{helping mommy tell a Bible story}
Can you imagine the tremendously overwhelming feelings Mary and Joseph must have felt as they carried the responsibility of becoming the earthly parents to the Son of God?
Sometimes–usually during the quiet, early mornings when I’m alone with our nursing newborn baby–I think of these Biblical parents and wonder if they ever felt inadequate–knowing their son’s potential–or if they received enough divine guidance through those early years to give them the confidence, “we’ve got this.”
{prepping Childhood of Jesus printables for Bible storytelling}
Learning from the Childhood of Jesus
My current church responsibility is to teach the adult Sunday School class and we recently spent class time discussing the childhood of Jesus. I’ve been thinking a lot about this idea:
Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of our Heavenly Father, still had to experience earthly life. And though the scriptures don’t record a lot of his childhood, the stories we do know show his growth physically, intellectually, spiritually, and emotionally. The growing experiences he had as a child must have been the foundation for the service he would later give during his ministry. Though I’m sure his Heavenly Father was a key role in his growth, so were the experiences and teachings he received from his earthly parents.
Though we’re raising “regular” kids who will likely grow up to be “regular” adults, I feel just a small piece of the weight Mary and Joseph might have felt when I consider the responsibility I have in raising my own children–children of God with incomprehensible potential.
Growth is Not Automatic
In a webinar I recently listened to, Kelly Thorne Gore taught, “Growth is not an automatic process. If we’re going to grow, we have to do so intentionally. We have to decide what areas we’re going to grow in and we have to have a plan–something strategic, specific, and scheduled.”
Setting Goals with Kids
Helping my children grow has been on my mind over the past few weeks and so I’ve spent some one-on-one time with each child talking about their personal goals for the new year. I feel a need to be intentional in fostering their growth (as well as my own), and so we each selected goals in the four areas: physical, intellectual, spiritual, and emotional.
Then (my favorite part!), we spent an afternoon rummaging through old magazines (and Google Images) to create our annual vision boards.
The collages will serve as a visual reminder of the things we’d like to accomplish/work on/learn. It’s just one of the ways I’m trying to “keep life creative” through this parenting business.
How cool. Will definitely try this when my children are a bit older.
Yes, Pam! We parents are coaches and guides, leading our children to grow! I love the picture of three circles – the inner one is our Comfort Zone, the one around that is our Growth Zone and the thinner circle around that one is our Retreat Zone. When helping our children, ourselves or others grow…we are taking them beyond their comfort zone. It’s a feeling of disequilibrium. As they learn this new skill, talent, strength, etc. their comfort zone becomes bigger to include this new growth. That’s our aim. We must watch out though – if we push too hard they will go into “retreat” – then we need to give them time to process and recover before trying new growth.
Thanks for initiating thought about this!
I love this idea! I need to do this with my daughters. To help them have a plan, a focus…and not just live each day with no vision.
Thanks for this inspiration!
I love this SO much! It can be easy for adults to work and strive toward goals, but it’s equally important to teach our kids those same principles. I LOVE that you did vision boards as a family- how fun!
My daughter is 3, so she’s still a little too young for setting her own goals. However, we have identified the things that we’d love for her to be able to accomplish before she turns 4 and we’ve been intentionally working toward those things. We’ve found that she thrives when given more responsibility and knows exactly what’s expected of her.
I love that you are planting seeds in your children now for planning and setting goals. Jesus arose early in the morning to pray as was his habit. Habits are made; they don’t just happen.
Love your creativity Pam!
I still have to listen to the webinar! My life is crazy but I am determined that this year is going to put to practice what I have been leaning at iBloom!
Keep keeping on!
I love this Pam! The older I get the more I realize how true this is, we are often the ones who can choose if and how we grow!