{Guest Post} Grow: Strength and Joy

This post comes courtesy of my very own mother. She is such an amazing spiritual mentor for me, and I am happy to share her words of wisdom with you. I hope you enjoy!

Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. ~ Nehemiah 8:10

In this world you will have tribulations, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. ~ John 16:33
The Bible reminds me that the devil is the accuser of the brethren.  This lets me know that regardless of how well I parent my children, the devil will be on the sidelines finding something to criticize. He attempts to bombard me with thoughts about my inadequacies so that I will lose my joy and feel weak and defeated. 

In every season of parenting, there is much to learn, yet God never intended for me to raise my children without His help.  He has provided His word to equip both me and my children for every good work!

Play and Review: Wheeeeeee-ls cars

It was about two years ago that I stumbled upon this section of toys at Target. I was shopping for Aly's birthday gift for her 1st birthday (what pressure!), and I found the cutest instrument set. She loved everything music (still does!), so I knew this would be the perfect gift. What made it even more perfect was that, at the time, it was only $14.95. Score.

 

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This New Years I was looking for a gift for Ada (which proved to be very difficult. What does a one year old need or want?)... and again, came across this section of toys and knew she would love the Sugar Chute. She has an obsession with opening and closing doors, and taking things in and out of containers, so this was an no-brainer.

Eat: One, Two, Three, Four, Five a Day!

I'm not particularly strict when it comes to food with my kids. While I rarely enter into power struggles over food and we have no clean plate club at our house, I do work hard to get the kids to eat at least five fruits and/or vegetables a day. Some days we make it; some days we don't.

Fruits are easy, right? What kid doesn't love bananas, grapes, apples, kiwi, melons, strawberries, blueberries, peaches, etc. They are just so sweet and yummy. If it was up to my kids, they would eat fruit for every meal.

But it's those veggies that can be tricky. Yech. Sometimes bitter, sometimes too hard (or soft), and sometimes almost tasteless. Peppers or apples? I would take the apple every time. But, I know that vegetables are really important for growing little bodies, and I want them to develop a true tolerance (if not a like!) for them that will last long after I'm able to regulate the kids' intake of them.

So, friends, how do you get your kids to eat their veggies?

Here are a few things that have worked (off and on) for us:

1.  Let them play with their food.  Present their snack in a fun shape. Or give them the pieces and see if they can arrange it into something cool.

Grow: Lenten Paper Chain

All this past week I've been thinking and thinking about how to help the kids observe the Lenten season. I felt like they were too young to give something up for 40 days, but I want to include them in on this special season. Then it hit me- what about a paper chain that includes an activity/question/prayer for the day? Just as Advent is a time of waiting for God, Lent is too. While they have different feelings associated with the waiting, I thought that doing a paper chain would be a good way for the kids to visually see us getting closer to the time of Jesus' resurrection.

Here are the things I put on our chains. Feel free to use whichever ideas you like; I'm not 100% satisfied with all of them, but I think it'll be good for this year. Please leave a comment with any ideas you come up with to replace some of the ones that aren't as strong.

Play: Knuffle Bunny Scenes

Like many of you, we LOVE books. One author we love in particular is Mo Willems. He has written several sets of books, one of them including our ever-so-treasured plush friend- Knuffle Bunny. In the book that started everything out- Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale- we follow the story of a girl who throws a fit because she's lost Knuffle Bunny, but can't tell her dad because she doesn't know how to talk. The book's illustrations are pretty interesting- they are black and white real-life photos with the characters added in color on top. Here's an example:

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Grow Review: Amazing Adventures, Creative Connections and Daring Deeds

For those of you who are in the midst of raising families (or maybe are hoping to some day), this may be a good book to put on your future-books-to-buy list. Amazing Adventures, Creative Connections and Daring Deeds is a book dedicated to the grow of a family’s faith together.

What often happens in American church life is that we leave the growing and fostering of our children's faith development to the local church down the street. While I don't think we intend to ignore the responsibility, I think it just sometimes gets lost in the shuffle. For some of us, the days rush by so fast that we are surprised when it's the weekend. All the plans we had for intentional spiritual formation of our children are still in our journals or are pinned on our boards. Maybe next week, we think.

While a book can certainly not solve this problem (if it were only that easy), I would recommend it as a quality resource for families who are looking to read and serve together as they humbly follow Jesus as a family.  Not only does the book focus on reflection, Scripture and serving the community in which we are located, but it could bring the family together by pushing everyone out of their comfort zone.

For example, one chapter talked about giving generously, and I suspected that the “action” challenge would be something generic like give a few boxes of mac and cheese to your local food shelter. But, the authors (Tim and Alison Simpson) surprised me by challenging the family to pack up EVERY SINGLE PIECE of unopened non-perishable in the house and take it to a food bank or shelter. Gulp.

Pick this one up. This isn’t for the family who wants to do a little fuzzy devotional together, but for a family who wants to be challenged in growing outside of their comfort zones, with the hope of these kind of things becoming an everyday part of life.

As we approach the beginning of the season of Lent, perhaps this may be a devotional that families in our blogging community could go through.  While it's not "lenten" in theme, it may be just what we need to take that next step in growing in faith with our family.

What are some resources that you have found to be valuable in the faith development journey of your children?

p.s. This post was adapted from my initial review, which can be found here.

Eat: Dairy-Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars

With Valentine's Day just behind us, you may not be in need of something sugary. But, I can always appreciate another sweet.

And this one you can actually feel okay about. Not only is it dairy-free (and without any strange substitutions) it only uses minimal sugar and it is whole-grain. That seems like as good as a dessert can get.