Mothers Perfection

As Mother’s Day approaches everyone around us wants to celebrate us as mothers. Weather this is your 1st Mother’s Day or your 50th Mother’s Day it is a time to celebrate the gift that God has a given to you. There is no greater gift then Gods love and then passing that love on to those that God gave us, it is such a privilege!

With that being said Mothers Day often brings on feelings of guilt. Guilt is from the enemy and he enjoys stealing our joy. The enemy wants us to second guess if we are good enough for this sacred calling of motherhood.

Motherhood is an eternal season of nurturing, teaching, guiding, leading and loving. You may find yourself doing one or all of those things right now. We may only train our children for a season but loving them will never stop.

When it comes to the raising and training of children… Why did the Lord choose sinful human beings? He could have chosen angels. He chose us mothers because He knew the children would learn His true character through us. By using sinful mothers who make many mistakes, we can teach our children about His unlimited grace and forgiveness!

We often have unlimited opportunities to use our failures and shortcomings to teach our children how the Lords redemption plan works. He is still working in all of us daily. When the Lord prays for all believers in John 17, He prays for us as one, that we may be one, just like Him, His Father and Holy Spirit are One. They are a family just as we are, He created us this way with a purpose in mind.

Without each other, our characters would not be able to reflect Gods true character. We would not know Gods true love for us without sin. In the same way our children can not understand how God could forgive them, if there were not imperfect people (in need of Gods grace) around them. When we struggle and come to the Lord in need of help, it shows them where to head when they are found in sin.

Of course this is no excuse to sin. In Mathew 5:48, it says to be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect. We should be refining our characters daily to be in align with His. But as the days pass and our failures continue, we can use them to glorify God to our children without hesitation!

This Mother’s Day don’t let the enemy steal your joy! Rather embrace how the Lord is working on your family together through you!

2nd Corinthians
My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness!

                    

The wait

I am very sure that this winter was the longest winter of my life. It was so cold and snowy for so long that I almost forgot how wonderful a 70 degree day is. After a sunny warm week, like this week, I remember that it is worth the wait!

As Christians we are all waiting for Jesus to come back. Jesus has said, He will come again (John 14 1-3). But how do we endure the cold, dark seasons where it seems to never end?

Jesus went through His darkest moments before He was betrayed and arrested. While speaking to His disciples says, Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. John 16:32-33

His words are so encouraging! He had no one with Him to the end, except the Father, and yet He overcame the world. We need to have that connection to the Father through prayer. The next 26 verses is where He spends His time connecting with His Father in prayer.

Prayer changes everything! We can go from fear to peace, loneliness to a best friend, hopelessness to faithful, with just some time on our knees.

Very soon this season will change and we will see the Son Jesus and it will all be worth the wait!

                    

God Provides.

Now that the shock of having twins has settled in a bit, I have been trying to prepare.

When we thought there was just one baby we were planning to do cloth diapers, because the deals have not been as good as previous years. Now that we know there are two babies that means double the diapers, and I am not up to tackling cloth with 600 diapers in the 1st month alone! BUT the Lord really has come through with a surprise blessing from my friends and family!

My sister threw me a surprise diaper shower that resulted in 1200 diapers and many wipes! I also received an invitation in the mail for another diaper shower on my hubby’s side!!! We are so overwhelmed by the love and support from our family and friends!

We also were in need of a few extra things for the second baby to live in our home. An extra crib, dresser, bouncy seats and some organizing help. Within 2 weeks the Lord brought all those things together for a total of $11 and I never had to ask for a thing! God is soooo good! Our piano teacher gave us a crib, friend from church gave us a dresser, a twins sale had the two bouncy seats I wanted for $5 and $6, and my sister in laws and Lauren blessed me with a day of organization for my house!

I have to admit I have many fears of the unknown… BUT when the Lord has provided so much already, who am I to fear!

Are there many unknowns in your life? Trust Him to finish the good work He has begun in your life!

                    

Psalm 34:4
I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from ALL my fears.

Fear steals your joy. We are to be joyful servants for the Lord, but how can we do so when fear has overtaken us? It has been said that, do not fear or some form of it, is mentioned in the Bible over 365 times. It seems to me that God knew fear would be a battle for each of us, and he wanted us to know daily that he will take those fears.

Hebrews 13:6
So we boldly say: The Lord is my helper, I will not fear. What can man do to me?

Philippians 4:13
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Proclaiming those verses out loud is a start to casting our fears on the Lord. But is that enough?

Philippians 4 6-7
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by PRAYER and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

This verse opens up the path we must take to get the peace of God. Peace of God is the opposite of fear. It is only by prayer and a thankful spirit that we can have our hearts and minds guarded from fear.

Prayer has evolved into a repetitious, scheduled process instead of a true outpouring of our hearts in our time of need. It is so important to pray at our scheduled times for the daily things but that is not when we intertwine our hearts with Gods. It is the times we are drawn to His thrown by our weakness and loss of trust where were can find the grace and strength to press on.

Matthew 6:6
“But when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut the door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your father who sees in secret will reward you openly.”

Join me today as we seek Him in our closets for a renewing of our minds. Pause before His thrown and wait for his peace to fill your head, and your fears to be cast away!

(photo credit)

                    

Job

The story of Job has always been one that grabs people with fascination. He was blessed so much. His home was full with children, his fields we full with flocks of all types, the Bible calls him the greatest of all the people of the west (Job 1:3). He just seemed to be one of those people that had it all, but the story shows how he really did have it all.

The story starts right out with his horrendous loss. Satan believed that the only reason Job loved God was because he was blessed. So Satan was allowed to test Jobs love for God by taking everything from him. In a matter of moments his children were taken from him, his flocks were gone, his servants were even no more. Job tore his robe and prepared for his death. BUT the Bible says, “in all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong” Job 1:22.
God again told Satan that there was none like Job in all the earth (Job 2:3). Satan would not take that as a final act, and went for job health. Painful boils from head to toe cover Job. Even his wife told him to curse God and die. Job responded with, shall we accept good from God and not accept adversity… What an amazing response for him at that point of his life.
We know that as the story goes on, no one supports Job, but he proceeds to trust God. In the end his blessings all are restored for his faithfulness.

Where do you find yourself in this story? What point of his life do you relate with right now? Whether you are feeling blessed beyond measure or lost and beaten down, may our love and trust in Gods plan be the same! God is good and faithful all the time! Seek Him today.