A Prayer for All Mothers

Oh, Heavenly Father,

Make me a better parent

Teach me to understand my children

To listen patiently to what they have to say

To answer all their questions kindly

Keep me from interrupting or contradicting them

Make me as courteous to them as I would have them be to me

Forbid that I should ever laugh at their mistakes

Or resort to shame or ridicule when they displease me.

May I never punish them for my own selfish satisfaction or to show my power

Let me not tempt my children to lie or steal

And guide me hour by hour

That I may demonstrate by all I say and do that honesty produces happiness.

Reduce, I pray, the meanness in me

And when I'm out of sorts

Help me, O Lord, to hold my tongue.

Make me fair and just and kind and

Fit, O Lord, to be loved and respected and imitated by my children. Amen.

Amen. Amen.

--slightly abridged...to read it all, get the book, My 40 Day Blessing Book by Christina Kyriacou. :-)

Emily Dickinson

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant --

Success in Circuit lies

Too bright for our infirm Delight

The Truth's superb surprise

As Lightning to the Children eased

With explanation kind

The Truth must dazzle gradually

Or every man be blind --

Food is love

One of the ways that I show love to others is through food. I have always loved to make a tasty, nutritious meal for my family. I get immense pleasure out of sitting at the table looking around knowing that, because of my efforts, my family is getting the nourishment that they need, and they are enjoying it. :-)

I love to read about nutrition, watch DVDs about nutrition, talk about nutrition. I'll share my resources or buy people their own. I believe what our government tells us is nutritious is a lie and is making us all sicker and sicker. I try to combat that where I can. I've encouraged others to find a source for and drink only raw milk. I believe it's more important to consume grass-fed beef than organic vegetables. I fret over the kinds (and amounts - it should be more than you've been led to believe) of fats that we are told to eat. I will buy loved ones (and beg them to eat) jars of coconut oil, bottles of essential fatty acids, good butter, nuts.

There is a children's book called Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendack. It is brilliant. The little boy in the story, Max, says he will eat his mom up. She sends him to bed without his dinner. Max, in his room, begins to imagine himself as King of the Wild Things. The Wild Things say they love him so much that they will eat him up. Max says NO! to them. He goes back to his mother, his room, and a hot plate of food. :-) (There's more to the book. Go to the library right now and read it. Right now. :-) You'll be glad you did.)

Food is love. The modern notion that people shouldn't eat for "emotional" needs is false. Food heals, body and soul. Jesus said, "Take, eat."

The disciples loved him so much that they wanted to eat him up. Don't we say about babies that we love them so much that we could just eat them up? "Taste and see that the Lord is good." Psalm 34:8.

But some people don't accept food as gifts of love.

There are some aspects in which food is not love. If I feed my child fast food all the time, I do not love them. (Go watch Super-size Me). If I feed my child white, bleached, processed white sugar all the time, or worse, corn syrup, I do not love them. But then these examples aren't real food anyway. Feeding them stuff that isn't really food is really despising my child.

"Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?" Luke 11:11

"Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?" Matt. 7:9

If someone were to bring me food, say a sandwich, and it had been made with, oh, say, moldy cheese, that would not say "love" to me either. Would it to you? It would hurt me deeply and I would not trust that person toward me anymore.

So feed your child, your loved ones, real, nutritious food and love them.

These Beautiful Words

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

The words of our Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew chapter 5.

Norms & Nobility by David Hicks

Can we humanize the young by giving them a humanistic education? Can a child memorize endless passages of Shakespeare or Goethe and still turn out to be a beast? The answer to both questions is yes, because the intention of the learner, not the content of his lessons, is alone critical to the moral efficacy of education. The learner must want to be changed by his studies. He must read Shakespeare as a Christian reads his Bible. 'Whenever the prince picks up a book," advised Erasmus(1965), "he should do so not with the idea of gaining pleasure but of bettering himself by his reading. He who really wants to be better can easily find the means of becoming better., A great part of goodness is the desire to be good.' The greatest part of education is instilling in the young the desire to be good: a desire that sharpens and shapes their understanding, that motivates and sustains their curiosity, and that imbues their studies with transcendent value. To the pagan dictum that virtue is the fruit of learning, the Christian added, 'And learning is the fruit of virtue,' thereby interjecting a mystical element into the already complex relation between knowledge and responsibility. p. 98.

Thoughts for the day

The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life, but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit. Prov. 15:4

Better to live in a desert than with a quarrelsome and ill-tempered wife. Prov. 21:19

Put away perversity from your mouth; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Prov. 4:24

Do not accuse a man for no reason--when he has done you no harm. Prov. 3:30

There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: (among them are:) a heart that devises wicked schemes, and a man who stirs up dissension among his brothers. Prov. 6:16-19