relationship – Transformed ♥ Heart

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beautiful big snowflake on a blue background.

One of my favorite old movies is the “Sound of Music” (minus just a couple scenes). When I first saw the movie many years ago, I kind of felt like I could somewhat relate to Maria (played by Julie Andrews) in personality, character, and actions (especially in the early part of the movie). Interestingly, before I had ever seen the movie, one of my close friends told me that I reminded her of Maria in the movie, but that’s not the main reason I like it. There are so many positive things that we can take from that movie, and the one I’m going to focus on in this blog is the song that Maria sang to all the children when they were afraid of the thunderstorm.

“Raindrops on roses
And whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things…”

During this unusually difficult time of isolation and stress for some people as we all are experiencing the pandemic of Covid-19, it is a good time to think about some of your “favorite things”- things for which you are thankful. You are going to have to choose to turn off the news, and choose to bring “into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” as it says in II Corinthians 10:5, and to practice obeying what Philippians 4:8 says: “whatever things are true, whatever things are honest, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Although sometimes it will be more difficult to stay cheerful, positive, and focused on those “favorite things”, especially in times of pain, suffering, and lamenting, II Thessalonians 5:14-24 (and lots of other Scriptures) has some simple instructions and an uplifting message for us. I encourage you to look those verses up soon.

First, those of you who do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ may be experiencing a lot of fear, worry, and anxiety; so my recommendation to you, is to use this time to really seek God through the Bible, and get to know Him personally as His child.

If He is already your Lord, then you can start by thinking about, and then focusing on some of your “favorite things” that bring you happiness. For me, most of those things would be found in God and His creation, like beautifully colored sunsets, rainbows, birds, and butterflies. Other things that bring me joy are the smiles and laughter of babies and children, the variety of songs that the birds sing, and the many different kinds, colors, and behaviors of dogs and cats (especially puppies and kittens). I also enjoy listening to praise and worship music, and writing blogs with the purpose of trying to encourage my readers.

Now, I have a creative challenge for you: See if you can put some of your favorite things to the tune of “These are a few of my favorite things”, and message the words of your song to me; then, I will you and post your name and song on a future blog soon.

Parents aren’t perfect, and in many situations they aren’t even loving or nurturing. Neither my husband nor I had particularly nurturing mothers, and neither of us had any relationship with our fathers. And nowadays, there are so many dysfunctional families that many children are raising themselves, or in foster homes being raised by people other than their parents. They may not have much of a relationship with their own parents, or even with any parental figure that they can really trust.

However, if you are a parent or a substitute parent, you should be praying diligently for wisdom and guidance from God in order to do a good job of raising your child (or children) for the Lord. There are some specific guidelines in God’s Word that will help. Deuteronomy 6:6 and 7 are two of my favorite verses: “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.” It seems to me that these verses are telling us that we should be living in a way that is pleasing to the Lord and teaching our children to do the same, both with words and actions.

Somehow, families have strayed so far from this teaching. I know many parents who quote Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Without being diligent to follow the above teaching, they expect their children to eventually follow the Lord, or they question why that didn’t happen to their children when they thought that they had “trained up their child in the way he should go.” However, Satan has deceived many parents by making them think they are actually training their children in the way they should go just by taking them to Sunday School and church, praying with them at mealtime and/or bedtime, and perhaps even having a short family devotional time.

Although doing those things are fine, just think about all the time that children spend away from their parents, either in a public (or even in a private school), and possibly taking music lessons, playing sports, maybe playing video games, watching television, or even just hanging out with others. I honestly believe that we need to start thinking differently about this, rather than going by what we have experienced ourselves, or see around us. If God wants parents “to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” from the time they rise up until the time they lie down, then there has to be some lifestyle changes within families. There really are resources out there that can be a help to parents who realize they need to make some changes. Contact me if you need some encouragement or ideas.

If you would like to read more on a similar topic, here is a link to another blog post: “God’s Formula for Raising Children in 2020” from Road Less Traveled Tours.