On the way home from Missouri last Friday I read Nancy Wilson's, Praise Her in the Gates. I enjoyed it thoroughly and would recommend it to any woman, whether she is a mother yet or not. I think that men could benefit from it as well even though it was written to women. Nancy Wilson is much like her husband; easy to read, understand, and right on! Here are a few excerpts from the book.
Chapter 5: Loving the Kids
"God supplies us with motherly love for our children. Even non-Christians love their children. But God wants us to love our children even when they are not being lovable, and this requires grace from God. We should be praying that God will give us a godly, self-sacrificing, rejoicing love for our children, even when we think we have enough already. Little children can never have too much love. They were made to respond to love, and when their little tanks are low, lots of odd behavior can show up. Each day has many opportunities to love our children, but let's look at how we can make the most out of dinnertime, bedtime, and holidays...."
"When our children were very small (and our apartment not much bigger), all three of them slept in one bedroom: two in the bunk beds and one in the crib. Bedtime was quite a party. My husband Doug would bring in his guitar on hot summer evenings, and we would sing all manner of songs. The kids would request their favorites: "Summertime and the livin' is easy" or "Oh, little Rachel, oh," as well as the first hymn they ever learned, "Holy, Holy, Holy." After songs and prayers and kisses and drinks, the lights went out, but sometimes it was hard for the little ones to believe all the fun was really over.
Occasionally after the bedtime ritual was over, Doug and I would stand by the front door and holler, "Jammy ride!" These magic words brought three bright-eyed children tumbling out of bed as if it was Christmas morning. Then into the back seat of the car they would scramble, amidst bathrobes and blankets (if it was chilly), and off we would go for ice cream cones."
Chapter 7: Respecting Sons
"As we raise our children before the Lord with "rejoicing in our tents," it is helpful to make distinctions between our sons and daughters. Our culture wants to eradicate all differences and tell us that boys and girls are essentially alike, apart from what we do to "program" them. This is foolishness. Sons and daughters are fearfully and wonderfully made, and we should not only acknowledge the distinction between them, we should thank God and rejoice in these very marked differences. Christians should be clear thinkers when it comes to disentangling themselves from the egalitarian propaganda that pervades so much modern thinking. Especially when it comes to the important task of bringing up our children, we do not want to buy into the world's silly ideas about boys and girls."
"Wives are commanded in Scripture to respect their husbands (Eph. 5:33), and women are generally pretty poor at giving respect. This is why we need to be taught how. Our strength lies more in loving than in respecting. Just as men need respect from their wives, so sons need respect from their mothers and sisters. Or course, respect to your son will look different than respect to your husband, because your son is not in authority over you, but it is respect nonetheless. A woman's first priority must be to respect her husband. This is actually a significant way to respect sons. A woman should never drive a wedge between her sons and her husband by taking sides.She must render respect to her husband even when she disagrees with the way he is handling his sons. Certainly she should and must bring her concerns t him privately, but she should never tell her sons she disagrees with Dad unless it is clearly a moral issue."
"We must prepare our sons to go out into the world, face obstacles, work hard, and provide for a household with integrity. Mothers can unwittingly undermine this preparation by mollycoddling their sons. If mothers are protecting and pampering their sons, they will gropw up to be milksops (otherwise known as sissies), and obviously, this is not honoring to God. Our aim for our sons is maturity. We want them to be able to stand with their father against his enemies in the city gate (Ps. 127). "
