And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ Mark 12:30
Dear brides, I want to share with you what I learned from the Homegrown courses (https://rmiou.com/hgc/) and the lesson Macy’s Barn Cat (https://homegrownministries.com/hp/mbc/).
This week I read this story for my 4 and 8-year-old as a bedtime story. The thing that mostly stayed with me was when Macy’s mom, so wisely advised her not to ask her dad for the cat again after he said no, but instead to go to her Heavenly Father and ask for the cat. This is hard for my 8-year-old, many times when we say no, to him he keeps asking and asking another day until we are tired and say yes. This time one day he wanted to play football with one of his friends, but he did not tell me anything he just said, I have asked God for something, and God told me to wait, for it is coming. One day his friend whom he wanted to play football with came into our house to ask if he could play football with my son. Then my child said smiling and happy, I told you that God would do something, here it is. I was happy. I thanked God for seeing so much excitement and happiness in my child for God answered his prayer.
I shared in my previous praise report that my child who is 8 was behaving a bit rebellious sometimes and it was worrying me, but the Lord was always telling me to trust Him, even though I would not fully understand what he meant I felt at peace, but sometimes I would see so many wrong things and how he was not obeying I would become, disturbed and upset. This was the enemy’s tactic to discourage me and leave me afraid and worried. God was telling me not to worry, but by seeing the storm and the waves, I became afraid, and often these things were taking my focus off from the Lord.
The Lord also reminded me that I need to follow the commandments meaning obey his word, by loving Him first and do not give too much attention to what my child is doing. He also told me as shared in the previous praise report that I needed to love my children by being careful in disciplining them and training them to be obedient and do what was right.
Like my husband my children also were my idols, I would feel choked by the things that they were doing (which they were not supposed to) and would be very bothered and disturbed by it and I would add fear to it, making a big picture of it. I didn’t realize that they didn’t have it. (https://loveatlast.org/finding-the-abundant-life/chapter-6-they-dont-have-it/)
This week I felt God tell me to ask my 8-year-old to journal this lesson. I told him that he could start by sharing what he learned in this lesson, but he was not very keen and started crying and rebelling because he wanted to do something else instead. I can remember how this used to affect me and leave me upset and cross and offended so much that I would leave him alone to do whatever he wanted, would end up not doing what the Lord wanted us to do, and remain upset and offended for the rest of the day. This time my Love helped me to remain calm and and explain things to my older child patiently and calmly (“For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted”. Eph 14:11). At last, he was okay to do so. Afterward, he kept asking if I already posted his encouragement.
Here is his encouragement to you from the lesson: Macy’s Barn Cat
Title: Trust God
Promise: Trust in the lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding proverbs 3:5
“Trust in the Lord even though you don’t believe. He can do it.
Once I couldn’t go down a big Zipline I kept on falling but I did not give up I did it anyway because I trusted in the Lord. I could do the Zipline it was easy.
Ohhhh wow Naomi what a lovely praise especially as you share about yourself and your son what you have both learned in this process. I have learned a lot because l also have an 8 year old son who loves playing soccer. Its amazing how much we learn by doing many different courses and lessons and how He speaks to us thru each one to complete the puzzle of difficulty faced 😊 then we experience so much joy 💖
I also tend to go a lot to the
https://hopeatlast.com/c3/day-24-chapter-15-your-mothers-teachings/ lesson when it comes to understanding about discipline for my kids.
Ah Ah 😃 Dear Atarah definitely He is working in both of us, is great to see. My Son likes to play soccer very much too.
I also go often to this lesson https://hopeatlast.com/c3/day-24-chapter-15-your-mothers-teachings/ it has helped me a lot, and I must continue going there to renew my mind with His truth.
Thank you for sharing my sweet Naomi! My daughters love this testimony because it made them understand that their Heavenly Father really listens to them and that He cares!
They feel motivated to read His promises and to trust in Him and not in what they see!
https://encouragingwomen.org/devotional/my-beloved/november/ The daily devotionals have become a blessing in my house because now we read together and pray, which is amazing!
The Lord will change us so we can love our children and show them who their Heavenly Father is, and how much they are loved. As moms we are training our children to become godly and set apart from the wordly ideas!
Praise the Lord for all the great materials we have on Homegrown, and also the encouragement to know that we are not alone in our motherhood journey, we have Him!
Thank you for sharing dear Isabella, the materials in Homegrown are a blessing, and my kids like the stories and the devotional also. I am excited to go throw the materials with them. We need to set them apart for His glory, and like you said it is so good to know that we are not alone on this, we have Him with us, helping and guiding us, He is amazing!
Thank you Naomi, Macy’s Barn Cat was one of the first testimonies I shared with my children and they loved it, it confirmed what I was teaching them at that time. To ask their HF and then to wait on Him and His perfect time. And we as adults can also learn from these testimonies, because sometimes we do not ask or do not like to wait but want everything NOW or YESTERDAY, not realizing there is a reason for the waiting season.
As mother’s we are blessed to have the HomeGrown Ministries (https://homegrownministries.com/) resources to share with our children, and like Isabella shared, the My Beloved Child devotionals (https://homegrownministries.com/my-beloved-child-devotional/) are also a blessing for me and my children, being able to read toghether and then talk about what we’ve learned and praying together!
Thank you for sharing Adina, is great to see how God is working in your family too. You are right all the materials there speak to me as an adult too. This lesson also reminded me that all that we have comes from Him.
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17
Thank you Naomi, we do not always have the answers we need when it comes to our children. At times I also feel lost when dealing with my son who can be very strong-willed and my daughter who “shuts down”. But I’ve learned that although I do not have the answers, my HH and my children’s Heavenly Father, do have the answers I need. He knows every fibre of their beings and therefore He knows exactly the answers we need, we must just run to Him and ask and then wait for Him to show us and to guide us.
We cannot do motherhood without our Heavenly Husband and without running to Him constantly for the answers we need.
I love what you shared and since you are already ministering to mothers, I would like to encourage you to complete your HomeGrown ministry training so you can become a HomeGrown coach as well.
You are so right we need to run to Him constantly concerning our children, and He is so good and kind, He helps all the time, no matter how many times I ask for help, that’s amazing.
Yes I will complete, looking forward to it.
Thank you for sharing dear Naomi, it is so beautiful how we can teach our kids to trust their Heavenly Father and your child’s Heavenly Father answered him.
And the best part is we have such a wonderful Lord that we can trust.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” P3:5-6 https://biblehub.com/proverbs/3-5.htm