When Momma doesn't feel good...

 Ephesians 4: 32

“Be Kind and compassionate toward One Another…”

         I have a desire to show compassion.  I read the Gospels and see example after example of Jesus coming in contact with mankind and being “filled with compassion.” Clearly the best way to become more compassionate is to identify with the one who is in need of compassion.

     

    In the last months, I’ve had friends give birth to their latest additions. They have older children so my friends are learning how to add multiples to their lives.

         My friends are tired, insecure, sleep deprived and really don’t know what to do with their newest additions.  My heart does go out to them.  I do remember what those adjustments were like.  I feel compassion for them.

         Since the week before Easter I have been struggling with the affects of allergies (who knew?)  I have had a sore throat, cough, terrible head congestion, headaches, etc. etc.  I finally had a doctor recommend over the counter medicines, and prescribe a steroid and an antibiotic.  After finishing the medication, three days later some of the same (and others that are more painful) are resurfacing.  I just don’t feel good.

         I don’t know what this sickness is about, but I do know I can now identify with those who struggle with allergy season.  I can feel compassion for those who are fighting the latest blossoms of our beautiful Spring foliage.

         A mom doesn’t have time to be sick or recover from delivering babies. A mom isn’t going to get a large amount of understanding, because generally the dishes continue to pile up, as does the laundry.  The children still need food.  They still need to get to their schools and extra curricular activities.

         Moms I encourage you this Spring day, lets look out for each other.  Do you know a mom who has recently given birth?  Do you know a mom who isn’t feeling good? Pray for them.  Take them a favorite movie, magazine or candy.  Ask the Lord to fill you with compassion and practically begin to care for one another"

No Negotiations

This week marks Matthew and Jordan’s fourth week of swimming lessons.  Most lessons as the instructor prompts the kids, their responses have made me giggle yet ache inside as I notice their disguised disobedience.  I never knew my five year-old to be a negotiator:  The teacher tells Matthew to swim to the forth line and he says “to the second,” so the teacher says “ok, the third.”  Teacher says to take two breaths, Matthew takes one. 

Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.” Mark 10:21 (NKJV)

In this passage, we don’t see any negotiations.  It is clear what our Lord wants the Rich Young Ruler to do, yet he… refused. 

As mommas, we are training and later expecting our kids to obey us so they will know how to obey God.  We don’t expect them to obey only part of the way or even better yet… refuse!  We are in the midst of teaching them through the word of God what happens when He says to do something yet the thing is not carried out.  A great example, however a little gory for little kids is in 1 Samuel 15 where king Saul was supposed to “utterly destroy” all the people yet he “took Agag king of the Amalekites alive.”

No negotiations.  No refusals.  What is God asking you and me to do yet we… refuse – or we try to negotiate!  Let’s be that momma after God’s own heart to do as He says, without compromising.  Our children are looking on.  

"Called to Lead These Little People" by Courtney Hrinik

The LORD told Joshua,

 “Today I will begin to make you a great leader

 in the eyes of all the Israelites. 

They will know that I am with you,

 just as I was with Moses."

 - Joshua‬ ‭3‬:‭7‬ NLT

- Joshua had to obey the call to leadership first before God made him a great leader.

- "Today" God was just beginning to make Joshua a great leader, when he'd already been leading the Israelites.

- It was God who made Joshua a great leader.

- It was in the eyes of the people Joshua was leading that God would make him great.

- God would make Joshua a great leader in their eyes, not by displaying anything special or worthy about Joshua, but by showing the Israelites that He, God, was with Joshua.

A great leader is made by God because of who God is, not the person!

This spoke to me this morning as a mom.  God has called me to lead these little people :-). And it is by displaying his glory in me, not my flesh, that will make them see me as a "Great Leader" and learn respect and honor.

Father God, help me to respond to my children, always, in your Spirit and not in my flesh. May "Today" be the day that You begin to make me a great leader in their eyes!

My First Date is...

         You can imagine my horror when, our then pre-school darling, Shirley Temple “little me” came in from her tap dance class to start acting, singing and “tapping” out the words and actions to her first recital piece.  The title: “MY FIRST DATE!!” 

         What had this world come too?  And why in the world would they think I (maybe even “they”) would think it appropriate for barely five year olds to be lip syncing to a song about putting on make-up and curling their hair and putting on a silver flapper style dress for…their first date!! I’m telling you I was appalled!! 

         Of course my innocent baby Michelle was absolutely ecstatic with her new dance steps and song. Moms, I made no apologies my chin was on the floor.  Are you kidding?

         So now that you are feeling my pain…indeed the choreographed number was with each little girl behind an imagined vanity putting on her make-up from a compact and mimicking how you dress and brush your hair.  They then came from the back of their imaginary vanities to show a few of their recently learned dance steps: “slap ball changes” and “heal ball changes.”

         They would then be ready for their “First Date” and wait for their dads to come from behind the offset curtains dressed in suits and ties!  (The visual picture cannot be imagined from words, but it was a precious sight. The little girls expectation of their dads and then to see how hard it was for the dad’s not to run across the stage and scoop up their babies!)

         All that to say almost 25 years later, I watched this Saturday morning as our lovely, young, happily married daughter came to our house.  Hair in a pony with mismatched shorts and a t-shirt.  Her dad was clad in his camouflaged shorts and baseball hat.  They were ready for their date!

         Dad’s choice: the local diner you can walk too. The neighbors meet at the diner daily to talk about the recent elections and how long the new canal bridge is going to take to be finished.  After our daughter and her date finish their grits, eggs and toast they scurry out for a fairly typical Saturday tradition, “Yardsale!” (I’ve previously posted about.)

         As we have enjoyed our children at most of the stages, it is such a blessing to watch them gravitate to the memories of their childhood.  They tend to follow the memories that made them feel secure or happy or remind them of those they love.

         I am glad Michelle has learned she doesn’t need make-up or a new dress to impress her date.  Her husband IS her perfect date, but I pray she will always remember how very special her first date was…with her dad!

Zephaniah 3: 17

"...The Lord will take great delight in you!"

"Busy" by Stacey Wooddell Imbimbo

Parenting is a spiritually significant and weighty responsibility that we cannot do apart from God.

We desperately need Him every day, and in order to be a parent that points are children to Jesus, we need to have a relationship with him.

If you are a stay-at-home mom, working mom, soccer mom, homeschool mom, and the list can go on and on, your life is hectic.

But, there is nothing more important in your day then to spend time with Jesus.

I know it is so evident in my parenting when I don’t make Him my priority. I find myself getting frustrated quickly and losing my patience. My words are short to not only my children but also my husband.

I have missed the whole point if I find myself too busy for God, for then I am far busier than He ever created me to be.

I try to make time for Him all day, not just a specific scheduled time.

Talk to Him all day, not just praying with your kiddos before meals or bed, pray for a good parking space at the beach, or pray to find that lost toy.

Read the Word. This does not have to be a super spiritual, micro managed time in your day. Keep a bible opened on your kitchen counter or in the bathroom. Read a verse or two with your kids at breakfast. Hide His word in your heart. 

Memorize a scripture each week. This can be really fun to do with your kids, or sometimes I write a verse on the bathroom mirror for myself.

Moms lets be the brightest light in our children’s lives.

"Getting Back To The Cross" by Fran Maynard

Sometimes I have seasons in my life when I feel off.  I still go through the motions but I’m just not connecting like I know I should be.  Maybe you can relate?  I know when life is like this it’s because my thoughts are drawn more towards the world (or the craziness of my day) and I have taken my eyes off Christ.  When this happens it calls for a realignment.

Recently I noticed my kids struggling with various behaviors and attitudes, so I started praying “Lord please show me how to get them back on track”.  I should have known the answer I was going to get.  The Lord graciously showed me, they too needed to be realigned!  I needed to put Christ back into the reason they do or don’t do something and the reason they are able to succeed at it.

So, I shifted my approach from my own means to Jesus.  I reminded my children that Jesus cares so much for them that He went to the cross for each of them personally.   And because of His great love and mercy and because He is living inside them, they too can live a life that reflects His heart with new behaviors and attitudes.    

“The way to progress as a Christian is continually to repent and uproot these systems in the same way that we became Christians-by the vivid depiction of Christ’s saving work for us, and the abandoning of self-trusting efforts to complete ourselves.  We must go back again and again to the gospel of Christ crucified, so that our hearts are more deeply gripped by the reality of what He did and who we are in Him”. Tim Keller 

My question to you is, have you gotten off track lately?  Have you been trying to fix things your own way?  If so, I would encourage you to get back to the cross and Jesus crucified!  Remind your little ones of who they are in HIM and that He loves them very much..  

Lastly, our family picked out a family bible verse.  How fun to learn and memorize the word together!  Do you have a family verse, maybe one for each child?  This is ours.

But the wisdom that comes from heaven is pure. That’s the most important thing about it.  And that’s not all.  It also loves peace.  It thinks about others.  It obeys.  It is full of mercy and good fruit.  It is fair.  It doesn’t pretend to be what it is not.  Those who make peace plant it like a seed.  They will harvest a crop of right living.  James 3:17-18

     

Going Somewhere?

My family and I have been traveling a ton lately and love to use the super fun road application, Waze! It is updated in real time and warns you of upcoming traffic, hazards, red light cameras and even police officers.  It also has a friendly interface ... like an updated PacMan game.

Yesterday, we were heading south on the Florida Turnpike from Disney, the application took us down one road, made us flip a U-turn and head back in the opposite direction for a mile or two, because there was an entrance to the turnpike at a specific exit.  A little while later into the trip, it suddenly rebooted and changed our course because it found another route that was a few minutes faster.  It is super smart technology, updated constantly by other Wazers in the area.

As I listened for what the friendly voice was telling me to do next, step by step, I thought of my relationship with God.  I am ALWAYS asking for direction.  "What should I do about this?" or "Do You want me to walk in that seemingly open door?"  Sometimes He lets me see the whole picture and how long it will take to get there, and sometimes it is just one command at time.  Sometimes it can be a long stretch before I hear a command. I can even be on a direct course and then suddenly have my course adjusted!

I frequently question commands. It is my way of processing the new information.  I desire to know the whole plan, step by step and can get anxious when it changes or is unfamiliar.  Voices go through my head "I thought we were going to do such and such and now You are sending us there?" or "This doesn't look like what I thought it should?"

LET GO... NO AGENDA!

Eventually the LORD brings me to that place of sweet surrender.  He reminds me that I chose to give Him my whole life,  every part of it a bond servant to Him.  If He steps in and changes my course or gives me directions I don't understand, it is because He knows what lies ahead in the road. He even knows what WILL lie ahead in the road...He has a path laid out for me and I need to trust and not grow anxious double checking/questioning His direction.  Whatever He asks of me, pales in comparison to what He did for me...He is trustworthy!

Is there an area in your life that you are finding difficult to trust Him completely? Go back to the cross.  What He did there PROVES both that He can be trusted and He is worthy!