Mom's Tip of the Day #98

Ask God to help your child stay motivated during each school year, giving him a vision that keeps him focused over the long haul.

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Healthy Snacks For Your On-the-Go Middle Schooler

What does your middle schooler find when he heads to the kitchen for a snack? Foods that are kid-friendly are not always healthful. Air-puffed and highly processed snacks are not going to be filling. He needs fuel that meets his requirements for quick and easy and your requirements for nutritious and wholesome.
Keep these snacks on hand for your on-the-go middle schooler:

Whole grain pretzels

Bagels (top with peanut butter. low-fat cream cheese, local honey, or spreadable fruit)

Microwave Popcorn (look for the less salt, less butter varieties)

Yogurt (Save money by getting the larger containers rather than single-serving sizes. Top with homemade granola, nuts, or fruit.)

Raisins

Fruit (Choose from what's in season and on sale!)

Cut-up veggies like carrots, cucumbers, or celery and keep them stashed in the fridge for easy access. Accompany with ranch dip, pimento cheese, or natural peanut butter.

Juice pops (Make your own by freezing 100% juice in ice trays or Popsicle molds)

Cheese and whole wheat crackers


What are your kids' favorite healthy (or at least healthier, LOL) snacks? (When I was in middle school, I loved English muffins topped with pizza sauce and mozzarella cheese, slid under the broiler for just long enough to brown the edges and melt the cheese. Ohhhh, the days when the metabolism was high....)


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Mom's Tip of the Day #75

 A rock solid marriage is a great place to begin teaching your kids that true love is real and worth waiting for.

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M&M's and A Battle Plan for Purity

Trying to live a pure life in a filthy world is no easy task--not for us adults, and not for our kids. Talking about purity seems so abstract, especially when it is accompanied by a list of do's and don'ts. Our kids hear our voices all the time. What do they see us living? What does a pure life really look like? And do we really understand what it's like for them?

The MnM's Empathy Crash Course. I promised a battle plan, a I'm getting to that, but I've got a little something to share with you moms to help you understand the appeal of porn and how the world is constantly after your son to have some. (Some of you do understand. But some of you don't.) Okay, do you like chocolate? I mean, are you like me and you really, really like chocolate? Get three packs of MnM's--plain or peanut, whichever is your fave--put one package in your purse. Put one in your cupholder in your car. Put one next to your favorite reading chair. Now, do not eat any of them. Do not even open the packages. Let that candy tempt you, taunt you, yell at you, even scream at you to have some. But don't. Now, just to make it interesting: Give all the other members of your family three packs of MnM's as well (Keep this age-appropriate, of course. I don't recommend giving 3 packs of MnM's to your 4 yo! LOL). Place no restrictions on them.

How long can you make it without opening one of your packs of MnM's?
It would be easier if you didn't keep running into it (purse), seeing it wherever you go (car), dealing with it right in front of you whenever you try to relax (by your favorite chair).
It would be easier if you didn't keep thinking, But there's not anything wrong with it.
It would be easier if the people around you didn't keep eating it in front of you.
It would be easier if everyone else had a problem with it too.

Live with it for at least a week, Mom. Get a real clue of what your son faces on the battlefield. Every time you see that candy and you desire it, pray for your son to be strong in a world filled with pornography and lustful images constantly beckoning for his attention.

Now, a pure life? And how to go about it? Tell your son it looks like this:

• Following God’s teachings (God’s Strategy for Purity is here.)
• Refusing to look at pornography (Job’s Eye Commitment is here. The Psalmist’s is here.)
• Remembering that nothing is ever truly hidden. Satan will tell you that no one will find out. He lies.
• Turning your eyes from girls who are immodestly dressed--on television, in catalogs, at the beach, mall, school, and even at church. Even if she wants you to look at her! (Especially if she wants you to look at her.)
• Protecting the girls around you by checking your flirtatiousness, guarding their hearts, saving your kiss, and reminding yourself that there is only one girl that will be your wife. All the other girls belong to their own future husbands.
• Committing your purity to God, and
• Cooperating with Him to establish a firm resolve that sex is for marriage, and your life belongs to Jesus. And you're good with that. You are content.

Tell your son: You’re not alone in this war, but sometimes it will feel as though you are. Make sure you spend time with the Lord every day. He will expose the schemes of the enemy and provide you with the weapons necessary for victory.

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Mom's Tip of the Day #79

Keep the appointments you make with your child. Security is found in a parent who is where she says she is going to be, when she says she is going to be there.

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Taking It A Step Further: God's Definition of Adultery

One thing I’ve noticed in raising my kids—and in simply living my life—is that the way the world defines certain issues and topics is not the way that God defines them. For example, the dictionary defines adultery as: sexual intercourse between a married person and someone other than his/her spouse. But God’s Word describes adultery somewhat differently from the dictionary. Taking it one step further, the Jewish Law of the Old Testament calls it: any unlawful sexual intercourse. This would include fornication (sex between unmarried people) as well.

But hold on, don’t stop there. In the New Testament, Jesus, when He was teaching His disciples one day, took the definition yet another step further:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5:27-28)

Hmmm. So that means viewing pornography belongs in the definition of adultery, too. Well, that certainly puts a different spin on it. How would your son react if, when you're having one of those important talks with him about life issues, you explained to him that viewing pornography is committing adultery? And that all manner of infidelity (disloyalty, marital unfaithfulness) is the kind of life, King Solomon warned, that leads to death?

It's not just pictures. It is leading him to death.

Does your son know he has an enemy? Have you told him? Do you really understand this yourself?

Satan dresses up sin. He makes sin look attractive and enticing. As moms, we must help our boys understand that the world has targeted their sensual appetites, making everything easily available in order to satisfy them. As they grow into manhood, they have to learn how to access what is just as easily available to them as a child of God: self-control. It is when a man does not control himself that he succumbs to the sensual, and to death.
Death of a family.
Death of a dream.
Death by guilt.
Death by regrets.

Let’s pray together today that our sons won’t be fooled by death dressed up.
And if they are? Well, let's pray too that we will love them unconditionally, that we will not react in fear or anger, that we will do whatever we can to help them be overcomers, and that we will trust God to do the work that only He can do in their hearts.

Check back tomorrow for some real, practical strategies for helping our sons with living a pure life in today’s world. Ladies, we've got to do better than lecture...we've got to show them what it looks like, what it acts like, what it sounds like, and what it thinks like.

(Check out my Bible study for boys, Dig Deep: Unearthing the Treasures of Solomon's Proverbs. The Psalmist noted that the key to living a pure life was in studing God's precepts, or principles. Studying God's Word is life-changing!)



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Mom's Tip of the Day #69

Tell your child often of his likeability. Say, I like being with you. You're a neat kid. You are a lot of fun.

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Picky Eaters: Encouraging Healthy Habits

Photo Courtesy lipsticktocrayons.com

What's in your fridge?
What's in your pantry?
What's on your plate?

If you want to set a good example for your picky eater, start by evaluating your own eating habits. What do you grab when you’re hungry? Obviously, you or your spouse does the grocery shopping, so if there is a good deal of junk food in the house, then one of you must have brought it in. Right? (Or of course, a grandparent with good intentions may be responsible! LOL).  “You have to have the good food in the house,” encourages Leanne Ely, a nutritionist and author of Saving Dinner: The Menus, Recipes, and Shopping Lists to Bring Your Family Back to the Table. (I love this book, btw!) “This helps to build healthy habits.”

• Stock your pantry with healthy snacks that on-the-go kids can grab. and reach for them yourself.
• Swap the canned soft drinks for water bottles and you may be surprised at how easily your kids will make the switch.

Keep trying. “Just because your child said no to zucchini when he was three doesn’t mean he will say no to zucchini when he’s eight,” Leanne says. Wait a while, and try again. At the Ely house, previously rejected foods continue to be rotated through the family menu. Kids’ tastes change, and as they mature they become more willing to try different things. She also makes statements that reflect a family expectation. “When I tell a child, ‘We eat zucchini,’ it shows a team effort. This is what we do at our house.”

Encourage your child to explore a new food by offering age-appropriate, bite-sized portions. For example, if your child is two, encourage him to take two bites.

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