Learning to Hearken to the Lord

Yes, child training does take alot of time! When I first read your articles, I didn't really understand what you meant by 'intense.’ Well, now that I have two children, I get the message loud and clear!! Very intense. I also now understand what you mean by us moms laying down our lives for our children. Can I share something with you?


My mom-in-law is always telling us about my husband's brother in the UK and what their kids are doing, how they are parenting etc. etc. They are the complete opposite to us in that it seems their parenting style is to get their kids independent ASAP. We have been hearing about them for years now and we just accept this and try not to take it personally.

Well, my m-i-l was visiting a few weeks ago, and she started telling me all about my b-i-l's family again, how my s-i-l can get 'so much done' because her baby is on the bottle already and she sends her 18-month-old son to playschool two days a week. She lets her baby watch TV so she can 'get something done' in the kitchen, and she has a babysitter around in case she 'just needs to pop out' etc etc etc.

I just nod and smile and keep quiet because if I say anything about our style, it will be taken as an attack.

Well, after hearing all this, it really bothered me and I couldn't stop thinking about it for days. I eventually spoke to my husband about it and asked him if it bothered him too, and he said, 'Honey, for them it's about getting their lives back as soon as they can'.

The lightbulb went off in my head.

I had just read your articles on Hearkening and I realised that God was telling me that we are, in fact, laying down our lives for our children. He was confirming our parenting choices through my m-i-l.

I also realised that I reacted differently to her comments compared to in the past. I used to get upset (not show her though) because I wanted her approval for the way we do things (she never compliments us because we do everything different to the way she did things eg. breastfeeding, the food we eat and homeschooling, which she told us that my husband's brother said that it is 'risky'). Then I realised that I was living in this image of 'fear of man' and God took this away from me. This last incident did not make me angry or upset, I just couldn't figure out why I kept thinking about it, but now I know.