Leading Children to a Love for Learning

The Young Connoisseur by August Friedrich Siegert

"If you want to build a ship, don't herd people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea."

~Antoine deSaint-Exupery

(1900-1944)

Gazing on my cherub boy ~ A Poem

Mother and Children by Elizabeth Nourse

I hold within my arms today
A priceless bit of mortal clay,
Divinely fashioned, and so fair,
The angels well may kinship share.

My soul with gratitude is filled,
My heart with mother love is thrilled,
My eyes rim o'er with newborn joy,
While gazing on my cherub boy.

O precious one! Through tears I see
A mighty task awaiting me.
My happy sky grows overcast,
Life's duties loom so grand, so vast.

To shield from wrong, to right incline,
This little life now linked to mine-
Divine the gift. Oh, may the mould
A heart of truth and honor hold!

Help me, kind Heaven, to know the way
From out the tangle of each day,
To guide him safe to manhood's prime,
And all the glory shall be Thine.

~M.E. Piatt

Serving On Our Own Steam or On His Power

The Convalescent by Charles Baugniet, 1880

"If we serve others because we expect to be rewarded with warm feelings of the praise of others, we will eventually be disappointed and perhaps turn bitter and cynical. If we try to serve on our power, we will inevitably run out of steam or let our sinful motives sully our efforts. If we focus on following Jesus, however, in loving people as He loved and loving others because He loved us, we will find a buffer for our disappointment. And if we give out of obedience to Him and in dependence on the Holy Spirit, we will both be empowered and sustained."

~Sally Clarkson

The Mission of Motherhood

Peaceable, Gentle, Willing to Yield

In the Meadow by Julien Dupre, 1881

For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.

~James 3:16-17

From Enduring to Embracing the Storms

Menzel's Sister Emilie Sleeping by Adolf Von Menzel, 1848

"I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the Rock of Ages."

~Charles Spurgeon

Feeding Appetites

Books Got Her by Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy, 1872

"What kind of appetites might [this activity] develop in my child even if the activity itself seems innocent at the time? Is my decision based on Scripture, or is it made because I don't want to be inconvenienced or disappoint anyone?"

~Steven and Teri Maxwell

Keeping Our Children's Hearts

Tight Schedules, Time and Tenderness

When we devote our youth to God by William Powell Frith, 1852

"Motherhood is made up of that complex design that requires so much from us, and yet requires so little. There is so much to be done, and yet what our children need from us is not hard. Time, tenderness, instruction and direction. They need to walk alongside us in life. Do I let them? Or do I shoo them away so I can get more done?

Does the pressing list of my day rob my children of a first-morning smile? Does my schedule press tighter than a mid-day hug? Can I let them into everything–the essence of building relationships, speaking through my actions, “You are important to me right now”?"

~Kelly Crawford at Generation Cedar

Mold Me and Make Me

Our Purpose and Delight

Ingeborg by Peter Nicolai Arbo, 1868

"To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek Him, the greatest adventure; to find Him, the greatest human achievement."

~St. Augustine


Thankfully shared a
 Growing Home ~ Teach Me Tuesdays
Women Living Well ~ Living Well Wednesdays

Guiding Little Hearts to Trust and Obey

Nina Lehmann by John Everett Millais, 1868-1869

“Don’t waste time trying to sugarcoat submission to make it palatable. Obeying when you see the sense in it is not submission; it is agreement. Submission necessarily means doing what you do not wish to do. It is never easy or painless.

True biblical submission must be found in knowing Christ and his grace. Don’t try to make it something that does not require grace. Don’t reduce submission to authority to that which fits natural man and natural abilities."

~Tedd Tripp
Shepherding A Child's Heart 

 

The Dearest Spot of Earth Is Home ~ A Hymn

The Family Gathering by Eugenio Zampighi

The dearest spot of earth to me

  Is home, sweet home!

The fairy land I long to see

  Is home, sweet home!

There how charmed the sense of hearing!

There where love is so endearing!

All the world is not so cheering

  As home, sweet home!

I've taught my heart the way to prize

  My home, sweet home!

I've learned to look with lover's eyes

  On home, sweet home!

There, where vows are truly plighted!

There, where hearts are so united!

All the world besides I've slighted

  For home, sweet home.

~W.T. Wrighton, Composer

1857