Standing in an arena of Sitters

I have read more on the internet in the last few days than I normally do in a week. And I am just appaulled at our "Christian-ized" society. What happened to taking a stand? What happened to being different? Can someone please explain it to me, because for the life of me, I cannot understand how we are all starting to run together. Am I different than the person I am in line with at the DMV, the person in front of me at the grocery store, or my own Dr? Has God changed my life or not? Because if not, then I should carry on as one of them. I should, think, act, look, and speak like them. But, if God did save me, if He did pull me up from the miry clay, than shouldn't there be a difference? Or do I carry on as I always have- just  now labeling my life "Christian". Not doing anything about it. Not telling anyone or changing the way I live.
Who are you? Have you been bought with a price? Is your life your own? Is God even involved? It is so disgusting to me when I meet someone who says, "Oh yea, I am a Christian...", yet He holds no part of their life. He is not directing their steps. He is not allowed to fully bless them because they have control. It has never been surrendered. What happened to trusting God with our decisions? And letting Him change us from the inside out? Where are the few who hold up everything they watch, listen to, and wear and say, "My Heavenly Father, are you pleased with this?" And if he says, "NO", they rid themselves of it.
Where are they? The separated few. Who will stand through ridicule, hate, and persecution...even from their own brethren. Are we to be so "tolerant" of lifestyles and sin that we live no differently?
We are committing to stand in 2013 as a family. We are not sure where that may take us, but we know that the Lord will be leading our steps. We are trusting Him to do His perfect work in us until the day of His appearing. Will you stand? Will you stand against criticism, against sin, and against mediocrity? I pray that the people out there who know they have been saved to the uttermost and have been miraculously cleansed from their sin will start to stand. I pray they will start to stick out in this sea of "Christian-ized" society. I pray we will not just have a form of Godliness, but that we will try for Godliness with power. There are Biblical principles that cannot be ignored by us anymore. Please join me in praying for fellow believers to start taking a true stand for Christ.

Children are an heritage of the Lord...

Children are an heritage of the Lord...I think about this every time I am struggling to know what to do as a mom. Ultimately, they are the Lord's heritage. I need to rear them in as pleasing a manner as possible. My Heavenly Father needs to be involved in every decision that I make for them. I should be consulting with the Holy Spirit every moment of the day. I know the people that I want them to grow up to be, but what about who God wants them to be? What about His plans? Have I truly surrendered MY will for their lives? I ponder these questions as I am away from my girlies this week. We are headed to camp with our teens and we are so excited to see what the Lord is going to do in and through our young people. Aside from that though, I have been thinking about my role as a mother a lot lately. These questions have kept me searching the Scriptures to make sure that my life is pleasing to the Lord. Leading by example is the BEST way to teach someone and I am praying that I can be that example for my children. I want them to be Godly, sweet, forgiving, loving, and kind. Slow to wrath and speak, and quick to hear and follow. I believe that desiring the things God wants for them I am following His leading for my life and theirs. God has been so good to me, I hope that I can repay Him with a tiny army of Godly women. Women who are not afraid of what others might think of their bold witness, their modest dress, and their true, deep love for God. We need to be trying to rear courageous, Christian women, rather than the next (fill in the blank) because that was our desire for them. We need not be afraid of who they will become, if we follow what God has for their future, by being surrendered ourselves. God has never failed me and my children need to know that. They need to see Mommy following Him without question or fear. Fighting the good fight of faith. I have just rambled some personal thoughts. I hope they were encouraging to you and your babies :).

Ode to Mother's- A Mother's Day devotion

Let me preface this by saying I wrote this devotion for a Nursery Worker's Meeting on Sunday and each of the points were an item in a gift basket that we gave away as a door prize. So, sorry for maybe the random feeling of the points. It made sense when it was given :). But I still think it is an encouraging and applicable read. Thanks for taking the time to do so!

                   Ode to Mother’s Day

a.       “Wrote Memorization”- Lam. 3:21-23- “This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope…” I love the idea of journaling. Maybe it is because I realized my own mortality much more vividly when my mom passed away and the things that she had written down became so precious to me. I want to write down everything God does for me and my family. I want my girls to have a legacy they can not only remember but one they can physically reference. I can’t remember things unless I write them down and so God has really convicted me about writing my blessings and struggles down. I want my children to see how real and good my God is. Satan’s goal is to get us to forget! If we forget, we will not live unto Christ because we are not remembering what He did for us. So write things down to remember!

b.      “Let Them Eat Cake”- Lam. 3:22- “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not…” They are new every morning the Bible says. I think as Christian mothers we sometimes feel pressure to be very HARD on our children and strict with them. I believe in discipline and I believe in running a seamless home that does not center around your children or their behavior. But I also believe we are to exemplify Christ’s attributes to our children and so often, we forget how merciful God is to us. We try to “play God” in our children’s lives and while God is holy and just, He is also fair, kind, and loving. Many of our Christian homes are missing the very attributes that made us Christians in the first place.

c.       “If mama ain’t happy; ain’t nobody happy”-  Proverbs 31:22 –“She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple…” Ladies, if we are not careful, we will neglect ourselves so much, in the name of our family, that we start resenting them. We can have the attitude that they have somehow robbed us of our identity or our “alone” time. Instead of embracing our role as mother and wife we become very cynical and cold to the people we are supposed to protect and serve. This cannot happen in the Christian home. The mother is the center of the home, let’s make sure we are a healthy, happy center. I know when I do not get up before my children and have my morning routine. Shower, devotions, coffee, I am grumpy inside all day!!! It is so important we are taking care of ourselves so that we are equipped to take care of others.

d.      “Clean up on aisle 7”- Proverbs 31:26- “She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness…” Do you ever feel like you are constantly cleaning up messes? After your children, your husband, and yourself? Sometimes a dog too J? Well, that is what mom’s do. We clean up. We clean up tears and sickness and broken hearts. We have a responsibility to our families to turn every negative into a positive. We need to clean up our families messes and make them beautiful. If your husband makes the wrong decision- stick by him anyway. If your child does something you told them not to do and they got hurt for it- remind them they are still loved. Do not teach your family to be bitter at others for the way they are treated or for their circumstances; they will get enough of that from the world. They need you to remind them that God is still on the throne and Rom. 8:28. Don’t teach them how to complain, teach them how to praise.

e.      “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet…”- Phil. 4:11- “…for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content…”- This is very difficult for women!!! Don’t you love being around someone that is truly content?? Don’t we try to teach our children contentment??  We teach them to be happy with what they are given. Well, are you living a life of contentment or do you constantly have want of something???Your children know when you are not happy with your life, so why should they be happy with theirs??? Contentment is like a sweet odor, infectious. It is something everyone wants to be around, because they know there will be no complaining.

f.        “CHOCOLATE!!!” Ladies love chocolate and this is just a reminder to do things you like with your kids. You do not have to suffer through everything you hate doing just because you are a mom. Get your kids to like the things that you do! Get them to enjoy everyday activities by making them fun. Being a mom is all about influence and you can influence them to enjoy life’s simple pleasures like you do, like chocolate.

g.       “Growing, growing, growing,….Gone!” “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it…” We have a small window of influence. I was just thinking the other day, by the time I am 40, I will have lived with my husband longer than my parents. Yet, what a formidable time that is!!! It is the part of life your kids will remember and reference forever. We need to make sure we are growing them spiritually. Challenging them. Now, our children will not grow, if we are not growing. If we are not getting closer to God, our children won’t. If we are not being faithful, our children won’t be faithful. We must first live it and be the example and when we do that, we can count on the fact that God’s Word will not return void! I know the reason I am serving the Lord today is because God was so real to my mom. And even when I was bitter and rebellious, I still feared the God that my mom served because He answered her prayers and was faithful to her. I wanted that for my own life and that is the reason that I trusted Christ, because my mom proved to me that her God was real, long before I knew Him myself.

On my mind....

I want to please the Lord with my life. I want HIM to be pleased with ME. So often, I think, we want it  the other way around, or we live our lives the other way around. Are we trying to squeeze the Bible into our already established life? Or are we living by God's Word, every moment, consulting with the Holy Spirit? I think American Christianity has missed so many things, but this might be one of the GREATEST. We have become humanists. We take Jesus and all of his benefits and that is WHY we become Christians. Not because He is worthy of our lives, but because we KNOW he can make our lives better. We serve ourselves. We wait for the next moment of instant gratification. We make decisions based on what "we feel is right", rather than what God truly wants. We go through the motions of being seemingly faithful in our outward lives- all the while living unto ourselves on the inside. How can this benefit me, or my kids, or my relationship??? What about Him...what about what we ACTUALLY deserve? We wear what we want, we watch what we want, we go where we want, and dare our Holy and Heavenly Father to tell us "No!". We act like if it is a "good" thing, it cannot be wrong for us to partake. But doesn't that actually make it more dangerous? Doesn't that mean the line just becomes more grey and indistinct? What happened to God's people having convictions about living holy lives? About being separate? Why is there no line anymore? Did it disappear when God left schools? I don't think so...that would be too obvious. Or when they threw out prayer and starting cramming evolution and post-modernist theology down our throat? I don't know about that either. I think it started in the home. I think the mom and dad said, "Well, that's not a big deal, we can do that....just this once." I then think it translated into the House of God, because God's people were dull of hearing. We did not fight for God to stay in schools, nor did we fight for prayer. What we are left with is anemic Christians, who barely deserve that title. We have forgotten who God is and what He represents. Isaiah 6:1, 3-5- "In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the Temple. And one cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts."  Doesn't God's Word say serving him is our "reasonable service"? It is REASONABLE, not ridiculous. And it is necessary for true worship. I hope this helped encourage you. It is something that has been on my mind lately. Living unto God, not unto myself. Bringing my body under subjection and obeying the voice of the Lord. God help us all as we strive. I want to finish my course with joy and the best way I know to do that is to have no regrets. I will never regret living my life for God. But I will definitely regret living my life for self.

Kids say the darndest things...

Abby- "Mommy, can you teach me how to be saved?" Me- Yes, Abby I can teach you how to be saved!" Abby- "Mommy, can you also teach me how to raise from the dead?"

Ministry Moment

I always keep a frozen lasagna on hand, just in case I come in contact with a family in need, someone who just had a baby, or we have someone over for an impromptu visit. If none of that happens within a few weeks I bake it on a Wed. because it takes about 2.5 hours which is a little longer than the church service. So, If you think this would be convenient for you to do as well, just buy double ingredients and make 2 at the same time. Put one in a disposable pan and then if you give it away, no worries about getting it back! It is just one more way, I can, as a stay at home mom, be hospitable to others. Hope this was helpful!

My Moment as a Makeshift Decorator

I designed this through a decal shop on etsy and it came out perfect! I wanted this space of our church nursery to feel separated from the rest of it. I used a very, shaggy brown rug (representing a nest) and then I had some pillows made shaped like eggs for the kids to hold when being read to. I hope you enjoy this idea and pass it on!!!