The Ten Truths {to Tell Yourself when you are a Mama who wonders how to get through Today}

Some days you get stuck in the muck. Some days you need to remind yourself over and over that you are not alone. Some days you need to re-read a letter you wrote for someone else . . . 

Dear Mama,

I know how you feel.  You're tired, you ache, you want to made well, but this is it. This is the life that has been determined for you. 

God knows how difficult it is at times, but you wonder if anyone else can relate.

Is there another Mama who always wanted to never be the Mama who wasn't well? 

I begged for healing and I begged for babies.

Is there anyone else who has a twelve year old who takes the weight of it all on her own shoulders even though you've never asked her to and really she doesn't have to? But, she's the first-born and is intuitive and senses there are days that are a little rough. 

Anyone else with a seven year old boy who talks one day about inventing a lung so that other kids, who would have to go through what his Mama did when she was a little girl, will still be able to run a marathon one day? 

Any other Mama out there who can hardly keep up to her three year old because you live life now with 30% lung capacity?

I hoped to have stamina that would show up the Energizer bunny.

What about another woman who wondered why the months and then years would pass before two lines on a pregnancy test would appear? And then wondered how you are going to have the strength some days to raise and disciple these little ones entrusted to you? 

A Mama out there who fights to be free from fears of receiving a secondary diagnosis now that you actually are a Mama? And what do you do to keep on 'toughing it out' with severe aortic stenosis now as a mother, as well as the lung damage all because of a dreadful disease from when you were three years old?

I know it could be a lot worse, but your own reality is all you will ever know. 

I desperately prayed for healing, but for so long I failed to see how God has already healed me:

And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you.

I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.

And, Mama, you know what I've been learning as I live this life I never would have chosen for myself? 

I am never alone. Ever.

God will strengthen me and use me for His glory.

The One who has healed my heart is the One who I cry out to. 

He is my refuge. 

He is my shelter.

He is my strength.

When you wonder how you will get through these days, know that you are not doing this on your own.


Your story has its own challenges, but our solution is the same. 

Grace. Amazing, astounding, cascading, pouring down grace.

And like anything, perspective is half the battle. If I wallow in my woes I end up defeated. 

Like Paul, I need to learn to be content in whatever circumstance I'm in. 

So,  I have to keep preaching to myself on a daily basis.

• Learn my own limitations and don't think I have to do everything.  

"For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him." (Phil 2:13)

• Know that Christ's strength is made perfect in my weakness. And His amazing grace is all I ever need. The joy of the Lord is my strength and in Him will I boast.

"Each time he said, "My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness." So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me." (Cor 2:9)

• Accept the willingness of others to help me when I need it even though I may not want to admit it. We need one another and let it be a blessing for them and to you.

• Cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me. 

• Trust in the Lord. He will guide me in all I do.

"But blessed are those who trust in the LORD and have made the LORD their hope and confidence." (Jeremiah 17:7)

• Believe that His goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life. He really has chased me down His unfailing love, wooed me with His eternal love, and proved to me that His mercies are new every morning. He is always good and does good.

• Be assured that the antidote to fear is the assurance of God's presence and protection.

• Use my health for the praise of His glory. I am here to manifest His glory.

• Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.  Especially for  the thing in my life that forces me to lean into Him.

• Pray. Without ceasing. Because you must move forward even though you may not know how.

"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us" (Eph 3:20)

*Edited from a guest post written for Jessica for her 31Days series.

***

Hunting for more of God's Grace,Steadfast love and His Mercies that are new every morning in 'Morevember'.

I invite you to hunt along with me for more of His mercy and grace in #Morevember on Facebook and Twitter.

Enter your email address to subscribe to A Soft Gentle Voice and have this series delivered to your inbox.   

When You Need To Keep Preaching to Yourself {on the good days, the bad days, and on the eve of my birthday}

I really blew the last day of being 36.


It was a gorgeous autumn day and the golden beams filtered in beckoning me to believe mercies are new every morning, but exhaustion was so heavy in my weary bones, I wondered how in the world I was going to keep going.

At the end of the day, dirty laundry overflowed and the basket for clean folded clothes still sat empty on my bedroom floor. The only laundry done today was the towels my husband graciously folded when he came home from work, weary and worn, but still ready to serve.

I did manage to do a few dishes, bark orders, organize drawers to pack up a bag of clothes for children in Haiti, bathe my three year old, listen to my son read, referee sibling squabbles, and read page after page of 'The Hiding Place' while the children crafted cards on the living room floor. And I used the steam mop at the end of the day. Scrubbed the sticky, blackened, soiled spots off the white ceramic.

Boy, did I need to steam clean at the end of today.

Oh, I'm not talking about the kitchen floor. I needed some serious cleansing done, and no mop is ever going to touch the filth that sticks to the bottom of my soul.

By the time I get here, feelings of failure, loser, worst mom ever take right over.

Why can't I be more patient and not allow my tiredness to take over all sense of decency, pursue love and not sow discord, pause to breath in grace and not spew dragon-fire.


I keep wrestling with the old nature, while looking to the One who has made me new, whispering for His grace to get me through and make me more and more like Him in the process.

The only thing that keeps on cleansing me is the blood of Jesus. His continuous gracious work as He keeps on saving me from the wretched, poor, vile sinner that I am.

"My hope lives not because I am not a sinner, but because I am a sinner for whom Christ died; my trust is not that I am holy, but that being unholy, he is my righteousness. My faith rests not upon what I am, or shall be, or feel, or know, but in what Christ is, in what he has done, and in what he is now doing for me. On the lion of justice the fair maid of hope rides like a queen." ~Spurgeon 

I blew it like the dandelion seeds that scatter on the breeze spreading weeds of disharmony, instead of breathing in grace and sowing perfect love.

But, I'll mount up on wings of hope. 

Hope that only comes from the God of hope who will "fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope."

For when I am weak in the flesh, ride the waves of discouragement, wonder how on earth I am ever going to get through the day, and sin entangles and weighs down, I need to keep my eyes fixed on 'Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross.'


Look to Jesus, repent, confess, and hope. Drink deep of his overflowing grace and joy and peace.

Yesterday that I read these words but day after day I need them:

"Most of us have 'good days' -- when life pretty much goes along as we desire and we have no serious struggle with sin -- and 'bad days' -- when in one way or another we are conscious of struggling with sin all day long . . . On our good days we think God must surely be pleased with us and is smiling at us. We forget . . . that all are righteous deeds are like polluted garnets in the sight of God. (Isaiah 64:6). On our bad days we tend to think we have lost the favour of God because of our sin. We forget that he no longer counts our sin against us because Jesus has already born that sin in His body on the cross. 

This is not to say that we should not take our sin seriously. We do need to confess it and repent of it. But the greatest motivation for doing that is to reflect on the fact that Jesus bore those very sins you committed that day in His body on the cross, and God has forgiven you because Jesus was crushed for those sins. 

So in order to experience the subjective reality of our justification we must every day look outside of ourselves to Christ . . . 'preach the gospel to yourself everyday'. That is what we must learn to do if we are to enjoy the present reality of our justification. That is what Paul did two thousand years ago when he wrote, 'And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me' (Galatians 2:20)" ~ Jerry Bridges, "Who Am I?" 

And I keep preaching to myself.

His mercy is new every morning. 

I will wake up and celebrate not just a new year, but I will keep on giving thanks for the new life that I live by faith in the One who loved me enough to lay down His life for me.

When you Need to Push Through to Finish {Homeschool Edition}

I stand on the sidelines at a community race. Runners cross the finish line with enthusiasm and relief. I snap a few photos and catch the sheer determination written all over their bodies to finish strong.

The first runner, a young man under 20, crosses the line in under 17 minutes. His parents quietly cheer him across the finish line. By the look on their faces, I see they are proud of their son and a little astonished. I'd like to know how he ran 5 kilometres that quickly. I ask his parents and they admit they did not even know their son was quite that good.

After the first runners in have caught their breath, I hear other spectators point out runners who are struggling. They are still in the race, but they really have to work at finishing. Their determination is in every step forward, but they need encouragement from their family and friends to get to the end of this race.

I am a bystander at this race. I'm here to cheer when my friends finish first in their categories and I stand and clap for the ones who fight their way to the finish.

There are times in life when I finish strong and there are times in life when I limp to cross the line.

Times when I need to be encouraged and times when I need to be the encourager.

Times when I am ill prepared for parts of the race in life and others have come along beside me and times when I can say to someone else, 'Come on, you are doing a great job!"

It is a bright balmy day in June and we are limping across the finish line. My children are finishing up math lessons and polishing piano pieces and tightening up technique for the exam just days away. We are coming to the end of our geography and history books for this year.

But, I've texted and sputtered to friends, my sisters, and mostly to my husband, "I really can't do this anymore. I can't be mom and teacher anymore."

I am exhausted, I'm worn out. I'm tired of directing my kids to their math manipulatives and piano practices and language lessons. There are lists left undone and laundry mounting. Suppers are simple and bread is store-bought and the gardens only have garlic growing in them this year.

A friend reminds me that for the last several years in May and June I have had big yellow school bus envy. I've read online about all the moms that are dragging at the end of the school year.

As a home school mom, to admit that I am tired seems to equate failure. I must claim the worst homeschool mom ever.

I've had my kids around me 24/7 all year and coming to the end of the school year doesn't really change a whole lot. Except, I won't lay in bed at night worrying about all the spelling and grammar that still needs to be taught, how I am probably failing my kids, and who am I to think that I could do this in the first place. Those kinds of thoughts always increase as I lay my head down for the night. So I preach to myself--do not be anxious about anything--before I can find sleep.

I can be defeated or I can finish strong.

Sometimes looking back to where we've come from can help. My kids have learned lessons, and worked on character, and shown compassion. We've read many books together. We've discovered fascinating things about God and His world. We have learned that God answers prayer and when we are weak, He is strong. We've memorized scripture, and filled pages in journals. They've spent hours playing inside and out, hiked, biked, swam, sang and slept out under the stars on the trampoline. We have strengthened friendships, served, slowed down, and lived a full life this past year.

Of course, I still focus on what still needs to be done, and the handwriting that is still too sloppy, and the scales that are not even, and the math facts that need constant review, but aren't being reviewed regularly enough, and the words that are spelled phonetically--not according to the English dictionary, and the grammatical errors in speech as well as in print. I can easily trip myself up while I am comparing with others and with feelings of inadequacy.

But, this is the thing, we need to look ahead to finish strong. I didn't see any runners looking behind them as they ran to the finish line. Some sprinted in with the extra they had held back, some gave out a cheer for themselves, some smiled, some panted the wee little bit that they had left, but they kept breathing.

I'm struggling to move forward. I want to keep saying, "I can't do this", just like I did when I got to 10 cm and had pushed for over and hour and a half, without an epidural and the doctor told me to keep pushing. I really didn't think I could do it anymore, but somehow I did!

It's our eighth year homeschooling and every year we get winded and we wonder how on earth we are going to get to the end, but when we do we know we will take a breather and jump back on the track refreshed.

When you use life to learn lessons and not the classroom you know that you are never done. Learning doesn't end in June and start back up in September. We are life-long learners and some years the race will feel more intense, the hills may be steeper, but we always must look toward the finish line.

We learn that we don't quit, even when we are tired and want to throw in the towel.

The thing I am learning is: I can't do it alone! I need someone to come along side or stand as a bystander and cheer me on.

And I've been learning this because I did not have to do it alone.

We all get to take turns being the encourager and being encouraged.

Run along side someone else and cheer them on.

Breath! Keep going! Give a cheer for what you've done! Finish strong!

Intentional Motherhood: A Christian Home {Prayer}

A Parent's Prayer

"Lord God, I thank you for what I [can learn] from Your servant servant Joshua in his faithfulness to You as the father in his own home. I humbly ask you to give me grace to say as distinctly and as publicly as he did: 'As for me and my house we will serve the LORD.' Lord, I consecrate myself to you. My Father, let Your love for me, and my love for you, be my inspiration and my joy. May my children see that I serve You with my whole heart. Lord, I consecrate my family to you. Help me to train my children to serve You. Remove every inconsistency and all weakness that might hinder anyone in my family from being completely Yours. May mine be a truly consecrated home. 

"Lord, help us to serve you in practical ways. Let the knowing and the doing of God's will, the working for His Kingdom, the seeking His glory, be the one desire for our hearts. May our home be a blessing to others by encouraging them to take a stand for You. Lord God, let Your Spirit work mightily in the homes of your people, that everywhere this confession may be heard ringing out: 'As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.' Amen."

*****

{all quotations taken directly from 'Raising Your Child for Christ' by Andrew Murray, unless otherwise noted [emphasis mine]}


There's a little book, 'Raising Your Children for Christ' by Andrew Murray, on my shelf that I keep bringing down and leafing through and, Lord willing, on Wednesdays {or Thursdays}I hope to share snippets of my gleanings from it.

I don't claim to know all the answers. I need to dig deeper so that I can be even more equipped to be the mother that God intended. 

Join me on this journey? It is not a list of rules and how-to's but rather a chance to look into your own life and heart and be challenged to live a life wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord. 

For the first post in this series on Intentional Motherhood you can find it here.

For all posts in this series you can read them here.

Intentional Motherhood: Instructing Our Children

“Now this is the commandment . . . that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you . . . that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son's son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life . . . "

There is no way I can tell you how to raise your children or how to instruct them. I am still too much in the midst of it all to have the answers. But, perhaps I can encourage you with some thoughts that have encouraged me to keep on with this job that some days wears us down. As I heard on the in(RL) webcast on the weekend: "These kids are going to wear you out, but they are not going to kill you."

This is not about the method you may choose to educate your children. Whether your children are at home or in school, we are called to instruct our children in the ways of the Lord. Just as the Israelites were to relate to their children how the |Lord God redeemed them from Egypt, we also have the responsibility to faithfully speak of how God has redeemed our lives back to Himself.

It always starts with the heart.

Instruct with All Your Heart

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart . . . 

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart."

"It  is only the heart that captures the heart of another. It is the loving warmth of interest and affection of the teacher that awakens corresponding emotions in the heart of the pupil . . . It is your duty and your joy to love the Lord your God with all your heart. If you love Him, then love His words, too. Let them live in your heart and let them have a place in your affections . . . Let holy love for God and His words mingle with your tender love for your little ones . . . When the work of instructing the children becomes a burden, you may be sure it is an indication of something wrong in your own heart . . . parental love [is] elevated and strengthened by the love of God and inspired by His own Holy Word."

Instruct with Diligence 

"You shall teach them diligently to your children . . . "

" . . . the godly parent must use diligence to consider how he can best penetrate the child's heart with the words that he speaks . . . must carefully consider how he can best gain both the child's understanding and affections. He does this by making the most of opportunities and activities in which the child is interested. The parent must also learn the art of speaking in the spirit of love. His whole life must be an attractive example of what he has taught. There is nothing that drives home the word of instruction like a consistent and holy life."

Instruct with Perseverance

" . . . and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, 

and when you walk by the way,

and when you lie down,

and when you rise."

"The entrance of divine truth into the mind and heart, the formation of habit and the training of character, are not attained by sudden and isolated efforts, but by regular and unceasing repetition. This is the law of all growth in nature, and God seeks to make use of this law in His Kingdom . . . From early morning to evening rest--the whole day provides occasion for uninterrupted fellowship with the Holy One. Every activity can be used to point the little ones to the unseen and ever-near Father in heaven."

  

A Mother's Prayer

"Blessed God, give me wisdom and grace to be the teacher of my children that You would have me to be. I see how You do not permit any other to assume the parent's position . . . Fill our hearts with Your love and Your Word. Help us to sharpen Your words deep into our children's hearts. Help us all day long to walk in Your presence, and influence our children for You. Amen"

*****

{all quotations taken directly from 'Raising Your Child for Christ' by Andrew Murray, unless otherwise noted [emphasis mine]}


There's a little book, 'Raising Your Children for Christ' by Andrew Murray, on my shelf that I keep bringing down and leafing through and, Lord willing, on Wednesdays {or Thursdays}I hope to share snippets of my gleanings from it.

I don't claim to know all the answers. I need to dig deeper so that I can be even more equipped to be the mother that God intended. 

Join me on this journey? It is not a list of rules and how-to's but rather a chance to look into your own life and heart and be challenged to live a life wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord. 

For the first post in this series on Intentional Motherhood you can find it here.

For all posts in this series you can read them here.

Intentional Motherhood: Teaching Children To Honor

“Honor your father and your mother,

that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

Ex 20:12

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

“Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise),

“that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” 

Eph 6:1-2

Twelve years. Exactly 4,392 days. About 105,408 hours.

That is how long I have been a mother.

Many of you can easily more than double those numbers. Many of you are right there with me or somewhere in the earlier years. Perhaps some of you haven't started counting and maybe yearn desperately in your heart to be counting along with the rest of us. But we are all somewhere on this mission of motherhood. And we are better to do it intentionally.

I don't know about you, but I wish I knew how much I did not know when I first started out on this journey.

I wish I truly understood that it wasn't a list of rules that I had to enforce to make my children obey. I wish that I could be brave enough to believe that love and affection will bring children to the place of obedience.

Children don't need a list of rules or this list would have been provided for us. They need to be loved and honoured and taught how to honour and obey by loving parents.

The one command in the Bible given specifically to children is to honour their parents. This is reinforced in the New Testament. To honour and obey.

The thing is, as children, they must be taught. And the greatest teacher doesn't just tell, but will demonstrate and inspire the student. Such as it is for the parent to teach the child to honor and obey.

I thought if I simply could follow a formula then my job would be pretty straightforward. But, I soon found out that children don't do formulas. They need love and to be honoured and to see what living a life of honor looks like.

This is why this post is so long in coming. I hesitate to post something that I feel I have failed at doing.


We've been given this responsibility to train the child to honor and obey. It won't just happen naturally. But, the beautiful thing is, honoring others "creates a pleasant home atmosphere". We need to study how to train our children to fulfill this children's commandment.


Developing Manners in the Child

In all their attitudes and conduct we are to train our children to show honour. We see that a lot of their behaviour and speech will develop due to habits. Often times these habits are passed down by us.

"Manners are of more importance than many people think. The neglect of good manners not only reveals a lack of respect and courtesy, but it fosters selfishness and indifference that show little concern for the feelings of others. Manners are the most important thing in education, more so than learning."
Let parents remember that by training their children to show honor and respect, even in insignificant things, they are forming habits in them which will afterward repay all their labor. "Them that honor Me I will honour" is God's law . . . This also has its reflection in the life of earth. None have received higher honor on earth than those who have learned to honor all men, to honor the poor and needy."

One of the most difficult things about developing manners is staying consistent in the training. But as we exercise diligence and self-control in our own lives our children bear the fruit of this training. It brings harmonious relationships in the family and that is worth the effort to remain consistent.


Developing Honor in Children.

Again, it is our job to do this. But, we don't do it harshly!

"The young child is guided, not by disapproval or argument, but by feeling and affection. He cannot realize and honor the unseen God. He cannot yet honor the unlovely and unworthy or see the value of their creation in God's image. The child can only honor what he sees to be 'worthy of honor.'
"This is the parent's high calling: and to speak, to act, and to live in the child's presence in such a way that honor may be spontaneously communicated. This can only happen when the parent lives in God's presence, and walks worthy of this calling . . . let the parent . . . rule and reign in love and the fear of God, and his honor will be given him."

In reality, the way to train our children to honor comes from us honoring God in our own lives. I need to put to death my own selfish desires and honor God and others above my own self. I do not take the place of God, and He alone can change the heart, but I have the privilege and responsibility, as their mother (along with their father), to train my children.

"Above all, let parents remember that honor really comes form God. Let them honor Him in the eyes of their children, and He will honor them there, too. Let them beware of honoring their children more than God. This is the surest way to grief for parents and children together. Children will learn to honor God and their parents when they see their parents honoring God in everything they do. The parent who teaches his child to obey the fifth commandment has guided his feet into he way of all God's commandments. A child's first virtue is the honoring and obeying of his parents."

A Mother's Prayer

"Lord God, fill my own soul with such honor and reverence for Your holy majesty that both I and my child may learn what honor is. Teach me to claim honor from my child with the holy aim of leading him to honor You above all. May honoring his parents and honoring his God create in my child a spirit of humility  Lord, I look to You for grace to secure the keeping of this, the children's commandment in my home. May the training of young souls to keep Your commandments, to honor and serve You, be fruit of Your own Spirit's work in me. I ask in Jesus' name. Amen."

*****

{all quotations taken directly from 'Raising Your Child for Christ' by Andrew Murray, unless otherwise noted}

There's a little book, 'Raising Your Children for Christ' by Andrew Murray, on my shelf that I keep bringing down and leafing through and, Lord willing, on Wednesdays I hope to share snippets of my gleanings from it.

I don't claim to know all the answers. I need to dig deeper so that I can be even more equipped to be the mother that God intended. 

Join me on this journey? It is not a list of rules and how-to's but rather a chance to look into your own life and heart and be challenged to live a life wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord. 

For the first post in this series on Intentional Motherhood you can find it here.

For all posts in this series you can read them here.

Intentional Motherhood: Walking in the Light

I did a foolish thing in the wee hours of the morning.

I should have kept the light on, but instead I glanced over the floor to make sure I could find my way to the next light switch to turn on, and I flicked it off.

Groping in complete darkness I tried to find my way. My eyes did not adjust very quickly.

Step by step I made progress, thinking for sure I was headed in the right direction. But, I had misperceived the distance between the hallway back to my bedroom and the stairway leading to the basement.

As I reached out to where I thought the switch should be, I realized I was at the top of the stairway and the motion of my arm swinging to find the switch propelled me on a ride on my bottom end. There was no way I could prevent the fall at this point. I hit the wood floor hard and bounced most of the way down until my left arm was able to grab hold of the banister. I heard my older daughter screaming from her bedroom. She woke my son and they both came running.

My right arm clutched my three year old.

She had woken up from a bad dream and I stumbled out of bed in deep sleep grogginess and found her with tears streaming down her face. As I consoled her, she clung to my body like a koala.

I assured her that she could come with me and find her daddy and stay with us until she felt better.


What made me think I could get her to her Daddy, carrying her through the black darkness?


I moved forward without thinking at all of the danger of the stairs. I never believed the darkness would be so blinding that I could get so far off course that the stairway would even be a danger.

As we landed, I called out for help. The bad dream didn't seem so bad anymore, apparently, for my three year old scampered out of my arms and ran back to her own bed!

Help came running and he was completely confused by the time he found me sprawled across the stairs unable to move right away. My husband admitted later he couldn't figure out what I was doing in the stairway at 3 in the morning.

I was in pain, exposed, and feeling horrible about falling with my child. Like the worst-mother-of-the-year kind of horrible.

After I was picked up, I made my way back to my little girl and made sure she was ok. Thankfully, not a mark on her! She looked into my face and asked me if I just had a bad dream!!

::

As I reflected on what a foolish thing I had done, and was thanking God that we were spared from much worse, the lesson in it all was so clear in my mind and heart!!

We can not lead our children to the Light

if we are not walking in the Light.

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another,

and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

As mothers, we have a great influence over precious lives entrusted to us!

As ones who have been redeemed, we have an amazing opportunity to make disciples right in our very homes!

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

We have been appointed.

"It is the parent, who has already experienced the salvation of God, who is appointed to lead the child to know God. The knowledge of God is not simply a matter of the understanding. It is to love Him, to live in Him, to experience the power of His presence and His blessing. The [one] who would teach others to know God must be able to speak from personal experience of Him. [S]he must prove by the warmth of love and devotion that [s]he loves this God, and receives [her] life from Him."

We qualify from personal experience.

"Only personal experience of the power of the blood can qualify a parent to speak to [her]children of God. It is the parent who has experienced redemption who can tell [her]child about the God of redemption . . . the parents who lives in the experience of Christ's redemption can speak of the mercy of the God of salvation."

We have a powerful influence because of our natural relationship.

"[The parent's] love seeks, even in nature, the happiness of the child, and can often make great sacrifices to attain it. It is this love that God uses . . . It is this love which purifies the parent to be the minister of God's grace.
"With a parent's love there is a parent's influence . . . The character of childhood is formed and molded by impressions. Constant companionship with the parent can make these impressions deep and permanent . . .
"A parent who is made partaker of God's love and grace himself, accepted and blessed with the promise of . . . the Spirit . . . [is used by God in] the influences of family life to do the great work of gaining the child for God. This surely is one of the most wonderful examples of God's grace upon earth."

As we walk in the Light, the One who has redeemed us and given us a great salvation, and loved us even while we were still sinners, we have this amazing grace to teach our children and disciple them to be followers of the One True God.

It is God's work ultimately in the life of each individual child, but we have been instructed to share the gospel with our children; to tell "them of what God has done, and [seek] to lead them to this personal knowledge and acceptance of this God as their God."

We need to be living a life that directs our children's hearts to the Light, not one that will cause them to stumble and fall in the darkness.



A Mother's Prayer

"Lord God, open the eyes of the parents of Your Church to their calling, that they may honor You as the God of their families. Lord, bless my own home, and give me grace as one of Your redeemed ones, to train my children for their God. May the joy of a personal experience of redemption and the love of the blessed Redeemer, warm my heart, inspire my words, and light up my life to testify of You and train them for You alone. Amen"

*****

{all quotations taken directly from 'Raising Your Child for Christ' by Andrew Murray, unless otherwise noted}


There's a little book, 'Raising Your Children for Christ' by Andrew Murray, on my shelf that I keep bringing down and leafing through and, Lord willing, on Wednesdays I hope to share snippets of my gleanings from it.

I don't claim to know all the answers. I need to dig deeper so that I can be even more equipped to be the mother that God intended. 

Join me on this journey? It is not a list of rules and how-to's but rather a chance to look into your own life and heart and be challenged to live a life wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord. 

For the first post in this series on Intentional Motherhood you can find it here.

For all posts in this series you can read them here.

Intentional Motherhood: Longing for Beauty

 
The timing is impeccable. I am pondering words to offer up for this post when she descends down the stairs looking for me. She is so quiet I don't even hear her until the doorway frames her little frame. She stands there and says nothing; the twinkle in her eyes says it all. 

She's all dressed up with a long flowing blue dress and stickers on her ears for sparkly earrings. Blonde wisps frame her face; some gathered up, but spilling down. The hand-me-down necklace from long ago that looks like diamonds drapes radiance about her neck.

She holds the folds of the dress in her hands and stands there in her splendor and looks up with her sweet face and lifts one hand and uses the back of it to wipe the falling tresses out of her eyes that match her attire.

I'm breathless with the beauty of my little one and I stoop down and I look right in her eyes. I tell her she's beautiful. I tell her she's loved.

Finally she begs the question, "You like it?" She's three and she looking for approval. She didn't even need to ask. I gather her in my arms and tell her again, over and over, that she is beautiful and she is lovely and she is loved!

She skips off, delighting, dancing with a calm and graceful assurance.
 

***

Read more at  Finding Heaven, where I am sharing as a guest writer today. Won’t you join me as we seek true beauty? I'd be honored!


Related:
True Beauty ~ Does it Actually Exist?
Being Transformed


{Although this is not from the book, Raising Your Children for Christ, it still very much fits into Intentional Motherhood, so I am keeping it a part of this series.}

Intentional Motherhood: Decorating Doorposts with Blood and Truth

In  two days we will gather at our local small-town church and share a Passover meal. We will remember the Lamb of God and his blood that was shed for the forgiveness of sins. For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.

Our children will share the meal with us and see the vivid reminders of the great redemptive act that was foreshadowed thousands of years ago on a dark night in Egypt when the firstborn either died or was saved depending on whether there was blood  painted on the crossbeams of the door.

The most vivid reminder the Jews had for their freedom from bondage was the Passover meal. Each year they were to select a perfect, spotless, unblemished, male lamb. They were to take its blood and put it on the doorpost of the home just as the Israelites had to do to be delivered from the angel of death. Each year families would gather and take a lamb and mark its blood on the doorposts and explain to their children why they were doing this. 

"As we think of the precious blood and seek to walk in the nearness to God which it gives, let us claim its cleansing power for our houses, as well as for ourselves. Let us be assured that our faith as parents has power and does secure divine blessing. Every day there is sin in my house. The fullness of the application of the blood will correspond to what faith claims. I have in nature transmitted sin and death--through me they inherit it. Thank God . . . I may also transmit the grace and blessing of redemption."

It was obedience in applying this blood to the doorpost that saved the firstborn.

The Israelites were commanded then to remember this feast each year that they would reflect on all that He had done for them. 

And they were commanded to teach these things to their children that His redemptive acts would be 'stamped on the minds and hearts of future generations . . . Even as we teach our children today through object lessons, Jehovah used everyday acts of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching to teach holy truths to His people.' (Ceil &Moishe Rosen, 'Christ in the Passover')

Jesus shared this very meal with his closest disciples on the night before He would become this substitutionary spotless lamb that would atone for sins and set us free from our bondage.

"The salvation that which is secured for the child in redemption must be appropriated by him personally before it is made his own. This cannot happen without the child knowing it. The children of Israel were taught that they belonged to the redeemed people and that they belonged to the redeeming God. The parent was to act not only as priest, but also as prophet and teacher. As he dealt for the child with God in blood-sprinkling, so he was to deal for God in the instructions given to the child. Let us teach our children what the blood has done for them, to make them know and love the God who accepted them, even before they knew Him."

On the very doors that were to be painted, year by year, with the blood of the spotless lamb, the words that God commanded  were to be written on them as well.  

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." (Duet. 6:4-9)

On days that are tough and my faith is put to the test, honestly, I would prefer to not have an audience of little ones. But I am called to obedience and to lay out these truths and teach my children of the great love and mercy and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Words are empty if we are not loving and living these truths before our children. As we live out our own faith, the questions our children pose are endless. As we are watched and and our own actions are weighed by the little ones around us we have opportunity to grow in faith and to disciple these ones in their very own faith.

 "I must train and educate my children to know and love, and keep the commands of their God. Day by day, in teaching and living, I must seek to set before them the joy of a faith that freely accepts all the God gives, with a surrender that gives all that He claims."

A Mother's Prayer

"Blessed Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God, Your blood cleanses from all sin . . . Gracious God, who gave this wonderful ordinance of a lamb for a house, I yield myself to You as the minister of Your covenant. Use me, my God, to save my children, to train them for You and You alone. I want my children to grow up to serve You. May our faith in the blood and surrender to Your will be as the two doorposts which we daily go in and out. The Lord make it so. Amen."

*****

{all quotations taken directly from 'Raising Your Child for Christ' by Andrew Murray, unless otherwise noted}


There's a little book, 'Raising Your Children for Christ' by Andrew Murray, on my shelf that I keep bringing down and leafing through and, Lord willing, on Wednesdays I hope to share snippets of my gleanings from it.

I don't claim to know all the answers. I need to dig deeper so that I can be even more equipped to be the mother that God intended. I am so thankful that this task of raising our children has not been given to me alone.


Join me on this journey? It is not a list of rules and how-to's but rather a chance to look into your own life and heart and be challenged to live a life wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord. 

For the first post in this series on Intentional Motherhood you can find it here.

For all posts in this series you can read them here.