Bible Time

One of my favorite things that I love to do with my daughter is Bible Time. I got this idea from my small group leader. I wanted to start reading the bible and singing praise songs with Lexi early. It's never too early to praise God and I have to admit she LOVES her time with the Lord. Hopefully I'll be able to instill a love of spending time with the Lord everyday. I first start by praying. I usually follow the ACTS system - Adoration, Confession, Thankfulness, and Supplication. Next, we read a bible story together. Then we sing a song together - which is my favorite part. She's dancing and singing along. One idea that my SG Leader gave my group was how she has a picture album of family and friends that her daughter and her pray through. I'd really like to incorporate that into our time together too. I hope you will be able to use this in your time with your child. This only takes about 10-15 minutes. What other things do you do with your child during their Bible time?

Here are some books that I love

Rejoicing in Suffering; being content

Suffering is not something a Christian expects when they decide to follow Christ. Of course you read and study about it but its not real to you until it actually happens. Fortunately or maybe unfortunately (depending on you look at it) we in America don't suffer the way believers do in other countries. I feel like my husband and I have been going through some trials I wish we didn't have to go through. It's strained different relationships in my life. Typically I fight through it and get to the solution head on. Now I have people around me who don't do that and I have to adjust. I want a resolution so I can have closure but that's not happening any time soon. So, how do I handle this in a way that honors Christ when all I want to do is scream?

In Philippians 4:10-13 Paul writes " I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be a content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me." To have that kind of faith! No matter what situation Paul was in he had learned the secret. So what's the secret? It's simple but difficult to do: trusting in God in every circumstance. To me that means being obedient to the Lord whether I want to or not. I've done this in the past and most of the time I've been blessed. So I have to be content in the situation God's put me in knowing that He's working everything out for His glory. I need to remember this every day; be in His word so I can have reminders of how God is working. Also I need to remember there are others out there who are going through much more difficult circumstances and I need to keep them in prayer just like the Philippians did for Paul.

How do I rejoice in suffering? That's a something I haven't figured out yet but hope to in my journey as I get closer to Christ.

What do you think? How has suffering made you stronger? Or are you still trying to figure it out?

Belief

John 8:31-32 "So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,and you will know the truth, and the truth e will set you free.”



When I say I believe in something what does it really mean? One of the definitions by dictionary.com for believe is "to have confidence in the truth, the existence, or the reliability of something, although without absolute proof that one is right in doing so". Why is belief in something so important? Can you say you believe in something but your life reflects something else entirely?

These are questions I think about when I look at my daughter. As she gets older my husband and I have to give her rules and we need to make sure we're united in what we believe. As Christians we'll be teaching her things that are against the world's teachings and she'll probably question us. So I've asked myself do I believe enough in Jesus to stay strong especially when she may want to fight us?

The answer is yes. As I dig deeper into God's word He keeps solidifying my faith and I want to share it with my child. I want her to know that its not just saying with our mouths "I believe in Jesus" but actually acting on that belief. It's not just believing in Jesus, it's making a commitment to the person and Lordship of Christ. It's deciding that I will obey God's commands because I love Him and not because I just feel like it. I want my daughter to learn the different portraits of Jesus that each of gospels reflect: In Matthew as the Mighty King, in Mark as the Obedient Servant, in Luke as the Son of Man, and in John as the Divine Son of God. I hope that she will worship every aspect of Jesus and fall so in love with Him that nothing will shake her faith. Now I just have to figure out how we're going to practically teach all of this to her. :)

Trusting God - Psalm 25:1-10 A mother's reflection

A couple weekends ago I wasn't able to go to church because we were out of town. I listened to the message online and WOW what an awesome message. As I listened to my pastor speak I felt like the spirit was speaking through him to me. With me staying at home and other issues our family has been going through some tough months. It doesn't seem like its going to end any time soon so this message was perfect for us.
Pastor James went over Psalm 25:1-10

To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul; in you I trust, O my God. Do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me. No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame,but they will be put to shame who are treacherous without excuse. Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. Remember, O LORD, your great mercy and love, for they are from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you are good, O LORD. Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in his ways. He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way. All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful for those who keep the demands of his covenant.

To give you a little background this Psalm is believed to be written by David during the time his son, Absalom, was setting us a coup against him. David was hiding in the mountains when he writes this lament to God. He finds out that during the revolt his son is killed. I read this part in the Bible (2 Samuel around the 18th chapter) and this verse really stuck out to me " And the king was deeply moved and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept. And so he went, he said, 'O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!" Being a mother I can relate to how David must've felt. Yes his son was trying to kill him but it was still his child. No matter what Alexa did I would be devastated if she died before me. You can also see the humility in David during his life in his later years. He had learned a lot through his mistakes and instead of pride he felt remorse for how his family was. He knew a lot of it was directly related to how he raised his children.

In the same way David had humility we need to have that kind of humble attitude to let Jesus actually drive the car for our life. We need to let him be in charge of where we're going and stop trying to take the wheel from him. We have to make a choice if we want to trust God or trust man. As a stay at home mom I struggle with this a lot especially in regards to finances. Our income was cut in half when I stopped working and it's hard living on a strict budget. But I know this is the choice my husband and I made to be home with Alexa. This is what worked best for our family. I want to be the one teaching her (and God willing our future children) how to live a life for Jesus. Jesus entrusted Alexa to me and my husband and I want to honor him.

In Psalm 25:10 David writes "Indeed none who wait for you shall be put to shame." This is a great promise. Even when things look tough God promises me that I will not be put to shame when I follow Him. I can trust that God knows what he's doing. So I'm going to meditate on His words and memorize His promises. Then I can keep them in my heart and I know they'll come to mind when my daughter's screaming her head off and I have no idea what to do. Or when I'm wondering if staying at home is even worth it. So to all the young mothers out there whether you're working or not I hope you'll take the time to thank God that you can trust Him and that He keeps His promises. If you don't know Jesus I hope you'll take some time to get to know Him and how He can change your life. Trust me He's worth it.

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Sleeping Through the Night

One of the major hurtles new parents have to face is training their child to sleep through the night. We have a lot of friends that have children so we heard all the horror stories. When we finally got pregnant that was one of the main issues that we wanted to figure out how to deal with early. We didn't want to wait till Alexa was 1 before she had a good night sleep. :) As we did our research we learned how sleeping was a time for the child's brain to grow and how important sleep was to them. We also learned how important sleep was to parents if they wanted to take care of their child as best they could. So we decided to try to train her early.
I know it may sound weird that we wanted to train a little baby who was just born to sleep but trust me we were flexible. It wasn't really about training but more about learning my daughter's cues and following them. Children love being on a schedule. I'll explain why I think so in a later post. From my experience as a teacher I know that children like to know what's going to happen next. So I wanted to give my daughter that too.
We started a formal schedule only after 6 weeks but we started informally scheduling her when she was born. We are blessed - Alexa kind of scheduled herself. We just helped her along. In the beginning every time we fed her we would play with her until we thought she seemed to be getting tired and then let her sleep. As most parents know newborns only stay awake at the most 45 minutes so it didn't take long for her to go to sleep. I slowly started figuring out her cries and made her schedule according to that. Then I started to notice her cues: rubbing her eyes, little cries, being fussy. Most of the time I would wrap her up in a swaddle me and she would fall asleep in about 5 minutes. There are the occasional times where she'll cry herself to sleep because she's been so stimulated but they are very few. To make it a little easier this is what her sleep schedule looked like.


Feed (from 10-45 minutes)

Waketime (starting from feeding time -
Newborn - 45 minutes
after 6 weeks - about 90 minutes
4 months - about 2 hours

Sleep
Newborn - about 60-90 minutes
after 6 weeks - about 90 minutes
4 months - about 2 hours

Remember these are all things I did because I thought they were best for my child. Everyone has a different approach because each child is different. This is just meant as a guide to help if you need it. I hope this did help anyone out there struggling with this. Please feel free to comment on how you helped your child to sleep at night.

A Happy Baby Means a Well Rested Baby!

One of the first things I learned as a new mom is how important and beneficial a schedule is. I think I would’ve went crazy without it. As a teacher I’m used to everything being on some sort of schedule and I think children benefit from the repetition. I wanted to make sure that my child had the best experience with me and that meant I had to be at my best. So I read, read, and read articles, books, and blogs about schedules; I talked to my friends who already were moms and I talked to my husband about how we wanted to bring our daughter up in this world. We come from an Indian background where our parents just let us run free and decided to discipline and schedule us when we were 5 which by then was too late. (I was a horrible child.) I wanted to make sure my daughter was well rested because I knew she would be more happy. So for all the frazzled moms out there here is the schedule that I’ve been doing with my daughter since she was 6 weeks old. I’m happy to say that she’s been sleeping through the night since she was 6 weeks old and she’s a delight to be around. She makes me love being a mom! My daughter is 4.5 months old now so her schedule is sleep 2 hours waketime 2 hours sleeptime- every baby is different, you should the adjust timing accordingly. Remember your schedule does not have to be strict – be flexible. This is just a guide to help spend the most productive time with your baby.

8:00 am Feed

8:30 Read the bible and pray together

8:45 Play together ~ for example:

• Sing nursery or bible songs to her
• Dance with her or for her
• look in the mirror and point out her eyes, nose, etc.

9:30 Read a book; look at alphabet or word cards together

10:00 Nap time

12:00 Feed

12:30 Play with the baby

• Do different exercises with her. A good website is www.huggies.com
• Tummy time or helping her to roll or stand. (Depends on age of baby)

1:15 Independent play

• Sitting on a bouncy seat
• playing with an activity gym, stationary entertainer, swing etc. If you have a couple of these you can transfer the baby to each one when she gets bored
• helping the baby to hold a ball, toy, spoon etc. You want to do exercises that will help the baby’s motor skills

2:00 Nap time

4:00 Feed

4:30 Play with her/Independent play

6:00 Last feeding

7:00 bath time

7:15 bedtime ritual:

1. turn off the lights except for night lite, small lamp, or closet light
2. turn on sound machine (if you use one)
3. read a bedtime story
4. pray
5. put her to bed

Please feel free to share your thoughts or comments.

Stay tuned to my next post where I will be writing about what I did to help my daughter sleep through the night.