Excellent, Praisewothy ...

Pin It (continued from yesterday)
(and the day before because I am terribly wordy.)

Convictions are so hard to define, aren't they? I know some of my convictions come from the Lord, but others probably don't. Others are because that's how we've always done it, or from other pressures. I think it would probably be a good idea one day to list out all of my convictions and try to examine where they came from. I'd probably be surprised.

I'm praying now as my children are beginning to develop their own convictions. I'd love to pray that they look just like mine, but I know they probably won't, and really, probably shouldn't. I'm sure as they grow up and the Lord leads them, they'll develop their own thoughts and ideas, as they should. I pray that the convictions I have now regarding them will be blessings to them, and not the words of a mom who just didn't want them to have any fun.

I pray that even now they will begin to get into the habit of thinking about what is true, noble, pure, right, lovely, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy and will see if the things they would like to allow into their lives fit into that.

I pray that they'll see that the things that aren't overtly, glaringly, wrong may not necessarily be right either, and that that is the toughest thing because sometimes subtle things worm their ways into our heads and hearts and move our focus.

I pray for grace for them as well, to cover mistakes that have been made and to protect innocence that our world seems to be on a mission to destroy. I pray for that grace for me as well!

(And maybe a little peace because one child who lives at this house is quite angry with me right now because something she enjoyed did not meet this standard and has been removed. She did at least start speaking to me again after a while, and after she realized she would not be able to manipulate me into wavering. I'm calling that progress!)

... true, noble, pure, right, lovely, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy ... think upon such things ...
(That's a paraphrase of Phil 4:8, btw, and from memory, so I'm willing to bet that the words aren't in the right order. ;) )