A Moment with M.O.M.: A Moment with M.O.M.- Conflict in Parenting

Monday, October 25, 2010

A Moment with M.O.M.- Conflict in Parenting

Parenting can hold conflict. Conflict within ourselves, conflict with our spouses, conflict with family members, conflict with friends, and quite often conflict with our children. It’d be nice if we could just be “friends” with our children but that simply isn’t an accurate picture of Biblical Parenting.

Biblical Parenting means that I love you enough to NOT be your friend. I love you enough that I want to be your friend. I love you enough to make all the hard calls, to spend sleepless nights praying for you, to spend days training you, to spend all my resources emotionally and physically to make your life better. I love you enough to spend hours talking with you and even more hours listening to you. I love you enough to let you dream your own dreams and become the person that God wants you to be. I love you enough to have conflict!

I often remind myself that conflict is a good thing when done with eternity in focus. Conflict isn’t so I can tell someone how ‘wrong’ they are and how ‘right’ I am. Conflict isn’t about making people agree with me or justifying why I did something. The purpose for conflict, in my opinion, is to lead to restoration. Restoration of our relationships and restoration with God. When I keep restoration as the goal of conflict it makes the difficult process more clear, not easy but clear. I can see what my goal is and I’m willing to go through the pain of attaining that goal. Oh, how sweet the feeling of restored relationships!

Today I show up at HIS feet and say, “Lord make yourself strong in my weakness" Today, I will chose to embrace all the moments of parenting. The beautiful moments, the easy moments, the fun moments, the victorious moments and even the moments of conflict. All for your Glory…

With much love,
Mrs. Joseph Wood

2 comments:

AmyOctober 25, 2010 at 11:24 AM
My beautiful daughter looked up at me and asked me if I was her best friend forever. I told her that I wasn't her friend, that I was her Mother. I told her that I loved her forever and no matter what.
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LizzyOctober 25, 2010 at 2:38 PM
This is such good wisdom--thank you! So helpful for me to remember too within marriage--the goal is restoration, and letting Him use it for refinement, for His purpose and glory!
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Real Moments in my Home!

I purchased a butterfly net for my children since we are having a delightful time watching them this fall. As Matthew ran out the front door he exclaimed with great pride, "I'm the BUTTERFLY hunter!"

As I cleaned out my purse, Sammy and Matthew sat on the bed watching as I went through each item. I found skittles at the bottom of my purse, a cheez it, nickles, dimes and pennies, lip gloss, receipts and more. Sammy said, "Mom it's like another world in your purse!" That child makes me smile!!

Ezekiel just informed me that making my coffee everyday should count as school work... he thinks it falls in the chemistry section since he is mixing coco with my coffee! lol!

After reading our proverbs for the day the children will tell me what verse they liked and what it meant to them. Today, Sammy was extreamly excited to share and raised his hand saying, "Pick me! Pick me! I know what my favorite verse was." "Okay Sammy, what was your favorite verse?" I asked. He replied, "My favorite verse is the one that says: Let no man throw a frog at his brother." The entire family started to laugh. I instantly read through the text again to see what might have sounded like that to him. Finally, I said, "Sammy, I can't find what verse you are talking about." He remained confident and said, "That's the way I heard it." When I told Grandma about it she said, "Well you know that is kinda biblical.. frogs are a curse so what Sammy was saying is: Let no man throw a curse at his brother." It's a good thing we always discuss what we hear in our Bible study.

As Matthew approached his fifth birthday he seemed disappointed. When I questioned him he said, "Momma? Can't I please just skip five and be six?!" I replied, "No... you have to be five first. Why don't you want to be five?" After a pause and with a discouraged countenance he said, "Because five is odd and I don't want to be odd Mommy!"

After all the children had their dentist visit Samuel began explaining how he had such good results. He said, "If you want to be like me all you have to do is only brush your teeth sometimes... the rest of the time... EAT THE TOOTHPASTE"

Bekah walked in while Matthew and I were working on his addition flashcards. She asked, "Matthew what are you doing?" "Doing my Plusing," He replied. I said, "You mean doing your addition" With confidence he turns to me and says, "Yes, that's it's middle name."

Bethany was helping Josiah look for beef cattle online when she came to me and said, "Momma, they had these really sad looking cattle that were super skinny called 'Commercial Cattle'. Momma that's all they would be good for - there wasn't enough meat on them for anything else." My Beth is just too sweet!

Timothy and Elisha were talking about all the contents of the Ark of the Covenant. When Elisha told Timothy that God had put the 10 commandments in it. Timothy replied with confidence, "Well He had too so that Moses wouldn't break them again!"

After several trips to the emergency room with my Timothy. I said, "Timothy, you really must stop hurting yourself like this. Each time we go through that hospital door it's costing Daddy 100.00!" He sweetly replied, "Is there another way we can get in Mommy?"

As Ezekiel and I poured over the garden magazines we ran across the brussel spouts. Ezekiel had never seen them before and with excitment said, "Momma, Look! They sell bite size lettuce!"

As we prepaired to vacume seal our newly butchered chickens. My Beth-Joy said, "Mom I know we want to seal our chickens but I can't figure out how we are going to get that chicken through that skinny slot!"

Jed was about five years old when he ran out to the kitchen and met me with excitement saying, "Mom I think God made my wife last night! I counted my ribs and now I am missing one!"

Matthew and Samuel were playing when the girls and I overheard them and couldn't help but giggle. Matthew wanted to play house and have a baby but Samuel informed him that, "You can't have a baby, Matthew- you're only a 2T"

While driving I often lose cell phone reception with my Joe. I never realized how much the little ones were listening until one day I overheard them say, "Mom and Dad broke up again!" "No Mommy broke up with Daddy" replied Matthew. "No! It was daddy. He broke up with Mommy again!" Replied Sammy. As I listend I thought it was a good thing no one was ease dropping into their coversation- they would think my Joe and I had a pretty rocky marriage! LOL

While on one of our "girls days" Bethany was having a hard time falling asleep. Grandma encouraged her to count sheep. After a few moments of slience we heard Beths sweat voice say, "Thump" We all thought about it for a moment and then Grandma asked, "Beth what was the thump about?" "Oh, one of my sheep ran into the fence... that's all Grandma."

A Note From M.O.M.

Welcome to a Moment with M.O.M(Mother of Many)

Have you ever wished someone would answer your questions, pray for your requests and listen as you ponder, pray and pursue your duties as wife and mother? Well, then you've come to the right place! Please join me as I, Jeanette Wood, share my heart, real moments from my home and loving encouragement on heart issues and practical tasks alike. If you have a question please feel free to email me and I will respond as the Lord allows. I don't claim to have all the answers but I know the One who does. I love to share what He has done in my life with others so that you might glean some of the gems that I have learned over the years. Come, sit on my porch or walk with me through the pastures as we share the goodness of the Lord.
Because of His Love,
Mrs. Joseph Wood

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Monday, October 25, 2010

A Moment with M.O.M.- Conflict in Parenting

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