Gateways to Joy

{ a repost from the archives ... a remeberance for me as I began planning the new school year} Last night when talking with one of my children I wanted to have a big old fashion hissy-fit.  Quickly, words of Elisabeth Elliot's ran fluid in memory.  Words that began to resonate within.  Words that quieted the flare-up that wanted releasing. Don't train your children to respond to your frantic gestures, rants and threats . Instead we mothers should be sure to have their attention first before we began to instruct.  I've found with some ... especially my boys, I do best to have them repeat to me what I've just said.  This method for me causes less feelings and emotions to flare. So mothers lets be sure that we have our children's full attention and speak in a calm normal tone of voice. Warning mothers:  Say what you mean and mean exactly what you say.  If you don't mean it, then by all means don't say it. Fo...

`A ll I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson I read that quote and pondered on its meaning while folding warm towels in my quiet room.  Lights were dimmed, candles burned...fragrances were taken in and I was at peace to do more mind-travels.  This time my minds eye took me back to an illustration that I once heard a pastor give. A child was up high on a sliding board, when he became frightened.  He would not come down, nor would he turn around and go back the same way he came up.  He felt stuck.  Stilled. "Jump," said the father of the little boy.  I will catch you. "No," said the child. This went on for a few seconds, and then the little boy jumped.  Landing into the arms of his loving father.  What the child had in his father is what many of us adults lack in our heavenly Father:  Trust.   How did such trust come to flourish in the child to the point where he finally must...