Pouring in the Scriptures

Being a mom of little kids can be exhausting physically – and spiritually.  So many times I come to the end of my day or my week, and to my shame I realize how little time I have spent in prayer or in reading the Word of God.  And the time that I have spent in those activities has been in five minutes here or a whispered quick prayer there.  Rarely is it a large chunk of time that I get to indulge in my devotional time.

But when I am running on empty and feeling dry, that is when I really need to pour the Scriptures into my life and speak the truth to my heart.  If I don’t I will trip and fall into that trap of the enemy – again.  I will make a mess of relationships and situations – again.  I will rely on myself – again.  This is so dangerous because Romans 7:18 says “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing…”

And yet sometimes it is just impossible to carve out that chunk of time.  Many times I can do it if I choose to – if I check Facebook less often, or shorten my nap, or leave the dishes in the sink.  But there are times when I just can’t get up earlier because I’ve been up all night with the baby.  Or I can’t find quiet time because the kids are acting out today. 

The Lord has shown me some creative ways that I can still pour the Scriptures into my heart, and meditate on the truth of God.

• “Decorate” my house with the Word of God.  When a verse or passage really speaks to my heart or to the situation I am facing, I print it out and hang it in a visible place in my home.  I have a cluster of verses on the wall where I will see them first thing in the morning.  All of my kitchen cabinets are covered in verses.  This helps me to see God’s Word many times through the day and be reminded to meditate on it or pray it for my family and friends.
• Listen to sermons.  We don’t have a washing machine, so someone has to spend a couple of hours at the laundry mat each week.  I load up my iPhone with podcasts (Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss) and sermons (Ambassador Baptist College Chapel) and I listen as I work.  I play them while I’m in the shower and the kids are busy elsewhere.  I play them in the car when we’re driving.  God always uses the sermon/podcast next in my list to be just what I need at that moment.  This has been so helpful also since I often don’t get to sit through a whole church service without leaving to feed the babies.
• Play Christian music in the home.  Sometimes it is just too much noise, but I try to have background music on as much as possible.  Even just a phrase that I catch as I pass through the room will stick in my head throughout the day and encourage or challenge me.
• Teach my children.  God is using parenting my littles to really refine several areas in my own life.  And so often the song I choose to teach them, or the Bible story we read has one application to them, and a different facet of an application to my own life and situation.  He challenges me, encourages me, and convicts me as I teach my children.  Even just the simple prayers that they offer to God are a challenge to me.  They are so faithful to remember certain people, never forgetting to mention them in prayer.  And often I wish I was that dedicated to prayer for others.

How about you?  How do you keep the Scriptures a priority when time seems short or your season of life is so overwhelming?

Forgetting that I Am Purged from My Sin

{source}

This is something that the Lord has been working in my heart for a while now.  I didn’t really know how to express it, and I’m still not sure that my words are adequate.  It first came to light when my husband pointed out my impatience with my children.  It was the end of a long day, and they had disobeyed yet again.  In disciplining them I was able to recount every little thing that they had done wrong that day.  My husband said that he didn’t think I had truly forgiven them, even though they had asked for forgiveness after each discipline session that day.  Love keeps no record of wrongs.  So why had I failed to truly forgive them?  Perhaps because it had been a while since I had mediated upon the forgiveness offered to me by the Lord.  Every day.  Many times a day.  My own sin is overwhelming sometimes.  How can I fall into that same sin, yet again?  Why can’t I just obey the Lord?  That forgiveness which He willingly and lovingly bestows each time I ask it cost Him a great price – His life.  He willingly paid it in full at Calvary.  When I lose sight of how much I have been forgiven, it is easy to get frustrated and impatience at the failings of others, especially my children.

Right now, I am to show them Christ.  I am a picture of Him that they can see each day.  How am I portraying Him?  Am I showing my kids that our God is a loving, patient God who forgives us even when we have failed yet again? 

Several scripture passages from my devotions over the last couple of months have solidified this truth in my heart.  Today’s seemed to be the icing on the cake.

According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: 4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; 6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; 7 and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. 8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor un fruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.

2 Peter 1:3-9

In the first verses I am assured that I can be a partaker of the Divine Nature.  That is exactly what I want – the essence of Christ living through me on a daily basis.  In fact, everything I need for life and godliness is already provided through His power.  Then verses 5-7 tell me what I must diligently do – growing my faith step by step.  It takes work – it won’t happen overnight.  But I think it will be worth the effort.  Look at the list – faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. 

Each of those things would help me as I interact with my children.  Sometimes I stop and listen to my voice and realize there wasn’t a lick of kindness in it, even as I reprimand my kids for not being kind to each other.  Patience – oh how I need that!  Sometimes I just can’t process all of the needs of my kids, which seem to come all at the same time.  Sometimes I just don’t want to wait while my two year old does it himself.  Sometimes I grow frustrated with my three year old’s disobedience.  I need more patience.  And love.  That would go a long way in making discipline effective.  It must be done with love if it is to get their heart, and not just their compliance.

But it is verse 9 that really seals it all together.  If these character qualities of the life of Christ are not present in my life, then I am blind and forgetful.  In fact, I have forgotten the most important event in my life – that I was purged from my old sins.  How did I get saved?  By Christ lovingly and freely offering me forgiveness, for all of my sins, past, present, and future.  He knew I would sin again and offend His law.  He knew I would fail.  Yet He promised in 1 John 1:9 that when I come and confess, He will forgive me yet again.  How can I not offer forgiveness to my own children for their petty offences, when Christ has so amazingly forgiven my sin?

It’s been a while since I read it, but Amy Carmichael has a book called If and it is full of simple yet profound statements that show how little I understand Calvary love. 

If I love to be loved more than to love, to be served more than to serve, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If a sudden jar can cause me to speak an impatient unloving word, then I know
nothing of Calvary love.

If I can easily discuss the shortcomings of any; if I can speak in a casual way of
a child’s misdoings, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

I want to know more of Calvary’s love.  I want to realize more fully all that I have been forgiven.  And I want to offer that forgiveness to others, so that I may point them to Christ who can completely forgive all their sin and give them all things for life and godliness, making them partakers of the Divine Nature.

Confessions of a Selfish Mom

Last week and already this week have been very challenging for me in my mothering journey. I knew that having four kids ages 3 and under wouldn’t be a party everyday. But the twins have been so easy and good that I think I deceived myself again into saying “I can do this.” Nolan has lived to prove me wrong, and Elaine is helping him. I’m trying to remember that God is pressing me into a place where I can’t do this, in order that I might lean on Him completely.

Today, as my kids sit in yet another time out, I sat on the couch and cried. Cried because all I wanted was a few moments of quiet time with my Bible. Cried because I am weary of fighting this battle. Cried because I feel like we can never go on deputation with children like these. Cried because Ben wasn’t able to talk to me on the phone right now. And then I opened my Facebook account, and there was this post on Beyond Bath Time –

Confessions of a selfish mom:

Some days I'm keenly aware of my self-centeredness. I like to wake up and have my home revolve around my needs. My need for sleep. My need for my coffee. My need for my space. My need for my children to behave like I want them to. My need for my husband to respond to me the way that makes me comfortable.

But God's truth confronts these "needs" and brings them to proper perspective. These are self-centered wants, demands, expectations. I create an idol out of my comfort. This pushes God to the side. It shows my tiny view of the cross.

Jesus came to serve others. He came to lay down His life for others. As daughters of the Most High King, this is our role. To lay aside wants and demands and to serve. To realize what we really deserve is hell, eternity separated from God. What He's given us is grace and He imparted His righteousness to us.

I must preach the gospel to myself daily. To view myself through the cross. To seek to live the gospel to my family. To purge selfishness from my heart through the power given to us through the Holy Spirit.

All for His glory!
A Selfish Mom clinging to the cross!

I really needed that just now. You would think it is second nature for a mother to love her children.  But sometimes it is such a struggle to express that love the way God wants me to.  I love myself, and my Flesh Woman doesn’t like to be set aside so that I can love someone else.  I now understand why Paul commanded Titus that the older women should teach the younger women to love their husbands and their children.

Titus 2:3-5  The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; 4 That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

When I love my children like God wants me to love them, when I set aside my own desires and wants, when I let the love of Christ to overflow through my life, then the Word of God is not dishonored.  Only Christ can unselfishly love my little people, and sometimes He chooses to do it through me.  That is amazing.  I want them to see Christ’s love in me today.

I shall not want

I thought I had learned this lesson.  Many times.  But it keeps coming back.  “I shall not want.”  The Lord is teaching me this in new dimensions.  When I teach this verse to my kids, I ask them a series of questions.

“Who takes care of the sheep?”  Little voices answer with, “The Shepherd.”

“Who is the Shepherd?”  “Jesus.”

“Who is a sheep?”  “Me!”

The Shepherd takes care of the sheep.  His tenderness is pictured well in Isaiah 40:11 -  “He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.”  He is so tender and loving; patient and kind.  Lifting those who need help.  Walking slowly with the little ones.  Even when it takes me a long time to learn what is He trying to teach me, He is still patient and loving and continues to walk with me.  He continues to prove Himself trustworthy.  He continues to meet my needs, so that I shall not want.

It took me a long time to learn that He provides financially.  Through seasons of no work, or underpaying work.  Through college bills and times of unexpected expenses.  Through bad economy and the needs of four children.  God has always provided what we need, just when we need it.

I used to be pretty stingy.  I can’t print those things for church because I will run out of ink.  Or, I can’t afford the gas to travel there/help that person.  Or, I can’t sign up to bring food for the church fellowship because I don’t enough.  Why did it take me so long to learn that God would supply what I unselfishly gave to others?  And yet many times I still have to remind myself that everything I have isn’t really mine – it came from God.  He provided our van.  He gave us our computer and printer.  He fills our refrigerator.  He gave me clothes for my children.  If I share it with someone else, He will replenish it (and He always gives more in return than I gave away to begin with).

Recently I felt like I had a breakthrough.  When there was no work (and thus no paycheck), I didn’t immediately cry or stress out, panicking about financial obligations.  There was peace that God would supply in the right timing.  And He did.  He has already made up what was lacking.  The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.

Now He is teaching me that He is my Shepherd in other areas.  Not just financially, but emotionally, and spiritually too.  I have felt a little dry lately.  Probably because I have four kids and my “quiet” times with the Lord are not really very quiet, and they are nearly always very short.  But somehow…providentially…He provides just what I need.  Just a thought or a verse for the day.  A text that someone is praying for me.  An article online that speaks to what I am struggling with.  A compliment or funny moment from my kiddos.

I haven’t sat through an entire church service for a while.  There are two babies who never seem to want to nurse at “the right time.”  But the portions of the service that I do get have been filling me up.  A phrase from a song.  The Scripture reading.  Or just the third point of the sermon.  A teenager’s testimony.  The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.

When things are hard in Mommy Land and I feel like I just can’t handle it, He is gently reminding me that He is there with me.  His grace is sufficient.  I can handle it.  When I feel like crying, or yelling, or having a nervous breakdown, He reminds me that this is His Will for me.  He tells me He is holding my hand.  He shows me that my kids are “catching” things from my life – is what I am “throwing” worth catching?  I don’t have to lean on another person.  It’s not what my husband can say, or the hug from a friend that gets me through.  It’s my Shepherd.  Gently leading me.  Sometimes carrying me.  The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.

It’s one of those verses that we learn as a child.  One that many people probably know.  But it’s so profound – so hard to live out.  But so wonderful to experience.

The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.

Some Thoughts on Motherhood

These snippets from readings recently encouraged, challenged, and convicted me on the topic of motherhood…

“God put Sabbath Rest into the weeks of our lives with a purpose. I have found that when I believe and engage my heart in the goodness of God’s character, and put out of my mind, after praying, all that I am carrying and just seek to be still and find joy, I see the miracles bubbling up slowly, surely, as He, my Father, delights to provide.

However, a Martha heart is of ten wont to see the miracles, as she is so busy living in the whirlwind of her own meek provisions, she loses all hope and becomes a wretched nag.”

~Sally Clarkson, A Wise Woman Sleeps

“These days I have no baby in the house. Instead, I have an exuberant seven-year-old and three teenagers. And these beloved children still take up all of my time, but in different ways. Yet since I know that this is a necessary sacrifice, a part of my service to them and to God, it is easier to bear–partly because I have made the choice to embrace the task of mothering, partly because I have come to terms with the natural demands children make on my time, but mostly because my attitude has changed.” ~ The Mission of Motherhood

~Sally Clarkson, Embracing Serving Our Children, Because Time Goes Quickly

“While it is incredibly wonderful to set our standards high and live within these great ideals, we must hold ourselves to a standard of grace, not perfection. We won’t be able to have grace for our children if we do not have grace ourselves.”

~Sally Clarkson, The Strength that Comes from Resting In Grace

“My eyes saw the work. Not the beauty… So I've worked to train my eyes to see the joy in the middle of what often feels like spinning too fast chaos.”

~Written by Rachel Martin, posted on The Hands Free Revolution

“Listen earnestly to anything your children want to tell you, no matter what.  If you don’t listen eagerly to the little stuff when they are little, they won’t tell you the big stuff when they are big, because to them all of it has been always been big stuff.”

~Catherine M. Wallace, www.SpirituallyThinking.blogspot.com

“…the tone of your voice makes a difference – be faithful in all that you do.”

~Patch the Pirate, Limerick the Leprechaun

This is the Day

Read the full article here…

Ministry is Inconvenient

More from Erin Davis and the 30 Day Mom Makeover…

Matthew 15:29, we find Jesus trying to rest on a mountainside. He barely sat down when a crowd of people came to Him looking to be healed. How did He respond? He healed them.

“When Jesus heard of it, he departed thence by ship into a desert place apart: and when the people had heard thereof, they followed him on foot out of the cities.  14 And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick.” Matthew 14:13-14

On the night before Jesus was betrayed, He didn't hide out. He didn't run away. He spent the evening with His disciples. He even took the time to serve them by washing the mud from their feet (John 13:1-17).

If we look closely, we find an interesting pattern. We know that Jesus spent His time on earth serving others. But have you ever considered how often He ministered when it was inconvenient?

He served others when He was tired. 
He served others when He'd have rather been alone. He served others when He was sad. He served others when He'd been serving non-stop for days and days. 
He served others when things went terribly wrong in His own life. 
He even served others when He knew His own death was right around the corner.

I am deeply challenged by this truth. You see, I don't mind serving others when it's convenient for me. I like to help out when it works into my schedule or fits into my agenda for the day. But there are lots of times when serving others is inconvenient. This seems especially true with my family. I'm tired. I'm stressed. I've got more important things to do than to meet the needs of those around me. Under those circumstances, I feel justified in giving priority to my own needs and temporarily ignoring the needs of others.

But this isn't how Jesus lived. It isn't how Jesus served. And it isn't what He wants from you and me.

The reality is, serving others requires sacrifice. If we only do it when it's convenient, we're missing the point.

What's keeping you from serving like Jesus? Will you let Him inconvenience you today?

Note: Scriptures changed to the King James Version and emphasis in bold is mine.

Sharpen Your Arrows

Psalm 127:3-5  Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.  4 As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.  5 Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.

At my high school graduation, my mom shared these verses.  They were the verses that helped my parents decide to homeschool all three of us kids, from kindergarten to high school graduation.  In her speech, my mom said something like this {I found this file buried on the hard drive of my computer}…

“The message was that we are in a spiritual battle and our children are like the weapons of a mighty warrior. A warrior takes time to be sure his arrows are fit for battle – strong and straight and the feathers shaped just right. He is sure the arrows are sharp and will fly to hit their target. A warrior would not think of taking his arrows to someone else to be formed and shaped – they may surely come back with the feathers missing or with a dull point. God’s obvious hand leading me was in convincing me then that I wanted to have kids that were sharp and on target for Him. And who could I trust to do that forming and sharpening that would care more than your Dad and I?”

Parenting is an important job.  The more I realize how much my little ones are absorbing {things that I am not even trying to teach them}, I realize that it is a job with eternal consequences.  I really enjoyed Erin Davis’ thoughts on this same passage from Day 14 of the 30-Day Mom Makeover. 

This passage from Psalm 127 is a deep, deep well. As mothers, we are wise to dip our buckets down into it and draw up truth often. The key message is that children are a blessing. We will unpack that little gem tomorrow. But today, let’s focus on the arrow analogy and how it applies to continuing to see our family as a mission field.

This passage describes children as arrows. But not arrows left sitting in an unused quiver or arrows gleaming but unused in a display case. No. This passage says our children are like arrows in the hand of a warrior. They are to be taken in to battle and used against our Enemy.

Jim Elliot explained it this way, “Children are arrows in a quiver, and they are to be trained as missionaries and shot at the Devil.”

The purpose of raising kids who follow Christ isn’t so that you can line them up as evidence of good works on your mantle. The purpose is raise children who will eventually be dangerous to the Enemy by championing the cause of Christ.

That “sharpening” requires that you seek to know how God has uniquely equipped and gifted your children and then partnering with God to grow them toward Kingdom work. Your job is more important than raising kids who use the potty, stand well in line and make good grades in school. You are called to a much bigger task of equipping your children to be used by God to accomplish His purposes.”

Go do some arrow-sharpening today!

What Will You Do About It?

From “Don’t Make Me Count to Three!”  by Ginger Plowman

Little Feet

Someday, the feet that wear these shoes will leave my home.  They will go places.  In the world.  What will they do?  Where will they go?  Who will direct their steps? 

As “Mommy” I get the incredible privilege…and responsibility of pointing my little people, and their little feet, to the Word of God. 

As they learn to surrender their “where’s” to Jesus, He will guide their steps. 

He will take them to amazing places. 

He will use them to do great things for God.

If these feet one day carry the Gospel with them, then they will be beautiful to God…just as these little baby feet are so beautiful to me today. 

And as their feet are only little for a short time, so I have a very short time to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. 

Today, I want my mothering to count for eternity.

Return the Favor

Recently I signed up for the 30 Day Mom Makeover from Erin Davis and Beyond Bath Time.  Each day I receive a short devotional with key thoughts and actions, all related to being a mom.  I really appreciated the thoughts from Day 6, and I wanted to share them with you.

Kids make mistakes. Lots of them. Sometimes those mistakes are pointed squarely in our direction as moms. We understand that missing the mark is part of the learning process but when we are extra tired, extra stretched or extra raw as we mother all of that disobedience, anger and loss of our personal property can sting.

God gives us a radical example of forgiveness in action. He doesn’t hold our patterns of sin against us. He never says, “You always do that!” or “I’ve told you not to do that a million times!” Instead He throws our sin one way and chooses to walk in the opposite direction. We are loving our children well when we offer them the same undeserved, all-encompassing kind of grace.

Author and fellow mom, Rachel Jankovic writes, “If breaking the window has been forgiven, act like it. Forget it. Do not hold past incidents over your children, especially if you've told them you've forgiven them. Let it go all the way, every time, ‘as far as the east is from the west’” (Psalm 103:12).

I find myself thinking this way too often, and I needed to be reminded that God doesn’t treat me that way when I fail Him, over and over and over again. 

You can sign up for the 30 Day Mom Makeover here.  There is a green subscription box on the left hand side.  I think you will be encouraged, especially if you have little kids.

Encouragement for Moms

I have been very weary in my role as mommy lately.  I get tired of wiping bums, cleaning toys, and mediating fights.  The whining seems to drive me insane.  When I have had a few minutes to sit at my computer, I have found encouragement through several blogs.  Each day, the author of the blog I chose to read seemed to speak to exactly what I was feeling or struggling with.  So I thought I would share them with you.

• The Growing Pains of Motherhood, by The Gypsy Mama
• Stop Waiting! by Beyond Bath Time
• The Comfort of God’s Providence in Parenting, by This Journey Our Life
• Help!  I’m a New Mom, by Kim Wagner (at Beyond Bath Time)
• Motherhood, and Being There for Each Other, by Keeping Life Creative
• Forgiveness for Moms who Fail, by Beyond Bath Time
• On Comparing Yourself, by (in)courage
• Running on Air, by Keeping Life Creative
• When You’re Struggling, by Sacred Mundane

Maybe these will encourage you as well!

“And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”
Galatians 6:9