Magnify the LORD with me,: Full of life!

Friday, September 4, 2009

Full of life!

It is a joy to walk into this house. There is such love and joy in this family and it is a beautiful witness to see how they are growing up their kids in the Lord. I wish we lived closer together, but appreciate how we can pick up wherever we left off.

Mary was one of my college dormmates at A&M (whoop!). Her relationship with Craig was a witness to the Lord right away. I'll never forget when he asked her dad for permission to marry her, and her father asked him how he planned to keep them pure during engagement. Craig was ready with an answer and pledged to always have the door open if they were in the dorm room together. This way there'd be no question as to what was going on. This really touched me and spoke so highly of the dignity of man and woman and the beauty of God's plan for marriage and the physical relationship.

Mary and Craig continue to witness to God's love and truth by the way they raise their children. Mary leads them in prayer before they take Jacob to school. Craig reads the Bible with them, leads them in prayers and each older child gets to pick a song they sing together at bedtime. They have a super balance of realistic expectations for children's behavior. They're allowed to be kids and are high energy and full of life and joy, yet if they cross a line, they quickly respond to their parent's warning. They know how to obey their parents, and so will be so much more likely to know how to obey the Lord. Mary and Craig play with their kids constantly, and have an excellent rapport with them. They're a lot of fun to be around!

This does not imply that my other friends aren't great parents! They are!!!! JC and I are blessed with several fabulous examples. But I only have a few friends with more than one child and even fewer friends with older children now. It's fun to see the long term effects of parenting! Well, longer, anyway!

Claire- age 4- isn't she beautiful!

Jumping for joy!

Oh my...did we have it in zoom mode?

Much better!

Jake playing fake baseball (on the Wii). This one's a TRASH TALKER! Just a little bit competitive, he is ready for a challenge and super fun to play with!