You may be wondering while there has been no activity on the blog the last few weeks. Well our family has grown from 4 members to now 5! On July the 29th our beautiful son Raphael Imad Awde was born. So as you can imagine we have been VERY busy adjusting - so please forgive me for the lateness of these next few posts.
This chapter has been a real blessing for me personally. Now with 3 small children I really feel inadequate in my mothering. I really need God to work through me, because I just can't do it by myself. It is so true that we need to be continually advancing in our own life to that we can lead our children to higher attainments. We need to improve our "mind and...heart" (CG 72) and this only can be done when we spend time with our Saviour on a daily basis, this is why our own personal devotion time is SO important. Yes I know that it can be a struggle for us busy mothers to find the time and energy for personal devotion time but we MUST do our work with "wholeheartedness" and we need to bring the "gospel into the home life". At the moment I would really struggle through my day if I was to stay awake after an early morning feed for Raphael and have my quiet time, so instead, whenever I feed during the day (which is every 2.5 - 3hrs), I spend that time reading. This has proved to be a REAL blessing. With about 5-6 feeds during the day and each lasting about 40 minutes, I get about 3-4 hours of reading time a day!! The Lord is good - He provides a way in all situations to spend time with us.
We also need to make sure that we are spending time with our husbands and children. When it comes to spending time with our family, it isn't quantity but QUALITY. A couple of years ago, Imad and I got to a point where we were keeping ourselves so bogged down in work that we rarely spent quality time together. We decided to start 'Date Night' each Wednesday evening and this is how it worked. Imad would leave work at a set time, find some beautiful flowers for me (mostly from the bush; once it was an Australian native flower which was on a thick stalk and stood taller then Imad, I could hardly lift the thing!). In the time it took Imad to drive home I would wash, feed the boys and get them ready for bed. When Imad got home he would tuck the boys into bed and then we would have a 'special' candle-lit dinner. The rest of evening was spent talking and catching up, it was a highlight to our week. Even though life is even more busy at the moment, we find the time to sit together and enjoy each others company. We have truly become close friends, and this hasn't happened by chance but by a decided effort on both parts. So if you have let the flame in your marriage dwindle away, relight it by spending some quality time together. Think of the things you use to do together when you were getting to know each other and try to start doing them again. Make yourself a necessity to your husband. if you hear your husband mention how he needs to complete a certain job around the home, or he feels like eating a specific meal, do your best to help him and make the food that he desires. He will truly cherish you and see you as a necessity in his life.
A couple of years ago we were attending a family camp and the topic of discussion one afternoon was on 'Family Time'. When we arrived back home we decided to start our own 'Family Time' each afternoon. We asked Danny (our eldest boy, then 5) what he would like us to do together as a family. He chose to go bike riding, so off we started down the road. Before we were even 5 minutes from home, we saw Danny peddling as fast as he could in front of us and then he started to wobble, and before we knew it he was flying over the handlebars and skidding across the bitumen - ouch! After we cleaned up the tears and blood we were sure that Danny would not be so excited about 'Family Time' again. To our surprise, the next day both boys couldn't wait to have family time! We have continued this tradition in our home and the boys REALLY cherish this time. Yes there have been times where we have allowed work and worries overtake us and have neglected our 'Family Time', but it is our desire to continue it as we have seen rich blessings in our home when we have made the effort to make time. I would like to add an extra 2 words to a saying you may well know: "Families who pray and play together, stay together."At the end of chapter 9 we read that it is important to meet together for counsel in regards to child-training. When I read this I was very much encouraged as that is what we are doing at Toowoomba Central Church, and there may be other groups who are following along with us. What a blessing to be able to meet and share our experiences and to encourage each other with Gods Word and inspired writings. I would encourage you all to continue with the studies and to put in your feedback at the bottom of each post so that we may gain encouragement from each other.
May God bless you in your calling of being a Mother.
Please find the next study guide here
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