mothers-rule-of-life

Welcome to Week 5 of our Mother’s Rule of Life online book study.   If you have missed previous weeks, you can find them all here.   This week we are reading and discussing Chapter 6 – The Fourth P: Parent.

This is one that is such an awesome responsibility that I don’t think ANYONE thinks they have a handle on it.  (If you are one of those, email me, I could use a mentor!).   I love Holly’s assertion that being is more important than doing.  I finally had to put hard breaks in my day.  I “do” first (prayer).  Then I “be”  (snuggle, eat, dress her, etc).  Then I “do” ( shower & put my slaves (dishwasher & washer/dryer) to work).  Then I “be” again.  I read, play, etc.   You know do-be-do-be-do :).

ANYWAY, I love the reminder that my biggest contribution is “giving the world healthy, holy citizens to will spread their sphere of influence.”   It’s more important than anything else I do unless it’s for God or my hubby.   Even more important than work or hobbies.   And my hobbies are TIME. SUCKERS.  Twitter anyone?  Facebook?  Blogging?

I was also struck by the fact that we are called to recreate the garden of paradise by making our homes a place of beauty, peace and harmony.  I’ve always tried to make my home feel like that.  I was blessed to have our Best Man stay with us for a few weeks one summer and he actually told me that our house felt peaceful and homey (or something like that).   Ahhh.  Our homes should be a sanctuary of the family and a place to be a living witness.

Not only should our homes attempt to mimic the garden of eden (notice there was only ONE thing in the whole garden they should not touch; this is not an ideal magazine spread but something that WORKS for the family), but we should become a living witness!   We need to be an example.  A good example!  I am having such a time with this because my little two year old is turning into quite the parrot!  I’m so thankful that some of my prior bad behaviors are no longer habits and that she’s picking up some good things.  But I can see that I have much work to do on myself, which is why I’m doing this book study with you lovely ladies!

The last things I noticed were:

  • What we ask our children to do must be based on a real, legitimate reason, on a real good for the benefit of the child, the parent and the common good of the family.
  • Mommy means what she says AND IS WILLING TO ENFORCE IT (emphasis mine).
  • Find a logical place for everything and teach this to your children.
  • The heart of routine is natural progression.  x leads to y leads to z.

They were sort of self-explanatory so I didn’t think I needed to go on about them.  I’ve already been pretty wordy :).   Go ahead and work through the Working out Essentials (and Beyond the Basics if this is a refresher for you).  If you are doing the workbook, do the corresponding pages.

For Discussion

How do you balance being and doing?   What do you consider your battles?   Any parenting “rules” that you don’t find to be worth the battle?   What items hit close to home for you while you were reading this chapter?

One final thought:   Mary is Mother.  And Mother is the personification of Love.

Next week, we’ll be discussing the 5th P – Provider.

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