A quick word

This is the introduction to a book I just bought (Finding Your Purpose as a Mom):

"Regardless of who you are, whether you’ve made the choice to be a stay-at-home mom or work outside the house, whether you are married or single, whether your house is a double-wide in a desert or a mansion on a hillside…. Your home really is holy ground because it’s a place where God has chosen to live and do his work."

Can't wait to read more!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A Call, a Question, and an Answer

A Call

God has been speaking to me – challenging me, encouraging me, and convicting me – about the kind of wife and mother He wants me to be.  Everyday, I’m learning something new about my role as a Christian wife and mother, and I’m so excited about what God is teaching me.  For a while now, I’ve felt a desire to share these words of encouragement and challenge with other moms.  It’s hard to explain exactly how I’ve been feeling, but it’s as if I had a craving (for lack of a better word) to share what God is teaching me and to minister to other moms.  Don’t get me wrong, I do NOT think that I know so much that I can teach other moms how to be godly.  I just want to share with them what God is doing in my heart, and I hope it encourages them or challenges them the way it has me.

 

Also, for a while, I’ve been wanting to be a part of a prayer group for moms where we pray together for our children, our families, and our roles as mothers.  I pray for my family everyday, but I would love to be able to pray with and for other moms who understand what I’m going through.  I know it seems silly; but when I’m praying for help dealing with temper tantrums, I want others praying for me who know exactly how difficult it can be to respond to tantrums in a godly manner.

 

Finally, I’ve been feeling another “craving” in my soul.  I’m longing for ministry!  In the past, I’ve been very involved in our church.  Of course, in the last year, God has given me a different type of ministry assignment.  Since having Landon and being a stay at home mom, I’ve been focusing on ministering to him.  Now that he’s a little older and now that I have a year of motherhood under my belt and feel as though I might be able to take on another responsibility, my spirit is longing to minister to others.

 

A Question

I’ve been having these feelings for a while now, and I didn’t really know what to make of them.  I wasn’t sure if it was just my human nature wanting some adult conversation or some “mom-to-mom” interaction or if God might be calling me to start a prayer & devotional time for moms.  Because of that uncertainty, I haven’t acted on it.  However, every time God would teach me something new, I would think, “Oh, this would be great to share with my other mommy friends!”

 

Today, I had a life group leaders meeting at church (for a couples group Craig and I lead).  While I was there, listening to a quick run-through of a Bible study on stewardship, I felt that familiar tug again.  I had trouble focusing on the scriptures we were reading because I kept thinking about what moms might be interested in participating in a mom group and what day of the week we could do it and how I would get childcare for the kids and the kinds of things we might share and do during our time together.  On the way home from the meeting, I finally decided to take the matter before the Lord...not sure why I waited so long.

 

I prayed something like this, “Lord, I feel very excited about this possibility; and I think it is something I would really enjoy.  I also think that the moms involved (myself included) would really benefit from it.  However, I do not want to do it unless it is YOU calling me to do it.  Even if I did it with good intentions and we saw positive results, I know that anything I choose to do that is not Your will takes me away from the things You have called me to do.  Also, I know that if You call me, You will empower me – giving me the time to prepare, the words to say, the women to invite, etc.  I do not want to take on more than I can handle.  I have a tendency to do that, and when I do, I end up just doing many things.  I would rather do few things well - with Your power - than do many things in my own power.  I know that You want me to know Your will; so I ask You to reveal it to me.  Remove all my human desires so that I can clearly know Your will, not mine.”

 

An Answer

Before I get to God’s answer, I have to say that I am not very good at just being quiet and listening for God.  I usually try to go over the pros & cons or try to think of verses that might deal with what I’m praying about or I just keep praying without shutting up and listening.  So, I had to force myself to shut down my thoughts and just clear my mind and be still before the Lord.  When I did, His answer was quick and clear. (It doesn’t always happen this way for me, but today it did.)

 

God clearly showed me that He had, indeed, been laying this on my heart, calling me to answer.  He brought to mind something I studied in our Experiencing God study we did with our life group.  In that study, we learned that there are some things that only God can do.  If I were wanting to start this group for selfish reasons (such as pride or so I could have some adult time or so others would see me doing it or something like that), it would be sinful; but my human/sinful nature is not capable of wanting to minister to others or share God’s word with others or pray for my family and others’ families.  Nor is that something Satan would want me to do.  That is God’s spirit in me, leading me in His way.

 

Immediately, I said a prayer of thanks to the Lord for His quick, clear reply and for His personal involvement in my life.  (Isn’t it wonderful that the God of the universe, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords is intimately involved in the details of our little lives?!?!) 

 

In Conclusion

I knew I wanted to add this to the blog so that I would not forget how God called me and answered me today.  Also, I’m hoping that I’ll be able to report soon about a new mommy devotion & prayer group.  Check back...if it’s been a while and you haven’t seen anything about it, ask me about it.  Hold me accountable.

 

Has God called or answered you lately, I’d love for you to share a comment below! :)

 

HAVE A BLESSED DAY!

Psalm 101:2

“I will be CAREFUL to lead a BLAMELESS life – when will you come to me?  I will walk in my house with a blameless heart.” – Psalm 101:2 (emphasis mine)

 

How often am I really CAREFUL to be BLAMELESS? 

 

It seems that, most of the time, I am careLESS.  I go through my day caring for and loving my family, taking care of the housework, preparing meals, trying to stay in touch with friends, etc.  In doing so, I am rarely careful about the way I do things.  I do not carefully weigh my tone of voice when I ask my husband to take out the trash.  I carelessly utter idle words when I get spaghetti sauce on my shirt.  I don’t carefully consider my topics of conversation when I talk to my girl friends.  I do not carefully judge my attitude when someone is rude at the grocery store.

 

Sometimes, I’m actually careful to be “okay” rather than blameless.  I am careful to say “crap” instead of a less desirable four-letter word.  I am careful to read a few verses before I fall asleep each night rather than being careful to set aside time to spend with the Lord so that He can mold me into what He wants me to be.

 

God wants me to be CAREFUL to be BLAMELESS! 

 

Lord, help me to be more diligent in my efforts to be like You.  I want to be careful.  I want to be blameless.  I know that you see my heart and hear my thoughts.  I know that my child is watching me and learning from me.  Help me to CAREFULLY consider my attitude, my thoughts, my topics of conversation, my tone of voice, my choice of words, my facial expressions, and my actions throughout my day.  I know I cannot do it without Your help, but I know that “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” (Phil 4:13)

The Inspiration

Why I Started This Blog:

God told me to! - What better inspiration can one have than to be inspired by the Lord?  The primary reason for my starting this blog is that God has laid it on my heart.  I’ve been putting it off for a while now for “excellent” reasons...such as: I’m too busy, I barely keep up with the blog I already have, What if people don’t like what I have to say, etc.  However, God wouldn’t let me off the hook.  Every time I took time to spend with Him and actually paused long enough to hear Him (which, I’ll admit was not as often as I should have), I felt Him calling me to do this.

 

“Spiritual Markers” are important for our own spiritual walk! – The first part of Deuteronomy 4:9 says that we should “Be careful, and watch [ourselves] so that [we] do not forget the things [our] eyes have seen or let them slip from [our] hearts as long as [we] live.”  God knew that the Israelites would turn from Him and rebel against Him (and thus miss out on His blessings) if they did not take time to remember all that He had done for them.  If you’ve read the scriptures, you know that this is exactly what happened time and time again.  In order to truly experience hope and the peace that passes understanding as well as showers of blessings, we need to remember all that God has already done.  This blog is my way of recording what God is teaching me so that I can go back to it in the future and remember what God has brought me through, what He’s taught me, and what He’s done in me, through me, and for me!

 

“Spiritual Markers” are important for our children and the future of our world! – The second part of Deuteronomy 4:9 says, “Teach them to your children and to their children after them.”  If we do not tell our children about what an awesome God we serve - about what we’ve seen Him do in our lives and in others’ - who will???  What hope do we have of leading our children to a relationship with the Lord if we cannot tell them about what a difference He’s made in our own lives.  Not only are we their first and most influential role models, but we are their God-given teachers & examples.  God placed us in the position as their parents because He trusted us to teach them about Him and to model for them what it means to follow Him.  We are to be HIM to THEM!

 

So why blog?  Why not just keep a private notebook/journal?

It’s a way to reach others! – I know I have often been encouraged, challenged, convicted, and inspired by what God is teaching others; and I hope this blog will do the same.  I’m not promising any theological prowess here...I’m just journaling what God is teaching me – what I’m going through and learning.  I hope that maybe someone out there will be going through the same thing and will benefit from reading this blog.  I also hope that people will leave comments expounding upon what I’ve posted – maybe something God brought to their mind as they were reading or something they learned when they were going through a similar experience or something they’ve read or heard that applies to the post. 

 

 It’s a way of holding myself accountable! - I’ve kept a spiritual journal off and on throughout my Christian walk.  I have a little notebook I keep by my bed with my Bible.  In it, I write verses I’m memorizing, prayer requests, prayers, lessons God is teaching me, etc.  However, I am not always good at keeping up with it.  So,  I hope to do better with this blog.  My prayer is that visitors and followers of this blog will visit often, and that if they ever find that it’s been a while since my last post, I hope they’ll ask me what God is teaching me lately.

 

It’s a way of motivating myself! – Since starting my first blog in January, I’ve discovered that I love to blog.  I’m a social person; and as a stay at home mom, blogging is a great way for me to share my experiences with family and friends (when it’s convenient for me) and get comments and responses to those experiences.  It’s also a great outlet for me to express my thoughts, feelings, concerns, etc when the only conversations I have all day are dominated by baby babble...which I love, by the way! :) 

 

It’s quicker! - I type faster than I write; so, I’m hoping I’ll be more motivated to type a quick post than I have been to write a journal entry.

 

What should you expect from this blog?

As I mentioned before, this is not going to be a platform for theological study or debate or for sermons or anything like that.  This is simply where I will record what God is saying to me.  It may be a verse that has been especially meaningful or helpful to me lately.  It may be a realization that God has laid on my heart or a lesson that He’s taught me through His word or through my experiences lately.  It may be musings on the Sunday sermon or lists of answered prayers.  Who knows??  It will just be a hodgepodge of spiritual stuff from my heart – a record of “HIS Word to Me.”