by Stacey | Mar 7, 2013 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
It’s hard to rest. It’s hard for this multi-tasking, type A, homemaking mamma to stop and rest.
Day one of our holiday and I found it hard to be still. I was supposed to be doing something. An article. Editing. Cooking dinner. Folding laundry. I don’t sit. I do.
But I needed rest. And once I embraced the idea of rest –I slept. I slept all night with no little voices asking for water or one more story. I slept in the morning at the beach, in the afternoon at the pool, and at night in the hotel. It was good.
I can’t believe I fought the idea of being still for so long, and I can’t help compare this thought to how I fought resting on the Sabbath.
The Sabbath is a day set aside to worship God. To draw near to Him. To foster family and friend relationships. To rest. Somewhere along the line I slipped into the tread that used Sunday to catch up on laundry, cooking and other work pushed aside all week. About a year ago I noticed this trend and decided the best way to fight it was to tell my daughter my plans. Trust me, she holds me accountable!
She’ll remind me Saturday night after prayers that after we worship God in the morning the whole day is devoted to family and fun. She can’t wait.
Some of the things that have changed for me?
- No laundry is done on Sunday. And guess what – we always have clothes to wear. It turns out I didn’t need that day to catch up.
- We all enjoy some alone time for about an hour and a half. We can do whatever relaxes us and that looks different for each one of us. Some of us read, some nap, play games, or putter outdoors.
- We have a traditional Sunday dinner of a buffet of leftovers, fresh fruit, yogurt, granola, cheese, and anything easily pulled out of the refrigerator or cupboard.
- We watch a family movie over dinner.
- Go to bed and REST. Just the way it was meant to be.
by Stacey | Feb 28, 2013 | The Weekend Visitor
FACT: If your children can’t read by age four there is a 95% chance they will end up homeless and on drugs.
FACT: If your children eat any processed food there is an 85% chance they will contract a rare, most likely incurable disease, by age 12.
FACT: If you’re not up at dawn reading the Bible to your children, you are most likely a pagan caught in the clutches of witchcraft.
FACT: If your children watch more than 10 minutes of television a day there is 75% chance they will end up in a violent street gang by age 17.
Obviously, the “facts” listed above are not true (at least, I don’t think they are). But, I’ve noticed that the Internet has made it much easier for people, and moms in particular, to compare themselves to each other. Now, just to be clear, this is not a post against “mom blogs”, or whatever they’re called. If you write a mom blog, that’s cool with me. This is a post to encourage the moms who tend to freak out and feel like complete failures when they read the mom blogs and mom Facebook posts.
Moms, Jesus wants you to chill out about being a mom. You don’t have to make homemade bread to be a faithful mom. You don’t have to sew you children’s clothing to be a faithful mom. You don’t have to coupon, buy all organic produce, keep a journal, scrapbook, plant a garden, or make your own babyfood to be a faithful mom. There’s nothing wrong with these things, but they’re also not in your biblical job description.
Your job description is as follows:
- Love God. This simply means finding some time during the day to meet with the Lord. It doesn’t have to be before all the kids are awake. It doesn’t have to be in the pre-dawn stillness. Your job is to love God. How you make that happen can look a million different ways.
- Love your husband (unless you’re a single mom, of course). Your second job is to love and serve your husband. Husbands are to do the same for their wives, but that’s for a different post. If your husband really likes homemade bread, maybe you could make it for him. But don’t make homemade bread simply because you see other moms posting pictures of their homemade bread on Facebook.
- Love your kids. Your calling as mom is to love your kids and teach them to follow the Lord. They don’t need to know Latin by age six. If they do, more power to you. But that’s a bonus, not part of the job description. Your job is simply to love your kids with all your exhausted heart, and to teach them to love Jesus. That’s a high calling. Don’t go throwing in other, extraneous things to make your life more difficult. If you want to teach your kids to sew, great. But don’t be crushed by guilt if your kids aren’t making stylish blazers by the age of 10.
Moms, Jesus want you to rest in him. He wants you to chill out. His yoke is easy and his burden is light. Don’t compare yourself to other moms. Don’t try to be something God hasn’t called you to be. If the mom blogs are making you feel guilty, stop reading them. Be faithful to what he has truly called you to do, and know that he is pleased with you. When your kids are resting, don’t feel guilty about watching an episode of “Lost”, or whatever your favorite show may happen to be.
Love God, love your husband, love your kids. Keep it simple and chill out.
–
+photo by pedrosimoes7
First posted October 12, 2012 at www.theblazingcenter.com
Used with permission
by Stacey | Feb 21, 2013 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
Unexpected news rocks the world. Certainty floats in the air, uncertain.
How do you pray for God’s will when you fear you won’t bear it? How do you pray for the person who wounded you, for the loved one that walked away, for the criminal that shattered your world?
How do you pray when the hurt is so deep there are no words? With your tears.
The one who created you hears your heart’s cry. He understands your fears, your wounds, and your hopes. He doesn’t need your words as much as He desires your trust in Him. Rest in the one God, the one Lord over everything, and the one who holds the future in His hands.
He is good.
He is wise.
He is just.
He is able.
You can rest on the Rock.
Matthew 11:28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
1 Peter 5:7 “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”
First posted April 17th, 2011
by Stacey | Feb 7, 2013 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
After reading this bold and painfully honest post a woman wrote to her former self, I pondered what words I might have for sixteen year old me. Would we be friends? Would she even hear what I have to say?
To that 16-year-old girl, forever trying to prove herself, seeking acceptance, and standing at a fork in the road that her young eyes fail to recognize, I say: There’s hope Sweet Sixteen.
You’re going to take the wrong road. A road that will lead you to a day two years later where you weepingly confess to the Lord your wandering heart. A road that changes everything. A road that causes your dad to say, “Honey, it may seem like the end of the world, but it gets better.”
Sweet Sixteen. Dad is right. It gets better.
God in an act of marvelous grace will bring you back to that fork, and this time you will choose differently. God will redeem those lost years wasted on your own strength, on your own wisdom, forging your own way.
It will be ten years before some scars heal. More for others. It will be nearly fifteen years before you settle into yourself and really move forward. But Dad is right. It gets better.
Your sister really is the best friend you’ll ever have. Your brothers of few words are deep thinkers who love completely. Your parents are your biggest cheerleaders and family matters.
All things your young eyes sometimes fail to see.
You’ll marry the most wonderful man and wonder if you’ll ever have children with him. You’ll move away, and come home again. You’ll embrace life, even when it shatters you.
You’ll get back up.
Your mother heart will come to appreciate your Mother’s heart, and all that she quietly did for you. And you’ll do it all for your children -quietly.
You’ll learn life, even your own life, is not really about you. It is so much bigger than that. The thought will both scare you and comfort you in a strange and intimate dance.
You’ll wish you could go back and do things differently, but you eventually accept your past as a piece of you, making you who you are. That drives you to your knees interceding for the three tiny souls entrusted to your care.
Sweet Sixteen. Dad was right. It got better. And the unconditional love he gave you paves a way of acceptance of unconditional love from your heavenly Father.
You don’t know Him as well now as you one day will. Like so many things, you won’t fully appreciate Him when the path is easy, but you will when the path gets hard. And it gets hard.
Sweet Sixteen. Your black and white world will accept some grey -in some things – but not others. You’ll come full circle and discover some things really are black and white after all.
When you come full circle, you’ll embrace the dance, Sweet Sixteen.
by Stacey | Jan 10, 2013 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
Children never seem to lack confident energy. At least mine don’t. They scoop up the hairbrush and bellow with all their might, strum the umbrella guitar, bang the tissue box drums and sing until the windows rattle. They are sure in their ability to make a joyful noise – regardless of the sound that results.
Oh, to be uninhibited. To provide vocals and music, inspiring scribbles, and culinary creations with childlike enthusiasm.
My kids have never turned down a chance to try something new. Sometimes they succeed. Sometimes they fail. But they attempt with absolutely everything inside of them.
At what age do we lose that wonderful courage? The courage to step into the spotlight and perform with everything inside? The courage to try? The courage to succeed? The courage to fail?
I suspect many adults secretly wish to be capable of something… else. Anything else. But are afraid to try.
Never let fear stop you. Go ahead. Make some noise. Seek and discover the unique giftedness God has placed in you, then use it for His glory and with all your might.
“You have a ministry. However insignificant it may seem to you, it is very significant to God (Lori Salerno).”[i]
“I hope you realize how much your family, your friends, your church, your community, and this world need you. Don’t allow who you truly are to be lost, buried, or devalued… what is most truly you matters (Lynne Hybels).”[ii]
“If year after year our lives are consumed with activities we’ve been neither gifted nor impassioned to do, and we never have the chance to slide into the sweet spot of giving out of our true self, we pay a higher price in ministry than God is asking us to pay. And the saddest thing is, when we allow this to happen, nobody wins (Lynne Hybels).”[iii]
“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive and do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive (Gil Bailie).”
How do we discover our unique calling? Tim Challies offers some sound advice in his book, The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment (Crossway Books). He writes about five helpful principles to discover your gifts. These principles are: prayer, passion, asking others, trying, and trying some more.
- The obvious place to start when we are searching for wisdom is to go directly to the source of wisdom Himself. Ask God to reveal the areas in which you are gifted.
- You may find you already have great passion for an area of service in which God has gifted you.
- Asking friends that know you well, whom you trust to be mature Christians, may provide great insight and wisdom regarding your abilities.
- Try and try some more. The Holy Spirit may surprise you by uncovering a hidden passion as you try various activities and ministries.
[i] Lori Saleirno, Real Solutions for Ordering your Private Life. (Ann Arbor: Michigan , Vine Books, 2001) 52
[ii] Lynne Hybels, Nice Girls Don’t Change the World. (Barrington: Illinios, Willow Creek Association, 2005) Inside cover
[iii] Lynne Hybels, Nice Girls Don’t Change the World. (Barrington: Illinios, Willow Creek Association, 2005) 58
