Competitive or Envious?

1 Corinthians 13:4

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

Patience and kindness are 2 things we are easily motivated to teach our children because they are also valued by the world. What about teaching our children to not be envious, boastful or proud in a world where self esteem is deemed so important instead of esteeming God?

I went running with my sister who runs on a regular basis and participates in things like half-marathons. As I trailed far behind her and began to walk after less than a mile of jogging, I found myself envious of her ability to run. I felt like I "lost" at running - because I am competitive. Being "competitive" is very much of the world. I have become a bad loser. God did a work in me as I struggled to breathe while watching my sister disappear ahead of me. He brought to my attention the need to be thankful that He has gifted her with the motivation and ability to discipline her mind and body in the way of running. Then I became thankful for His gifts to me in "thoroughly equipping me for every good work" by His word. (1 Tim 3:16-17)

Instead of teaching our children to be competitive, which certainly leads to being proud and boastful when they win and to being envious and joyless when they lose, let us teach them to love by being thankful for giving others different gifts so that God may be glorified in many different ways. Let us teach them to love God by being thankful for the gifts they have received from Him, above all, the gift of Himself - Christ's finished work on the cross and sanctification from the Holy Spirit, which will arm them to beat sin, which has no power over those in Christ! Let us teach them to esteem God, not themselves, whether they win or lose.

I recently listened to this sermon by Betsy Ricucci about managing time according to God's priorities for me. She Rises Early - Our Pursuit of the Spiritual Disciplines

Betsy does a great job describing the importance of practicing the "Spiritual Disciplines" - prayer and reading, studying, and memorizing scripture. She cites several respected, biblical teachers in her sermon.

John Piper reminds us that in order to be happy in God, we must know God. He also says that "Entering the day without a serious meeting with God over His Word and in prayer is like entering the battle without tending to your weapons. The human heart does not replenish itself with sleep... We replenish our hearts not with sleep but with the Word of God and prayer."

Betsy convicts us of prioritizing Godly pursuits, such as maintaining a clean home, over God Himself. It is very easy to say that I don't have time to pray or read scripture since I have 2 young children. However, after evaluating how I spend my time, it is easy to see where I am not choosing "the good portion, which will not be taken away from [me]" (Luke 10:42).

When my day starts with God, it is much easier (though still difficult) to fight the flesh with the spirit. As my friend says, "Claim the power of the Holy Spirit!" The only way to know what power there is to claim is by reading scripture and praying to the God that lives in us.

Newborns

Any day now there will be a newborn in our home. Believe it or not, we're ready! At least mentally and emotionally, anyway!

Babywise by Gary Ezzo, recommended by many, many friends of ours, is why we're ready. I guess we're extra-ready - we've implemented it once before.

Here's a short review of what's going to happen in our lives with a newborn...

1. birth the baby (who instantly starts to lose weight after leaving the womb, I suppose)

2. feed the baby as soon as he's clean

3. wake up the baby 3 hours later and feed him again*

4. Repeat step 3 until he's back up to his birth weight - at least a few days, maybe a week or more.

* Feed the baby until he's full - NOT until he falls asleep! Wake that kid up if he falls asleep nursing and make him eat a meal!

Step 1, not so bad. Step 2, a wonderful experience. Steps 3 and 4, much, much harder.

Mentally, we’re ready – we know what actions we’re going to take.

Emotionally, we’re ready – we are excited about a new member of the family finally joining us!

Spritually, we’re not ready – yet! Time to get ready.

We will fight our flesh with the Word of God to make it through Steps 3 and 4. Steps 3 and 4 will present the following challenges, which will be met with the following truths:

Challenge: Feeling like a failure because nursing is difficult

Truth: My value is not based on whether or not I can nurse. My value is based on who I am in Christ. I am God’s daughter! Romans 8:16 says "The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children."

Challenge: Feeling irritable about setting the alarm clock for 4:00 am when it just went off at 1:00 am and it’s already 2:30 am and we’re just getting back to bed.

Truth: We are choosing to schedule feedings (which is not a biblical principle) because of advice we received and applied with our older child and it just happened to work with him. We are presenting ourselves with the challenge of not getting irritated. Here's how we're going to use the Word to defend ourselves: Remember that God is sovereign (see Ezekial to really rub that in) – in complete control of everything – and works all things to make us more Christ-like. Romans 8:28-29 says "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,who have been called according to his purpose. 29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers." Let's watch God work and praise Him!

Challenge: My relationship with my husband is going to suffer because of the feeding schedule.

Truth: My husband will be very involved in the feedings even though I am nursing. God has joined us together. Genesis 2:23-24 says "The man said,

"This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called 'woman,'
for she was taken out of man."

24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh." We are one flesh! We are together. Even if he is not physically standing next to me, he is on my side, supporting me in prayer and in his actions to make sure we feed our baby when he needs to be fed.