Heavenly Mothers Encourage Service -Day 7

"Serve the Lord with gladness" Psalm 100:2

When I first discovered Montessori educational philosophy I got really excited. With seven children, I was always looking for ways to make my home run smoother and so finding an educational system that taught that work is play and encouraged children to learn to clean, cook, and even care for plants as part of their early childhood education was right up my alley.

         Montessori in the Classroom: A Teacher's Account of How Children Really Learn

Give them a real broom? Absolutely! Teach them how to cut up their own snacks with a real knife? Sure! 

Apparently the motion of sweeping a broom across the floor, wiping a rag over a window or sewing a button on a hanky are all very good for a child's developing motor skills, and Montessori wanted to make sure your children knew how to do it right.

Children love to be busy and it doesn't always have to be play. As moms we are responsible to feed our children and care for their physical needs but when we give them opportunities to be helpful, we not only ease our mothering burden but we also allow our children to experience the confidence that comes from knowing that they are an essential part of the family. Serving the Lord with gladness is not only good for the family, it is also good for your developing child.

But how about you mom? Are you serving the Lord with gladness? Most really small children are excited about opportunities to help out the family, but often it is us as mothers who are the weak link here. It is so much easier to just send our kids to the other room with a movie than to actually get them involved in making dinner with us or cleaning up the kitchen.

Or maybe you don't want to serve at all. Forget cooking with the children, forget cooking at all, lets just run through Micky D's for some pink slime burgers and sugar syrup. While this may be a viable option, at some point we all have to wake up and do the hard things that make a home run smoothly.  

When you think about how you hope your children will live when they are adults, is it how you are living now? How about your grandchildren? The way we live and care for our children sets a pattern for how they will care for theirs. We are transformers of society and as we serve the Lord with gladness by taking care of our families and teach our children to serve Him with gladness as well, we are not just making our own homes heavenly. We are being a powerful civilizing influence on the world around us.

Some simple heavenly habits-
Make your bed
Teach your children to make theirs
Read your Bible
Teach your children to read theirs
Pray, alone and with your children
Brush your teeth and teach your children to brush theirs
Eat meals together, work together on cooking and clean up
Work together on keeping toys picked up and getting rid of unused items

For the rest of my series on Heavenly Mothering click here

For more from the 31 Days Series hosted by Nester Smith click here