Teresa's Treasures

I made lots of mistakes as a young mom like disciplined in anger, made hasty decisions and had way too little fun. Phil left the decision to have children up to me. After six years of marriage, I said yes.  What do I know now that I wish I had known back then? 1. That two-year-olds act like a two-year-old should act. A very wise man at church, better known as Curd Thomas, once said, “God put the wiggle in a child, and we try to take it out.” He was right; I did. A two-year-old misbehaves in Bible class mainly because he is two years old. His actions do not reflect the parent's parenting skills; they simply reflect his age. 2. That discipline should not be carried out in anger and be proportionate to the offense. Spilling the Cheerios does not warrant punishment; deliberately spilling the Cheerios does. If he knowingly leaves coke cans in the yard, you take away his coke. If he intentionally abuses a privilege, you take away the privilege. There is a difference between inte...

Being a young mom is one of the hardest jobs I've ever known; being a dad is too. But since I'm a mom I want to speak from the heart of a mom who's been there and done that--to give hope to you who have children at home, little and big, wondering when will the rat-race end. Of the four stages of a woman's life, beginnings, blossoming, nurturing and harvesting, nurturing is the busiest and was for me the hardest. You experience the Mary/Martha Syndrome, trying to be both, struggling to be good at either. You wear many hats, more than at any other time in your life: wife, mom, lover, nurse, counselor, maid, teacher, taxi driver, cook, worker outside the home, Bible teacher, entertainer, friend, daughter-in-law, daughter just to name a few. Other people control your life leaving much needed "me time" non-existent. Right now, you get a glimpse of how Jesus must have felt when his cousin died, he tried to get away and the whole town came knocking at his door. You...