Tag: christian parenting

My Perfect Father

On By Judy GlasserIn FebruaryLeave a comment

He’s my Heavenly Father.

He takes care of me perfectly.

He wants only the best for me – he has promised this and he always keeps his promises.

Absolutely nothing is impossible for him to do.

He has proven this to me many times – especially in the area of parenting.

Being good parents is the most impossible thing my husband and I have ever done.  It’s only God’s power and grace and intervention in our lives that caused us to now have 2 mature, educated and successful adult kids.birthday

I was reminded of all the ways God is my perfect parent recently as my husband and I cared for my 5 year-old grandson and almost 2 year-old grand-daughter for 8 days while their parents cruised through the Caribbean.

It’s been almost 30 years since our kids were this age.

As I placed several bandages on my grandson’s knee after he fell off his new bike, I remembered all the times in my adult life when my Heavenly Father had comforted my hurts and my emotional bruises.

Oh, how He loves me!grandma loves me

Whenever my granddaughter gave me ‘the look’ and shrieked ‘no!’, I was reminded of my own rebellious No’s to my Heavenly Father.  But he never turned away.  His patience with me was longer than my rebellion.

Oh, how He loves me!

We struggled to keep up with feeding their hungry bellies.  They are growing very fast and we continually failed to understand the half-formed words behind the pointing fingers of our 2 year-old grand-daughter.  What did she want?  I was reminded of my Father’s perfect provision for me all of my life.   He knows exactly what I need.

Oh, how He loves me!eating

As I looked into the blue eyes of my granddaughter which look hauntingly like my own, I am reminded of how God has uniquely shaped each one of us and yet he has attached us to each other in beautiful ways.  Sometimes he connects us by the color of our eyes – creating a bond which goes straight to my heart.

Oh, how He loves me!

We were reminded that our Perfect Father does not grow tired of caring for us.  As our week of taking care of our grand darlings rolled on, we had less and less energy.   There was a lot of sighing going on at my house after our kids came back from their trip and we dragged our bodies home – so thankful for a quiet place to rest.eden with stroller

Oh, how He loves us!

We were rewarded many times every day during that week with happy smiles that came our way and even tiny ‘thank you’s’ from the little one who has such a big personality but only knows a couple of words.

Oh, how He loves us!

Our Perfect Father.

He has showered his blessing on us with precious memories of extra moments spent with our awesome granddarlings.

Oh, how He loves us!

 

Our High Places

On By Judy GlasserIn June1 Comment

What are our high places?

June 20 2013As we’re reading through Kings and 2 Kings, we read about good Kings who did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.  Some of them demolished idol worship everywhere within their kingdom and others destroyed most of it but left the high places.  And the people would continue to worship idols in the high places.

Do we have high places in our lives where we continue to worship our idols?  Pieces of our lives which we want to keep under our control and refuse to give over to God?

Some areas I  had a big and long struggle with but eventually gave over to God are:

My children.  It was a very big relief to finally understand that God loves my children more than me and my worrying over them did no good for anyone.  God is with them always – loving them and taking care of them.

My career.  It was also a big relief when I really understood that my career came from God.  I am where I am because that’s where he wants me to be.  When he wants me to be somewhere else, he’ll guide me there.  Meanwhile, all of my achievements and successes and promotions and pay increases come from him.

Our finances.  I never felt that we had enough money to tithe – until we started tithing.  Since we’ve started tithing, we always have enough money for our needs.  And whenever God decides that we need some extra, he sends us an unexpected check or makes some more hours of work available for my husband. 

God amazed me last year when I felt that he was telling me to plan a trip to Israel but I didn’t have the money.  So I asked him to show me how I was supposed to pay for it.  And he orchestrated an award for me at work which I didn’t even know I was nominated for.  The total of the award was the price of the trip including – of course –  a tithe of the amount.  He couldn’t make it more obvious, could he?

I have learned that, when I was trying to control these things, I was actually keeping them from coming under the blessing of my Father God.  Since I have recognized his Lordship in all of these areas of my life, he has consistently me in each of them – every day in every way.

Thank you, dear God!

Clothed in Scarlet

On By Judy GlasserIn JuneLeave a comment

“When it snows, she has no fear for her household, for all of them are clothed in scarlet.”May 25 2013

I have read this verse in Proverbs 31 many times but I never ‘got it’ until now.  I love that about God’s word – no matter how many times I read it all the way through, I’m always motivated to do it again.  Because there’s more.  There’s something new God wants to reveal to me.  It’s his living word and he’s still talking 🙂

And I realize that snowing in biblical  times was probably a huge deal, something they weren’t prepared for.  It would create a lot of issues and problems.  A mother could be very worried about her family and what was happening to them during this time.

I realize that they were clothed in scarlet but they weren’t wearing red clothes.  She knew her family was covered by sacrificial blood which was the blood of animals back in those days and is now the blood of Christ. 

So when all of the problems and issues came, she didn’t need to worry.  Her family was safe in the arms of God,

Love it! 

And, as a parent, I regularly need to remind myself to ‘ live’ this.  I am blessed to know that my husband and grown children all have a personal relationship with Christ.  Even my little 2 1/2 year-old grandson knows that God loves him.

They are in his hands.

They are clothed in scarlet. 

And when the snow – or troubles – come,  I won’t have to worry.

Maybe I’ll ask everyone to wear something red for our next family picture 🙂

Thank you, dear Father.

Psalm 136, 2013

On By Judy GlasserIn MayLeave a comment

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.

                                                                                                               His love endures forever.

He alone deserves our worship and our praise.

                                                                                                               His love endures forever.

Because of his will, the sun rises every morning.

Because of his will, I will take my next breathe.

                                                                                                               His love endures forever.

He planned a life of faithfulness for me when he gifted me with a family rich with generations of believers.

                                                                                                                 His love endures forever.

He formed a long-lasting union when he blessed me with my husband

He created my son’s tall, strong body and my daughter’s beautiful smile.

                                                                                                                 His love endures forever.

I continue to be showered with his blessings as I look into the big blue eyes of my grandson who loves to dance for God.

                                                                                                                 His love endures forever.

He has been my rock and my salvation for all of my life.

                                                                                                                  He love endures forever.

I give thanks to the God of Heaven.

                                                                                                                  His love endures forever.

All of It

On By Judy GlasserIn AprilLeave a comment

David stands surrounded by huge piles of gold and silver and bronze that have been donated to build the temple for God.  He lifts his hands to God, saying:

“Yours, Lord is the kingdom, you are exalted as head over all.April 19 2 Sam

Wealth and honor come from you;

you are the ruler of all things.

In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all.

Now, our God, we give you thanks and praise your glorious name.”

This is one of my favorite visuals in the Bible.  Every time I read it, David reminds me of something that is extremely important.  I need to remember it, believe it and act like it every day of my life.

It’s all God’s.

Everything. 

He gives me things to take care of for him but it’s still all his.

Really believing this and acting like it has been a gradual process in my life.  The toughest but most precious change was when I realized my children weren’t mine – they were his.  He gave them to me to love and nurture but they were always his.  Really believing this is actually a relief – especially now that they are grown and have their own lives.  God is always with them – loving and protecting them.  They are his. 

I’m just grateful that he let me be their mom.

Thank you, dear Father!

He Loves to Dance!

On By Judy GlasserIn AprilLeave a comment

Now he loves to dance for God.  It’s a beautiful thing.handsome micah (2)

We have been handing over my little 2 ½ year-old grandson to the Toddler room volunteers at our church every Sunday morning for almost a year.  Every time we left there was a possibility of tears because all of the different big people and the loud noises struck a note of fear into his tiny heart.  He was not happy to be going there.

Now everything has changed- he’s excited about going to church. His big blue eyes light up and he gets a huge smile on his face as he says ‘ Dance’.  Have you ever seen a pack of toddlers dancing and singing to God?  It’s amazing.  It’s inspiring.  It’s a beautiful thing.

And there’s more.  One of the young dancing and singing volunteers is a daughter of someone we know.  My husband and I are privileged to teach one of the Fresh Start classes at our church and the young volunteer’s mother, Maria, was in our last class.

Maria was one of the most engaged and faithful members of that class.  She always had great questions and was very open about wanting to figure out how to become a better follower of Christ.  She clearly had found what she was looking for when she found God and she was doing everything she could to grow in her faith, even against some stiff opposition from her Catholic family.

So, while we were serving and teaching and encouraging Maria, her daughter was serving and teaching and encouraging our grandson.  This is one of the truly beautiful things about a church family when it is centered on God and his truth.  As we all love and serve God together, he blesses us through each other.  And he just keeps on blessing us.

And now Micah loves to dance for God.

Great Distress

On By Judy GlasserIn MarchLeave a comment

A new generation of Israelites grew up and they know nothing about God or what he had done for them.

We read of this happening during the time of the Judges and several other places in the old testament.March 17 judges 2

It is extremely hard for me to understand how this could happen.  How can a whole generation of Israelites grow up without hearing about God and his constant faithfulness to them?  They had awesome stories of God leading them and fighting for them and feeding them and freeing them.  What were those parents thinking when they didn’t take the time and effort to pass those along?  Now that I’m a grandparent I also wonder what the grandparents were thinking?

They obviously weren’t thinking.  This passage tells us that they were all wrapped up in their false gods.  They worshipped the various gods from the regions where they lived.

How could they do this?  If we’re honest, we know how easy it is to get distracted from what’s good and true.  Our world provides innumerable false gods that are worshipped faithfully by the crowds of people around us.  These are the gods of money, success, a big house, a new car – the list goes on.

These false gods entice us to spend our time and energy on things other than worshipping, serving and loving our God.

And our children watch.  They know what our priorities are by how we spend our time and money.  It doesn’t matter what we say – what we do has the most influence.

We are told that the Israelite’s lack of faith aroused God’s anger.  Woh.  Not a good thing.

And we are told that their children lived in great distress because of the actions or, probably more accurate, the lack of actions of their parents.

None of us as parents want our children to live in great distress because of things we have done.  Or not done.

If we’re not where we need to be in this area of our lives, today is the best time to start to make a change.  One step at a time.  We first need to get our own priorities straight – lined up with the Truth – and then we can teach our children by example.

Even when our children are adults, they are still watching our lives.  We can influence them by how we choose to live, how we spend our time and our money.  We can stop preaching at them –  they don’t listen anyway 🙂

When our grown children see the love and peace and grace of God shining out of our lives, they will want to check it out.  Because they won’t have it if their lives aren’t lined up with God.

Dear Father, help us to be good examples of fully devoted followers of Christ so that our lives along with our words show your goodness and your truth.