3 Things the Sunrise Teaches Us About God

Theology in Everyday Life

When we go to the beach, my daughter and I always wake up early one morning and go down to the shore to watch the sunrise. We’ve done it for as long as I can remember. (Side note: It doesn’t work for the Gulf Coast. Wrong direction.) It’s a special mother-daughter moment that prompts slow but significant conversations.

Consider these 3 things the sunrise teaches us about God.

Propelled By Unseen Movement

As we sit on our towels, digging our feet into the cool sand, we’re not actually waiting on the sun to rise. We’re waiting on the earth to rotate: not a process we can feel happening, not a process that can be rushed, and not a process that waits on us if we’re running late.

The way God works in the world is much the same. We can’t see or feel much of what God is doing, and if we don’t trust Him, it’s easy to think He is inactive. But He is certainly at work, and if we’re looking in the right direction at the right time, we will see glory, just like we see the sun rise.

I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, 
more than watchmen wait for the morning.  -Psalm 130:6

Expectant waiting is a key element of following Jesus. (Here’s a whole post about expectant waiting.) While we wait, God is moving heaven and earth to produce His Glory. He will let us know when we have an active part.

As I write this, it’s early December and we’ve just entered Advent. Waiting comes up in every spiritual conversation, and I’m learning just how well sunrise compares to Christmas. Zechariah (John the Baptist’s father) prophesied,

“…The rising sun will come to us from heaven
to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace.”  -Luke 1:78-79

Absolutely Consistent

Our wait for the sunrise is always expectant, catching that first sliver above the horizon when the sky is clear or noticing a glow behind the clouds when the sky is overcast. The sky may look different every day, but the sunrise is certain to happen every single day, always. Even in the middle of winter, when dark clouds and snow obscure it, the sun rises.

Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge him.
As surely as the sun rises, he will appear.  -Hosea 6:3

No one questions whether or not the sun will rise tomorrow morning. In the same way, we need not doubt God’s presence and work in our lives.

Blocked By Other Lights

If my daughter and I leave our hotel room too early, we have to use a flashlight on the way down to the beach. When we find our spot and spread our towels, however, we turn off the flashlight. You see, the flashlight is very bright and very close to us. So even though it is miniscule in comparison to the sun, its brightness will cause us to miss those first moments of sunrise.

In the same way, when we try to produce our own light, that is, try to live out the Christ-life in our own strength, we miss the sweet, small beginnings of what God is doing around us.

“I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.” –John 12:46

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; On those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.  -Isaiah 9:2

Sometimes we need to sit in the dark for a minute before we can see God’s light rising around us.

Wondering how to talk to your kids about God? Use this guide to start the conversation. Theology in everyday life: 3 things we can learn about God from the sunrise. #IntentionalParenting

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Do you have a special parent-child tradition or habit? Care to tell us about it in the comments? And if you have infused it with the Truths of God, share that too! There’s much we can learn from each other.

Related:

• Longing Hard to Meet the Sun
• I Am Not the Light of the World

Parenting Doesn’t Always Look the Same

Intentional Parenting doesn’t look the same for every family–not now and not in biblical times.

For Mother’s Day and Father’s Day this year, I posted some observations on biblical mothers and fathers who didn’t fit the conventional molds.

Three Biblical Moms who “Owned” their Unconventional Roles

1. Naomi: the mother-in-law role
2. Hannah: the longed-for-and-lost role
3. Eunice: the cross-cultural marriage role

These three mothers didn’t let their circumstances excuse them from raising children who loved and served God.

Three Biblical Dads who “Owned” their Unconventional Roles

1. David: the substitute dad role
2. Joseph: the stepfather role
3. Paul: the spiritual father role

These very-real fathers looked beyond bloodlines to raise the next generation for God’s glory.

(c) Carole Sparks

If you want to read more about each of these parents, click through to the original posts! I hope you are encouraged in your unconventional role or God leads you to encourage someone else in his/her role.

Intentional Parenting doesn’t look the same for everyone. It didn’t back in Old and New Testaments times either. 3 moms & 3 dads who “owned” their unconventional roles. #IntentionalParenting encouragement via @Carole_Sparks. #BiblicalParenting

Are you particularly encouraged by one of these parents? Do you know of another awesome unconventional parent in the Bible? Please share your answers to either question in the comments below. I would love to make a collection of studies with present-day examples! 

What Good are Your Yearbooks Now?

Ahh, the end of the school year…

It’s “that time of year” for many things, depending on the ages of our children: field days or proms, end-of-year parties or graduations, pool passes or job applications. And yearbooks. We didn’t do yearbooks in elementary school, but my children did. Then of course, they have middle and high school yearbooks.

So many yearbooks!

My freshman class pic. It was 1987.

My husband and I recently—finally—unpacked some boxes and pulled out our old high school yearbooks. The kids laughed at the outdated designs of the covers before we even opened them. Then they laughed at the hairstyles, shoe choices, clothing, club names…just about everything. I’m not offended. Styles change, and one day, my grandchildren will laugh at my children’s yearbooks, too. (So there!)

They laughed, and I laughed with them for a minute. Then I began looking into my own eyes, staring back at me from those pictures. My yearbook reminded me of a few things I had forgotten in the thirty years since I was a teenager.

I was once awkward, too.

I once spent too long in front of the mirror, too.

I had braces. And glasses. And pimples. And all the worries that go along with them.

I had broken hearts and broken friendships.

I stressed out over a junior prom about which I can’t remember a single detail, even when I see myself in the yearbook photos. (Well, I remember that my date was a really nice guy.)

1991: My Senior year, voted “Most Likely to Become a Millionaire” – LOL!

Have you looked through one of your old yearbooks recently? Have you taken hold of them and looked into your own eyes until you remember all the emotions and uncertainty of that age? That’s what your teenage kids are feeling right now.

When it comes to our children, we need to remember the other side of this verse.

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.  –1 Corinthians 13:11

It’s okay that our children talk, think, and reason like children. That’s what they are.

Yearbooks aren’t good for much, especially if, like me, you prefer to look forward rather than backward. But they helped me. You see, I had forgotten. I was expecting my teenagers to be entirely too reasonable, too rational, too efficient. I wasn’t reasonable, rational, or efficient at that age, and I came out okay.

I’m thinking my children will, too.

God used my high school yearbooks to remind me what it feels like to be a teenager. I needed that. #teenagers and #IntentionalParenting via @Carole_Sparks. (click to tweet)

Have you looked through your high school yearbooks recently? Is there something else that helps you remember what it was like to be a teenager? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below!

 

How to Talk to Your Kids About Childhood Sexual Abuse – part 2 (guest post)

Oh, how I wish we didn't need to know these kinds of things! But no family
and no child is immune to this kind of abuse. Please read Lyneta's words
and share it with others who need to know. And like Lyneta, I hope you 
never have to say these things to your child.

Last week, I shared some ways to talk to children about preventing sexual abuse and our duty as parents to protect them. But the sad fact is, no matter how diligent we are, some parents are faced with helping our children heal and recover after the damage is already done.

When I finally got the courage to tell my husband how I was traumatized as a child, and how dismissive and insensitive my caregivers were, he said, “It sounds like you could have healed a lot faster if you’d been heard and validated.”

How to Talk to Your Kids About Childhood Sexual Abuse – part 1 (guest post)

It's often in the news these days, and Intentional Parenting means we get
real with our kids about it (even though it's often uncomfortable). I'm so
thankful for this month's guest! Lyneta not only grounds the issue of
childhood sexual abuse in scripture but also offers practical advice for 
helping our kids be strong. Read more about Lyneta and connect with her at 
the bottom of the post.

Early in the history of man, the beautiful way God created for husband and wife to connect in intimacy got twisted into something harmful. Ever since, the enemy has been able to use even a few minutes of inappropriate sexual contact to do significant, long-term damage to the innermost spirit of any person.

Apparently, he employs this tactic often. In the United States, 1 in 9 girls and 1 in 53 boys are molested or assaulted by an adult by the time they’re 18.

Imperfect Parenting

Go read this. Really.

https://just18summers.com/the-myth-of-perfect-parenting/

Because no matter how intentional we are, we’ll never do this parenting thing perfectly.

Full disclosure: I’m a fan and occasional guest contributor at Just18Summers. And Edie Melson, who wrote this piece, is the director of Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference.

How to Hug a Lightning Bolt (flash fiction)

Here’s a flash fiction piece I wrote awhile back. I thought you all, in the throws of Intentional Parenting, might like a little something lighter…and sweet.

Aubrey twisted around on the couch, tucked her feet under her legs, and stared out the window at the rain. She sighed deeply, in the way she imagined characters in books sighing.

The couch bounced an inch closer to the window before Aubrey finished her next breath. It was Zadie, plopping down with a sigh of her own. Aubrey kept her eyes trained out the window. Mom and Dad were right to choose opposite ends of the alphabet for our names, Aubrey thought. We are as different as A is from Z.  Even our sighs are different.

It’s the Little Things (guest post)

So I did something crazy. I caught a ride to a writers' conference with a 
complete stranger. Okay, I knew her on-line, but I'd never actually met her 
before. The four-hour (each way) trip passed in minutes as we talked about 
anything and everything. At some point, she told me about her family's 
Friday night traditions; I knew she needed to share their story with you! So 
please welcome Stephanie Pavlantos, now my actual face-to-face 
writer-friend, to Intentional Parenting. Read more about her at the end.

Three children under three. That was my world. My husband worked long hours at our family restaurant, making me feel like a single mom.

When I went to the doctor for swollen lymph nodes, pain all over my body, and a sore throat, she said, “You have mono, but we rarely see that in women your age, are you under a lot of stress?”

“Ha! Does having three children under three years old count?” I asked.

I had two-and-a-half year old preemie twins (boy and girl) and a one-year-old son. My oldest son, who has cerebral palsy and was just learning to walk, needed a lot of extra attention, including therapy, not to mention extra daily help.

I needed to make life as simple as I could.

Like all children, mine wanted to have fun and be entertained. But I was only one person, and taking them out by myself  was not only nerve-racking (hence, the mono) but also expensive.

Matthew had physical and occupational therapy every Friday morning. During the summer, the local Children’s Hospital had a really inexpensive outdoor lunch for the outpatient children and their parents. It wasn’t the most nutritious, but it was easy! We got a drink, chips, and a hot dog at the hospital’s playground, and my kids loved it. I thought, I can do this. So, at different times of the month I would pack up their lunches, put each in their own little lunch bag, and take everyone to the park. They played, they ate, they had fun, and it cost me very little.

Stephanie’s husband and young sons, watching TV (c) Stephanie Pavlantos

Another tradition involved Fridays. After physical and occupational therapy every Friday, the first thing we did was go to the library for books and movies. These were going to last them all week, so they could each get two movies and as many books as they could carry, or, um, I could carry. From there, we went to the local drug store where they could each pick one of the discounted snacks to eat later. When we got home, they popped in the first movie while I straightened up my house. Dinner was always pizza. My youngest is almost twenty-one now, and he still wants pizza on Friday night. “It’s a tradition,” he says.

We all watched an age appropriate movie while enjoying our pizza. Then, all three kids went to the twins’ bedroom and watched the next movie on another TV while eating their special snack. That’s when I finally got to sit and watch something I wanted to. My twenty-two year old daughter recently told me this is a favorite memory. She enjoyed the routine and looked forward to it each week.

We have done many other things with our kids over the years—big and small trips. But sometimes it’s the little, inexpensive things which bring us together and let our children know we want to be with them. This is what they remember.

Sometimes the simple family routines become special memories when you’re spending time together. An #IntentionalParenting guest post from Stephanie Pavlantos via @Carole_Sparks. #familytime (click to tweet)

Does your family share some simple but special habits? Do your older kids remember a childhood pattern you thought was insignificant? We would love to hear your stories in the comments below!

 

About Stephanie

Stephanie Pavlantos is passionate about getting people into God’s Word, where they can discover God’s love for them, their identity in Christ, and healing for the wounds of this life, while forgiving those who caused their pain. She has been a Bible study teacher and speaker for over fifteen years. Stephanie’s work-in-progress, a Bible study called Yeshua, God’s Son, our Treasure: A Quest through the Book of Hebrews, recently won an award at Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference.

Stephanie and her husband, Mike, have been married for 26 years and have three college students: Matthew, Alexandria, and Michael. Stephanie also loves animals. Her brood currently includes has two dogs, four ducks, three goats, and many chickens.

Get to know Stephanie through her blog, or on Facebook.

 

A New Season of Firsts (guest post)

I love hearing from parents who are further along the parenting path. This
month, Carol Roper reflects on how Christmas has changed through the years.
If you're one who likes the holidays to stay the same, these may be just
the words you need to hear/read. Make sure to learn more about Carol and
connect with her at the end of the post!

I remember so many of my kids’ firsts. Their first birthdays, haircuts and sleepovers. First days of school, first friends and first dates. One of the most anticipated occasions, however, was their first Christmas.

My husband and I were married eight years before our oldest was born, so I was ready to celebrate the wonder and excitement of the season in a new way. I have to admit, though, it was a bit of a letdown. Six-month-olds don’t really get into Christmas. They’d rather chew on wrapping paper than open all those new toys.

As for my second-born, we were a little more practical and got him an exersaucer for his big gift. But when we set him in it, he promptly threw up and spiked a high fever. That wasn’t the dream Christmas I’d envisioned either.

But since then we’ve had many great Christmas holidays—it’s still my favorite season.

I’ve always loved to play Christmas music during the evenings in December. I remember when my daughter, Elise, was only two and Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You” came on the radio. I’d crank up the music and we’d laugh and dance wildly across our little den. I can still see those big curls bouncing around her little cherub face. To this day, when we hear that song, we’ll look at each other and grin.

There were the annual Christmas card pictures I had to cajole my son, Jacob, into posing for. The magic reindeer dust we’d sprinkle on the lawn on Christmas Eve to make sure Santa would find us. And the holiday baking that always made such a mess but brought lots of smiles.

As they got older I realized I needed to make Christmas more Christ-centered so I began a new tradition that included three gifts for each family member to represent the gifts of the Magi: gold, frankincense and myrrh. This new tradition brought more depth to our Christmas morning, reminding us of the reason we celebrate.

This year will be our newest and most difficult first as a family: the first Christmas since not just one, but both of our children, have moved out—less than six months apart.

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven…  –Ecclesiastes 3:1

My son married a wonderful young woman last July and my daughter built her own house. My husband and I are suddenly empty-nesters. Grappling with what that means for us is something I really hadn’t spent much time pondering. In the back of my mind I knew it was coming but didn’t think it would arrive so quickly.

I’m not sure what to expect this year. Elise says she’ll spend Christmas Eve night in her old room, so she’ll be here Christmas morning. But Jacob and his bride will be visiting her family, so we’ll see them later in the day. Marriage means sharing our children with their spouse’s family.

No. Christmas morning won’t be the same.

But I’m determined to be intentional about adding new traditions to our growing family—ones that will stir the hearts of my children and, hopefully someday, grandchildren. My goal is to always have our home be a place of respite, love and joy. A place where Christ and family are cherished and celebrated. I’ll just have to be a little more creative in implementing these traditions, remembering they’ll look a little different from here on out. But different doesn’t have to mean bad. After all, we’ve gained another daughter.

Don’t be afraid to change.

You may lose something good but you may gain something better.

 – Pelfusion.com

Let your #Christmastraditions change as your family life changes. Just-in-time #IntentionalParenting reflections from @CarollynnRoper via @Carole_Sparks. (click to tweet)

How have you prepared yourself for the holiday season after your kids leave home? Are there any new traditions you’ve added that your kids (or you and your husband) appreciate? I’d love to hear your ideas!

Carol Roper is a designer/draftsman and writer who freelances from her home in South Carolina. Her articles have appeared in Guideposts Magazine, Guideposts.org, American Daily Herald and ChristianDevotions.us. She and her husband, John, live on a farm where they enjoy hosting friends and family around bonfires and watching sunsets from their front porch. Visit her at www.carolroper.org, where she encourages women to build strong, godly homes one story at a time.

 

 

Parenting at the Movies

Y’all, I’m excited about this one: I had a guest post over at In the Quiver the other day! It starts like this:

We love to go to the movies as a family, but I don’t always love what we see on the screen. Sometimes my gut reaction is to cover my children’s eyes and ears until the scene passes, but that’s not always practical, especially now that they’re older and watch movies with their friends.