10 Reasons I Will Raise My Children With God

There was an article written by Texas mother and blogger recently featured on CNN iReport, stating why she raises her children without God. She implies that those who believe in God or religion are brainwashed into believing made up stories and that believing in God is equivalent to believing in Santa Claus. She says she is not attacking religion, but states, “I only want religion to be kept at home or in church where it belongs. It’s a personal effect, like a toothbrush or a pair of shoes.”

If you’re like me and believe in what she calls an “imaginary God” or religion, you know that our beliefs are not something we just take off. God is not like a toothbrush and my religion is not like a pair of shoes. I don’t just take of my religion when I feel like it. I live it every day.

I am a young mother. My son, Caeden, is only a year old, so I do not claim to be an expert at parenting. I am only here to share why I raise, and will continue to raise my child(ren) with God.

She says, “I understand why people need God. I understand why people need heaven. It is terrifying to think that we are all alone in this universe, that one day we—along with the children we love so much—will cease to exist. The idea of God and an afterlife gives many of us structure, community and hope.”

In my eyes, I understand why people don’t believe in God. It is hard to be accountable for our actions not only in this life, but even after we die. Sometimes I wonder, “How simple would life be if I didn't believe in God?” But I do believe. I echo the words of God in a promise to Him, “for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” (Hebrews 13:5)

Here are 10 simple reasons why I raise my child with God:

1. LOVE :  God loves us and teaches us to love. In fact, love is so important to God that He commands us to love one another (John 13:34). Again, we have choice, and God can’t and will not force us to love anyone, but God loves love so much that He wants us to share our love with each other. God is love (1 John 4:8).

2. BEAUTY: God gives us beauty. Look around you. There are hundreds of species of flowers and trees. There is color everywhere. Mountains, hills, birds, animals, oceans, clouds. (Psalms 8:3-9)God gave us beauty, but our senses are dulled by society’s thrills and expectations.

3. LISTEN: God listens. He is not overbearing, but waits for you to come to Him. (Matthew 7:7). God answers all prayers. You just need to be listening.

4. FREEDOM: Sometimes, like children, people are angry when they don’t get what they want, and in turn, blame God. God will not take away hardships. God will not take away all pain, sorrow, and hurt. He is not the creator of those things. Satan is and if we yield to his temptations we will find a long, narrow path of misery. (Luke 22:31)

God gives us choice and lets us learn for ourselves. How many times do you tell your child, “Don’t touch that, it’s hot”, and they still touch “that” anyway? God has told us over and over, in scripture and modern-day revelation to do or not do something. Then He lets us go. He doesn’t follow us around and snatch us up at every crack in the sidewalk. He tells us, “Don’t touch that, it’s hot”. We choose to “touch” or not. (Galatians 5:1, Genesis 3:5)

5. COMFORT: I broke my arm when I was nine.  I was on a slip-n-slide, thinking I was pretty awesome sliding across the plastic on my feet instead of my belly. I tripped on a rock at the end of the slide, fell on my arm, and broke it. My parents could not take the pain away although I’m sure they wanted to. They did what they could to lessen the pain by taking me to the hospital and letting the doctors and nurses fix me up. They did what they could to make my life easier while I couldn’t use my arm like I was used to.

I don’t blame my parents for my broken arm, just like I don’t blame God for my hardships in life, but I do go to God to help lessen the pain. (Psalm 116:3-8. Psalm 118:4-8)

6. RESPONSIBILITY: God teaches responsibility; we already know that God has given us choice and that He lets us learn for ourselves. He also teaches us that for every choice, good or bad, there is a consequence. (Galatians 6:7-10)

7. STRENGTH: God teaches us to trust and to be strong. He gives us strength. (Isaiah 41:10 & 13, Proverbs 3: 5-6, 2 Samuel 22:33, Psalms 29:11)With strength comes courage. (Genesis 26:24, Deuteronomy 20:1, Joshua 1:7, Psalms 27:1, Isaiah 51:7)

8. SACRIFICE: God understands sacrifice and gave His only son as a sacrifice to save the rest of us (John 3:16). God gave up His happiness for a greater cause, in the spirit of true love. If that makes Him a “bad parent and role model”, then He is the best bad parent ever. How many of us would be willing to sacrifice our only child to save even a hundred other lives?

9. POTENTIAL: We can become like God.  God gave us the potential to become like Him, but like a flower, without proper nourishment and care we will not grow. (Romans 8:16-17, Psalm 82:6, Acts 17:29, 1 John 3:2)

10. TRUTH: God is real. If you don’t believe that, then the rest of this post is probably nonsense to you. I will raise my child(ren) with God because He exists. (Genesis 1:1) The entire Bible (and Book of Mormon for my fellow LDS) testify of God. Others have testified of him, that they saw Him, and they left a record for us.

I don’t often voice my beliefs in such a public setting. I am content to let seemingly harmless attacks on religion and God go, but the voices of those who oppose God and religion are becoming stronger, while those who know are becoming quiet with the fear of offending those who don’t. I will stand as a voice and I will not be ashamed.

If you are like me and know there is a God, whatever your religion, please share this post. Grab the button from my side bar or from below and post it on your blog. It will link to this post. 

Feel free to share why you raise your children with God!

*UPDATE* This is not a hate post. I just wanted to share what I believe. I'm not trying to make anyone believe what I do, and just because you and I may disagree does not mean we can't get along and still like each other.  As one of my friends said, "There is beauty in being able to believe what we choose." So true and so right. Also, special thanks to the woman who wrote the post that inspired this one. I wouldn't have thought to write about why I will raise my children with God if she hadn't written about why she doesn't. Thanks for reading :) 

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It's so Fluffy!

Guess what? We had another baby! A fluffy, 8 week old, Great Pyrenees baby.

Meet Mossberg. 

He's so fluffy!! And so sweet. Mossberg follows Caeden around and waits for Caeden to get back up after he falls. I think they will be great pals.

The Best Man

Meet my husband. 

His name is Nathanael and he is the most patient, loving, hard-working dude you will ever meet.

I met him about a week after I moved to Missouri. I saw him and asked my sister, who "that beautiful boy" was. Long story short, he ended up coming to our family's New Year's Eve party.

Have you heard of dream boards? I made one that night after he left. It looked like this:

It was my "plan" to swoop my husband up and trick him into marrying me. It worked :) You'll see more of him later I'm sure. 

About him: 

• He's from Missouri. To be more specific, he was born 1.8 miles from where we live now. In a trailer. [insert trailer joke here]
• He was home schooled.  
• He served an LDS Mission in Mesa, Arizona.
• He is an apprentice electrician.
• He can fix/build pretty much anything!
• He doesn't like eggs. Which is too bad for him because I guess that means he doesn't get any chicken eggs when I start raising them. 
• He lets me do whatever I want. Really. Could he stop me? hee hee hee :)

No Country for Old Men

Today the first few hours of my morning consisted of its usual routine: waking up, being mom-ish, taking pictures, going hiking with my siblings/baby in the pack, and being in a general state of awesome.

I went outside to cut some goldenrod I found and came across a three foot long black snake. Now, if you remember, we had a pretty big snake living in our house. I think it died in the attic from eating poison mice or escaped. I never showed you the scary picture I took of it trying to leave:



Anyway, this snake was not the same snake, or maybe it was, but I stared at it for a good forty seconds trying to decide whether to let it live and chance it making home in my house, or chopping it’s head off with my herb scissors. Ultimately, I chose the latter.





I’m tired of finding critters in my house. Like the garden snake I found the other day. Sorry, no picture of that. One of the reasons I loved Big Blue was because she scared all the “things” away. Sigh. Oh well. Turns out this is no country for old men. Or squeamish little girls.

The Outside

{phlogging} Sad things happened this week...well just one sad thing for us mostly. Our mastador, (black lab/mastiff) Big Blue, got run over by a truck and died. Sad face. But even though we miss her she is now safe in doggie heaven.

Also, I don't know if you remember all the trash on the sides of our house...but I do. Guess what: it's all cleaned up now!! A neighbor let us borrow a bobcat and My Honeypie got it all picked up and in the trash pile in the back. You should see it. It have to be cleaned after we burn it...it's like we have our own dump yard.

Neglected!

This poor little blog has been neglected, but not forgotten! Here is why:

I gave birth!

El Bebe is now a month old. Yay!

I also started a business with a company called Isagenix. I'm so stoked to work when I want, wherever I want, and with whoever I want!

Now. The house. Not neglected or forgotten. Here's what's up:

Mudroom

Kitchen/Dining Room

Craft Room

Dining Room to Kitchen

Downstairs bathroom

Living Room

Reading Room

Bedroom 1

INSULATION!

It's not all insulated yet, but it is progress!

and tomorrow we will be getting Sheetrock.

:)

Love and Prophecy Pancakes

...yes. About that. Yesterday My Honeypie and I made pan-ke-kes (pancakes) for breakfast. I was so excited because I thought they tasted *so g00d*. So when we were at my sister's house for dinner with my family I told them excitedly, "guesswhatweateforbreakfast?!LEMONPOPPYSEEDPANCAKES!!"

My mom looked at me like this >< and basically thought I said, "Love and prophecy pancakes" Hence the name was born: Love and Prophecy Pancakes=lemon poppy seed pancakes. (I hope I got the story mostly right. I know I was there for the whole thing, but I can't remember stuff sometimes. I blame it on BBC eating my brain fat.)

One day I found this recipe for whole wheat pancakes and I was like, "Whole wheat...gross." I printed it off anyway just in case I felt like being super healthy or something. So far I haven't. Anyway, I used that recipe as a guide to make Love and Prophecy pancakes.

Here is what I ended up with:

2 cups all-purpose flour

4 1/2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp sugar

1 1/2 cups milk

2 large eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

2 tbs of lemon juice

1 1/2 tsp poppy seed

Mix everything up in the order above. Then add water if you want to reach desired thin-ness. I think I ended up adding a third cup of water. I didn't measure that though...sorry!Then cook them like you cook normal pancakes.

We ate them with strawberries, whipped cream, and strawberry syrup. So good!

Picky and Picnik

So turns out our windows won't be done until this Wednesday...We will be picking them up on Thursday! We hope :)

On a different note, I forced my little sisters to do a photo shoot with me. I can take decent pictures of "stuff", but I need much more practice with people. The pictures are all edited differently because I'm playing around with this photo editing site called Picnik.  It's pretty much a super simple, way cheaper version of Photoshop. I really like it because when it comes to Photoshop I'm completely challenged. Plus, it's free! *or you can pay to upgrade. whatev.

[caption id="attachment_633" align="aligncenter" width="236" caption="Sneak attack picture!"][/caption]

I know that these are far from perfect (like the above picture--totally a weed in the middle of her face!)...but practice makes perfect, right?

Anyway, you can also do sweet stuff like this on Picnik too:

I tried doing that on Photoshop and it was a total bust. I love these little art thingys! I find quotes that I really like that have already been made into these little subway art pieces, but they aren't exactly what I want...like this:

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="275" caption="Super cute, but not what I'm looking for you know?"][/caption]

But now I can make it exactly how I want! Like so:

[caption id="attachment_638" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="This is totally going on the wall in our entry way once our house is done."][/caption]

Family Values sign by Betty Crocker Wannabe

and I'm all like, "Cute!" but it doesn't have everything I want. I told you, I'm picky. With Picnik I made this:

It's just how my picky self wants it! Yay for Picnik!

My Plea to Emma Watson.

I've been seeing this picture posted all over my news feed on Facebook:

and I'm all like, "What is this about?" Basically, in an interview, she said this:

"I find this whole thing about being 18 and everyone expecting me to be this object..I find the whole concept of being 'sexy' embarrassing and confusing.

If I do a photo-shoot people desperately want to change me - dye my hair blonder, pluck my eyebrows, give me a fringe.

Personally, I don't actually think it's even that sexy. What's sexy about saying, 'I'm here with my boobs out and a short skirt...have a look at everything I've got'? My idea of sexy is that less is more. The less you reveal the more people can wonder."

I thought, "how neat; that such an icon for young girls (and a surprising amount of women) would say something like that! How wonderful for them to hear from someone so lovely that "sexy" is not only covering yourself up, but it's "embarrassing and confusing". (This is totally how I feel when I get hollered at in the Wal-Mart parking lot. Classy? Sexy? I think no!)

Then I kept reading the article...and I died a little bit. She goes on to say:

"I might be willing to take my clothes off for a Bertolucci film, if it was a part that really made sense as part of my character."

Wut? No!! I don't even know what or who a Bertolucci film is (I'm so kewl), but he/it can't be so phenomenal that you'd just, you know, take your clothes off because it "made sense as part of your character." Why?!

People like who you are now. Like you said in your interview, you're not just getting your "kit" off for anyone. Don't take it off for everyone.

So here is my simple plea in behalf of all those who look up to you as a role model: Stay classy, Ms. Watson, and keep your clothes on. Please!

Hear Me Roar!

This goes along with yesterday's post. A parent by definition is “a protector or guardian.” Let’s break it down even more; a protector is one who protects or defends. Think of a mother bear and her cubs in potential danger.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="478" caption="You think you're going out dressed like that?! Think again, sista!"][/caption]

 Yikes.

A guardian is a person who preserves. To preserve something means to keep safe from harm or injury; to protect or spare. See below:



Notice how mama is all up in their business and looking around. These little cubs seem pretty alert, but not all cubs are. Like this little cub:



Totally taking a snoozer, but the mom is business. Come at her kid, see what happens.

So basically our job as parents is to keep our children safe from harm or injury, whether that injury is physical, emotional, or mental. We need to do everything within our own ability to set up boundaries for our children regardless of what other parents are doing. Values people!

Bringing Classy Back

This has nothing to do with remodeling, redecorating, or designing anything. Kind of...I just had an epiphany that it sort of does: Remodeling our children. This post though is more specifically our girls.

Yeah, I'm not a parent yet, but I still have opinions on parenting. Maybe that isn't allowed. Regardless, I still have them. Today is one of those days where I'm all like, "Are you for real right now?" and yes. It's for real.

Let me begin:

How is it okay to let our daughters walk around like mini-hookers? So what if they are pretty—they look like strumpets in their frilly miniskirts and disco off the shoulder tops, with their glitter blue eye shadow and their fishnets and their boots. Even if she happens to be wearing tights with her black leather mini, neon leopard top and heels, guess what? You can see through tights. and she better not bend over or everything is going to come tumbling out.

If my daughter walked out of the house looking like some hungover rock-star chic (sorry Ke$ha) I would pray I was blind and deaf and that I had no accountability for what she wore. The thing is the majority of parents out there aren’t blind. Are you lazy? Scared? Do you honestly not care that I can pretty much see your daughter’s butt cheeks hanging out of her skirt as she walks away? You should be ashamed. I'm ashamed just looking in her general direction.

I’m a 23 year old Misses (Like, Mrs.). Saying woman makes me feel old, but my age clearly states that I can no longer claim the title of “girl.” I would say lady, but I feel I'm just a few notches short of classy to be called a lady. (I mean have you heard me speak?)  I must admit I wore a miniskirt once, and it only took those few hours to make me feel cheap, vulnerable, and gross. (If my parents are reading this, they probably just puked in their own mouths). That one time was after I had moved away from my parent’s house, and there was no way in this universe I would have ever left the house wearing a miniskirt. For good reason. No, I didn’t get hollered at, no one honked when I walked by, and no one tried to rape me. Instead, I got totally eye-groped. It was uncomfortable and I hated it. From that moment I never wore a miniskirt, or even short skirt again. My body is mine fool, back off. From that I gained a few ounces of self-respect.

Why on earth would we allow our daughters to dress in a fashion where they could potentially feel like a toy? Why would we, as parents, pay for the trash they are wearing? Why would we allow our sons to date girls who dressed like they were working the night shift on the corner?  We are parents, not best friends. We are mentors, not sidekicks. We are the bosses, not the interns.

It is possible to be pretty and appealing as opposed to pretty and sleazy. Let’s bring classy back people and teach our daughters (and ourselves) some self-respect.

Holla!

Put some clothes on.

Nineteen Forty Four

It turns out the SD cards have a little slide-y thing on the side that keeps certain computers (mine) from reading the card. All you have to do is slide the little gray rectangle and boom! Pictures all of a sudden show up on your computer that weren't there before. Weird. So I got our pictures! but then I totally forgot to bring my camera again last night, so I took some not so awesome pictures with the Iphone.

From two days ago:



[caption id="attachment_58" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="kitchen beforekitchen beforekitchen after--that cloudy stuff? it's all the nasty dust"][/caption]

you can tell what wall i did because after a certain point i'm too short to reach!