Encouragement!

I recieved a special word of encouragement today about parenting while I was listening to Beth Moore during my QT. She was talking about how the Lord uses everything about us, esp. our brains and that he honors organization and planning. I am a planner so I like this, obviously you have to keep in mind that we must give our plans to God to alter as he sees fit but he does want us to research, think, and plan. As this relates to the way I parent, I was thinking about how he wants us to parent "on purpose". He wants us in his Word and listening to godly parenting advice so that we can make a plan for the way we will raise our kids. Anyway, even with all the planning we are still blindsided by the daily challenges we never thought about. I worry so often that I will fail, that my children will turn out poorly. But the Lord has given us the promise that if we raise up a child in the way he should go, when he is old he won't depart from it. (Prov. 22:6). Furthermore (finally to the cool word I got today) God delights in us when we obey him and seek to parent our children the way he wants us to. Psalm 37:23-24 says "If the Lord delights in a man's way he makes his steps firm;though he stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand." God showed me a great analogy for this. As many of you have been there recently, remember what its like when your child is just learning to walk. How you walk beside them holding onto their arm or hand to balance them if they start to fall? I have been doing this often with Zach lately. God says he is doing just that with us! When we are going somewhere he wants us to go, he is right there, our loving Daddy, keeping us from falling and smacking our head on the pavement! ha!