Thursday, September 29, 2011

A Firm Foundation

I just read the daily devotional I receive via email each day from Our Daily Bread. The devotional, and the story about the little girl and the cars made me realize that I need to start laying a firm foundation now, even though Z is only a year old.

Here is the devotional:
These words which I command you . . . you shall teach them diligently to your children. —Deuteronomy 6:6-7

Before she was 2 years old, my granddaughter Katie did something that would make any grandpa proud: She began to recognize cars by make and year. This all started when she and her daddy began spending time together playing with his old collection of toy cars. Daddy would say, “Katie, get the 1957 Chevy,” and she would pick it out of the hundreds of tiny cars. And once, while he was reading a Curious George book to her, she climbed down from his lap and ran to get a miniature Rolls Royce—an exact replica of the car pictured in the book.

If a 2-year-old child can make such connections, doesn’t that show the importance of teaching children the right things early on? We can do this by using what I call the FIRM principle: Familiarity, Interest, Recognition, and Modeling. This follows Moses’ pattern in Deuteronomy 6 of taking every opportunity to teach biblical truths so that children become familiar with them and make them a part of their lives. Using their interests as teaching opportunities, we repeat Bible stories so they become recognizable, while modeling a godly life before them.

Let’s give the children in our lives a FIRM foundation by teaching them about God’s love, Christ’s salvation, and the importance of godly living. —Dave Branon

O give us homes built firm upon the Savior,
Where Christ is Head and Counselor and Guide,
Where every child is taught His love and favor
And gives his heart to Christ, the crucified. —Hart

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Be Thankful

Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. 1 Thess. 5:18

I am thankful for my God.
I am thankful for my husband.
I am thankful for my daughter.
I am thankful for my parents (and parent in-laws).
I am thanful for my siblings (and my sibling in-laws).
I am thankful for my church.
I am thankful for my small group.
I am thankful for my job. (Even though I complain about it all the time.)
I am thankful for the home that I have.
I am thankful for my friends.

Our Determined Little Z

Z just turned one a little over a week ago and I still can't believe how quickly this year has passed. It's so exciting to see her grow and develop, and I love learning more of her personality. But all of the changes also emphasizes how precious each moment with her is, and how she's never going to be little bitty baby again. These days, whenever I see a newborn baby, I find myself surprised at how small they are! And then I remind myself that Zoey was that little just a few months ago...

Recently I've started to learn that Z is quite the persistent, determined little girl. This is a great quality to have, in my opinion. But, boy, I think that the hubby and I are going to have our hands full. :p For instance, there was the time when I put Zoey down for the night, and then clicked on the screen of our video monitor to check up on her a few minutes after I left her room. That night, she surprisingly stopped crying after only about 30 seconds, and I wondered if she was sleeping already. But when I turned on the monitor, I saw that she was sitting up. But her head was drowsily bobbing up, down, and left and right. She was obviously very tired, half asleep, but seemed to be wanting to fight falling asleep completely very much. Every so often she actually would fall asleep, which would lead to her falling down to the laying down position...but the impact woke her up just enough so that she could prop herself back up again. It was hilarious to watch.

I thought that the cycle of bobbing, falling down, and then propping herself back up would only last for a few minutes, and then she would finally give in to sleep. But Z is a persistent little one! She continued to do this for about 20 minutes. Then the hubby came home from class and I filled him in on what was happening. We then watched the monitor in awe/while giggling as our little girl continued to resist sleep for another 20 minutes or so. Finally, hubby decided it was time to go into Z's room and help her out a bit. Here is a video clip of her wobbling in her crib:



There was also the time a couple weeks ago, when we were at my parent's house the day after Z's first birthday party. Hubby and I were cleaning up the kitchen and needed our hands free. So we put Z and Milo the Pug in the family room (where we could see them) and created a makeshift barrier with a couple of ottomans. There were a few inches between the ottomans, and although it was possible for Z to get past the barriers....she would need to squeeze. We didn't think that she would actually try to do that. Boy was I wrong. Hubby and I watched as she wriggled and wrangled, and huffed and puffed, and tried with all her might to get past the barriers and crawl over to us. All the while, she looked straight at us with this intense look of determination! And then she got through to the other side! She was so proud of herself too :) We were pretty impressed as well.