We did two days of JBC/Week 6 (Abraham) the past two weeks. We need to get back on track and we probably will before November is up!  I hope to post a review of Week 6 before we start our Advent Bible Study on November 27^th  (first Advent Sunday). And goodness, that’s about a week away ! Oh well, there is no JBC police looking over my shoulders so I’m not going to stress out about it. We’ll see what happens and go with the flow, LOL.

We’ve been side-tracked by trips to the dentist, picture-taking, Thanksgiving activities, sniffles and coughs, and getting the Christmas photo-cards done for my friends and family overseas. I’ve also been trying to de-clutter and to get the guest room ready for a dear friend who arrives next week for a three-day visit (November 22^nd to November 24^th).

I’m also re-starting on this challenging journey to help my children cultivate better habits. A sweet friend said that parenting was part of her sanctification. How very true. I don’t know many times a month I weep in frustration when I see something in my children, especially my daughter,  that I dislike, only to realize it’s a reflection of her mother, me! Yes, our children have a sinful nature, but before I’m too quick to judge them, I need to root out the evil tendencies in me too. Only then can I truly reach and influence their heart.

John S.C. Abbott, the writer of The Mother At Home, says in page 78:

It is a beautiful arrangement of Providence that requires that the great work of the formation of the character of children should be done in the heart of the parent herself. I am to teach my child to avoid vanity, and pride, and selfishness, by cultivating within myself, with never tiring assiduity, the spirit of lowliness, of humility, of self sacrifice. It is thus, more effectually than, in any other way that I am to reach and influence his heart. So I am to curb the impetuous passions of my child, mainly by gaining the victory over myself, and bringing all my own passions under perfect control. It is thus within myself, -it is in my own heart, that I can work most effectually in molding the character of my children; for in promoting their moral progress I must go before them and lead the way.

Oh, these words both inspire and rebuke me.  May God do that work in me as I seek to be conformed to the image of God.  And may He be gracious to you too, dear reader.

Happy Thanksgiving, y’all! J