#TakeawayThursday4: #BlogPod4: Raising Champions: Parenting Beyond Our Capacity-Cove Church/Rica McRoy

http://www.covechurch.com/media/sermons/#

If you haven’t already listened to this podcast episode, I hope you will click the link above and watch/listen now!  This link I have included today is a video, which is super special to me because you get to see my dear friend, Rica, up close and personal, dressed to honor her father and mother on this past Mother’s Day.  She sparkles for Christ in her Dupatta scarf, beautiful Bindi, and bare feet.

So today is #TakeawayThursday4 in response to #BlogPod4! I totally sound like I am speaking a made-up language because I guess I am. Just go with it:)

Don’t forget to comment on the blog or tweet your takeaways with #BlogPod4 and #TakeawayThursday4. It’s a conversation, like a bookclub but with podcasts:)

You can tweet me at https://twitter.com/psalm8110

The Art of Mothering (Week 18) 2016

I can not help but see the connection between my Mother’s Day post last week and the message in Raising Champions:Parenting Beyond Our Capacity.  Please take a moment to click on the link above and read it now, if you have not already:)

{Below is an excerpt from my blog post: “The Art of Mothering”}

“Regardless of where we find ourselves in the previous paragraph, all of us are called to “be mothered” and even “to mother.” Let me explain.

One definition of the verb “to mother” is “to look after kindly and protectively.” Based on this definition, we do not have to have given birth or even be a woman to cultivate the art of mothering…”

I also felt that one of my poems from last week’s #TakeawayThursday3 was relevant to today’s message, so I am resharing here: (This poem was from our Freedom Writer’s Journaling group-a response to what it would be like to live and raise a family in a 3rd world country.”)

“I’m Raising Potential” by Katie Wilson

Blessed with children,

I GET TO fill their hearts.

Even when our stomachs growl,

I GET TO play my part.

MY PART IS ESSENTIAL
I’M RAISING POTENTIAL

In a world painted with hues

of orange, green and blue,

we may not have running water,

but each day is a gift that is new.

MY PART IS ESSENTIAL
I’M RAISING POTENTIAL

My kids are watching;

they see my reaction,

to a world that is simple

minus distraction.

The little feet behind me

skip joyfully to bed.

Because I chose to forsake the blues

and sing a victory tune instead!

I’M RAISING POTENTIAL.
CAN’T YOU SEE THAT MY PART IS ESSENTIAL?

#TakeawayThursday4 Takeaways:

It is the responsibility of parents to pass the things of God to their children.  When we fail to do that, we drop the baton.

We can not force our children to take the baton of Christ but we can live in such a way that our lives of love will be so attractive to our children that they will want to take that baton for themselves and get to know the Man, Jesus, who radiated through us!

We are not called to parent alone, the burden is too much. Yoked to Christ and to our Spiritual Family, we carry the great privilege of passing the baton to the next generation together!

We are all called to be a spiritual parent to someone! We are all called to train the next generation to run!

Who would say that you are one of those helping them learn to run? Who would say you are in their great cloud of witnesses?

The “C”hurch is raising champions to run, and we are all called to contribute!

We drop the baton when we fail to see each child’s divine potential and each child does have divine potential!

Who is a champion? A person who fights or speaks for another in favor of a cause-this is you and me-the “C”church. We get to be part of raising a generation to know and declare the goodness of God.

WE GET TO HELP RAISE A GENERATION TO RUN A RACE OF FAITH!

**Psalm 78 NLT

1O my people, listen to my instructions.
Open your ears to what I am saying,
2for I will speak to you in a parable.
I will teach you hidden lessons from our past—
3stories we have heard and known,
stories our ancestors handed down to us.
4We will not hide these truths from our children;
we will tell the next generation
about the glorious deeds of the lord,
about his power and his mighty wonders.
5For he issued his laws to Jacob;
he gave his instructions to Israel.
He commanded our ancestors
to teach them to their children,
6so the next generation might know them—
even the children not yet born—
and they in turn will teach their own children.
7So each generation should set its hope anew on God,
not forgetting his glorious miracles
and obeying his commands.
8Then they will not be like their ancestors—
stubborn, rebellious, and unfaithful,
refusing to give their hearts to God.