Thanksgiving
Tom Abbottwas very gracious to me in his blog today, so I just had to say "thanks" publicly...

And on to the business of mothering...
I was thinking today about Christ and his little discourse about children in Matthew 18. As a mom, I was drawn to how Christ said in the section immediately afterward that "if someone sins aainst you", it is your duty to them to "win him over". In other words, it isn't a matter of assuaging my pride - but of establishing my brother's (or my child's) salvation! What an eye-opener for me!
This isn't to say that we self-righteously go around correcting every sinner in our path, "for their own salvation". What it said to me, rather, was that my parental correction of my children mustn't come out of self love. (Oh, boy, is my pride in for it today,huh?)
Don't lose me now- this was a real break through for me...
When I correct them out of my own self-love, it is because I have been offended. (After all, doesn't everyone else in this house see when I've picked up their jackets for the eighteenth time?!!!) I am the shepherd, as it were, of their souls. I am Christ to my children, as long as they are in this house. If I am guiding them to make sure they don't offend me, then where has this investment of my life really gone? However, if I see that it is for their salvation that I must feed them, teach them to get along, and patiently help those boys get through their chores... aaahhhh... then it brings me to deal with them in true compassion. The compassion that Christ was mine when Christ died on the cross. The compassion with which he desires to touch their young souls.
What a transcendent grace it is to be the servant of the King.

...Now Mount NeverRest (the laundry pile) calls. Transcend that! :)

Thy Kingdom Come!