There is so many things in life I enjoy. I love to cook. I love to tinker with my house. I like to gussy up and feel pretty. I love squeezing my children and laughing and playing with them. All of these things have a place in my life but the one thing that runs through every fiber of my being, through every aspect of my life is the fact that I am a child of a King, a Heavenly King. As much as I enjoy all the other things in life they would mean nothing without the joy and peace that my Heavenly Father placed in my heart the day I put my trust in Him. Daily, he loads me with blessing and guides me in a path of more love, joy and peace if my heart is willing to follow. On this page you will find blessings that come from having a Heavenly Father that loves me more than I will ever deserve and morsels of truth that keep my feet on the path he intends. Enjoy!
Parenting Challenge #2
Selfishness. It is the ugly root of many parenting problems. I've realized it, seen it and many times overcame it but it will rear its ugly head again on a regular basis. I've heard it said many times by my father my #1 goal in life is to raise godly children. This sounds so good to a new parent. Me too! Let's grab the list of rules and guidelines and get to work. Use this training method, say this not that, allow this and not that.......screechhhh and halt. Every method I've tried, every truth and principal I seek to follow while perfectly sound and good will be a failure if I don't have the selfless-ness to PATIENTLY follow through DAILY.
Why do I have these words in bold? I think every parent knows. Because those two words are the hardest part of parenting. It's not hard to set rules. It's not hard to come up with plans. It's hard to calmly in the face of defiance, attitude, child like indifference stay the course with a loving kind Christ like spirit every day. Recently while reading a wonderful book on mothering realized in the first chapter that many of my frustrations in parenting were due to selfish desires.
"Grrrr......why do I have to tell you so many times!?"
What's my real frustration here? Why do I have to take MY precious time to deal with your disobedience. Why do I have to interrupt MY schedule or my relaxation to correct or even love when the time arises. As parents we know many times the reason behind the outward behavior isn't always defiance but a cry for attention. I'm sure we can all see the thread of selfishness in every though and every word.
Little did I know the day those babies were born began a journey in shaving more and more of me away. Not the good and God intended creation he made me to be but the selfish only concerned with myself part. From the day they came home and kept me awake for hours thoughtout many months of nursing to potty breaks in the middle of the night, times of correction, times of teaching, times of loving. All of these times slowly work to take away the constant thought of Me, Me, Me. But I'll tell you ladies this only happens if a willing vessel allows the molding.
Yes, I've realized in the last few months how selfishness can wreck and ruin our peace of mind. But I have also realized that if I don't daily lay my selfishness down at the altar and pick up the commission of motherhood Satan will have victory in my life. Often it is easy to think, YES, one week of successful calm peaceful parenting! I'm a success, line up ladies autographs are free! Until the very next day we trip and land flat on our face.
I'm not saying to not take time for yourself or most definitely not encourage we cheat our spouse in this journey to self-less parenting. Every good things must have its place but to have any measure of success I must realize God has given me a huge and wonderful task of raising these wonderful children for his glory and that will only be accomplished if I stop running my life as a train speeding towards all of my desires.
Challenge: Parenting is not about ME! It isn't about me being happy or me being pleased. It's about pouring my life and love selflessly into my children so that they can grow to be godly children that please God with their loves. Sometimes that means the best thing I can do for them is to love their daddy or take some time for myself but I must make those choices with wisdom and not laziness. To do any of these things I must daily meet with Christ and hand over my heart and my desires. I must submit myself to his will and guidance. Without a doubt when I do he will guide me to be the best mother possible.
Help this mother Lord be the best I can possibly be for you and for them.
Saul's NOT so small sacrifice -The small things matter!
Have you ever been in that position? You had things planned out. God had given you a path to start on. You were following Him and you thought you knew how the Lord would bring it all to pass. You thought because you were following God's plan in your life that things would always make sense. You thought your choices would always be clear. Then....one day things got confusing. All your plans and expectations fell to pieces in a matter of minutes crumbling around your feet. You stood confused and possibly feeling rejected wondering, "What do I do know?". I know God said follow this path....I know he hasn't told me to do anything differently but things don't make sense anymore. So you spent hours agonizing over your confusing situation and conniving what the best plan would be to get out of your present predicament. You came up with what seemed like the answer but you knew it was different from your last marching orders from above. This is when we land right where Saul was. Will we follow our own devices and solutions or will we stay faithful to the directions we've been given?
Many times we insert our own ideas into the problem solving of our life even though we know it doesn't match Gods plan He's given us. We think His plan isn't working right now. My solution makes sense to me and I'm sure He'll understand. When all God wants is us to stick with the plan and wait for Him to bring His will to fruition.
Here is where the Lord has really been working me over.
Often times we read stories like this and think, "big deal he made an offering". That's not a big deal. However, it's the small things in life that make the biggest difference. It's the small things we say to our children, the small things we say to our spouse, the one and two and three days we don't come to his word for guidance and to be fed. All these small things make up our lives. They seem insignificant to us. We think I'll do right when it really matters, but we won't. Many small moments of yelling at our children build a habit of anger and frustration. Many small snipes at our husband build a resentment, distrust and disrespectful attitude towards our husbands. Many days of ignoring the needs of fellow Christians because of selfish desires lead to a self-centered lonely Christian. Many days of disregarding our need for spiritual food and a relationship with the Lord leads to utter chaos and break down in every area of our lives. It truly is the small foxes that spoil every vine in our lives.
My Prayer:
Lord help me not to pass off small sins of anger, laziness, pride and selfishness that will build and bury me underneath its weight. Help me to have a sensitive heart that greaves at mistakes made but also embraces your long suffering forgiveness. Help me stand guard against the attitude that small things don't matter! Help me to build a life that glorifies you through many small good things built into something great.
Why do I have these words in bold? I think every parent knows. Because those two words are the hardest part of parenting. It's not hard to set rules. It's not hard to come up with plans. It's hard to calmly in the face of defiance, attitude, child like indifference stay the course with a loving kind Christ like spirit every day. Recently while reading a wonderful book on mothering realized in the first chapter that many of my frustrations in parenting were due to selfish desires.
"Grrrr......why do I have to tell you so many times!?"
What's my real frustration here? Why do I have to take MY precious time to deal with your disobedience. Why do I have to interrupt MY schedule or my relaxation to correct or even love when the time arises. As parents we know many times the reason behind the outward behavior isn't always defiance but a cry for attention. I'm sure we can all see the thread of selfishness in every though and every word.
Little did I know the day those babies were born began a journey in shaving more and more of me away. Not the good and God intended creation he made me to be but the selfish only concerned with myself part. From the day they came home and kept me awake for hours thoughtout many months of nursing to potty breaks in the middle of the night, times of correction, times of teaching, times of loving. All of these times slowly work to take away the constant thought of Me, Me, Me. But I'll tell you ladies this only happens if a willing vessel allows the molding.
Yes, I've realized in the last few months how selfishness can wreck and ruin our peace of mind. But I have also realized that if I don't daily lay my selfishness down at the altar and pick up the commission of motherhood Satan will have victory in my life. Often it is easy to think, YES, one week of successful calm peaceful parenting! I'm a success, line up ladies autographs are free! Until the very next day we trip and land flat on our face.
I'm not saying to not take time for yourself or most definitely not encourage we cheat our spouse in this journey to self-less parenting. Every good things must have its place but to have any measure of success I must realize God has given me a huge and wonderful task of raising these wonderful children for his glory and that will only be accomplished if I stop running my life as a train speeding towards all of my desires.
Challenge: Parenting is not about ME! It isn't about me being happy or me being pleased. It's about pouring my life and love selflessly into my children so that they can grow to be godly children that please God with their loves. Sometimes that means the best thing I can do for them is to love their daddy or take some time for myself but I must make those choices with wisdom and not laziness. To do any of these things I must daily meet with Christ and hand over my heart and my desires. I must submit myself to his will and guidance. Without a doubt when I do he will guide me to be the best mother possible.
Help this mother Lord be the best I can possibly be for you and for them.
Saul's NOT so small sacrifice -The small things matter!
Posted with Blogsy
I have recently been reading in I Samuel. I haven't been able to get away from this story of Saul and his sacrifice. It has been really challenging me. I don't often post devotionals but as I have been mulling on this the Lord keeps pushing me to share what He has done in my heart. So here goes!
I Samuel 13:8-11
This passage is the story of Saul taking the place of the prophet and sacrificing.
In the above verses, if you did not already know the severity of the situation from hearing the story previously it would seem like a mundane paragraph. Samuel didn't come, the people were restless, Saul sacrificed; Plain and simple. In fact when I was reading it I skimmed through it so fast I didn't even realize what story it was until I got to the end. Rrrrrrr.......reverse and re-read. Although it didn't seem like a big action scene to me, I don't think it was small thing to Saul. Biblical procedures were very well known back then. I think he knew the position he was stepping into but he was panicking because his followers were straying.Have you ever been in that position? You had things planned out. God had given you a path to start on. You were following Him and you thought you knew how the Lord would bring it all to pass. You thought because you were following God's plan in your life that things would always make sense. You thought your choices would always be clear. Then....one day things got confusing. All your plans and expectations fell to pieces in a matter of minutes crumbling around your feet. You stood confused and possibly feeling rejected wondering, "What do I do know?". I know God said follow this path....I know he hasn't told me to do anything differently but things don't make sense anymore. So you spent hours agonizing over your confusing situation and conniving what the best plan would be to get out of your present predicament. You came up with what seemed like the answer but you knew it was different from your last marching orders from above. This is when we land right where Saul was. Will we follow our own devices and solutions or will we stay faithful to the directions we've been given?
Many times we insert our own ideas into the problem solving of our life even though we know it doesn't match Gods plan He's given us. We think His plan isn't working right now. My solution makes sense to me and I'm sure He'll understand. When all God wants is us to stick with the plan and wait for Him to bring His will to fruition.
Here is where the Lord has really been working me over.
Often times we read stories like this and think, "big deal he made an offering". That's not a big deal. However, it's the small things in life that make the biggest difference. It's the small things we say to our children, the small things we say to our spouse, the one and two and three days we don't come to his word for guidance and to be fed. All these small things make up our lives. They seem insignificant to us. We think I'll do right when it really matters, but we won't. Many small moments of yelling at our children build a habit of anger and frustration. Many small snipes at our husband build a resentment, distrust and disrespectful attitude towards our husbands. Many days of ignoring the needs of fellow Christians because of selfish desires lead to a self-centered lonely Christian. Many days of disregarding our need for spiritual food and a relationship with the Lord leads to utter chaos and break down in every area of our lives. It truly is the small foxes that spoil every vine in our lives.
My Prayer:
Lord help me not to pass off small sins of anger, laziness, pride and selfishness that will build and bury me underneath its weight. Help me to have a sensitive heart that greaves at mistakes made but also embraces your long suffering forgiveness. Help me stand guard against the attitude that small things don't matter! Help me to build a life that glorifies you through many small good things built into something great.
Very good. I'm glad we will be in heaven for eternity every day
ReplyDeleteBecause I miss you every single day. Dad
Ohh Dad, I miss you a million! 💗
ReplyDelete