I'll take a turn...

My immediate reaction to the title of the book was one of a shaking head. I felt defensive. I agree with Emily- I’m relatively pleased with the way my parents “parented” me and continue to do so. That’s not to say I’ve agreed with everything that they’ve done or not done, but for the most part, I’ve avoided years of therapy from the damage they did. They got the big stuff (and about 99% of the little stuff) right on, at least in my opinion. They taught me love and still demonstrate that to this day. They taught me communication and forgiveness and I’m thankful every single day for that. They taught me to know and love God, and gave us the freedom to express that curiosity any way we wanted to.

However, when you peel away at that defensive feeling you first get when reading the book title, I thought about a few things. I’ll bullet them in an effort to keep the words to a minimum.

-Someday, our own children will be looking at their lives as parents and thinking back on the jobs we did in loving them and raising them with the same analysis that we are. And somehow, that adds both pressure and purpose (even more than we already have) in our jobs as parents.

-Even if we are 100% pleased with our parents’ examples of parenting in our lives, we have to look at our spouses and their relationships with their parents. How does our partner in this parenting adventure see things? How do they see the job our parents did? Are there things that we accept as “the right way” that they see as something they absolutely do not want to repeat?

-In what ways have I, as a mother, involved God as my guide and direction in the decisions I’ve made in my parenting style? I would say that this is an area that I’ve seriously lacked in. I made an effort last evening on the way home (perhaps the only 15 minutes of quiet free time I get in the day) to pray about my parenting skills. I asked God to show me areas that I can do a better job in helping Joshua come to know and love Him. I’m great at praying the prayer of “Lord, please give me strength.” But that one is mostly out of desperation for the moment, the day, the stage, the trial we’re working through at the time, and I’m pretty sure that’s not the kind of help He has in mind that He wants to share. So that’s an area of great need in my parenting journey.

Looking forward to digging into the first couple of chapters. Thanks for sharing your hearts and your thoughts!

Megan

I'll Go First

Okay, I figured that since I asked the first question (about impressions from the title of the book) that I would be the first to answer. Here goes:

When I first read about the book on Angie's site I wasn't sure what I was expecting really. But I figured if she suggested it, then it must be worth reading. If any of you have not been to her site I would highly recommend you check in there every once in awhile. Alright, I'm getting off the subject.

When the book came and I actually read the title again I didn't know what I thought about it. How NOT to recycle our parents mistakes...That's pretty heavy. I mean, I don't think that my parents are perfect, but I think that I turned out reasonably well. Don't get me wrong...our family is like everyone else's and was not without it's share of issues. It's a little easier to look at the way they parented my brothers for me to see a few things that I would like to not repeat, but we're all human right? So I was a little confused and a little defensive of my own up-bringing and quite frankly my own parenting. Then I began to read the forward and the first chapter and to me it became a little clearer. I think what the author is trying to remind us that none of us are perfect and we never will be. God is the only perfect parent we will ever have. But, that being said, we can consciously have a plan to involve God in our parenting. I will admit that in the past I have considered Supernanny more of a parenting reference than I did God. Not good! But honestly, it didn't really occur to me to be prayerful about how I am parenting my kids beyond the usual, "Please God, give me strength and patience to get through this day."
So, I guess I am glad that I did not let the title leave a bad taste in my mouth for this book. I want to be open to what the author has to say and I want to take her advice and be more prayerful about my parenting.

Lord, please continue to bless us as we move forward reading this book and diving further into your word as it relates to raising our children. We are in no way perfect people or perfect parents, but we can consciously choose to turn our eyes and our thoughts to you to help us navigate these waters.

Getting Started

I can't believe that I've actually been successful in setting up a blog site in the past. It is hard work! I'm going to continue to work on the colors, etc. but I wanted to get it started as soon as I could so for now what you see is what you get.

Okay, so first of all, let me thank those of you who have chosen to join me on this little journey. I have to admit that this type of thing is a little out of the ordinary for me. I just remember sitting here reading Angie Smith's blog a month or so ago. She issued a challenge for mother's out there to read a book and invite others to read, too. Something in my heart told me that I was supposed to do this...and so here we are. I will also admit that this morning I thought to myself, "Okay, Emily you asked people to do this, now you must do it." That scared me to death. I don't know anything about leading a book club or a Bible study or anything like that. So what did I do?? I went to church...and there waiting for me was everything I needed. The sermon was about Elisha and here was the jest... If God leads you to do something, He will give you all that you need to do it. Just what I needed to hear. My favorite song was also included today, hence the title that I chose for us,"Here I Am".

I don't know how we're going to work this whole thing since we're literally spread out all over or if it will even work at all. I know that sometimes all of you will be busy and not able to read or comment. But I will be praying for all of us. Praying that God will lead us to do something by leading us to read this book. Praying that He will impart some sort of knowledge on us to help us in raising our children in a way that is pleasing to Him. Praying that we will all be honest and open to the words of the book and each other.

So thank you all again for joining me in this uncharted water.

I guess for the first week thing that I'm wondering is what everyone else is thinking...and namely, what are you thinking about the title of the book, "Parenting the Way God Parents : Refusing to Recycle the Mistakes Our Parents Made." Those are some pretty strong words, especially the part about your own parents. What were your first impressions when you read the title?

Over the next week, let's try to read the first two chapters (if you haven't already). Then let's plan to post starting next Sunday on those chapters.