I really struggle reading this stuff because the Lord says MANY times to not be afraid, but it's so hard with the way our world is changing. I have a feeling that life in the U.S. as we've known it will change drastically at some point but how and what will happen, only the Lord knows. Boy, I wish he would just return and take us home! It's not so much for myself that I fear but for my 7 children! What kind of world will they be growing up in? Anyways, it encourages me to up my prayer and time with the Lord!
United Nations' threat: No more parental rights
Expert: Pact would ban spankings, homeschooling if children object
Posted: February 05, 2009
12:00 am Eastern
A United Nations human rights treaty that could prohibit children from being spanked or homeschooled, ban youngsters from facing the death penalty and forbid parents from deciding their families' religion is on America's doorstep, a legal expert warns.
"It's definitely on our doorstep," he said. "The left wants to make the Obama-Clinton era permanent. Treaties are a way to make it as permanent as stuff gets. It is very difficult to extract yourself from a treaty once you begin it. If they can put all of their left-wing socialist policies into treaty form, we're stuck with it even if they lose the next election."
The 1990s-era document was ratified quickly by 193 nations worldwide, but not the United States or Somalia. In Somalia, there was then no recognized government to do the formal recognition, and in the United States there's been opposition to its power. Countries that ratify the treaty are bound to it by international law.
The international treaty creates specific civil, economic, social, cultural and even economic rights for every child and states that "the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration." While the treaty states that parents or legal guardians "have primary responsibility for the upbringing and development of the child," Farris said government will ultimately determine whether parents' decisions are in their children's best interest. The treaty is monitored by the CRC, which conceivably has enforcement powers.
Parents would no longer be able to administer reasonable spankings to their children.
A murderer aged 17 years, 11 months and 29 days at the time of his crime could no longer be sentenced to life in prison.
Children would have the ability to choose their own religion while parents would only have the authority to give their children advice about religion.
The best interest of the child principle would give the government the ability to override every decision made by every parent if a government worker disagreed with the parent's decision.
A child's "right to be heard" would allow him (or her) to seek governmental review of every parental decision with which the child disagreed.
According to existing interpretation, it would be illegal for a nation to spend more on national defense than it does on children's welfare.
Children would acquire a legally enforceable right to leisure.
Teaching children about Christianity in schools has been held to be out of compliance with the CRC.
Allowing parents to opt their children out of sex education has been held to be out of compliance with the CRC.
Children would have the right to reproductive health information and services, including abortions, without parental knowledge or consent.
"Where the child has a right fulfilled by the government, the responsibilities shift from parents to the government," Farris said. "The implications of all this shifting of responsibilities is that parents no longer have the traditional roles of either being responsible for their children or having the right to direct their children."
Michael Farris
The government would decide what is in the best interest of a children in every case, and the CRC would be considered superior to state laws, Farris said. Parents could be treated like criminals for making every-day decisions about their children's lives.
"If you think your child shouldn't go to the prom because their grades were low, the U.N. Convention gives that power to the government to review your decision and decide if it thinks that's what's best for your child," he said. "If you think that your children are too young to have a Facebook account, which interferes with the right of communication, the U.N. gets to determine whether or not your decision is in the best interest of the child."
He continued, "If you think your child should go to church three times a week, but the child wants to go to church once a week, the government gets to decide what it thinks is in the best interest of the children on the frequency of church attendance."
He said American social workers would be the ones responsible for implementation of the policies.
Farris said it could be easier for President Obama to push for ratification of the treaty than it was for the Clinton administration because "the political world has changed."
"It's embarrassing to find ourselves in the company of Somalia, a lawless land," Obama said. "I will review this and other treaties to ensure the United States resumes its global leadership in human rights."
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been a strong supporter of the CRC, and she now has direct control over the treaty's submission to the Senate for ratification. The process requires a two-thirds vote.
Farris said Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., claimed in a private meeting just before Christmas that the treaty would be ratified within two years.
In November, a group of three dozen senior foreign policy figures urged Obama to strengthen U.S. relations with the U.N. Among other things, they asked the president to push for Senate approval of treaties that have been signed by the U.S. but not ratified.
Partnership for a Secure America Director Matthew Rojansky helped draft the statement. He said the treaty commands strong support and is likely to be acted on quickly, according to an Inter Press Service report.
While he said ratification is certain to come up, Farris said advocates of the treaty will face fierce opposition.
"I think it is going to be the battle of their lifetime," he said. "There's not enough political capital in Washington, D.C., to pass this treaty. We will defeat it."
I'm still around. I've been busy but doing well all in all. My health is doing ok. I don't think the hyperthyroidism is completely gone but most of the time I feel pretty normal thankfully and my heart is under 100 most of the time. I've even had it as low as 78 when completely resting! I'm supposed to go back to the doc soon to get my thyroid levels checked again. We'll see where it's at then.
Anyways, I wanted to write about something that's been impressing me lately. I was at my mil's house last Wed. and picked up a little book she had by Ruth Bell Graham about prodigals. In it there was just a little piece that I wish I had in front of me to type out completely. It talked about what my job is as a mom and what God's job is. My job is to love my children, train them, pour myself into them etc... (can't remember them all), and God's job is to convict them, save them, give them unselfish hearts etc... It said that God's part is a miracle as that is not man's natural bent and it's not our job to work the miracle but God's.
This really hit me because so much of the time I think I should be doing God's job. I spend my time trying to convict them and make them feel guilty. I try to make them feel unselfish and can tend to make them feel bad when they aren't being the way they "should be". Instead of acting this way and thinking this way, I've realized that it is my job to love them and yes train them and teach them how they should be, but to not expect immediate change based on what I say. Instead I am to extend more grace and spend more time in prayer so that God can work the miracles in their hearts.
Anyways, I pray that we can rest in faith that God can and will work in our children's hearts and pray that they will respond to his calling. I pray I will be a mom that my children will see has unconditional love and grace for them. God bless!
I got a kick out of this youtube video that my dad forwarded to me! I'm not a big country music fan, but it fits the message of this song which speaks against gay marriage. Very amusing video - sad that something that seems so obvious (marriage being between a man and a woman) is such a huge battle and issue these days. Anyways, follow this link to the video!
Recently I started reading the book and watching the DVD teaching series for "Shepherding a Child's Heart" by Ted Tripp. What a wonderful book and DVD series! It has challenged my thought process and my parenting greatly.
The basic premise of the book comes from Matthew 12:34 which says, "O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." The book talks about how as parents we're often so focused on our kids' behaviors and what they do and don't do that we miss correcting their hearts and teaching them to understand why they do those things. It's so much easier to just discipline a child for misbehavior and send them off rather than taking the time to help them understand their hearts and why they do the things they do.
The book suggests helping the child understand what the real issue is in their hearts when they misbehave. If they're taking a toy from someone, their heart is filled with coveting or selfishness. When they see and understand the problems in their hearts, then this leads them to their need for Christ and his redemption, forgiveness and help in overcoming their sin nature. The problem with just disciplining them and sending them off is that you don't get to the place of discussing Jesus and his forgiveness and grace for us and why they are as they are. Their hearts don't truly change through Christ's grace and help and if there hearts don't change, their behavior may be modified and changed for a time, but inside there may still be rebellion and selfishness and all the heart problems and over time the wrong behaviors will still come out.
So the key to raising our children is
be willing to take time with them and discuss their hearts
pray for God to give them understanding into their hearts
pray that they would have the desire to allow Him to change their hearts.
Yes, there does need to be discipline and consequences for wrong behavior as well, but it shouldn't be administered neglecting the heart. The other hard thing for me is to be patient with my children in the same way that God is patient with me. It's so easy to want them to be loving, unselfish, wonderful kids after a week or two of talking with them and working on things. It's easy to let down on ambition and consistency when results aren't seen immediately. Instead I need to have patience and trust that God is at work in them even if I don't see immediate results. Certain punishments or rewards (bribes) may produce quick outward results in behavior but if the heart isn't changed, as soon as the reward is given, the behavior will quickly return because the heart wasn't affected.
I pray that I can rely on the Lord to change my children and have patience with them and dilligence to spend time with them to really know them and their hearts. I pray that they will turn to the Lord and through that their behaviors will look more and more Christ-like. God bless as we raise our precious children!
In the past year or two we've read a number of YWAM publishing's "Christian Heroes: Then and Now" missionary stories. They've been quite a source of inspiration and amazement in seeing how God worked through these "ordinary" people who lived extraordinary lives through their devotion and trust in God. My kids have enjoyed them and been inspired as well.
Lately I've been trying to encourage the kids to be "tough" - to not whine about little things or not cry over little hurts etc... We recently read the story of Gladys Aylward from this series. She was a missionary to China and has an amazing story. Just the story of her getting to China is incredible in itself - she almost ended up stuck in Russia working as a machinist by force. Towards the end of the book she ends up on 15+ day journey on foot over the mountains to get 150 or so orphans ages 4-15 to safety from Japanese soldiers. During this time she was sick with several illnesses - fever, pneumonia to name a few. I can't even fathom how she managed to care for these 150+ children and climb and hike for days on end with almost no food to get them to freedom!
At the end of reading this part, I asked my daughter (who tends to be a little less tough than she should be) how she thought it would be to hike all day for days on end with no shoes over rocks. I encouraged her that maybe she could be a little tougher at times so that if sometime in the future she needs to do something really hard, she is tough enough to do it.
Then I got to practice what I preached this past week. I got sick with a bad fever for 3 days and was exhausted and couldn't do much. I kept thinking while I lay there trying to take care of my little kids about Gladys Aylward and that my sickness was nothing compared with the sickness she had while crossing the mountains and caring for the children. She passed out a couple of times and was in and out of consciousness at a couple of points. Though I don't need to work myself to death in my circumstances, it did help me to be tougher at times. By the 3rd day, though my attitude wasn't as good as possible and I confess I was less than tough at times. But the Lord brought me through and thankfully gives us grace in our weaknesses.
So if you're looking for some good inspiration for yourself or your kids, check out missionary biographies - they're full of practical application and inspiration!
My parents recently went to a marriage conference and my mom e-mailed us kids to share from her notes what she learned. Here are her thoughts which I thought were very helpful and inspiring!
A marriage of unity, understanding and love is not rooted in romance, but in worship. In Romans 1:18 it talks about how man started worshiping created things rather than the Creator. We are by nature worshipers. Something lays claim to our hearts, either our Creator of something else. What you live for shapes and structures your relationships. James 4 talks about what causes fights and quarrels. It is our desires. There isn't anything wrong with desires, but our desires are often not in line with God's desires. We have our idea of what we want (our kingdom), so when something interferes with it, like our spouse who has a different dream or desire, there is a collision of dreams. So putting God first and worshiping Him first in our lives is key.
Sin causes us to shrink our lives to the size of our lives.
Our most difficult problem in marriage is inside of ourselves. We have needs and wants. (our own kingdom)
Marriage is two flawed persons with a faithful God. Real unity and understanding and love come when your heart is ruled by the kingdom of God, not self.
Our character is developed in the little moments. Even the small moments of living life in our marriages should give God the glory
What rules our hearts is THE important thing. Even desire for a good thing becomes a bad thing when it rules our hearts rather than Christ.
We want comfort, appreciation, power, to control things, etc. and if we don't get it we may get mad at those who get in the way of those things. That may indicate that those may be "gods" in our lives. God wants to build our character to be like Christ's and putting us into a marriage relationship helps mold us to have better character if we co-operate with Him. We should ask what is God doing in my life here and now to make me more like Him. I Peter 1:3 and following talks about how God gives us all kinds of trials, grief and suffering to refine us.
Metals are in rocks of ore and aren't useful or beautiful until they are boiled.
God can't leave us in our "ore" state. God will boil you and take you where you have not intended to go in order to produce in you what you could not achieve on your own. Marriage is an effective boiling pot to build your character. It reveals your heart. God's grace is uncomfortable because it seeks to change us from self-centered people to Christ-centered people who will give Him glory. A good day is when God makes us more like Himself, not when we have comfort, pleasure or ease, or our own dreams fulfilled.
Throughout my lifetime I've struggled with my view of myself and my view of God. I have had the tendency to always try to do good, be good, please others and please God. This leads to constant striving and much disappointment as I can never be as good as I want to be.
Recently I've been part of a prayer group in which I've been introduced to the book, "Abide in Christ" by Andrew Murray. One of my friends lent me the book as much of our discussions had centered around living each day abiding in Christ. If you're interested in this book, I found a site where you can read it online here. Anyways, I have been so challenged to change my frame of mind and thought processes regarding my relationship with the Lord.
I want my focus to be on loving the Lord. I want to see him as my friend who I talk with daily, whether I've "been good" or not. I want to trust that he truly loves me and wants to hear from me even when I may not have been as perfect in keeping time with God and prayer a priority. I want to pray often throughout the day and not in a legalistic, "I need to make 30 min. for prayer" way. How can I do this? It's not something I do each day, but it's a mind-set of loving God and resting in him and in his care and trusting in him.
I want my children to see God, not as someone who makes them good or who they legalistically try to please, but as someone we love and walk with daily. I want them to see that more than anything I want them to love God - more than obeying, being kind, being hard-working or any other number of behaviors I try so hard to work into them. If they truly love the Lord, he will direct them towards these behaviors I so desire they develop. Though I still work on these behaviors with them, I should emphasize even more the desire I have for them to love God. They need to see my love for God first and see my grace for them.
I pray that I would abide in Christ each day and that his love would transform myself and others. I praise God for his love and forgiveness for me.
Lately I've been convicted about some areas where I can improve with my husband. He had been willingly doing several things around the house for me that would generally be considered under the realm of my responsibilities. In my mind I had been stewing over some things I wished he were doing until the Lord convicted me.
I realized that I was thinking about him and things I wished he were doing when there were areas I should be taking back over from him. He is keeping very busy now with his transcription work and our ink business so that his time is much more limited now (which is good because we're actually making better money now). So recently I decided to tell him I would take over these things he was doing for me and I have been blessed by the results. Just in doing these small things, I feel more of a sense of peace. It may be more work for me, but I find joy in this work knowing I'm obeying God's leading and serving my husband the way I should be.
I need to be reminded that I am his helpmeet and my mindset needs to be thinking about how I can help him as much as possible instead of wanting him to serve me. Not that he can't serve me in ways - he's very good at that, but my mindset needs to be on serving him. As I choose to love him, God honors this in our marriage and in my life and I see benefits. I can always be thinking of other things that I could be doing better so even though I've changed some things, I need to keep seeking how I can better improve our marriage rather than keeping things as they have been.
May God guide us and our marriages in the year ahead!
We've traveled down to my parent's house in the Chicago area for Christmas. Thankfully the 9-hour drive went well and we arrived on time with plenty of time to celebrate my oldest ds' birthday. He turned 9 on the Saturday we were driving! Hard to believe where the 9 years have gone!
We enjoyed a good Christmas church service with a good reminder of not just celebrating Christmas with the sentimental feelings of enjoying the familiar celebrations but to take time to reflect on Jesus and why he came to earth. It's such an amazing thing to think of that little baby being God and putting on flesh and bones with the whole purpose of bringing us to him through his death on the cross. Of course Jesus did much more than that in living life as an example and model of God's love and his ways. He showed us what it means to live God's way.
May our lives be filled with joy in Jesus and remembrance of all he's done for us. May we live in freedom and love for him knowing he loves us completely this day and always! God bless and Merry Christmas!
I was fellowshipping with some good friends yesterday and we were talking about what makes up a good day. When you think of the best day you've had what would it be? Here are things that might typically be included:
Smiling, cheerful children
No fighting or disobedience
Getting outside to enjoy nature
Enjoying extra-special, yummy food
Taking time for a bath
Going on a date with hubby
Going to a friend's house
These things are generally fun, good things but should we be seeking these kinds of "good" days frequently and measuring our current day against these standards? In our discussion yesterday we were talking about how any day lived with God in control and resting and abiding in him is truly the best day.
Imagine a day where you start out getting little sleep during the night. The baby got up and was fussy and wouldn't go back to sleep but you used that time to pray for family, friends, missionaries and didn't fret about it. Then you get up in the morning tired from getting woken up that night and spend a few minutes in the word and the Lord speaks to you from his word reviving you and putting your soul at rest. You move into getting the kids up and the 2-year-old starts screaming at the 4-year-old for touching his truck and the 4yo keeps teasing him by touching it more and instead of thinking, "here we go again, why do they always fight - when are they going to learn", you pray for wisdom in directing them and gently correct and discipline them.
You move through the day with the Lord, sometimes having moments of joy seeing the kids learn, but sometimes working through the inevitable challenges of parenting. You see the challenges as opportunities to correct your children and guide them in the Lord's ways. They are opportunities to show love and grace to your children despite their failures just as God shows us his love and grace in our failures. The day may not have been filled with the good, enjoyable fun things of life, but it was full of God and his grace and presence.
When we live our days longing for peace and happiness, so often we're frustrated and upset by the realities of our sinful selves, our spouse's sinful self, our children's sinful selves and so on. We so often want the easy life with no trials or challenges. If only the kids would behave..... But when we rest and abide with God throughout our day and live in his presence even when things go wrong, there is a joy that permeates the day that goes beyond what any happiness can bring.
Oh to live each day in abiding joy with God!
"Rejoice in the LordALWAYS, I will say it again, REJOICE. Let you gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near." Philippians 4:4-5
A United Nations human rights treaty that could prohibit children from being spanked or homeschooled, ban youngsters from facing the death penalty and forbid parents from deciding their families' religion is on America's doorstep, a legal expert warns. 
