Today we have a guest post from Erin…
My son pulled an old watering can off of the shelf. It hadn’t been used in years but was kept for a very special reason. Because of the one word written on it in permanent marker…Lifegiver.
I was given this watering can during my participation in the Five Aspects of Woman study as an engaged college student. It was a very pivotal time in my life and seeing that watering can and those letters on it stirred something in my soul once again.
I am a lifegiver.
Women were created by God to be lifegivers. And that does not mean only in the area of childbirthing.
We are lifegivers with our words, our hospitality, our nurturing spirit.
This understanding of our role as lifegivers is something that should be introduced and developed early in a little girl’s life – teaching her that her words can give life or cut down. Teaching her the arts of homemaking and hospitality to refresh and bring life to others.
Discuss these lifegiving ways with your daughter(s) as you decorate a watering can with her. You can pick them up very inexpensively at a dollar store. Throw in some permanent markers or puffy paint and let her creativity shine.
Discuss these lifegiving ways as you take that can out daily with her to water a plant or the garden – even a tree if you don’t have a green thumb!
If your girls are anything like me, the watering can and its significance in her life will be imprinted on her heart for years to come.
In what other ways can you encourage your daughter to be a lifegiver? Make it active, make it fun, and make it memorable!
A Co-Founder and Creator of The M.O.B. Society (Mothers of Boys), Erin is at Home with the Boys in Nebraska after five years as an elementary music teacher. Her Savior, her med-student husband and her two lively boys are the loves of her life – and the inspiration for her blog! She loves to cook, bake, craft & read as well, so there’s always a little of that thrown in on the blog from time to time! And through it all, you’ll probably find her breaking out in random song. She tweets at@homewiththeboys.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I love object lessons! This one is great! Thank you for sharing it!
Courtney
WONDERFUL! Just what I needed this morning!
Terrific. I’m kicking myself. I just passed up a pink watering can for a .25 cents at a yard sale!
This is a nice illustration but I do think we need to be careful.
Only GOD can ‘give life’.
Correct?
In our culture of worshipping the ‘feminine side’
(and women/moms in general in some circles…remember that Asherah poles in the OT represented the fertility goddess)
we need to be careful not to jump on the bandwagon with ‘neat ideas’ that seem/feel ‘right’.
We must bring everything….
every THOUGHT of our culture…
(2 Corinthians 10:5)
to the word to see what HE says.
HE says that HE is the creator and Life Giver.
We women are to be nurturing, yes.
(though I am sure we all know some couples where the man/father is the nurturing one and the mother is not necessarily gifted that way)
But…to the Word….
in Ephesians 6 and colossians the word ‘nurture’ is used for fathers specifically.
The King James reads:
4And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
The amplified (which I love)reads:
4Fathers, do not irritate and provoke your children to anger [do not exasperate them to resentment], but rear them [tenderly] in the training and discipline and the counsel and admonition of the Lord.
So……..
we need to be careful not to give the attribute of gentleness/kindness/caring/compassion/nurturing to only women/mothers.
Men/fathers are to have these attributes too.
Just like God.
Smile.
That’s all.
Still a good illustration…for ALL of us!
With love,
Mrs. RBC
Sarah Mae knows that I’m a Five Aspects girl.
Love this great illustration – thanks for sharing a wonderful, practical idea to imprint truth into our daughters!
Each of my daughters has a watering can, and we definitely have sharpie markers! I think we’ll have to do this very soon:) Thanks for sharing the object lesson with us!
I love the idea of being a ‘lifegiver’ with my words to my family – such a great reminder! I haven’t done the watering can illustration yet (well, my kids are 31 mos. and 6 mos. old, so they probably wouldn’t get it anyway), but I have thought of this often since I read it a few days ago & just thought I’d comment.
I value the blog.Really thank you! Much obliged.