah up and got him fed, bathed, and dressed. While we were brushing his teeth, we heard stirrings from the baby monitor. Esther Grace was up and Jonah was so upset. He loves to go into her room on these mornings and wake her up himself, usually with a song, dance and a smile. It makes him feel like such the big brother. This morning he was beside himself that he didn't get to exercise his authority over her and he was very clear that she was such a bad sister for waking herself up. I explained that he needed to have a loving heart. We've been talking about rejoicing with others and having a happy heart so I tried to explain that this was the perfect opportunity to celebrate with Sister instead of the obvious route we were going.

     "Yay! Esther Grace is so BIG! She woke up all by herself! Isn't that wonderful??!!!!!" (I may have thrown in a little leprechaun-like leap and a few jumping jacks for good measure.)
     "No, it is NOT wonderful, Mommy! That is MY job. I'M supposed to wake her up. Her's being a BAD girl. Bad! Bad! Bad!" I knew I had to intervene quickly.
     "Okay, Jo. Here's the deal. Gracie's getting up and I'm sorry that you didn't get to wake her but that's just the way it happens sometimes. So-we're going to put a smile on our face, a song in our heart, and be happy this morning, okay?" All I got was a pout. I started to brush my teeth and Jonah disappeared on a mission to retrieve his shoes from somewhere in his room.

Then, I heard him on the baby monitor. It didn't sound good.
That was definitely a yelp.
Followed by a full-fledged holler.
Okay-that's crying.
Great.

He came back like everything was completely normal.
"Jonah, did you hit your sister?"
"Oh, no. Her just hit herself." Riiiiight.
"Jonah, did you hit your sister?"
"No." (Shrug.) "I don't know why her would do that but her just went -boomp- and hit her head."
"Jonah. Did. You. Hit. Your. Sister."
"Sooooorrrrrryyyyyy."
UUUUUUGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!

Later, I found out that he actually hit her with a closed fist right in the middle of her forehead. (There wasn't a mark so either he didn't hit her all that hard or his arm was just too short to reach her all the way in her crib.) Needless to say, he got FOUR spankings. Two for hitting and two for lying about it. FOUR! All before 8:00 in the morning! I should've known this was the way the morning was going to go. We're studying Isaiah and that particular week's lesson was on Isaiah 5. A huge time-out for Israel. Really bad spankings from God for His disobedient children.

"Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit." Isaiah 5:2b

That evening, I was telling Bear about it and Jonah walked in on our conversation. (I try not to tell these stories in front of him because I don't want him to think that we're bragging about his misbehavior. That and sometimes they're really funny and I don't want him to see us laughing about it.) He stopped when he realized what we were talking about.
     "No. Don't say that Mommy. Don't say that to Daddy. I don't want you to talk about it to him." Bear interjected,
     "It's good to be ashamed of our sin, isn't it Buddy? I'm glad that you feel sorry for your sin. That means that you know it's wrong." I added,
     "You know what makes it better. It's when we learn from our sin and choose to follow God's Ways because His Ways are so much easier and better!"
Jonah nodded in agreement, a smile beginning to appear on his little face.
     "And you know what's the best Buddy?" Bear said.
     "What Daddy?"
     "That we're forgiven."

Forgiven.

There are four main Greek words used for 'forgiven' in the New Testament but here are my two favorite.

charizomai meaning "to release a person from the obligation of repaying what is owed" derived from "charis" which means "God's freely given grace"

apoluo meaning "set free, release, pardon a prisoner, release a debtor, to remove the guilt resulting from wrongdoing"

Anyone need release? Need to be set free? Need some guilt removed? I'm right there with you.

"This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds. Then he adds: Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more. And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching." Hebrews 10:16-25

Forgiven.

I can't think of a sweeter word.

Driving Lessons

For his birthday, Jonah received a John Deere Gator. He affectionately calls it his "John Deere Bota" because my dad has a Kubota in which he does yard work, toots around the neighborhood, and does all sorts of grampa-ish stuff. I'm sure both tractor companies are thrilled with the misnomer.

Anyways, he LOOOOOVES his "Bota". He drives all around our yard loading, unloading, dumping, pushing, pulling, giving rides, etc. I'm convinced that there's a love for all things mechanical ingrained in boys at the moment of conception.

Strapping Woody in for a ride

Crank it up!

What good is a tailgate if it doesn't dump?
Now our driveway is not that hard. In fact, it's quite simple.

For unknown reasons, certain family members have a hard time mastering it's simplicity.

So I can understand why our three year old considers it perfectly normal to run over bushes, shrubs, flower beds, or any other type of low-lying vegetation.

A while back, Jonah was piddling around in his JDB while Bear was transplanting some trees and plants in the yard. (He's dedicated to reverse the slow destruction of our plant life. It's his cause.) Jonah asked if he could go through the bushes- a normal occurrence in our house while in a car, apparently. Bear told him no, so he put it in reverse and moved on to an alternate route. Well, 3 or 4 minutes later Jonah made his way straight through an Indian Hawthorne.



Bear proceeded to go through our discipline routine.
"Did Daddy tell you not to go through the bushes?"
"Yes."
"Did you obey?"
"No."
"What happens when you don't obey?"
"I get 2 spankings." (Yes, we spank. Call DFCS.)
"Come here...."
"Hey, Daddy-Can I just have 1?"
"No."
"Wait a minute! Daddy! Jesus took my punishment. He took my spankings away!"

Um, yeah. Talk about a Twix moment. We had been talking about what the cross means and how Jesus took our punishment for us, explaining mercy is not getting the judgement we deserve. Wow. He was listening. Wow. How do you answer that one?

Well, he did get a spanking. Consistency is key, right? But afterwards, we talked with him about how discipline is not punishment. Often we confuse God's discipline with punishment because it's hard. But that's what He uses to protect us and put us on the right path. And if He didn't love us, He wouldn't bother. All that from an afternoon in the yard and a mother who may need some driving lessons.

"No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." -Hebrews 12:11

"My son, do not despise the LORD's discipline and do not resent his rebuke, because the LORD disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in."

-Proverbs 3: 11-12