June, 2016 | Gospel-Centred Parenting

The EU Referendum: Trusting God with our kids’ futures

Scott and Cathy Uncategorized June 27, 2016June 27, 2016 0 Comment

It’s been a momentous week for Great Britain. By a relatively small margin, Britain voted to leave the European Union. No one can be sure exactly how this will work out. At the moment, the only thing that we can be certain of, is that nothing is certain.

Having children (one in utero) has made us feel all the more keenly this sense of uncertainty and insecurity. We simply don’t know what the future holds for them. But as Christians there are some comforts we cling to at times like these.

We thought we’d post a few encouraging thoughts of how the gospel can give us hope and confidence for our children’s future when all seems unsettling. It’s not exhaustive and it isn’t filled with caveats and political musings – that’s intentional. Please do feel free to comment and we could start some interesting and edifying discussions. Cathy studied international politics and modern history at uni, so this sort of debate is right up her street. But simply a political debate about Brexit is not the purpose of this post.

So, onto the encouragements…

God is sovereign

Throughout time and history God has been in control of all things. He has seen nations and empires rise and fall. He has seen rulers come and go. Nothing surprises him and nothing happens outside of his purposes. There have been many moments like this in history – where the future seems uncertain and scary, oftentimes for God’s people themselves. But God’s unfailing character, his steadfast love, his faithful rule and his purposes in human history remain the same. What a comfort!

“O LORD, the God of our fathers, are You not God in the heavens? And are You not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations?“

2 Chronicles 20:6

“Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.”

Romans 13:1

God is good and he does all things in our best interest

God is kind and generous. He loves to give us good gifts and he works in the midst of our circumstances. His working for our good doesn’t always mean we get the easy route – quite often the opposite is true! But in all things he does work for our good. He’s demonstrated that he is good in countless ways: through creating an amazing universe for us to inhabit; by revealing himself to people throughout history through prophets, miracles, the bible and ultimately Jesus; by giving Jesus to be the perfect sacrifice for our sins – making relationship with God and forgiveness possible; and by promising that he will recreate the universe in perfection in the future. If he’s got the masterplan covered, then we can trust he’s got this covered too. He is good and can be trusted.

^“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

Romans 8:28

God cares

God is not some cosmic watchmaker who winds up the clock of the universe and then steps back and is uninvolved. God is relational. He is intimately involved in what is going on in the world. He hears and answers the prayers of his people, and he wants us to live peaceful and quiet lives in the nations where he’s put us. He wants us to seek the good of the places that we live. He wants our political environments to be conducive to religious freedom and civil liberties. He wants this to be the case so that everyone will have an opportunity to hear the message of Jesus.

“I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people—for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior,who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”

1 Timothy 2:1-4

How encouraging is this!

So whatever the future holds for our children in the changes to come for Great Britain, for the European Union, and for the world we can live with hope, trusting our heavenly father with the future. Because in the end he’s sovereign, he’s good and he cares. And ultimately he loves our children far more than we do.

Enjoy your little one while you still can?

Scott and Cathy Uncategorized June 20, 2016June 10, 2018 1 Comment

Our baby boy turned two last weekend – how did that happen?

These days are so precious. So often we wish we could put these smiles, these giggles, these slobbery kisses, these first clumsy sentences, these wide-eyed looks of wonder, these “firsts” in a little box for safe keeping. Our boy is so trusting, so cuddly, so affectionate, so dependent, so cute – so childlike. We’ve lost count of the number of times people have told us to “enjoy him” now before he grows up, because the time flies and they don’t stay tiny for very long.

Already he’s grown up so much, and there’s so much that we’ve forgotten. If it wasn’t for video clips, photos and blog posts of milestones then we would have forgotten even more. As we sort out his old clothes ready for baby number two, we think “how was he ever that small?” And as we watch him sleep in his cot, face crunched-up on the mattress and breathing deeply, we think “I don’t ever want you to grow up, I wish you could stay this small forever.”

But let’s face it, the days where our children can fit their entire body on our laps, or have dimples in their chubby hands, or squeal with excitement when they see us come through the front door are limited. It’s sad, but c’est la vie! The natural thing is for children to grow up into adulthood and to perhaps one day have babies of their own – and then we get the joy all over again! But this time with grandchildren.

But as Christians we can have even more of a consolation than just hoping for grandchildren one day. We believe that all people are immortal, that we have eternal souls, and that we all live forever – how mind boggling is that!

As C.S. Lewis once wisely said in his book, ‘The Weight of Glory’:

“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all of our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”

How extraordinary! Our little blonde toddler will not just hopefully one day be a man; able to structure nuanced arguments, develop a career and shepherd his own family – but he is immortal! Our consolation and our hope is that our little boy’s heavenly glory will exceed any worldly ambitions that we can have for him – for God willing, if he trusts in Jesus, one day he will be transformed into the very image of Christ.

^“I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed – in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”

1 Corinthians 15:50-52

Wow – how that changes our perspective! It gives our son (and us all) immeasurable dignity and purpose. And it helps us to remember that as we go about life doing ordinary human things, we are either helping or hindering our boy to get to his heavenly destination. What a responsibility, but what an amazing privilege too! It radically redefines our view of parenting. (Though let’s not forget – it’s all ultimately down to God’s grace, not us!)

But this gospel truth that we are eternal beings works deeply in our own hearts too. So, as we watch our little boy sleep in his cot, face crunched-up on the mattress and breathing deeply, we may be tempted to think “I don’t ever want you to grow up, I wish you could stay this small forever.” But then we remember that while this is a lovely stage, staying like this forever is not truly want we want for him. Thanks to Jesus, what is to come is immeasurably better.

Fearfully, wonderfully and awkwardly made- reflections on antenatal classes

Scott and Cathy Pregnancy June 13, 2016June 9, 2016 0 Comment

It’s that time again – we are in the middle of our course of antenatal classes. Love them or hate them, they are a part of the preparation that many parents go through in anticipation of the birth of their new baby.

Back when Reuben was brewing in Cathy’s tummy, Scott was blogging elsewhere and he wrote a post on his experience of the antenatal class that we attended. As we’re away on holiday this week, we thought we’d re-post it here with light editing, for your enjoyment!

Today Cathy and I went to our first antenatal class – it was all about breastfeeding

A number of things struck me. One was how awkward it can be to walk in to a room full of people you don’t know. As we crossed the circle of shame and sat facing roughly 15 people shifting nervously in their seats, no one breaking the deafening silence, I didn’t quite know what to do with myself. We got a slight peek into the cracks of a fractured humanity there in the antenatal day room.

Many walk in to church or a seeker Bible study for the first time and no doubt share some of my apprehension – but for them it’s coupled with a greater fear of the unknown than we experience – what will these crazy religious people do, now that we’re in a room that they’re in charge of? We need to do all that we can to make that initial impression better than ours was today.

That was a negative observation. But what was more striking was how clever, as they suggested, “Mother Nature” apparently is. Here are some facts we learned:

When breastfeeding, some of the calcium stores in the mother’s bones are taken to feed to the baby and strengthen his bones. Bad news? Well no, actually. After breastfeeding these Calcium stores are not only replenished but actually made greater, reducing the risk of osteoperosis in old age.
Breastfeeding has been proven to greatly reduce the mother’s risk of pre-menopausal breast cancer.
In breast milk, the antibodies that the mother has built up through her lifetime as she’s fought off various infections are passed to the baby, thus building his immunity and protecting him.
Here’s a fascinating fact. Immediately after the baby is born, ‘skin-to-skin’ contact is encouraged, where the baby is placed straight onto the mother’s tummy. I find that slightly gross, to be honest. What’s astonishing though is that the mother’s thermoregulatory system (internal thermostat) will adjust the temperature of her tummy by +/- 1 degree to warm or cool the baby, as needed. Isn’t that cool (or warm!)? Even though the baby is now external to the mother, the altruistic body serves the baby regardless of what the mother needs. (A small picture of our Father?).
Just after this aforementioned skin-to-skin contact, the baby will naturally seek food from the mother. To do this, it performs this crazy crawl (crazy given how young this 5 minute old person is!) to reach the milk. Youtube it – it’s almost unbelievable!

Clever huh!

Here’s a thought. Could it be that it’s not Mother Nature coming in from the land of tooth fairies and Santa Claus that makes all these things possible. Perhaps it’s God, who has revealed himself time and again in history to be outrageously good and supremely wise, who has fashioned us in this way?

“For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
    when I was made in the secret place,
    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them,
    they would outnumber the grains of sand—
    when I awake, I am still with you.”

Psalm 139:13-18

We hope you enjoyed that little thought from the past. We know that for various reasons not everybody chooses to or is able to breastfeed, and there’s not necessarily a right and wrong way here. We actually used a combination of formula and breastfeeding. Still, regardless of how your baby is/was fed, these facts are still pretty extraordinary so we thought it worth sharing anyway.

Gospel In The Everyday: Nesting

Scott and Cathy Gospel In The Everyday, Pregnancy June 6, 2016October 3, 2018 0 Comment

Nesting has hit the Thomson household.

It has a lot to answer for. The nesting instinct is the reason Cathy decided to scrub the grout of the shower with a toothbrush when 38 weeks pregnant with our eldest– a ridiculous urge (what baby inspects grout?!) and very un-Cathy-like!

What is nesting? It’s the strong desire to prepare your home for the arrival of a newborn baby, including decorating, cleaning and reorganising.

Now that the nesting instinct has hit us again, we’ve been beavering away decorating the big boy bedroom, the little one’s nursery, and we’ve got plans for the play room too.

For Scott (who enjoys DIY and a thorough sort-out) the desire to nest comes from the sensible reasoning that, with the arrival of a newborn, it is impossible to keep a vaguely tidy house never mind attempt DIY! So, let’s get it out the way now.

Cathy, on the other hand, is finding that she is waking up in the middle of the night and devising never ending to-do lists: “buy fabric for curtains; paint the chest of drawers; clear out unwanted stuff for the charity shop; stock up on new-born nappies; check we’ve got all the sections of the breast pump…” the list goes on and on. Are hormones responsible? Most probably!

You couldn’t normally accuse us of being overly organised, tidy or house proud. Don’t believe us? Just look through the glass in the front door and see the shoe-strewn floor, paperwork-littered sideboard and assortment of toys, nappy wipes and the nearly dead plant.

But getting things ready for our new arrival is really exciting. We can’t wait to meet our little one, and as sentimental as it sounds we want everything to be just right for his/her arrival. We thought the instinct to nest might not be so strong second time round, but we’re finding it’s even stronger! Even though our home will look like a bomb has hit it a few hours after the baby moves in, the desire to create a lovely place to welcome our new child into is very strong. Where does this instinct come from?

Nesting in Creation

Last week we reviewed the book “Home for Good”. There’s a lovely section of the book in which the Kandiah’s paint a beautiful picture of God the Father nesting:

“The opening chapters of the Bible describe God creating the universe. Just like a parent meticulously preparing a nursery with mobiles and furniture and murals, God hung the stars in the sky, sculpted the mountains and rivers and brought the landscape alive by adding birds and fish. Everything was ready. The world contained all that a beloved son or daughter could possibly need. The only thing missing was the child. So God creates human beings to enjoy all that he has prepared for them.”

It’s a wonderful picture of creation.

How often do we think about the fact that God harnessed his creative power and channelled it into creating a perfect habitat for us – humanity? God sees us as the crown of creation. God wasn’t only making a universe to display his power, but he was lovingly making a home for us – his people, his children. It’s pretty mind-boggling to think about.

Much of our behaviour in nesting is normal (perhaps not the toothbrush incident…). It’s part of what it means to love our children. We haven’t met little miss/master Thomson yet, but we already love them. We prepare a room, a bed, a play space for them out of love, anticipation and excitement. We image God in creation.

So if you are awaiting your own new arrival, then as you prepare your home for your little bundle, remember that you image our God who in creation was, in a way, nesting for us. How loved we are!

Jesus is Nesting

But here’s another wonderful truth. There’s a sense that God hasn’t stopped nesting. He’s still doing it today.

You see, shortly after creation, God’s children broke his heart and decided to live in rebellion against him. The people that he made started to destroy the beautiful home that he had made for them. They started to destroy each other. They even destroyed themselves. Sin ravaged creation and left it bleeding and broken.

But the story didn’t end there.

God decided to rescue and redeem the people that had rejected him. And more than that, he decided to rescue and redeem the creation that he made for his people. How? Through the amazing life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

“¹⁵The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. ¹⁶For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on
earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.¹⁹For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, ²⁰and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross”.

Colossians 1:15-20

Jesus has reconciled a people to himself, and is reconciling all things to himself. The blood of Jesus is effective not just in dealing with sin (though it wonderfully does that!), but in bringing restoration to the whole of the creation that he has made.

One day that work will be complete. Here’s what Jesus promises:

“ ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. ²My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?³And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. ⁴You know the way to the place where I am going.’”

John 14:1-3

Right now, Jesus lovingly prepares a place for his people. He’s nesting. He gets the rooms ready for us to move into. He waits for us with anticipation and excitement. He can’t wait to welcome us into his father’s house. To welcome us into the family home.

So, as we nest for our baby, we image Jesus and remember how much more wonderfully he does it for us.

As we eagerly anticipate the arrival of our little one into our home, we pray that this would remind us of Jesus, the one who created our earthly home, who prepares our heavenly home, and who draws up the architect plans for the new creation – our eternal home. What amazing love he has for us!