Brandy's Edifying Meme

My friend, Brandy, who I knew from when we lived in Missouri tagged her blog readers with this meme:

1. The best parenting advice you've ever received.
2. The best marital advice you've ever received.
3. The one thing you would do differently with your kids if you could do it all over.

I thought they were great things to think about so I will post my answers on my blog and TAG all of my readers as well. Hopefully you will all share your advice with me.

1. The best parenting advice I've ever received:
We have gotten so much great advice over our years as parents, but I think the thing that made the biggest impact (and still is) on both Chuck and me was from a video series we watched before Caleb was born by John Macarthur called Parenting by the Book. Dr. Macarthur said "You are not parenting for control but conversion. You are not parenting for submission but sanctification...Parenting first of all is redemptive." We are not parenting just to make our kids be 'good.' We are parenting to show them Jesus!

2.The best marital advice I've ever received:
Nurture the husband/wife relationship first...date your mate...make your relationship with your spouse first after your relationship with the Lord.
We were given a practical way to do this from the Growing Kids God's Way series by the Ezzos. They instructed us to take 15 minutes a day (while the kids are awake and home) to talk - just the two of us. This "couch time" as the Ezzos call it, has been a great habit to form.

3. The one thing I would do differently with my kids if I could do it all over:
Wow! To narrow it down to one thing! :) I think the main thing I would do differently would be not to get so frustrated or angry over the little things. Things like the kids spilling juice all over the kitchen and creating a layer of stickiness, or forgetting to bring shoes in from outside and having the dog chew them up, or anything else that just happens because they are children! I want to look back on this time of four small children and not remember me as a frustrated Mom, but as one who could find the good about having my shoe stick to the kitchen floor!