Modeling Clay and Intentional Parenting

We had a great time at Mom Time last night! It is so refreshing to get together with other women just for some Mom Time--our time without the kiddos! It has been a great avenue to connect with other women, encourage one another, sharpen one another, laugh together, and share a great meal!

Last night was a Spanish Tapas theme night...it was delicious!! Following dinner, we had a great discussion from an excerpt in Lisa Welchel's book called "Speaking Mom-ese." Since "good fruit" produced in our children's lives doesn't just happen over night, we challenged each other on how we can be more intentional in parenting our children in the ways of the Lord. Together, we realized that this "good fruit" is the result of years and years of intentional instruction, training and modeling

What is an area in your parenting that you would like to be more intentional in modeling before your children?

Based on this question we got a little creative! We each made a playdoh molding of an object that represents an area that we would like to be more intentional in modeling for our children. For Example….

• A Shield--being more intentional in shielding our children from bad influences i.e. certain friends, t.v., and etc.
• A Cross--being more intentional in memorizing scripture and praying with our children
• A Clock—being more intentional in spending enough quality time with our children (non household related i.e. grocery shopping, cleaning house, and etc...)

The old expression more is caught than taught is so true.

Teaching our children biblical principles, scriptures, bible stories, songs, etc... is great but do they actually see us putting into practice what we’re preaching?

• Do they see us actively serving our neighbors and family?
• We can insist that they speak to us with respect, but are we treating our husbands with respect?
• We can buy our children a new bible, but if we want them to develop an intimate relationship with Christ, then they need to see us spending quality time with God other than corporate worship on Sunday morning.

As we reflected upon these things, during our discussion time we had the opportunity to share the object we molded out of our playdoh and the area of parenting it represented. The playdoh creations the girls came up with were so neat including....

• prayer hands--modeling prayer and scripture memory for our children
• a child's feet on top of her mother's feet---safeguarding our children from walking in harmful paths that we once walked in
• the world--being perceptive to the world in need around them (not just in Sugarland)
• the bible---reading God's word more and intentionaly seeking opportunities to share in that time with our children

It was a great oppotunity to verbalize these things and get us thinking about how we can be more intentional in our parenting. It was a refreshing and encouraging time as we shared our hearts and challenged one another!

Thank you Lord for the gift of friendship...other women/mothers whom we can lean on, grow from and encourage one another in the many different seasons we walk through as moms!