Chief Executive Mom

Visit me at my new website - anniecrawford.com But not exhausted. We had a wonderful trip to the coast this weekend, yet still my heart feels ripped open and bleeding as I walk through these days. I wake up at night thinking I hear screams and just lie awake praying. I pictured Jesus picking up my sister from off the street and just holding her, keeping evil at bay as she slept. This crisis is utterly horrifying to me. I am sure none of you like reading about it. My hits have dropped dramatically, but fortunately I don't care. I don't write this blog to be popular. I write it to wrestle with truth in a manner that edifies, with the young mommy always in mind.

And with those mommies (myself included) in mind I have been renewed in my conviction that you set your child's character early in life, by 10 at the latest it would seem. I urge mothers, please, please, please do the hard work of raising, training, teaching and disciplining your children NOW. The lessons later in life seem to only come through much more struggle and many more tears, if they indeed ever come at all.

Secondly, God teaches my daily about prayer and becoming an intercessor, something I have always been weak in because I naturally prefer to 'do' something. I have seen lots of family the past few days. One side of my family is Christian and one is not. The former side is "led" by my grandmother who is a godly woman and a prayer warrior. I always saw her up early praying and she would share with me what she was praying for me and everyone else in the family. In the latter family, if anyone was praying, I have no evidence of it, except maybe a few meager and sparsely occasional prayers from myself. The former side of the family sure has its load of problems and dysfunction and sin, yet it does not all seem without hope, it seems that there are lines of love somehow keeping most of them from flying totally off the handle. I can track gradual sanctification in most cases. However, on the other side, I see resignation and stagnation. This is a rough description at best, but I have also seen in my relations with family, that I see God working more clearly and feel much more hope when I pray from the problems that grieve me instead of criticizing them or ignoring them.

In fact, I am today of the opinion that a Christian has no right to go and critique a person (internally or in action) if they are not firstly praying about said issue. I often tell my mother her faults and how they are harming the family and herself, without really praying for her, and I have come to consider that an atrocious sin. How often when you are criticized does it result in you feeling motivated to change? If you are motivated to change, how often does that motivation result in actual change. In my family, I have observed the answer to be "never". The only positive changes I have really seen occur in my family have come through prayer and trial. Perhaps if I have been able to effect any positive change myself (by God's grace) it has been through example and being a presence of the sweet fragrance of Christ.