I guess this is my biggest and tallest "Soap Box", but I believe it is the most serious and most urgent thing we could be involved in while our children are small.   

Some people have likened the "neglect of training children" to leaving the gate open and the horse getting out. I think a better allegory is: Trying to get sugar out of the tea when you've over-sweetened it. You can sometimes get a horse back into the the corral but it is very difficult to dip the sugar back out of a liquid. All you can do is to try to dilute the 'too sweet tea' with more unsweetened tea.

That is about all we can do about our children when it is too late too...just try to dilute the garbage we have allowed...with the good stuff. It may be the only hope we have left at that point. How sad that is! Because there are so very many little teachable moments while they are growing up, at whatever age they happen to be....but we dohave to be with them to take advantage of thos teachable moments.

If you have noticed, most adult children do not come back...at least until it is too late to train their own little ones. We have seen many through the year 'get faithful' after their children are grown up. If you have young children and you are faithful to God now, while they are growinig up, be so thankful and give Him the glory for His grace. Generations have a tendency to repeat themselves either for good or for evil. God tells us to completely surround our children with His Word while they are growing up...teaching them to love it.

Deuteronomy 6: 5-9 "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates."

Time is fleeting and their growing up years fade into adult years before we are hardly aware of it. 
©Edna L. Ingram



　

 

CHRISTIANS HAVE A HIGHER CALLING THAN THE WORLD DOES.

I was dusting the big frames in our bedroom that hold the large pictures of our grandchildren. I’ve never really noticed how dust forms before…on the horizontal pieces of the frames…but on the vertical places there is no dust.

It started me to thinking and I came to the conclusion that there is no place for the dust to rest on the vertical pieces. It just slides off onto the floor, evidently. Then this thought came to me: The vertical direction is pointing upward to heaven or downward…there no in between. The horizontal is neutral. Hmmm We don’t want to be neutral, that’s for sure!

Why are some people more able to resist Satan when they are tempted? It is because in their life, they have God’s Spirit dwelling in them and Satan has no resting place there. They are like Christ when He was tempted in Matthew chapter 4. They have a higher calling and they want to be faithful to that higher calling. Romans 8: 9-11; Romans 5:5; Galatians 4:6; Ephesians 3:16.

I’ve heard it said that if you are not tempted much by Satan, it may be because he already has you. That may be true in some cases but not necessarily so. James 4:7  “…Be subject therefore unto God; but resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”  

Jesus also said in Matthew 11:28-30:   "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."  

Life without Jesus would be a life full of different shades of drab!
We are either living for Christ or we are not! There is no neutral ground. If we are neutral we are only fooling ourselves. May all of us who are Christians, so live each day…that Satan can find no resting place long enough to work havoc in our lives.      © Edna L. Ingram

STATEMENTS THAT REALLY BOTHER ME.

STATEMENTS THAT REALLY BOTHER ME WHEN I HEAR THEM.

When people talk about their grandchildren and say:

1. "I never knew how much love my heart could hold 'til someone called me Grandma!:"

2. "If I'd known how sweet grandchildren were...I'd have had them first!" 

3. "There is nothing else like it!" 

4. "Grands and Greats are just so much more special."   

I feel very sorry for those parents because they evidently missed something very special in their own children.
We love our Grandchildren.  We have three of them.  We also now have six Great Grandchildren. We know how sweet and precious and special they are!!  But we have never said nor felt like those 4 statements above and we will not say them, because it is simply not true in our case.  They are very sweet and special...but in no way are they more so than our own children!

One day an acquaintance said to me, after his first grandchild was born.  "Isn't it amazing how much more special your grandchildren are than your children were?" I looked him in the eye and said, "Mine aren't!"    He looked shocked and then recovered quite nicely and said, " Well, when my kids were growing up, I was pretty busy and wasn't around them very much.  I had to work nights and sleep days."  
 
How sad and I'm afraid that is the norm in this present age.   I think about this and I wonder what their children feel and think when the statements above are made where they can hear them?   I think it is very sad and tragic. When our kids  and their kids see us loving their babies...they just know even more, how much they were loved when they were babies.  They don't hear the above statements made.   -Edna L. Ingram

ANYTHING WE CAN SEE AND TOUCH IS TEMPORARY.

THE WORD OF GOD STANDS FOREVER

 

While getting rid (or trying to get rid of..lol ) a bunch of clutter this morning, especially articles written by brethren of the church...We have saved lots of them through the years because we did the bulletin for so long, but since I’m not typing up the church bulletin any more...this thought came to me. I read them before I toss them even though I may not ever need them anymore. I think of all that as being tied to my spiritual life.

But in reality, most things here on earth are only tied to this earth. Even the printed Bible (unless we have it in our hearts) is tied to this earth. (Wait a minute....I’m getting to it. LOL) When the earth is burned up (2 Peter 3: 10-13) all those printed books will be burned up too. The pictures of our family that we treasure so...is also tied to this earth.

But we know that God’s Word is living and active and is forever...even though it is printed on earthly paper and that eventually wears out and will be destroyed. What makes it living...is God’s instructions and what we do with it in our lives. God wants us to digest it and allow it to become a part of us and to live it.

“...But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.  Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. “ 2 Peter 3: 10-13.

Training Up Our Children…Bible Style not Worldly Style.

Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.

 

There is a lot of controversy over this little short Scripture. Some don’t believe it means what it says and they call it a “Truism” in defence of their position. In doing so they err. Truism means a “a self evident obvious truth. In believing that this Scripture doesn’t mean what it says (which is very plain), they believe the first part and throw away the best part. The last part of it is the “goal” you are trying to reach in their short lives. They believe they trained their children in the way they should go…but they did depart, and so they believe this is not a true statement in all cases.  So...how can we know that we  have failed?  It is plain as day, isn't it?

 

Another thing is that if young parents can’t believe this means exactly what it says…they won’t try as hard. It is a travesty to twist a Scripture to the point that it discourages efforts of a young parent. Compare it to a basket-ball team… and the team thinks they can’t win the game. They are not going to play as hard as they would if they believed they could win.

 

God lets us know the outcome of our efforts and it helped us tremendously in our efforts to train our children in the way they should go.  Yes, we made some mistakes...we all probably do…but I’m so thankful that I read this Scripture way back before I had read “man’s explanation” of it.

 

Late note:  Our daughter, when she was in her late teens said, "I've never seen a parent confess and repent and ask forgiveness for not training their children up in the way they should go.  If a parent did that...there is no telling what might happen."   Well...years later we saw that happen and what happened to their two children is simply amazing.  A couple of years after that, they became Christians and they were up middle aged by that time.   

 

Abortion is a 'smoother' word than 'killing'!

 

 

Back in 1995 when our Grandchildren were still playing softball and baseball, I had a dream one night. Because the dream was so vivid in my mind and seemed so real, I thought maybe God wanted me to share it. I did that day and just came across the newspaper clipping of it...and so I will again. 

We holler out loud when a man or woman kills a little baby...but when a nation does it, is that ok???? Maybe we can relate to "one" better than we can to "50 million."