NOT PROVERBS 31 AGAIN!!!!

     Any mom who's been around the "church block" a few times has probably heard of the Proverbs 31 woman -- some look to her for inspiration, some look to her with confusion and many look to her with disdain.  

     "Another way I don't measure up!!!"

     "Another list of things to do, when I can't even finish the one I have now!!!"

     "Another reminder of all the ways I've failed as a woman!!!"

     To these thoughts, and the many more that may race through your head, I want to stand up on the tip of the tallest building with a giant, red megaphone in hand and yell . . . 

     "NOOOOOO, don't believe those lies!  God's voice doesn't sound like discouragement; that's the enemy of our souls trying to get us to give up completely on doing this motherhood thing!"

     God's voice sounds like 
          VISION, 
               HOPE and 
                    LIFE!   


     The purposes embedded within the words of Proverbs 31 are meant to show us the direction God wants us to go (VISION), to show us that with God's help things will get easier (HOPE) and to show us that when we follow God's ways there is blessing (LIFE).

     Think about the Ten Commandments -- who can read that list and confidently call out, "Check, check, check, yep, I've kept all those!"?  We need to look at the dreaded Proverbs chapter in the same way -- it may be God's ultimate goal for us but He doesn't hold lists over our heads -- that's not how He works.  That's how the enemy works to twist God's truths and make us feel ashamed of what we yet are not!

     We know from many of the references found in Proverbs 31, that this woman doesn't fall into the category of an exhausted, new mom drowning in wet diapers; nor is she a young mom of toddlers making another round of PB&J . . . she's a woman with years of practice, training and experience under her belt.  Over years of walking with the Lord, she has found the ways to gain rest in God's presence and wisdom from His Word -- she is at the other end of this crazy ride called mothering, looking back.

     IF we keep pressing into God, someday we'll be there too; and by His grace alone, our children will "rise up and call us blessed", but for now they may just call us MOM.

     So take a few minutes to pick up your Bible tonight -- somewhere between changing over another load of dirty laundry and that midnight feeding that's still to come -- and look at the words that flow from Proverbs 31, fresh again.  The book of Isaiah says the Lord gently leads those that have young!  That's us, moms.  No extreme expectations, no ridiculous check lists -- He leads us gently!

"There has never been the slightest

doubt in my mind that the God who

started this great work in you would

keep at it and bring it to a flourishing

finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears."

Philippians 1:6   MSG

     P.S.  If you think another mom needs to hear this, please click "share" and pass it along...I'm praying for you!

    
   

Surrendering Perfectionism

I stared, slightly unbelieving, at the bathroom sinks; waited only a moment, and then attacked them with vigorous swirls of scouring.  How could it be possible that what I had left burnished mere hours before, was covered in dried, pitiful residue?  Residue of what I would rather stay oblivious to.  Then, as I stepped into the next room, where I had aggressively vacuumed only that morning, I discovered a child's fragments of abandoned craft materials...pieces that were too small for her to pick up with her fingers.  I become aware that my heart sinks, more than it should...I become aware again of the pull of perfectionism.

Being somewhat of a perfectionist wife, pre-kids, was quite achievable -- being a perfectionist with five children, two birds and a dog underfoot, is inconceivable!

Daily, as I wake to the bustle that comes from seven of us living 24/7 under one roof, I am reminded of God's priorities for my life.  The constant stretch away from my preferences, is like an elastic band forcibly pulled to its limits.  I feel as if I am pulled far away from what I would naturally choose, and yet I feel God's soft whisper say, You are becoming more of what I want you to be because of this disorder, not in spite of it!

As I take time in God's presence reading His Word each morning, I am still surrounded by limitless activity, but there is a change.  I find I no longer wait for everything to be just so, but I plunge into time with God amidst the commotion.  I have learned that this is the only place I will find the resources I need to face the challenges that will appear in my day...

"Mommm, the dog threw up on the floor again!"

"Mommm, guess who coloured on the wall?!"

"Mommm, she won't give it back to me!"

The chaos that descends is like a tornado on a prairie field, but I feel it is really part of the call to motherhood.  You know what I am talking about, don't you?  You live in that house too!  These are the places -- the extraordinary, awe-inspiring, cray places -- that we call home. 

On the very first day I held that luscious-smelling, howling, exquisite newborn in my arms, I knew God was calling me to more than I had ever known.  The greatest gift God could give me, in the form of children, came with a call.  A grand call... 

The call was to surrender perfectionism over to Him.

The truth is really that God was probably calling me to give perfectionism over long before then, but I had not heard Him over the silence.  It took the noise, the upside-down life, for Him to get my undivided attention.  Each year, I become more cognitive of the fact that this life is not my own.  I was bought with a price -- you were bought with a price -- we are called daily to lay down our desires, pick up our cross, and find real life...beyond the boundaries of perfectionism.

"If you want to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me.  If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it.  But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it." ~ Jesus, as found in Luke 9:23-24