"Don't Make Me Count To Three" Chapter 1- 2

(My Overview) Taken from the Book, "Don't make me count to three" 

by: Ginger Plowman

Chapter One:

The High Calling of Motherhood:
Is it not a huge challenge in raising children in the way of the Lord?



I love when shes says," It is my calling, my priority, my struggle, and my goal. I will rise to the occasion and accept the task at hand. I will love, nurture, and train my children the way that God has called me to do."

Wow, we as moms should wake up everyday praying for God to give us guidance, saying that we will rise to the occasion and accept the task that he has given to us. We may in our minds say we are accepting the task but are we doing it with our heart? As we go through the everyday  routine of raising and child rearing we need to pray that God will have us do it with love from the heart. The joys of motherhood are rare and beautiful treasures that can be easily missed if we don't seize the opportunity to grab them.

"Being a mom is more than being a cook, chauffeur, maid, counselor, doctor, referee, disciplinarian, etc. (just to name a few.) it is about molding character, nurturing, training, and guiding. There is nothing like the influence that a mother has on her child.  A mother's influence has enormous potential to shape the person a child becomes, for good or ill. "
I believe this statement is true. A Mother does have great influence on her children. A mother is one who is with her children and know her children more then anyone else. (or at least should) We have a huge responsibility to uphold as Mothers. Our children watch us and rely on on us. We must turn to God's Word to find instruction...

Do we tell our children something and not live up to what we say?
I know we are all guilty of saying that we are going to do something and then not doing it. Some things would be:  If you are good then when we get home you can have that, I will spank you if you don't straighten up, Put your toys away now or else, etc. Are our children learning from us that if we say something we aren't really going to do it?
I know personally, I have tried not to say something that I can't live up to by doing. We are teaching our children that we can't be trusted. "That mom won't really do that" If this is a struggle for you then stop yourself as you begin to say something that you know you can't or won't do. Pray each morning for the devil to not get his hand on you and for the Lord to give you strength to discipline your children as the word of God has instructed.

Chapter 2

Defining Discipline :

Certainly God has called us to use the rod to drive foolishness from the hearts of our children. We are told in Prov. 22:15 " Foolishness is bound up in the heart of the child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far from him." But equally important is that he called us to " Instruct them." Scriptures that pertain to discipline tell us clearly that God intended the two to go together. Eph. 6:4 says, " ....bring then up in discipline and instruction of the Lord."  Again we see it in Prov. 29:15 " The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child who gets his own way brings shame to his mother." 

The Heart:

The Heart Determines Behavior.

So I am going to go over the three truths we must understand: A Repeat from the book but I think this is important!!

1. Your child is born a Sinner- Is Sinful

Rom. 3:23 Your child was born a sinner b/c he has inherited the sin of Adam. This is called original sin. This explains why a room full of toddlers do not have to be taught how to fight over a toy. They just know.

John McArthur says, " Children are born sinful, and that sinfulness manifest itself not b/c of what parents do, but b/c of what they don't do."

2.Sin is bound in the heart of the child.

Prov. 22:15 says," Folly is bound up in the heart of a child." It would be unnatural if your child did not sin. I know you have looked at your precious newborn baby and thought to yourself, "How perfect" but what we really mean to say is he/she is so healthy and I am so blessed.... And no... my child is not "perfect" he/ she is a little sinner. We are not dismissed at any given point of our child's life from our God given responsibility to train our child in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

When parents heed God's command to train their children in righteousness through the use of the rod and reproof, God's means for driving out foolishness from the heart of the child is being put into action. God commands parents to trust him and to take an active part in the training of their children.

3. Sin is not a laughing matter

It is hard sometimes to not laugh when our children are blatantly sinning. I know Ethan has said things that I just had to bite my tongue at so I wouldn't crack a smile, while trying to tell him that what he was doing was wrong.

We should not laugh at or make light of sin!!!

Remeber this:

When we focus on our children's outside behavior and neglect what is on the inside we will cause our children to become manipulators. They will learn to please us by jumping through the hoop (by acting the way we tell them to act out of the fear of punishment) but they will not learn the righteousness of Christ. It is so important  to know that if we only focus on the laws of outward behavior and not train their hearts in accordance to God's Word, then we risk them viewing Christianity as a set of burdensome rules. As a result they may never experience what it means to truly know Christ and his power to transform lives.

So Moms, we have a HUGE responsibility.

 Don't take your job lightly!!