"Awake, my glory!"

I'm about to run into the shower so I can be ready for our weekly Kajiji Girl gathering, however I could not let this article go by without immediately posting.  If you are the mother of a boy or simply the wife of a man (or consider yourself to be part of the species classified as homo sapiens), you really must read this!  As the mother of four boys (ahhhh!), this topic weighs on me constantly.  Knowing how lust is shoved in our children's faces every day in every imaginable way makes our job as protectors of their heart and trainer of their mind so incredibly difficult.  I just keep reminding myself of my new favorite verse as a homeschooler:

All your sons will be taught by the Lord, and great will be your children's peace.  ~Isaiah 54:13

Just this morning I was reading about David in the book of  I Chronicles, and it mentioned the Hebrew word for GLORY which is chabod.  Jon Courson defines it as "weighty, heavy".  Here the author notes it as kavod meaning "courage, honor".  Those two meanings are a wonderful way to think of God's glory upon and within us.

Hear No Evil See No Evil Speak No Evil Fine Art Print - William Meemken

How NOT to Help Your Son with Lust
by Cliff Graham

In my days as a youth pastor, the most frequent question I was asked about by mothers of boys was, "How do I help my son deal with lust?"

This question was frequently asked by the moms who were single. Dad had bailed on the family, so I can't really imagine how difficult and awkward it would have been for those moms to breach the subject with their sons.  If you are that mom, my heart goes out to you.  Truly.

Even if you live in a happy marriage and you have a husband who can help you navigate those seas, there is something I  must plead with you to understand about my gender.  Lust will always be a struggle for us.

Like any sin of the flesh, lust is a symptom of a larger problem.  That problem is when we have tried to replace the satisfaction of God with the satisfaction of something temporary.  In this life, that never goes away, regardless of the symptom.  

Continue reading here...

War

Sometimes I feel like I'm cheating if I post someone else's blog post here.  After all, shouldn't I try to come up with my own thoughts, words and lessons learned throughout my day/week?  Well, with the stage of parenting I'm in, sometimes I consider it a true miracle that I can even make sense of another's thoughts and lessons.  So without further ado, here is a phenomenal article about the spiritual battle we - and our children especially - face.

“We carry an insidious prosperity gospel around in our dark, little, entitled hearts.”  ~Matt Chandler- The Explicit Gospel (Crossway, 2012)

The Lord has brought this quote often to mind recently.  Perhaps it’s because I am still surprised and disappointed when things don’t come easy.  I want to believe that the “good” that God is working in my life is all about having happy times on this earth, rather than sanctification for the life to come.

My heart is, indeed, dark and entitled.

I see this tendency in my children, as well.  Truth be told, they learned many of their sinful ways from me.

It is tempting to raise my children in the type of fantasyland bubble that I crave for myself, in which their greatest trials involve choosing between vanilla or chocolate ice cream for dessert.  I would shield them from a bedrock truth about this life: that we are at war. 

Continue here to read the rest...