Parenting with Heart

Are you busy dashing about after those little ones! Notice the "dashing" music if you have it. It's Vivaldi's Piccolo Concerto in C major. But don't reflect too much on those child chasing times... This page is designed to uplift you... to give you parenting resources as well as cause you to remember the more deeper meanings of parenting and how blessed we really are. As with our faith we can't always have "mountain-top moments", but God gives us the ones we have to inspire us to be better parents in the mundane times. I hope to have special stories for you very soon, so check back soon to see!

I hope that you believe, as I do, that in order to be better parents, we must first become better people. For me this means becoming a better Christian; a better servant of Christ. Jesus said, "whatever you do for the least of these, my little one, you do for me". We ought to see our parenting as a ministry to our own children, serving them with the love we would show to Christ himself. Imagine how Mary, the mother of Jesus must have felt to feel this responsibility and maternal instinct compounded by the love of her Lord! In this same way we should show such love.

As you may have guessed I am a breast-feeding advocate. And as a nurse and a child advocate, I am happy to announce that the American Academy of Pediatrics (the AAP) has officially recommended breastfeeding as the optimal source of milk for at least the first 12 months of life. From their policy itself : "It is recommended that breastfeeding continue for at least 12 months, and thereafter for as long as mutually desired".

This in combination with their other recommendation of waiting to introduce solid foods, will give this next generation a matchless start in building strong, healthy, and less prone to the many viruses known to children these days. This rise, which is likely is related to the increase in daycare use, can be diminished by adding the parent's immunity to many cold viruses out there. Of course it will not shield them from every cold, but mothers often report a milder effect on the breastfed child than on (for example), a sibling. Again, there is no guarantee that you will have immunity for every virus that passes by your child, but chances are better than the 0% chance that a bottle-fed chance would be given.

For further information I would encourage you to read the AAP policy right here on the web. Note: Please scroll down to "Recommended Breastfeeding Practices".

The following was excerpted from Focus on the Family magazine::
Listed below is a "Checklist for Spiritual training" --a set of targets at which to aim. Many of the items require maturity that children lack, and we should not try to make adult Christians out of our immature youngsters. But we can urge them toward these goals during the impressionable years of childhood.

Essentially, the five scriptural concepts that follow should be consciously taught, providing the foundation on which all future doctrine and faith will rest. I encourage every Christian parent to evaluate his child's understanding of these five areas:

Concept 1: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength" (Mark 12:30)

Concept 2: "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Mark 12:31)

Concept 3: "Teach me to do your will for you are my God" (Psalm 143:10)

Concept 4: "Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man" (Ecclesiastes 12:13)

Concept 5: "But the fruit of the Spirit is ...self-control" (Galations 5:22,23)

	Member of The Gentle Christian Mothers Ring ~*~
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