Jennifer Lambert

A Sacred Balance

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Confident Parenting

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June 3, 2014 By Jennifer Lambert 1 Comment

So, I walked across base to the homeschool PE time to meet some new friends.

Elizabeth immediately met a sweet girl with many of the same interests. Tori and Kate played with each other. Alex mostly sulked and played with a basketball a little bit.

One mom ventured that her daughter was disliking doing chores, mostly because a particular neighborhood girl was bragging that she didn’t have to do anything at home and the daughter was starting to get a bad attitude about chore time.

The devil was gaining a foothold at that house.

I listened and didn’t offer any advice. She wasn’t really asking for advice, I don’t think. A couple other moms offered sympathetic comments. The mother wondered aloud if she was asking too much of her daughter. How should she address the issue with the neighborhood acquaintance?

Every family handles chores differently. Some pay allowances. Some don’t. Charts or no charts. I can see it might cause contention to have another child inform your child that chores don’t exist in her house.

But why would you let a child, an outsider, influence your parenting?

Raising Servant Leaders

All I heard in this mother’s exasperation over the situation was that she wasn’t confident in her parenting.

I am by no means an expert, but I am confident that I am leading my kids in the right direction.

Up.

I point them to God through Scripture.

I love, love, love the book Lead Your Family Like Jesus.

I don’t hold it over their heads as a threat, but I encourage them in their work ethic and attitude:

Servants, do what you’re told by your earthly masters. And don’t just do the minimum that will get you by. Do your best. Work from the heart for your real Master, for God, confident that you’ll get paid in full when you come into your inheritance. Keep in mind always that the ultimate Master you’re serving is Christ. The sullen servant who does shoddy work will be held responsible. Being a follower of Jesus doesn’t cover up bad work.

Colossians 3:23-25 The Message

I’ve never discouraged my kids from helping when they so desire (There have been times when I direct my kids to do something a little differently due to a scheduling issue or disastrous mess though). I want my kids to understand that work is good. Sure, I loathe doing dishes and each child has his or her favorite and least favorite chores.

We all have to pitch in to make the household run smoothly.

I want to raise my four lambs to be servant leaders, world changers for Jesus. They need a strong work ethic and great attitude to be successful.

Wondering which chores I expect at which ages?

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31 Days of Servant Leadership: Resources for Girls

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October 19, 2013 By Jennifer Lambert 2 Comments

Girls can and should be leaders.

girl resources

In our brave, new world, girls are more natural leaders compared to a generation ago.

While many disdain females in leadership and I will not discuss doctrinal issues, I think girls can and should be taught how to be leaders in their marriage, with their children, and with their peers.

As a mom to three girls, I encourage them to show wise leadership. I teach them how and when to best use their talents in ministry and social atmospheres.

Check out my Girls Pinterest Board for resources:

Follow Jennifer Lambert (Royal Little Lambs)’s board Girls on Pinterest.

These are some of my favorite books about parenting girls.

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31 Days of Servant Leadership: Resources for Littles

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October 5, 2013 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

It is so helpful to start young. The younger the better. It’s always more difficult to undo worldly ideals than to begin with a blank slate and build them up to look only to Jesus. Here is my list of resources for little for Bible, heart training, discipleship, beginning training in servant leadership.

resources-for-littles.jpg

*contains affiliate links

These are some of our favorite resources to begin with our kids when they’re really young to build a solid foundation.

  • Child Training Bible (also Virtue Training Bible available!)

Spread the Word

You get these cards and you place colored tabs and highlight verses for easy reference. My girls know when they misbehave and we find the topic together and read the verses and pray. Educating them about living for Christ is so much better than punishment.

Buy

  • Glow in the Dark Fish

Now a family favorite. I wish I’d found this book years ago! The whole family loves this one. It doesn’t mince words or dumb down lessons. There’s something to interest everyone and there are extras for deeper learning.

We love this book and all my girls read it over and over again. The book’s theme is about purity for girls, but it can applied to all integrity.

We read this last year as part of our history studies with Tapestry of Grace Year 2. Just delightful. Great for girls as well as boys. Encourages keeping a pure heart despite temptation.

My kids and I love We Choose Virtues. Through coloring pages, posters, sticker charts, and simple lessons, we learn core Christian values to improve our spiritual lives. Lots of options to design a package your family will use and love.


From Catechism studies to tracing and stick figuring through the books of the Bible, Grapevine Bible Studies has something for the whole family to learn together – at different levels all at the same time. Kids need to learn the basics before they can apply it to their lives.

For meatier curricula, my girls completed (and my son is now working through)

  • Songs for Saplings

Songs for Saplings

Corresponding Printables for Songs for Saplings!

We love that these lessons use Susan Hunt Books as a base.

  • Raising Rock Stars Preschool

  • Raising Rock Stars Kindergarten

[RRSK-150-x15010.jpg]

Stay tuned for more servant leadership resources each week!

{I will not be blogging on Sundays.}

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31 Days of Servant Leadership: Leaders Listen

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October 4, 2013 By Jennifer Lambert 2 Comments

I am not an aural learner and if I listen to something, I do better if I’m able to read along or see visuals to help understanding.

We all have a fundamental need to be heard.

Leaders listen.

Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak… James 1:19b

leaders-listen.jpg

This. why I’m writing this post at 9 PM the night before it’s due.

Alex demanded for about half an hour for me to lay with him and watch a show on the iPad. So, I rushed through helping Tori organize her cold weather clothes in her drawers so I could oblige.

He snuggles up and lays his head on my squishy tummy. He strokes the back of my hand. Then he pinches my knuckle, which means I’m supposed to rub his back. He puckers up for a kiss, all while watching his show on the iPad.

I realize that these moments are fleeting.

While I formulate in my mind what I need to write, review, plan, clean, organize…I need to be present with my baby boy.

Right. Now.

That is servant leadership. The dishes can wait. The books and Netflix DVDs on my desk aren’t that important. Social media will not blow up without my being there to share.

After a few minutes, I had two cats and two daughters in the room too. They long to be near. After cleaning up the garden (since it’s due to frost tonight), my husband joined us.

It was beautiful. I felt God smile.

Shouldn’t we long to be close to our Daddy God too? Like our children long to be in our presence, shouldn’t we seek His? And by drawing nearer to Him, we draw our children closer to Him.

I need to set the example for my children. Where I lead, they will follow. Do I want to lead them down a trail of busyness and worthless pursuits? Or do I want to lead them in paths of righteousness?

We have a Siamese cat. She still looks like a kitten after two years. She is darling. When I first acquired her, she was skittish and unfriendly. She didn’t seem to hear well and seldom allowed us to pet her for very long.

For the first 6-9 months, she would wet my bed. My lovely comforter is raggedy and has a hole in a corner from so many washings. We couldn’t figure out her triggers. The litter boxes were spotless. I was diligent with clean water and plenty of food. The vet was no help without catheterizing her since she wouldn’t urinate on command for a sample.

I think she was stressed by the noise of four children and our adult cat. It was a very different environment for her. She is naturally shy and perhaps she wasn’t treated so well before we adopted her. I think she was the runt.

I am ashamed to say that we considered finding a new home for her.

I prayed. For my cat. Yes, I did. I prayed that God would help. That He would give me answers. Selfishly, that He would save my bed comforter.

Then, miraculously, it stopped. Either she outgrew it or suddenly got comfortable in her surroundings or learned to trust us…or God answered my prayer…it just ended. She became a happy, loving, talkative cat. She now seeks us out and demands attention.

Now, how often do we get frustrated with our children’s behaviors? How often do we lash out in anger at our children – simply for acting like kids? Don’t we punish instead of instructing in love, instead of heart training, taking the time to disciple so our children learn The Way instead of The World.

What if we thought of our kids as an ill-trained runt of an animal? But, don’t you sometimes think that way? I’m ashamed that I have.

Do we pray for and with our kids as often as we should? More than the meal time recitations and the bedtime “Now I lay me down to sleeps”?

How often do I push my kids away because I’m “busy” instead of reaching to bring them in close and smell them and show them how much they’re worth to me? I need to show them that they’re worth more than the empty words on a computer screen.

I need to listen.

I need to listen to what they’re really saying. Their words, actions, heartcries for attention. Instead of just hearing defiance in a tone, I need to listen to the hurt in my daughter’s voice that I didn’t fill her love tank in the way that made her feel loved. Instead of reacting to the tantrum my son has, I need to listen to his desire for food or a hug. Instead of hearing the disrespect in my daughters’ flippant comment, I need to listen to their confusion over a math problem or multi-step instruction.

I pray that I listen and not react. I pray that I am present. I pray that my heart is open to their needs and I am a servant to my family. I pray that I disciple them and train their hearts to seek after Jesus despite the crashing cymbals of the world’s temptations and even the compromises of the church.

What do I want them to remember? Do I want Kate to remember that I dropped everything to play Uno with her? Do I want Alex to remember that I dropped everything to see him dance? Do I want Tori to remember that I dropped everything to watch her ride her bike? Do I want Liz to remember that I dropped everything to listen to her read a funny quote from a book she’s reading?

Yes.

I don’t want their memories of childhood to be that their mama sat at a computer day in and day out, too busy to see or listen to them being who God meant them to be.

I want them to look back and remember a mama who was present and fun and prayed and laughed and played games and took time to be silly. A mama who listened.

shhhh. Listen. Do you hear it?

That’s the sound of God smiling.

Children are not cats.

But wouldn’t it be nice if children could be toilet-trained at 6 weeks like kittens are trained to litter boxes? That would sure simplify life!

Tweetables:

We all have a fundamental need to be heard. Leaders listen.

I pray that I disciple them and train their hearts to seek after Jesus despite the crashing cymbals of the world’s temptations and even the compromises of the church.

Don’t we punish instead of instructing in love, instead of heart training, taking the time to disciple so our children learn The Way instead of The World.

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Filed Under: Leadership Tagged With: 31Days, Christ, heart training, honor, leadership, parenting

31 Days of Servant Leadership: What is Chivalry?

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October 2, 2013 By Jennifer Lambert 6 Comments

Welcome back to 31 Days of Servant Leadership!

chivalry.jpg

What is chivalry?

The word’s first use is from the 14th century. It derived from the French term chevalerie, meaning horse culture. Now, I don’t know about you, but I immediately think of the Dothraki, and that’s not my idea of anything chivalrous. They had rules and customs though. Rather unpleasant ones. Since we’re not in feudal times, in the Middle Ages, most think that chivalry is dead.

Chivalry originally meant courage, training, and service. Over time, it became more refined to mean honor and courtesy, and less martial.

The idea of chivalry brings to mind an ideal. A standard to weight all others.

Chivalry was duty. Three standards: Duty to God. Duty to women. Duty to countrymen and/or fellow Christians.

We have many historians and works of literature to thank that gave us a well-rounded view of what chivalry was and should be. Charlemagne. The Arthurian legends. Leon Gautier. Philip III, the Duke of Burgundy.

In the 14th century, the Duke of Burgundy defined for the Order of the Golden Fleece the knight’s twelve chivalric virtues as ~

faith, charity, justice, sagacity, prudence, temperance, resolution, truth, liberality, diligence, hope and valor.

Isn’t that rather similar to Philippians 4:8?

I found one definition that says “polite, honest, and kind.” I like that one! Don’t we all want our children to be that way? How do we teach our kids to be “polite, honest, and kind”?

We need Jesus.

We need to pray. Constantly, unceasingly, specifically. Who do you want your children to be for Jesus?

Raise your sons to be knights and your daughters to be princesses. We are all royal – princes and princesses of the One True King. Act nobly. {Tweet that!}

Teach them to be strong. Teach them to be polite, honest, and kind. Teach them to love.

It’s easy to be a lazy parent and not be consistent. But if you’re lazy, you can’t get mad at your kids for being children, for having poor manners, for not knowing any better. You have to actively teach them, remind them in love, and guide them by example. Every single day, every single time they do an undesirable behavior. It will pay off.

You can’t be a “do what I say, not what I do” kind of parent. That’s not leadership. {Tweet that!}

This parenting thing. I know. It’s not easy. There are no breaks. It’s a constant erosion of our energy, a wearing down of us spiritually, a tearing of our hearts, a searing of our souls.

We must get our own fill at the Well of Life. We must pray, read our Bibles, ask Jesus for help.

He was the ultimate servant leader.

Are you a servant leader?

You need to be to raise up your children as servant leaders.

Join me as we learn how we can be servant leaders and examples to our children as we follow Jesus and point our families to Him.

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Filed Under: Leadership Tagged With: 31Days, chivalry, Christ, heart training, leadership, parenting

31 Days of Servant Leadership

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September 30, 2013 By Jennifer Lambert 3 Comments

Are you ready?

We’re spending a month discussing Servant Leadership.

Raising Royal Little Lambs.

Follow along: #RaisingServantLeaders

31 Days of Servant Leadership

Jesus came to be a servant.

Our Bible lesson hit home for me – and the girls really understood this one. And they understand that this is different than the way of the world. And it’s hard.

“Being a servant means not just looking at your own wants or desires, but looking to help others.” ~The Dig for Kids, Volume 2

The greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves. Luke 22:26-27

Read all of Luke 22.

So, we’re looking for ways to serve, to help others. Even the smallest overlooked things can be so appreciated. I just want my kids to be courteous and thoughtful.

I want our family to be lights for Jesus.

Being counter-cultural is hard.

So, I let go and let God. It’s amazing what my kids do on their own without my nagging them. They’re serving joyfully.

List of posts in this series:

  1. What is Servant Leadership?

  2. Chivalry

  3. Honor

  4. Leaders Listen

  5. Heart Training Resources for Littles

  6. Sunday-no post

  7. Humility and Bible Studies for Kids

  8. Fun

  9. Youth part 1

  10. Youth part 2

  11. Seeking Counsel

  12. Prayer Resources

  13. Sunday-no post

  14. Fear

  15. Comparison

  16. Noble

  17. Truth

  18. Parent Resources

  19. Girl Resources

  20. Sunday-no post

  21. Admirable

  22. Lovely

  23. What is Right?

  24. The Purpose of Church

  25. Praiseworthy

  26. Excellent

  27. Sunday-no post

  28. Boy Resources

  29. Valor

  30. Heart Training Resources

  31. What is Purity?

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