ONE THING...

     Have you ever noticed that one thing leads to another?  It seems to work with both the good and the bad.

     Think about a choice of a cookie for breakfast or a banana -- which one leads to a healthy lunch?  Usually the banana.

     What about speaking to our kids in a gentle voice or losing it -- which one leads to a calm response later in the day?  Usually the gentle voice.

     But when we're totally honest, it's hard!  There are "cookie days" when it's just easier to reach for a cookie than a banana.  There are "losing it" days when it's just easier to let it out than hold it in.

     Those are the days I see my desperate need for God and His grace and I'm filled with wonder and thankfulness for who He is because of who I'm not!

     Have you experienced God's grace pouring out in your life, Moms, or are you too busy dumping heaps of guilt over your head like buckets of icy, cold water?


     The enemy of our souls is thrilled when we berate ourselves for our weakness and failures, but God is NOT -- He sent Jesus to cover all the "cookie" days and the "losing it" days!  He loves us as much after the cookie package has been ripped into as He did before.  He loves us as much after we've let our voices reach loud levels, but we don't get it, do we?

     We live in a culture that tells us value and worth are based on our performances; whether we realize it or not, we are all holding a red pen in our back pockets getting ready to tick the "F's" on our own report cards.  Take out that red pen and snap it in half -- it's mocking the grace that God extends and wants to extend in our lives.

     Yes, when we are His, God continues to call us to holiness - to becoming more like Him - BUT He does not condemn us when we fail, He pours out grace like sweet smelling bubbles in a warm bath.  May we listen for His voice in our lives and not the voices of everything else that surrounds us.

     Sink into those bubbles and let Him heal your heart.  As we accept His grace, we'll become ready and wanting to reach out for His help -- then those days will slowly become fewer and further apart, and we'll discover new levels of grace and blessing.

"From HIS fullness we have

all received, grace upon grace."

John 1:16

 

Nothing to Give



There it was again -- RING, RING -- the sound made me cringe.  Why did the phone have to ring again?  Was it not enough that five children seemed to constantly clamour for their voices to be heard?  Did I really have anything left to give?  I felt the knot in my shoulder tighten a little more and I wished I could find a hideaway somewhere amidst the noise and activity, even for five minutes alone!  ALONE -- that word seemed to deride me.  It mocked my desperate emotions that wanted to escape the swirling moment I was in.

I was at the end of my rope -- a place that had the scent of familiar, accompanied with a foreboding sense that I would have to go there again.  God, please show me how to live gracefully in these places, because I feel my sanity may escape me.

 I had nothing left to give.

There was the problem.

And therein was the solution.

Both the crisis and the answer wrapped up in one thought - in one breath of exhaustion.  I knew better than to think I could live this life in my own strength.  How many times had I come to this place before remembering where I needed to turn?

"God," I whispered, "You said that when I am weak, YOU will be strong."

"God," I called, a little louder, "You said that apart from YOU, I can do nothing.  And it's true, I've proven it again."

"God, meet me in this moment," I begged, "Come show me show to live IN this liveliness, not just how to escape it.  Come and fill me with YOU ~ your love, your grace, your abundance ~ so that I can rise above the heaviness I feel."

And then it came . . . still, small words of life, "Remain in me, and I will remain in you.  No (mom) can bear fruit by (herself); (she) must remain in the vine.  Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me."  (John 15:4) 

The phone rang again -- RING, RING -- this time the tone did not grate on me, but caused me to wonder who I would have the privilege of spending a moment with.  Maybe someone God was sending to encourage me.  One of my children came to me with a question -- I stopped and smiled into their eyes, and savoured the moment.  There was only one thing to do when I had nothing to give . . . go to the One who has everything I need!

Castles of Relationship

 

I pushed hard!  I knew in that moment I was pushing harder than what was required for such a simple task, but there seemed to be a greater task being accomplished at the same time.  My outward exertion was only required to adhere a recent picture in place, but the inward exertion represented far more.  I paused and gazed at what was before my eyes, then I glanced inward to my heart, attempting to discover the root of the emotions that were swirling inside me.  As I stood in that moment, I felt like a weary, run down car being attached to a diagnostic machine, breathlessly waiting for the printed report of what was out of order.  Only seconds later gave me the answer I was waiting for...time was speeding by like a runaway train and I couldn't keep up.  As I studied the picture of my child, I noticed it was of a recent moment that seemed perfectly captured in that shot, but beside it was the core of the problem - another picture.  To someone from the outside, it was just a second picture taken a few years prior, but to me it represented the why of my upside down heart...there was too much change happening way too fast, multiplied times five precious children.

I paused in the room and listened to the ticking of the clock...TICK, TICK...seconds passing quickly that I could never recapture.  I thought of the albums upon albums I have safely stored and displayed throughout our home...the only material treasures of any real value.  Hundreds of perfect moments, but sometimes they make me afraid.  Afraid that someday I will look back with regrets.  Afraid that someday I will sit in my empty house with thousands of pictures to keep me company but my children gone.  This is it, I remind myself, this is the only chance I get to live out this amazing role of mothering well, and it is going too fast.  Then, as rapidly as those thoughts tumbled in, a new thought came.  One I believe God dropped from heaven right into my heart, with a two-fold purpose; first to comfort me and second to bring the perspective I needed.  The thought was simply this:  No, this is not all I have, because even if everything else is taken from me, I have you, Lord.  And once these precious, fleeting moments have come and gone, I have more than pictures and memories - I have relationship! 

It is in the here and now, in the craziness of life flying by so fast, that everything I do - each and every day - is really about relationship!  In each brief, fleeting moment, I am choosing to either build on the foundation of future relationship with my husband and my children or I am somehow tearing away a piece of that very same building.  It is as if I am creating a castle of friendship with my loved ones.  And every moment that I pause to listen to a story, or kiss a finger, or admire a drawing, or listen to a broken heart, or patiently settle an argument; I am laying another beautiful slab of marble in the castle.  But the inverse is also true, and I see this more clearly than I like.  When I raise my voice in frustration, or complain about the noise around me, or scowl instead of smile; I am aware that I am putting a crack in one of those beautiful pieces of marble that has been laid.

Thankfully, because of Jesus - who called Himself the Cornerstone - there is hope.  I know that He is the only one who knows how to mend the marble when it cracks.  He is the only one who knows what our castle needs to be strong and keep the enemy out.  He is truly the only hope I have.  So I say...

Come, Lord Jesus, Come. 

Come heal the cracks in our castle.  Come make right the places I have made wrong.  Come pour out your grace on our lives and build our castle strong, with You as the Cornerstone of it all.

 

"Man is like a breath; his days are like a fleeting shadow.

Part your heavens, O Lord, and come down."

Psalm 144:4&5

 

Strength

Strength - something we all need to accomplish our daily requirements, but not always something that is easy to come by. As I have been reading through verses that talk about strength and where it should come from, I have been encouraged in my own life and want to share it with you. Whether it is for a middle of the night feeding with a crying infant or another question from a toddler, the sudden death of a loved one or a task that seems more than we can manage alone - there is strength available. In fact, the more tired or overwhelmed we feel, it seems the more ready we are to receive that strength.

Hebrews 11 talks about weakness being turned into strength, and one of my favourite passages about the promise for strength as a mother, comes from Isaiah 40:29-31 where it says, "He (God) gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; BUT those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will SOAR on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." That scripture paints a beautiful picture of how I want to feel - I don't want to live my life always tired and exhausted, but full of life and strength.

Yes, there are times when the strength we will receive as we are asking, seems only just enough for the task at hand - but that is when we realize we have all we need. In II Corinthians 12, the Lord tells Paul that His power is made perfect in weakness, and then Paul shares in verse 10, "For when I am weak, then I am strong." It is a strength that does not come from 10 hours of sleep a night and a perfectly balanced life (although I believe we still have to be wise with our time and choices) but it is a strength that lifts us above all the natural circumstances and helps us to SOAR. God knows us and our situations more perfectly than even we can understand them, and He has promised to give what is required IF we ask.

How do we ask? It is simply pausing in the moments of our day and saying, "God, I am _______(tired, overwhelmed, frustrated,...) and I don't feel I can go on. You have said in Your Word that when I am weak, You will be strong and that is what I need right now. I confess I cannot ___________(listening to whining, deal with a screaming infant, love my family well) without You. Please come into my moment, my day, my life and fill me with You. I want to do this in Your strength, not my weakness."

Be strengthened - God is our very present help in times of trouble!

Washing Each Other's Feet

A while ago, I shared about serving one another in love and recently my three year old gave me a great reminder of that. We were in our school room starting our Bible time when I felt someone playing with my slippers. I asked him what he was doing and he told me he wanted to clean my feet. This is not the first time he has kindly used a cloth and cream to "clean" my feet, but it was his funniest for timing. Since he is not school aged, he is allowed to play while the rest of us focus on Bible, so...while I read to the others, my feet were gently cared for and by the end, I was a very relaxed mommy.

I have thought of him over and over, hunched under the desk so sweetly "cleaning" my feet and I just keep thinking about Jesus and his disciples. In John 13, we are told that Jesus knew his time on earth had come to an end and he wanted to show the full extent of his love - so he chose to wash his disciples feet. When he was finished he further instructed the disciples, starting in verse 14, by saying, "Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you...Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them."

God used my three year old to set an example, just as Jesus set for his disciples, and it encouraged me to keep loving and serving. It also made me more aware of watching for opportunities that I can continue to serve my family in. We all need to have real ways that we can see and touch, like I experienced in the school room.

Not all three year olds will wash our feet, but we all need to be loved in the ways we receive it. Jesus not only encouraged us to do the same as he did, but he said we will be blessed if we do them. I know I want to be open to as much blessing as God has - do you?

Don't give up and keep washing those feet - as moms, we have so many ways we can wash feet. There are the tub times when we really do get to wash those real feet, or maybe your husbands rough day and you pull his foot into your lap to massage it for a while - you might not "feel" like it at first, but make the "choice" and your feelings will follow. Look for those opportunities - they are out there and you will be blessed!