What Are You Full Of?

This blog is written by a friend of mine named, Misty Krasawski. Misty is the overly-blessed mom of eight children whom she homeschools in sunshine-y Florida. She has been clinging tightly to the hand of her Lord since she was knee-high to a grasshopper, homeschooling for the past fifteen years, and has fifteen more years of homeschooling ahead of her with the children who are glad she will have done most of her experimenting on those who went before. Her wonderful husband Rob has much treasure laid up for him in heaven for having been called to such a daunting task. She also is the Community Director and a contributing writer at MomHeart Online, hostess of an online mentoring program for moms called Titus 2 University, has written an article for an upcoming devotional book from Group Publishing, and is a regular contributor to Home Educating Family Magazine as well as Heart of the Matter Online .

Wow! That was a mouthful, but if you ever meet Misty you will find that she is sweet, humble, and fun! I hope you enjoy her blog (taken from www.encouragingbeautifulmotherhood.com ).

Doesn’t that look wonderful?

Hot cocoa is a big favorite in my world. It brings back memories of coming in from snowy romps with reddened cheeks and cold-numbed fingers. Dumping the pouch into a mug and adding hot water was sure to fill me with glee. Bonus if we had a bag of mini-marshmallows to add (the ones that come in the pouch disappeared way too fast, didn’t they?)
When I finally had my own house, I learned the joys of making and drinking hot chocolate from scratch. Oh my … a different animal entirely. When Starbucks developed their own rich, dense version, I was over the moon, thought I’d gone to heaven, and ordered it every time I went. I have no idea why they stopped carrying it, and mourned for a week.
It’s funny, how food has the power to fill us.
I spend too much time empty.
Not of food (fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how one looks at it). It’s emptiness of soul that gets to me.
Pouring out constantly is a mama’s modus operandi. We bake and clean and wash and mend and kiss boo boos and teach and read and pray. And it is good. We do what Jesus did; we love well through our work.
But being human, made in the image of God, means we are triune. And that means we’d better pay attention to all three areas: body, soul, and spirit.
I’ve been feeling it for a long time, this ache; an emptiness that left me feeling caved in. You know that feeling you have when you’ve waited way too long to eat, and you’re so hungry you almost feel too sick to do so when the food finally arrives? Yup. I was there.

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick; but desire fulfilled is a tree of life.”
~Proverbs 13:12

If you’ve got some deferred hopes going on, might I encourage you today? The Lord knows. He knows your heart, your dreams, your pain.
He holds it all in His hands.
Sometimes, knowing that is part of the problem. He *could* do something; He *could* fix it … but He hasn’t yet. And the enemy, the destroyer of dreams and hope, wants you to believe He never will.
The enemy lies. How do I know? Well, first of all, because the Bible tells me so. And second, Because I’m living the truth. God has shown up for me in an incredibly powerful way, in areas where hope had long ago died. And I know, I know, I know that He will do the same for you, dear one.
I’m whispering a prayer for you today … a few of them, in fact. Breathe them in, friend?

” … that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.”
~Colossians 1: 9-12
“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.”
~Ephesians 3:14-19

May He fill all your empty places. And may that fill you with hope.

Questions to Ponder:

What are you hoping and waiting for right now?

Consider the hopes and desires that God amswered and fulfilled in far greater ways than you expected? How can those past times encourage your present circumstances?