Hi, friends!
I want to do more sharing of ideas/keeping in touch with friends. One idea I had was to regularly think of “Questions to Ponder” as a forum for sharing my thoughts and learning from the experiences of my friends.
If you have the time and inclination, please join me (My answers are in the “Comments” link below).
Here goes:
1. What would make this a great year for you? What would you like to spend more time doing? What would you like to spend less time doing?
2. What has God taught you recently?
My Answer to Question 1:
I would like to spend more time actually talking and paying attention to my children. Though we homeschool and are physically together a lot, I still would like to spend more one-on-one time with each child–looking in their eyes, hearing what they have to say.
I would like to spend less time reading “stuff†that isn’t very important (whether in newspapers, magazines, or internet). (â€[Media] was made for man, and not man for [media],†right? Of course keeping in touch with friends like you all is “important†in my book! 😉
My Answer to Question 2:
A couple of years ago I took a drive up the canyon and asked God a question that was heavy on my heart: “Are you happy? Is Heaven something to look forward to, or is it an eternity of frustration at people’s choices?†I felt an answer in my mind, to the effect of: “People aren’t as bad as you think they are. I rejoiced to send them to this telestial existence to grow and gain experience.†I pressed, “But what about the truly wicked?†I felt him answer: “They will have their regrets and suffer from them–not I. We already suffered once; that was enough.â€
As I pondered on these thoughts, I was struck with the idea that parents can do something more constructive than suffer for the choices of their children: 1) they may give their concerns to Christ, who swallows them up in the bowels of His mercy, and 2) do their best to identify and lessen the burdens which their children are struggling under, which God knows and which parents should strive to understand. (Is it stress? peer pressure? discontent? outside manipulations? selfishness? temptation? fear?) Rather than condemning or agonizing over our children, we can serve them. I feel God does this with me. He is patient as I figure things out and learn from my own experience, and liberal in his willingness to mentor me in lessening my [often self-produced] burdens if I listen/let him. Don’t you just love revelation?