What Will You Do About It?

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

I will choose joy…

No matter what happens…today I CAN choose joy.  I CAN rejoice in the Lord.

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.

The Path of Life

{photo credit, copyright Andrea Hamilton}

I’m so glad that I don’t have to flounder through life, struggling to find my way.  I have His promise that He will shew me the path of life.  And as I draw near to God, He will draw near to me, making it even easier for me to hear His still, small voice as He gives me His directions for life.  And like Abraham’s servant I can say,
“I being in the way, the LORD led me…” {Genesis 24:27

The Law of Kindness

I have been mulling over something for a while.  Chewing on it – trying to really let the Lord teach me what it means.  I don’t have it completely figured out yet, but He is making me aware of it’s truth in my daily circumstances.

Of all the virtues of the Proverbs 31 woman, I think I struggle with this one the most.  Proverbs 31:26 says, “She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness.”  More and more I have been becoming aware of the fact that my tongue does not always speak kindness.  Whether it is my actual words, my tone of voice, or the attitude and thrust behind what I say, I need to have more kindness to those whom I am addressing.

As I was meditating on this I started to think about that word law.  What is a law?  The first thing that came to my mind was the speed limit law.  It is easily, and frequently, broken by many.  Is a law really something that can be so easily disregarded?  Next I thought about laws of physics, science, and mathematics.  We call it the law of gravity.  It is something that is always true – consistent, dependable. You can’t just decide to disregard the law of gravity.  Because it is always in effect.

I looked up the word law in the dictionary.  Here are some of the facets of this word:

• A binding custom or practice
• A rule of conduct or action
• A statement of an order or relation of phenomena that so far as is known is invariable under the given conditions

The Hebrew word for law is hr'To and it comes from the root word which means to throw.  According to TWOT {Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament}, “The word tora means basically ‘teaching’ whether it is the wise man instructing his son or God instructing Israel.” (Volume 1, page 404, word 910d).

So what does all of this have to do with my tongue?  If, as a virtuous woman, I am to have the law of kindness in the words I speak, then it must be something that is invariably true.  Kindness must be the major characteristic that others can expect every time I open my mouth to share something.  It must be a law – binding, rule of conduct, invariable under the given conditions.

I find that my tongue varies from kindness most easily in stressful situations.  I get frazzled, frustrated, or overwhelmed, and I lash out with my words.  Maybe I just speak too hurried and rudely.  Maybe I tell my little girl to be quiet and leave me alone.  Sometimes I vary from kindness when I myself have been hurt.  I want to make someone else feel the pain that I am experiencing, so I make unkind and untrue, or even exaggerated accusations.  An exaggeration is something that is not completely true, and that is not kind. Even under these conditions, my words must be invariably kind.  The circumstances don’t change the law.  It is consistent.

And if I am always speaking that which is kind, it will have an effect on others.  It will teach them how to be kind themselves.  Just like the word tora – I can be a wise woman instructing others.  That goes back to the beginning of our verse: she openeth her mouth with wisdom.  I want my children to learn the law of kindness.  And they will catch it best by watching me live it out.

“And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.” {Ephesians 4:32}

In the Way

In the summer of 2006 I had the great privilege and opportunity of completing my missionary internship in Basque, Spain with Roy & Lou Ann Keiser.  It was a wonderful summer.  I learned so much – about missions, depending on the Lord, the ups & downs of ministry, and being faithful to the place where the Lord has called you.

Mrs. Keiser now has a blog entitled In the Way.  I think you will be blessed by what you read over there!  As an artist, Mrs. Keiser has a unique perspective.  When I lived with her for two months, I realized that she had never yet met an ugly person.  She finds beauty in everything.  As an author, Mrs. Keiser seems to have a gift for looking at an ordinary circumstance and drawing a spiritual truth or application from it.

Her latest post was on the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II in Great Britain.  It’s just a news snippet to most of us, but I encourage you to read the lesson that Mrs. Keiser was able to draw out.  Head on over to In the Way and come away encouraged today!

{photo: Me, David, Lou Ann, & Roy Keiser at the Aqueducto in Segovia}