Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Routine

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge

“How does routine appear to you?” –  The drive to town every morn, that pair of shoes always worn, wake-up calls or favourite malls, superb meals or special deals, meditation, daily prayer, yoga mats or just a love of all that …

We would love to see your vision.
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Merriam Webster defines Routine as…

1. a regular course of procedure
2. habitual or mechanical performance of an established procedure

Those who know me well know that I am scattered and disorganized (except on the computer). I’m impulsive and I love doing things on the spur of the moment. If someone says, “Let’s go,” I say, “How fast?” It doesn’t matter if there’s work to be done or dirty dishes or laundry, they’ll still be there when I get back, so I’m ready!

My husband, on the other hand, is a creature of habit. He lives each day maintaining a very strict routine. He awakens everyday at the same time, even on Sundays, when his alarm isn’t set. He then goes downstairs and makes his coffee, before heading into the bathroom to get his shower, so that the coffee will be ready when he exits the shower. He gets up an hour earlier than necessary so that he can go out to his man cave and listen to some music before work starts… His whole day is regimented like this.

Image Credit:
http://chosenvessel26.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/train-up-a-child.jpg

Now I’ll admit that there’s been many times over the years when I’ve felt like pulling my hair out, because my husband is so set in his ways and in following his routines. There have been times when on the spur of the moment, I’ve wanted to go away for a couple of days, but we couldn’t, because my husband needed time to prepare for the trip, and make sure we have enough money.

Really! You see, I would have just gone, and if we didn’t have enough money to eat, we could just fast… Ok, so maybe having a routine is not such a bad thing. In fact, you could say that keeping a routine is a responsible thing to do…

As a matter of fact, scripture reveals that it is important to have a routine when raising children…

Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it.

~ Proverbs 22:6 — NKJV ~

If a child is brought up in a home with no routines or discipline, he/she is likely to grow up knowing no boundaries. The child is also likely to grow up not knowing how to maintain self-control…

Image Credit:
http://biblestorymurals.com/
images/train_up_mural_new.jpg

I once heard it said that if a person does not come to know the Lord as a child, they are less likely to come to Him as an adult. If you think about this in light of the scripture above, it makes sense. In most instances, the way a child is raised has a direct impact on the way he/she will live his/her life. If the only time the child hears the Lord’s name spoken routinely is as a curse word, then it is very likely that this is the only way that child will grow up to use the Lord’s name also.

4 “Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. 5 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. 6 And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. 7 Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. 8 Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. 9 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

~ Deuteronomy 6:4-9 — NLT ~

The Lord knows that people need a routine in order to learn. That’s why Jewish children were taught about the Lord daily, from the time they got up in the morning, and throughout the day, until they went to bed at night. They saw and heard their parents praying daily, and they too learned to pray daily. Their parents routinely quoted the scriptures to them, so that the children memorized great portions of the Torah by an early age. 

In the same ways, Christian believers must routinely demonstrate and teach their children how to know the Lord. 

Therefore, even though I am an extremely impulsive and spontaneous person, I do believe that some routines are beneficial, such as the routine of praying and teaching your children to know God…

© 2013
Cheryl A. Showers

Two Cents Tuesday – Toys

Your “two cents” is exactly that – your opinion on the topic posted – it may take any form that you find most expresses your point of view: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay or article by you or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble.  As with most things, the choice is yours…

This fortnight’s Two Cents Tuesday Challenge theme – Toys – suggests that everybody’s got their something…
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My daughter and now, both of her daughters have one toy that they cling to. For my daughter, it was her “Doll-doll”. I remember how she brought this rag doll with her everywhere we went. She couldn’t sleep without her “Doll-doll,” and it was crisis time if we visited someone and accidentally left “Doll-doll” behind. There was such weeping and wailing. The same  holds true for her oldest daughter, who has her “Puppy” and for her youngest, who has her “Bun-bun”.

I often wondered how it is that they formed such an attachment to stuffed animals or a rag doll, but then, I look in the toy room, where the grandchildren come to play, and I see Harvey. Just thinking about Harvey puts a smile on my face. Suddenly, I realize that the apples didn’t fall too far from the tree.