As the deer longs for streams of water,
so I long for you, O God.
Why am I discouraged?
Why is my heart so sad?
I will put my hope in God!
I will praise him again—
my Savior and God.
(Psalm 42:1, 5 NLT)
All I need is You – my God, my Savior and my Redeemer.
All I want is to be in Your presence, o God, worshiping you.
All I desire is You and Your love only.
All I long for is You.
I’ve been struggling with consistency in my parenting days with Abigail. It’s been not so easy to be consistent all the time. It’s not easy for me because I didn’t grow up with that. But, as I went through my emails today, I came across this email and read this verse from NLT Marriage & Family Devotional (from 05/14) really change my mind and heart. God’s word says,
My child, never forget the things I have taught you. Store my commands in your heart. (Proverbs 3:1)
It is important for parents to be consistent with what they say and do to our children, especially in the area of discipline (which I struggle the most since the beginning of being a mom). Every time I discipline my little girl, my heart hurt and sad. My old memories come back in my mind when my dad used to discipline us and how I hated him for that. That’s the one I do not want happen to us, as parents, Abigail will hate us because we discipline her. But also God’s word teaches us that,
Don’t fail to discipline your children. They won’t die if you spank them. Physical discipline may well save them from death. (Proverbs 23:13-14)
What I learn from this verses that our discipline is out of love for her, not out of anger. We want Abigail to be wise so she will be a girl what God wants her to be, for her to have a teachable heart and respect us as her parents. We want Abigail to see that she can make a right choice or the wrong with which always comes with consequences.
In my struggle with consistency as parents and discipline, I pray for God’s word to light up our path as parents. I pray and need the Holy Spirit to help us, to guide us, and to teach us to be the parents God wants us to be for our children. I need wisdom from God to understand how to handle and solve the problems with our children and how to guide their hearts to God.
All we need is God. It’s only through Christ Jesus we can do the right parenting, we cannot achieve anything when we are out of Jesus.
How’s your parenting and consistency as parents when you teach your children?
"God Is So Big"
Every day since we came back from our Equip training with Wycliffe Bible Translators, my 3 year old daughter, Abigail, never stop singing this song:
God is so big, so strong and so mighty.
There’s nothing my God cannot do.
The Mountains are His, the rivers are His,
the stars are His handiwork, too.
God is so big, so strong and so mighty.
There’s nothing that He cannot do for you.
She learned this song at the Missionary Kids class that they provided for her and other kids while the parents attended their classes for 2 weeks. God provided great teachers for each group of kids.
Until today, she has to sing this song at least every morning, nap time and bed time (I do not count the time when she sings the same song for 10 times, each song). She just loves singing and dancing, too!
So, this song is stuck in my head (and my heart) now. This morning, when I woke up, I sang the song in my heart and God reminded me how big He is. It’s a very good reminder to me because lately since we came back from the training, I have a lot of thoughts that keep me from sleeping and start to worry about what’s life gonna be in this transition process, what I should do to prepare my family and myself, how our Partnership Development going to be, and even how I am going to survive with a newborn baby and doing all of these transition and things on our To-Do list. This matters start taking over my faith.
But truly God is so big, so strong and so mighty. There’s nothing that He cannot do for those who loves Him and trust in Him and His way. What I need to do is be still and know that He is God. God knows my heart and my mind, He knows my worries and my struggles. So He knows yours, too!
I hope today this words from a children song will be a good reminder for all of you that our God is so big, so strong and so might. There’s nothing that He cannot do for you!
What things that make you worry today?
Happy Easter!
Jesus came, live on earth and died for all of us for God’s purpose and to fulfill His highest calling. He died to obey his Father and for His glory.
He came to serve, not to be served. He set us an example to serve one another with love (John 13).
Jesus is the true vine where we are the branches found the source of life. We are called to abide in Jesus so we will bear fruits for the glory of God. We surrender to God and trust Him that His ways are always the best for us (John 15).
Jesus didn’t leave, nor forsake us. He prayed for us and He is still interceding for us before God. When we are in Jesus, we are one, just like Jesus and the Father are one. So the world may know God, the Father, through Jesus, in the unity of the believers (John 17).
Jesus was crucified because of the world sins, to be the perfect sacrifice to God, so we are reconciled with the Father, and have the eternal life with Him. Jesus defeated the death (John 19).
To know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death. Through Jesus’ suffering and death, we find the power of His resurrction and we become like Him (Philippians 3).
We love the Jesus Storybook Bible. It is a very good Bible story for children, it also has pretty & colorful illustrations. Today, I found this video on Vimeo. And my girl loves it! She said, “Mama, wanna watch Jesus movie.” It is simple video but has the most wonderful story, about Jesus! It is higly recommended by me 🙂