The most important things...And things not yet done.

Sunday evening and Monday, between the time the ER doctor in Effingham had made a preliminary diagnosis of Guillain-Barre syndrome and I began to recover with the help of antibiotics, we had some time to think about what is really important and what things we might have left undone.  We often hear that we should "live each day as if it were our last day", but that saying has a much deeper meaning when you are driving away from home not knowing if you will be coming back or, if you do get to come home, what type of crippling disability you might have.

Monday morning I remember thinking about my favorite verse, John 17:3, "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."  Salvation is not just an experience or a profession of faith (although it often starts with these), but it is a relationship with God and with His Son.  I remember feeling so secure in my relationship with God and praying that God would use this experience to help me know him better and more deeply.  This morning I was reading Psalm 10 and found a verse that is the reverse of this.  Verse 4 says, "The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts."  I am so thankful for experiences like this one that keep us humble and drive us to seek God and keep him in our thoughts.

For a few years I have wanted to make a list of the parenting tips and tricks that we have picked up over the years.  If I had not recovered from this sickness, this would have been one of the "things left undone".  I know we are not finished raising our children and I know that the "acid test" of our parenting is how they raise their children, but we do take the raising and training of our children very, very seriously.  We have read a lot, prayed a lot, tried various methods of training and discipline.  We have watched other families and learned a lot from them.  And we have learned a lot from our kids, too.

I am thinking about adding a "Parenting Tips and Tricks" section to the blog and occasionally posting the things I have learned and want to remember.  I have made one rule for myself for this undertaking:  I will only use my "selfish time" when I would be checking the news, playing Solitaire, etc.  I will not use the time that belongs to Tamara, the children, devotions, and my other responsibilities.  Needless to say the posts may be "occasional"!