Training for one of the most important careers

Our society tends put an emphasis education and on training for a job, but little emphasis is placed on training our children for the most important career they will have - being a husband/wife, father/mother and keeping a home. These skills take a lifetime to learn and require purposeful and intentional training and growth. We are foolish if we take them lightly or wait till we are in those situations to learn. Thankfully God's grace is there for us all and God is a good trainer and shepherd, and if our hearts our willing to pursue these things He will be there.

Preparing older daughters in the home

Run the race

Fathers tell their children how to live life better all the time, while at the same time being swollen with pride at their child's attempts.

Philippians 3
 

The Children's Hour by Henry Longfellow

The Children's Hour by Henry Longfellow

Between the dark and the daylight,
When the night is beginning to lower,
Comes a pause in the day's occupations,
That is known as the Children's Hour.

I hear in the chamber above me
The patter of little feet,
The sound of a door that is opened,
And voices soft and sweet.

From my study I see in the lamplight,
Descending the broad hall stair,
Grave Alice, and laughing Allegra,
And Edith with golden hair.

A whisper, and then a silence:
Yet I know by their merry eyes
They are plotting and planning together
To take me by surprise.

A sudden rush from the stairway,
A sudden raid from the hall!
By three doors left unguarded
They enter my castle wall!

They climb up into my turret
O'er the arms and back of my chair;
If I try to escape, they surround me;
They seem to be everywhere.

They almost devour me with kisses,
Their arms about me entwine,
Till I think of the Bishop of Bingen
In his Mouse-Tower on the Rhine!

Do you think, o blue-eyed banditti,
Because you have scaled the wall,
Such an old mustache as I am
Is not a match for you all!

I have you fast in my fortress,
And will not let you depart,
But put you down into the dungeon
In the round-tower of my heart.

And there will I keep you forever,
Yes, forever and a day,
Till the walls shall crumble to ruin,
And moulder in dust away!

Fatherhood - consequences

Voddie Baucham

Broken Dreams Poem...

As children bring
their broken toys
with tears for us to mend,
I brought my broken dreams
to God
because He was my friend!

But then instead
of leaving Him
in peace to work alone,
I hung around
and tried to help
with ways
that were my own.

At last I snatched them back
and cried,
"How can you be so slow?"
"My child," He said
"What could I do?
You never did let go."

-- Author Unknown

Mud in her toes

She ran through the leaves
Feeling the mud in her bare little toes,
A little hanging on the eaves of her dress.
She laughed as the rain soaked her curls.
She hopped and skipped, and did a little dance.

Her dad who once saw only rain,
Gray and gloom,
Lost sight of anything else,
But the sweet smile of his princess.
He was no longer soaked,
No longer drenched.
“My little beautiful princess,
May I have this dance.”
A giggle and a courtesy, "yes"

Holding her close
He asked,
"Aren’t you afraid of the rain."
“No, papa, God made the rain”
She giggled,
“And you’re with me, so I know I’ll be safe.”

Cinderella