Friday's Five

Friday's Five

Five quotes I underlined from the book "Out of the Spin Cycle" by Jen Hatmaker. They were all quotes that made me think. 

This is the book I recently gave as a giveaway.

1 "Jesus sent us into this broken world not to defend him, but to 

represent him." (Chapter 6 page 33 - This entire chapter was amazing.)

2  "As mothers, giving up control over our children is as difficult as starting the Atkins diet in December. This is one area we do not trust Jesus to handle as well as we could. We tend to craft their destinies with careful planning and strategic positioning. We prefer safety and security - but if you've read even just five pages of the Bible, you know that's not God's priority. It's easier to commit our babies to Jesus in the season when their physical care falls entirely to us. It's much harder when our responsibilities lessen and God begins charting their life courses." (page 141)

3 "Jesus teaches a lesson we would be wise to pass on to our children: someone is always going to be smarter, faster, funnier, and better than you."  (Chapter 27 page 27 - Another chapter that is really good.) 

4 "Our children are in the process right now. They are learning who Christ is. They're assigning Jesus an identity through the spirit of their homes and the language of their parents. Who would our children say Jesus is?" (page 78)

5  When are children are not allowed to fail, to bomb, to try something and only reach the average rank, we are branding them with unattainable perfection. In this society of "believe and achieve" rhetoric this will sound heretical, but in many, many ways, our kids are regular. I'm not advocating the dumbing down of America, and certainly our children shine brightly within their gifts, but sometimes she's just the unremarkable ballerina in the third row, second from the left.  When Jesus reduced his kingdom to two rules, second only to "Love God" was "Love your neighbor as yourself." As mothers, many of us love our children exactly like we "love" ourselves: critically. The standard of perfection by which we measure our own performance is automatically used on our kids. Don't imagine they don't pick up on it.  Let's not perpetuate this trend. I want to create an environment where my kids are celebrated for their successes, but no one is going to die if they fail - or even worse - just end up in the middle of the pack.  Let them try new things, risk free. Allow them to stick with something just for the love of it, even if they'll never win a college scholarship. Let's teach them what to do with failure: talk about it, evaluate it, learn from it, and get over it. And if it turns out that my superstar only makes it to the upper percentage of the average rank? No worries. He's still the cutest kid in middle school history (wink)." (Chapter 29 page 129-130 - Again a great chapter.)