Accepting Rebuke

I have been reading a chapter of Proverbs every morning to start my quiet time before I read a New Testament passage. These verses impressed themselves on my heart recently and I wanted to share them:

Provers 15:31
He who listens to a life-giving rebuke will be at home among the wise.

Proverbs 15:32
He who ignores discipline despises himself, but whoever heeds correction gains understanding.

Even adults need correction, rebuke, and discipline although we don't like to admit it. But, do we have someone in our lives who is willing to correct and rebuke us? Our husbands? A close friend? An elder in the faith?

God's Word says that we need to listen to rebuke, and to heed correction, in order to "be at home among the wise" and "gain understanding". It is difficult, for me included. I have often wondered if the person who rebuked me didn't love or accept me anymore. However, we must consider that a true "life-giving rebuke" is not criticism, but, when done gently and without anger, is an act of love and is done to show us our sin and point us back to the cross and the forgiveness and grace of Christ. Of course, life-giving rebukes are not to be considered the same from a non-Christian, although one should humbly consider the words of even an unbelieving parent, submitting to their authority even as an adult, as well as others in authority over us such as a boss.

Oh, that I would have the boldness to give life-giving rebukes! I am often timid and don't say what I should for fear of hurting someones feelings or for fear that a friend will no longer like me, or that they will think I think myself superior. But, we need to love Jesus so much that we are willing to speak to our friends in a way that shows we care about them and their relationship with God, even risking our friendship. What a great example the apostle Paul was of this in the epistles! He boldly rebuked many churches for their sin, but did so with the motive of love! Indeed, we first need to practice removing the plank from our own eye before pointing out the speck of our brothers', but let this not become our excuse for our lack of life-giving rebukes!

I also need to become better at receiving rebukes--being approachable, gentle, and humble--so that a friend feels safe to confront me. I think that the best person to practice receiving life-giving rebukes from is our husband, who really should be our primary source of correction based on knowing us so well and time spent with us. How do we respond to our husband's suggestions, his corrections? In gentleness, humility and submission or with harshness, pride and an argument ready to defend our position? Even if we think he is wrong! How we respond to our husband's rebukes, both in private and public, should tell us how we are doing in this area. Furthermore, may I be teachable and humble so that my children will see me model this and they themselves will then, in turn, more readily accept correction and rebuke. There is no better way to teach them than by example! If your children do not submit to you, ask yourself what you are modeling to your children in your reaction to your husband! We cannot expect them to receive our correction with happy hearts if what they see is their mother constantly defending herself, arguing her opinion, and ignoring a life-giving rebuke from her husband!

I will leave you with this verses:

Proverbs 28:23
He who rebukes a man will in the end gain more favor than he who has a flattering tongue.

Proverbs 10: 17
He who heeds discipline shows the way to life, but whoever ignores correction leads others astray.

Proverbs 27:6
Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.

In Christ, Laura

Progressive Dinner

Cameron and I attended our first Mouro (adults only) progressive dinner last night, having lived too far away before. We had a great time! Here's to many more!

The Table (at my in-laws)



Frank and Deidre (Cameron's parents)



Jared and Nicole (Cameron's youngest brother and his wife)



Jacob and Tanya (Cameron's middle brother and his wife)



Cameron and Me



In Christ, Laura

A New Blog Just for Recipes!

I am in the process of creating a new blog, which will be just for our recipes. Then you can find them all in one place. I hope to start posting recipes more regularly. I have copied and pasted the recipes from this blog there already, and labeled them for easier searching, but it needs lots of editing and such. However, you can go check it out: Large Family Recipes.

In Christ, Laura

Blogging Post-Disruption

I took down Abbie's picture from this blog the other day, and updated my profile to say that I am the mother of six, instead of 7. We now have no adopted children. It was a difficult thing to do. As I did this, I struggled with the purpose of this blog and whether to keep going. I began this blog for two reasons. The first reason was because we lived so far from family and I wanted them to keep current with our day-to-day life. However, we don't live far from our family anymore. The second reason was to update our friends and family with the status of our adoption as we were trying to get our children home from Africa. It then evolved into me updating friends and family about our adjustment to life with two children adopted from Liberia, and their adjustment in our family. Somewhere along the way, I began to share recipes, things I had learned about managing a large family, homeschooling, thoughts from my quiet time, and life with children with RAD. After we disrupted our adoption of Jerome, I really thought I should just stop blogging. However, so many people encouraged me to continue and I realized I liked writing, so I kept it up. That second year of blogging, I shared a lot about what I was learning about RAD and our successes and failures in parenting Abbie. I have met so many people through blogging, friends that I know I will have for life. I know that many people have kept up with the blog because they also have adopted children and are struggling through RAD.

I have asked myself for weeks now whether I really want to continue to blog. Do I have things to share, anything to offer? Our family doesn't need to see pictures of our children; They are in our daily lives. In addition, we no longer have any adopted children in our home. Although I have learned so much about parenting adopted children, and RAD, I just don't feel a need to blog about it anymore. My main focus right now is parenting the biological children God has given me, which in itself is not an easy task to raise them up in the fear and admonition of the Lord.

I have decided that I will keep going, with my focus being raising a large family for Christ. I will share recipes for large families, I will share what God is teaching me. For many, this blog my be irrelevant now that it is not about adoption. That's understandable. There are so many blogs out there to read that share godly wisdom about parenting hurting children. This blog will just be taking a different turn. I hope that this blog has been a blessing to those who have read specifically because they have adopted children. I hope it will be a blessing to those who are raising large families, or anyone who is seeking to raise a family for the glory of God!

In Christ, Laura