serving our kids

I've really enjoyed a few of Douglas and Nancy Wilson's books lately. Thanks so much S & T for passing them to us for to enjoy.

Since the books aren't mine, I just read straight through without marking them up, though I wish now I would have taken better notes. Still, there are too many excellent bits I could post even if I had marked them into rainbows.

Most all of his writing so far has struck me as super encouraging, although this paragraph has a far more challenging, cautionary tone. Here's just one bit from D. Wilson's book "Standing on the Promises: A Handbook of Biblical Childrearing."

As we bring up our children, we should descend to their level in one sense (humility) in order to lead them to our level (maturity). This is not the same as descending to their level (immaturity) in order to lead them to our level (pride). We must be servants to our children; we must not cater to them. One of the central problems with bringing up children in our day is the contstant temptation to undersestimate their capacities. We teach them profane and irreverent little ditties, not psalms and hymns. We give them moralistic little stories, not biblical doctrine and ethics. We expect them to act as though they have no brains or souls until they have graduated from college. We aim at nothing, and we hit it every time. p 15

(Just to clarify, in plenty of other places, Wilson clearly advocates feeding our kids lots of excellent literature to stir their minds and imaginations. )

Wilson also pointed out the role of shepherd is clearly the leader of the sheep, and also the servant of the sheep. The same goes for parents- clearly the leader and also the servant.

Our big opportunity to serve is coming right up. As my dear friend (who is having back surgery right now- we're praying for you dear Kim!) wrote to me once, "there's nothing more sanctifying than potty training." Just such sanctification starts- again- Friday morning our time.

You might remember that we've already written about this. We started potty training Marian last June because we heard that girls usually start earlier than boys and second children can be earlier.... well, it did not work out quite so at our house.

Marian was, overall, about 2/3 of the time on target with potty business last summer. But, come fall, when we were nonstop on the road visiting friends around the states, we finally had to abandon the whole deal.

I hope so much that this post will serve me as a way of public accountability to Serve my Daughter with Joy in this process. I'd better prepare for things to get messy.... but I'm also so excited for her to really be a big girl now!

Watch for a post of Marian's butterfly wings. They're waiting for her, high up on our hutch, as her reward for when she conquers! (Oh may it be soon, Lord! Give us grace!!)