Today I discovered...

..others on my journey...

I came across an article in homelife magazine entitled "Fun Discipleship: A Creative Way to Grow Authentic Faith." Since that has been a big discussion around my church, Solana Beach Presbyterian, as we have adopted David C Cook's Tru curriculum this last year which has a home component it was fun to learn how others are spicing up their home discipleship. For more details on how the Stewart family is making a spiritual impact in their home check out familymuscle.com - I feel they understand the realities of carving out family time and making it worth it - something both kids and parents look forward to.
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So if the wave hit Japan why are we sending money to Africa?

..Have to love the questions of a 5 year old...and then he continued to explain to me that the nomadic group in Africa could easily fix their houses because they are made of sticks but in Japan there are boats on top of houses -- that's not as easy to fix...

What does it mean to meet the needs of the world around us?
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Turn around or try again?

This morning after dropping W off at school I commented that "I'm in the wrong lane.". L in her 3 year old wisdom was quick to ask "Are you going to turn around or try again?"

She understands that mommy makes mistakes and needs to change things - it was a great chance for us to talk about sin and repentance (that oh so big word for turning around or trying again) as we went to school this morning.
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Gold and God's Promises

This morning as we sat at breakfast William saw a rainbow out the window. In light of the recent celebration of St. Patrick's Day after pointing it out he continued by sharing that given it's location we should go find the pot of gold in the park.
I grabbed the moment to ask what else the rainbow tells us and we discussed God's promise to Noah after the flood that he would never again flood the whole earth.
I long that my children will see God's blessing as of greater value than a pot of gold --- He is the God that owns the cattle on a thousand hills, the wealth of every mine...and he cares for ME! May that truth be rooted in my children's lives today.
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ASH WEDNESDAY IS TODAY!

WOW!
Hard to believe today marks the official start of the Easter Season! (Especially since I still have a few Christmas items that didn't get fully put away yet...)

For Lent (the time of preparation for Easter) this year I will be following the Lenten Guide by Solana Beach Presbyterian Church (www.solanapres.org/news/2011-lent-daily-reading ). I am quite excited that they put it online this year (saves my having to keep track of the booklet and it comes directly to my email box each morning - YEAH!) So the focus this year is Leading Like Jesus and today we reflected on what it means to follow Jesus. My kids and I read Mark 1:14-20 about Jesus calling the disciples and talked about Jesus calling us to be his followers too.

One thing I am trying to be more faithful about this Lenten season is praying for my children. I was encouraged by a friend the other day who had stumbled upon a mention I had made of a daily prayer email for my kids -- you can subscribe at www.realworldparents.com/pray -- and I have been trying lately to be more faithful in actually opening the email and reading it and praying it personally for each one of my children. But I was also encouraged in this further by a more recent reference at momandlovingit.org/PDFs/PrayingDaily_new150.pdf which is a new resource I found this morning (thanks to a referral to the Mom and Loving It conference by another friend) -- it provides a monthly calendar with a different scripture for each day of the month. For the 9th, today, it was "respect (for self, others, authority) Father, grant that my children may 'show proper respect to everyone' as Your Word commands," based on 1 Peter 2:17

May this Lenten season be a season of preparation where God makes me more aware of the work He is doing in my children's lives. May He increase my awareness of how I can partner with Him where He is already at work in their hearts, helping them become fully devoted followers of Him. May I walk faithfully and humbly with Him in loving my children and family.