Intentional Parenting

I have been trying to decide what to name this blog and I keep wanting to name it "Intentional Parenting," but know that would probably not be a good title in the end. I am passionate about intentional parenting, but I am more passionate about an intentional life. So, if we live an intentional life, we will intentionally parent.

I read something recently that grabbed my attention. It said: "Average parents follow the crowd. Intentional parents pursue the goal." My question is: "What is the goal?"

Many people don't understand me simply because I do not "follow the crowd." I realized during Anna Grace's first year of life, that people expected certain things of me as a Mom. I was simply shocked at the pressure I felt at times by other Moms to do this and do that. I have to admit, a few times I was kind of SUCKED in before I even knew what was happening. I really didn't enjoy what I was doing and it was a burden. I began to seek God and ask Him why in the world did I not really enjoy what I was doing. The things my daughter and I were doing were not bad at all. God simply whispered in my ear, "Because that is not My way, it is the way of the world." Let me get something straight before I go any further.....the things we were doing were not bad, in fact I felt they were good for my child. And when I say world, I interpreted that to mean...not God's way for me and my daughter...my husband. So, at that moment, we started down a different path. I began to seek God and He redirected our life. I think that was the moment I realized that God had a SPECIFIC plan for my family. He had a path we were to travel and it took me and Daddy to get them down that path! They could not get there without our direction. And what really shocked me even more was the fact that I was very intentional about my life prior to Anna Grace, but when the parenting thing starts it is 24/7 with very little "down time." Jason and I were very intentional about naming our children. We talked a lot about parenting and their future, but I think it all happened so fast, I felt in a world wind. Before we knew it we were not being as intentional as we had planned to be.

Today, as we were doing 1st grade science, we were talking about seeds. We talked about if you plant a tomato seed; it will always be a tomato plant. It could never be anything else and this is God's plan. It is that way in life, if we plant bad seeds in our children; they will produce bad. If we sow good seeds in our children; they will produce good. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." ~ Galatians 6:7

It is up to us, as parents; to lead and guide our children under the direction of the Holy Spirit. They cannot be left on their own to decide what is best and what they always want. They are our children entrusted to us from the Father. It is time for us to decide NOW what we want the end result to be and PLANT GOOD seeds. Our children will make decisions that we will sometimes not be proud of, but know that you did your part to sow good seeds!

Now...
I know what my goal is.... But do you know what your goal is? What do you want the life of your child to look like as an adult? (again, it's their decision, but we play a big role in this EARLY ON).