I woke up this morning after Solomon had slept for 11 hours straight for the first time and realized that I needed to use his first awake hour to do a word search on the IPad on the You Version Bible App. My dad taught me how to study the Bible and I am very grateful. He taught me to find a word that I'm interested in and search it from beginning to end and write down the first mention and any verses that are meaningful or build on the previous verse. I decided to do mine on tree (half because of the Christmas tree debate and half because of the tree of life that I've been reading into from Genesis 3). I learned a quote from my favorite preacher, Tommy Nelson from Denton Bible Church, this week and he said that the Word of God will not yield its fruits to a lazy man, you have to come before the Word of God with a humble and willing heart. I had no idea that studying a tree would take me to these places in my thoughts this morning...

When you have a child, your world changes, your body changes and your cares REALLY change. Solomon is now starting to notice what we do and this is scary and a very exciting challenge. He turns his head to the TV when he is in the room and he reaches for the IPad when we are on it. You start to think about how you are going to discipline and teach your child when they reach this point, because YOU are about to shape their world and their morals through love and discipline (or lack of it in some cases).

I've thought about how I want him to be creative, play outdoors, sing, be happy and innovative. Josh's hopes for Solomon are some the same, but some, much different. He wants Solomon to be a man's man, excel at sports and learn to wrestle around. You can read tons of books (as I have) on the subjects of how to shape children into what you want and it is all so overwhelming and will probably not work out like you had hoped. I have been feeling the pressure and guilt of all of this (shaping the perfect child) in the last few weeks as he is entering into another phase of his young life, and this morning I realized something... nothing else matters except the eternal things. My sister-in-law told me this when I was fretting on my private blog about parenting styles while I was pregnant and how others would think of me when I did things a different way. It really stuck with me.

I was doing a word search Bible study this morning on the word "tree" and through a few rabbit trails I found a passage that talked about the coming of Christ and how we should be careful not to be overeating, being drunk and overtaken with the cares of this world while waiting for His return. I thought back on my last week and the entire thing was filled with thoughts of food (what to cook, where to dine out, calorie counting, etc...) and the cares of this world (dying my hair, redecorating my house, finding that perfect plate for my plate rail, making more money for a good vacation next year, organizing all of my mess, buying a Christmas present for someone that will make them like me more etc...) and it struck me.- none of these things are eternal and when you look back on the vapors of your life, they are meaningless.

I started thinking about the life of Jesus and tried to sum up what he did that was so important (of course the cross, but I am focusing on his day to day activities) and I came to the conclusion that it was what he says is the sum of everything, " Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind and love your neighbor as yourself."

I do not love my neighbor as myself. I put myself first and rarely think of anyone else. What a terrible way to live.  Jesus walked around helping people, loving them out of sin and restoring their hope. He brought people joy and compelled them to repent (turn and walk away from wrong for forever) and to love, forgive,  and serve while doing it in the name of God.

I am going to brainstorm and see how I can live my life to serve and love others and teach my son to be a man of God and not a man of the world. It is a huge task with many, many pits ahead, but it gives me a fuller purpose than just trying to create a well-rounded artist/super-athlete.

Please pray for me! Children imitate their parents and their parent's lifestyles and my own life needs an overhaul for this little boy's sake! We must always be willing to let the word of God change us and make us better people and I am so glad that the Bible worked into my heart in a surprising way this morning.