What makes a good mother?

This week my boys and I had a belated Mother's Day date.
We went to a little French place in town. I am not a huge fan on French eating, because you always leave with empty pockets and a belly that isn't quite full, but the place is darling. Not to mention the fact that it's their favorite place.  They were so excited for days leading up to our "Date" and it was very sweet to have lunch with just them. I had fun joking with them about how they are only ever allowed to date 2 women their entire lives - their mother and their wife ;-)

With all the Mother's Day talk I thought alot about what it is exactly that makes a "Good" mother. Since I am raising "Third Culture Kids" I have become increasingly aware that a "Good" mother means different things in different places. Chinese mother's show their love in very different ways than Western mothers do (for the most part). I have come to appreciate seeing different "styles".
 Even within a country people often times can't agree on details like bed times, napping, co-sleeping, breastfeeding, schooling, TV time, etc. That's exactly what those things are though, no matter how dogmatic some may be, they are details. We can not create our parenting views on our society, for one reason they don't even agree. As Christians, our authority always comes back to Jesus and what His Word says. Last week one of my Chinese friends, who is a fairly new believer told me he had been thinking about how he would have a conversation that would introduce his faith to his children (when he actually has children ;-). I found that to be an interesting thought, because I had never even considered sharing my faith with my children in an introductory conversation. I want them to have lived with Jesus at the center of their family for as far back they can remember. I shared Deut. 6 with him " Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ⁶ These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. ⁷ Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸ Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ⁹ Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates."

This pretty much covers "When" to share Jesus with your kids - ALL the time. Because He is isn't someone we just sing about on Sunday, and He isn't someone who just teaches us how to live a moral life, He isn't just someone we read about in the Bible, He isn't just some idea. He is everything, He is the center of our lives or at least He should be. I want my kids to "Live" Jesus. That is what I believe makes us a "Good" mom/parent in God's eyes. A parent who points to Jesus!
When I think of my own mom I can see that she did just that. Was she perfect? No, neither am I. But she did point me to Jesus!
See we can't "Make" our kids do anything! Boy, don't we all wish we could sometimes? If we could "make" our kids do what we wanted, then there would be no spankings needed - ever, no time-outs, no "talks" - instead we could all wake up to the voices of our children singing "The hills are alive with the sound of music" while making our coffee - ahhh, it's a lovely dream ;-)

"Good parenting = 1 mom + 1 dad + The Holy Spirit"

 All we can do is punish wrong behavior and keep on pointing to Jesus. Because He is the one who gives our hearts the desire to do right.


The fact of the matter is, Scott and I are not rich. Now I know this will come as a shock to most of you since we sport such fancy clothes and all (teehee), but we most likely won't be those parents that leave all sorts of fancy stuff to our chidlren in our will. Although Isaiah did inform me today then when I do die, he gets first dibs on my new Chinese Necklace ;-) What I do plan to leave my children is something of far more value than earthly possesions. I want to leave them with a love for Jesus. It will be up to them, if they want to embrace Him for themselves. No parents can pass on salvation! All we can do is point to Him, lead them to Him, show them how wonderful He is, show them that they can't get to heaven any other way that by the route that He has mapped out ~ Jesus!
 But He by far is the most precious thing we could ever give!
⁴⁴ “ The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field."