Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Your sight,

Psalm 19:14

The culture of a home also reflects grace when parents refuse to speak judgmental words about people in their community, church, or extended family.  If we have sharp tongues and critical spirits in the privacy of our homes, our children soon recognize our hypocrisy.  We can declare that we live in the love of God, but our words are a compelling witness that the gospel of grace does not yet rule in our hearts and homes.

~ from Organic Outreach for Families

 

I read this and I went “Ouch”. I wonder how many times I have spoken words of judgment about others in the privacy of my home in front of my children? I am sure that it was worse in the “baby days” of my walk with the Lord. I remember when I first wholly surrendered to the Lord, my Jesus had a lot of junk to clear out of my heart and mind in order to make room for His Word and Spirit. My heart was a dark and scary place filled with brokenness and lies and filth and hurt and unforgiveness and hate and bitterness. I look back now on my life and I can see that the words of Christ are true. As a matter of fact it is so true that He repeats it several times.

You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good?

For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.

Matthew 12:34

But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart,

and those defile the man.

Matthew 15:18

The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good;

and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil;

for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.

Luke 6:45

We could go on through the Scriptures and see time after time the warnings concerning our heart and its connection to our mouth and actions. The simple fact is… listen to what comes out of your mouth. It will show you and others what is really in your heart.

Now before you collapse under the condemnation of the above quote from Organic Outreach let me add my two cents to it…

The culture of a home also reflects grace when parents refuse to speak judgmental words about people in their community, church, or extended family.  If we have sharp tongues and critical spirits in the privacy of our homes, our children soon recognize our hypocrisy. 

 

Both hypocrisy and evil depend on lies. Hypocrisy is a lie in deeds rather than in words. And evil always uses lies to cover its oppressions. Only with truth can we stand up to deception and manipulation. For all who hate hypocrisy, care for justice and human dignity, and are prepared to fight evil, truth is the absolute requirement. ~ Os Guinness 

 

No I do not want my home to be a place of hypocrisy. I don’t want my kids to see me as one person in church and as another in our home. I don’t want them to hear me speak one way in church and in other in my home. However, my children need to see me be real. There will be times when people irritate me. There will be times when I question a plan, a motive, a person, a place… and if I simply smile and stay silent due to the fear of appearing “judgmental” and “ungracefilled” well then is that not hypocrisy as well?

I believe our children need to see us work through our questions and concerns… our judgments.

I would be lying through my teeth if I said that I had never entered my home frustrated with the actions, decisions, and choices of people in my church, community, and family. The fact is I have. I have opinions and thoughts and concerns and I should be able to express those and have a safe place to work through the emotions that come with them… my children need to see how that works.

The bottom line is… does grace underline it all. In the emotions, the opinions, the thoughts, the concerns, the judgments… does grace overrule and mercy triumph?

If you come in with judgments and a sharp tongue and critical spirit… do you leave out with grace and love?

As you work through the frustrations do you remember from where you came?

Look to the rock from which you were hewn, 
and to the quarry from which you were dug.

Isaiah 51:1

In the Hebrew text, the word quarry actually refers to “a hole.” The old King James Version doesn’t miss it far: “the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.” 
Never forget “the hole of the pit.”
What excellent advice! Before we get all enamored with our high-and-mighty importance, it’s a good idea to take a backward glance at the “hole of the pit” from which Christ lifted us. 
And let’s not just think about it; let’s admit it. Our “hole of the pit” has a way of keeping us all on the same level—recipients of grace.

~ Chuck Swindoll

My children need to see me love people who irritate the living dog out of me. They need to see that love and grace and mercy are a choice and an action that should be extended in any situation. They are not just an emotional response to things and people I like and agree with at all times.

I believe our children need to hear us question, hear us judge, hear us measure what we see up against the Word of Truth. They need to see how we may respond at times in the flesh, see our sin in it, crucify it, and choose to walk by the Spirit.

If we walk around speaking false kindness and shallow southern hospitality over everything… what will they do when they discover this bile flesh rising up in their own hearts and spewing out of their own mouths? Will they consider themselves self-condemned as they weigh themselves up against the fake condescending smile of mom?

Is this not how prayer was taken out of school? Abortion made legal? The Ten Commandments removed from courtrooms?

Just smile, don’t speak, don’t judge, its all good.

No its not.

All is not always good.

I get upset. I get frustrated. I get downright angry. I don’t always understand… so I question. As I speak my mouth shows me what is in my heart and as I hear it I weigh it up against the Word of God… and then I question myself…

Am I upset for selfish reasons?

Am I frustrated because it’s not my way?

Am I angry only because of the way it affects me?

What are the words coming out of my mouth revealing about the current condition of my heart?

Am I repeating the thoughts of God or the lies of Satan?

As my husband and I have battled though our thoughts and judgments and concerns and opinions with each other in our home many times. Our children have seen us come in judgmental and sharp and critical… but they eventually always see us leave with true grace and genuine mercy extended. They also have seen us finally declare something as wrong and when we do they see us choose to do or say something about it.

Kindness is supposed to lead to repentance. Kindness was never meant to cover up the thoughts of the heart. If our words of kindness never address exposed  issues of true concern… then it is not kindness at all. Just being nice never saved anyone and just being nice is not extending grace.

Kind acts of service in various shapes and forms are not the gospel. All of these acts of compassion are important, and Jesus calls us to engage in them. But these actions in and of themselves are not the gospel. They are the fruit that grows in our lives when we have embraced the good news of Jesus.

The gospel is the simple message of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection for the sake of our sins. This message, communicated with words, has always been the gospel. It will always be the gospel. Our acts of mercy and compassion can be thought of a pre-evangelism, opening the way for the gospel. but our acts of service, no matter how compassionate and lovingly motivated, are never enough to save people.

 

So the question is… when your mouth reveals to you what is in your heart… and when what it reveals is ungodly… what do your children see you do about it?

 

 

So I hopped on over to Ann Voskamp’s website where I always receive a blessing and I read one of her post and I shook my head in agreeance as I read through her words… because they were the same words that have gone through my mind a thousand times…

My calling.

Not my calling as in my vocation… but my calling as a follower of Christ… my calling as a Believer… as a Christian.

This calling… I don’t wanna miss it…

I can’t count the times that I have asked God if I am doing enough… not so that I might earn His salvations, but that I don’t miss an opportunity to be obedient to what He has created me for and saved me for and purposed for this life that He has given me.

Ann I understand your frustration in middle class Kansas… It can be frustrating here in the safety of middle class Alabama too. I was glas to hear that it was not just me… that I was not crazy for thinking these thoughts, for having this internal struggle.

And even in that statement… guilt… ugh… this is the worst I have to be frustrated with? Really?

I hear of my brothers and sisters in Christ going through torture for their claim to Christ and guilt rises up my spine as I know that I have never experienced that… and I waver between thankfulness and jealousy… yes… jealous that they have the joy of suffering for His sake.

Is being a wife and a mother and doing the laundry and keeping the house and ministering in my church and giving of my time and my money enough… is my sad attempt to teach what I know of the Word to anyone who will listen enough… it just doesn’t seem like it to me… Am I smiling enough? Loving enough? Encouraging enough? Building up enough? Pouring out enough?

It’s a weird place here in American christendom to me… so many unwilling to even sacrifice a Sunday morning to sing praises to Him while others in another time zone sing praises to Him even in silence because they lost their tongues for doing it out loud.

So please forgive me if I am not sympathetic to your apathetic excuse for forsaking the assembly.

The hardest thing God asks of us here in America is to sacrifice a few hours one day a week… the church has even made it so easy for those of you here in the “biblebelt”… there is one on every corner… they meet morning, noon, and night… you can find a service somewhere… a Bible study… a small group any day of the week.

So when was the last time you whined about God not answering your prayers?

I sit and I whine that I feel like I am in prison here in middle class America… bound by the chains of affluence… suffocating under these temporary moth ridden treasures… and the apathetic response to a gospel rejected so many times that people neither love nor hate it.

I struggle here.

I am weird I suppose. I struggle as I sit all curled up in my nice cozy home with my beautiful family while I know that outside my door there are children being abused and neglected and abandoned and unloved, while I know that my brothers and sisters in Christ are truly suffering for His name, and I have to admit for the first time ever I am not even stressing over Christmas shopping… there are souls facing the eternal fires of hell and saints being set afire for the glory of His Gospel… there are people who will breathe their last breath tonight… and where will they spend eternity… and what part will I play in their eternal destination?

This is where I scream for freedom from this falsehood and scream out for what is real and true…

Jesus.

Black Friday is coming up… it’s this week I believe…

People will go without sleep,  people will bite, slap, claw, stampede, stand in lines for hours to get more stuff… and well why not… people have Sunday to sleep in.

 

 

 

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By wisdom a house is built,
and by understanding it is established.
Proverbs 24:3

 

As the “after election” posts and thoughts continue I see a trend among the people of God. I see a renewed fire to be about their Father’s business. At first I thought I was seeing a little “well great, there goes the country, at least we still have heaven awaiting“.

But maybe I was being a little too critical in that assumption.

God has a way of removing the gray in our lives.

In the beginning He separated light and darkness. He then separated Israel from the rest of the nations. Then He separates the sheep and goats, the tares and the wheat, the believing and unbelieving… God is not a God of the gray.

To the gray He says…

  So because you are lukewarm,

and neither hot nor cold,

I will spit you out of My mouth.

Revelation 3:16

The outcome of the election did not shock me. As the heart of our nation darkens in its understanding as it turns away from its Creator to worship the created… God is removing the gray. You simply cannot serve two masters.

No one can serve two masters;

for either he will hate the one and love the other,

or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and wealth.

Matthew 6:24

I believe God is drawing His line straight through the heart of America. He stands before the hearts of the people of this nation and He says…

Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth;

and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt,

and serve the Lord. 

If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord,

choose for yourselves today whom you will serve:

whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River,

or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living;

but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Joshua 24:14-15

We have lived in an America that has had a blurred vision of what it means to be a Christian for way too long. Did we actually think that God would continue to allow the graying of the gospel of His salvation? He gave us His Law, His Word, His gospel, His Son, and His Spirit that we might know Him and those who belong to Him.

 To you it was shown that you might know that the LORD, He is God;

there is no other besides Him.

Deuteronomy 4:35

We know that we are of God,

and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. 

And we know that the Son of God has come,

and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true;

and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. 

This is the true God and eternal life.

1 John 5:19-20

As the people of God we have to learn the difference between gray and grace. We can’t live in the gray… but we can live in grace.

Gray is trying to ride a fence between truth and lie, between godly and worldly, between sin and righteousness, between serving God and serving ourselves. There is only room on a throne for one. If God is not on that throne then someone else is… you.

Grace is trusting in God to be there when we choose to step out of the gray and into the light.

For every house is built by someone,

but the builder of all things is God. 

Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, 

for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later; 

but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house—

whose house we are, 

if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.

Hebrews 3:4-6

The proverb declares that by wisdom a house is built and by understanding it is established. If we are to be His house then we must grow in our wisdom and understanding and we must do that through growing in His Word and stepping out of the gray and into grace.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.

These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you.

Titus 2:11-15

 

Living in the gray makes you weak in authority and boldness… it leaves you wishy washy and swaying with every wind of man. However living in grace gives you power and strength and confidence and boldness and authority.

So let us become His house. Let us grow in wisdom and understanding. Let us hold fast to what we know. Let us step both feet in the Light and set our faces like flint to Him. Let us stop playing games at the foot of the cross. Let us step out of the gray and into His grace.

This election result is a gift from our God. Let us receive it as such.

 

 

 

In this world, we will face places where we desire a “do-over”—either because of our choices or the decisions of others…

The past will continually attempt to speak into our present and future. But the past should be given voice only in the remembrances of God’s restoration and healing, for He indeed makes “everything new” (Revelation 21:3-5).

Paul couldn’t undo the prior decisions of his life (Philippians 3:7), nor could he change the opinions of those around him (Acts 26:28). He had but one choice—stay focused on the prize (Phil 3:13-14). For him, the work of the cross triumphed over any previous accomplishment or failure (Phil 3:3).

—Regina Franklin

I spent years trying to make “do-overs” in my own strength (I called it “rededication”) but I always ended back up in the same mess. You see looking back I realize that I just wanted the guilt to go away. I wanted the ick of the mistake to fade to the back, but my desire for what caused the ick remained.

I wanted the do-over, but my eyes were still on the wrong prize. I was so very blinded.

My heart still pursued the wrong things from the wrong people. My mind was still full of the same trash and I was not renewing the thoughts that were in it. I asked for clean water but I just dumped into the same old dirty well.

Jesus answered and said to her,

“Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again;

John 4:13

 

It was only in whole surrender at the foot of the cross that the do-over was done-forever. You can’t rededicate something that was never actually dedicated in the first place. It doesn’t matter how much clean water you dump in a dirty well, the dirty well will always contaminate the clean water… you have to empty out the dirty well and it has to be destroyed… then the living water that comes in springs up its own new well of life.

but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst;

but the water that I will give him will become in him

a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

John 4:14

I love the story of the woman at the well… I know her well. I can remember the sound of that Jewish man’s voice as if it were just yesterday that He whispered in my ear and said, “Are you thirsty?”  YES! Yes, I was thirsty. I was so very thirsty. I kept trying to draw water to ease my thirst but it never satisfied. I kept trying to clean up with the clean water that was in my dirty well, but I never was clean… until I said Yes, Lord, I am thirsty! I am thirsty and I am dirty and I cannot get clean.   

“If I do not wash you,

 you have no part with Me.”

John 13:8

So like the woman at the well that day I asked for the water. I asked for the clean fresh water, and just like that woman at the well that day that beautiful sneaky Jewish Rabbi looked at me and set me up for confession…

He said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.” 

The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.”

Jesus said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’;

for you have had five husbands,

and the one whom you now have is not your husband;

this you have said truly.”

John 4:16-18

You see she couldn’t have this water until her old well was destroyed, it was worthless. It doesn’t matter how much living water you pour into dirty busted up well.. it doesn’t matter how much sod and mud you pack in the cracks or how perfectly you think you have cleaned it up and made it look all pretty again, the water will seep through the cracks and the life will be contaminated with the filth that is still hidden… the well must be destroyed… then the living water that is poured in springs up its own well, a well that will never be contaminated, cracked, or destroyed…

Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins;

otherwise the wineskins burst,

and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined;

but they put new wine into fresh wineskins,

and both are preserved.”

Matthew 9:17

You see it was more than confession with this woman at the well… it was also repentance. It was walking away and leaving behind the old well and the old water and coming to the living water and coming to drink from a brand new well.

So the woman left her waterpot,

and went into the city and said to the men, 

“Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; 

this is not the Christ, is it?

John 4:28-29

This woman had come to the well in the heat of the day because no one else would be there. She knew she would be ridiculed for who she was… and she carried shame. She was not proud of who she was, or of the things she had done, so she came alone and she came when she hoped no one would be there.

You could say she snuck in the back of the church and sat in the back pew hoping no one would notice her, but at the same time being so very thirsty, after all that’s why she was there, she needed water, she knew that much. She knows that eyes are on her, some knowing who she is and what she has done, but still she is so very thirsty… so she comes to the well hoping for a quick drink then hoping to slip away unnoticed and avoided.

But one day… that beautiful sneaky Jewish Rabbi makes her look someone in the eyes… she expects to see hate and instead she sees hope.

That beautiful sneaky Jewish Teacher leaned up against that old dirty well makes her tell Him all that she has done and this amazing thing happens in confession… confession that is embraced in love and not condemnation… Life!

Living Water pours out from the mouth of God and like a flood it washes the well of the heart clean and destroys that cracked and broken well and fills that empty heart to overflowing with fresh clean living water and that living water springs forth a beautiful pure well that never runs dry… and she never thirsts again.

She leaves her waterpot.

She leaves all the things she used to use to draw some kind of water from that dirty old well that always left her thirsting, she leaves it, and not only does she leave the waterpot, but she leaves the shame she carried with it.

She leaves it all behind and in her new well filled with living water she doesn’t care who knows what she “has done” because she is too excited with who she now is and Who she now knows  and she wants everyone else to have this Living Water and well…

This is the do-over that is done-forever.

 

We toss around words like faith and love all the time. And most of us can describe both with minimal difficulty.

But hope? What in the world is it? And is it really that essential?

Webster defines hope, “to desire with expectation of fulfillment.” To hope is to anticipate. It is more than dreaming, however.

It is possessing within ourselves an expectation that someday there will be the fulfillment of that desire. It will become a reality.

Hope always looks to the future, it’s always on tiptoes. It keeps us going.

It makes a dismal today bearable because it promises a brighter tomorrow. Without hope, something inside all of us dies. . . .

We can live several weeks without food, days without water, and only minutes without oxygen, but without hope—forget it.

~ Swindoll

 

During our summer housing dilemma the word “hope” was used a lot. I mean A LOT. It was in fact used to the point that my husband and I began to sarcastically joke about it when we said it.

Our summer was filled with “well we hope that…” (just fill in the blanks with any house closing term)

The reason why “hope” had become a joke was because  we had no faith in the one’s whose word we were “hoping” in.

When we put our hope in anything or anyone beside our God… we will be disappointed. We lived a summer in disappointment. We lived in this state of disappointment because we simply put our hope in the wrong place. It’s so very easy to do.

You are at the doctor and the doctor says I don’t think it’s cancer… so you put your hope in his word… and then you are slammed with disappointment when you discover he was wrong.

You have a loved one call and say they hope to be their tomorrow… but they never show. You put your hope in them and they failed and now you are disappointed.

What I have learned this summer is that we have to put our hope only in the word of the One who has the power to keep it. There is only One who can do that.

God.

The first time the word hope is used in Scripture is found in Ruth 1:11-13

 But Naomi said, “Return, my daughters. Why should you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands? Return, my daughters! Go, for I am too old to have a husband. If I said I have hope, if I should even have a husband tonight and also bear sons, would you therefore wait until they were grown?

Ruth is quick  to let her daughter-in-laws know that she could say she has hope in another husband coming along… but it would be an empty hope… putting her hope in a possible second husband and possible sons, when God had not promised her either would be foolish.  She knew if she said as such she would cause her daughter-in-laws a lifetime of disappointment as they hoped in her word.

There is no where is Scripture where God has said “I promise you that I will give you a good husband till death do you part.” I have read the book, it’s not in there. But what He does promise is that He will always be a husband to us, if we put our hope in Him.

For your husband is your Maker,

Whose name is the LORD of hosts;

And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel,

Who is called the God of all the earth.

Isaiah 54:5

If we put our hope in anything or anyone apart from God it is a false hope.

A horse is a false hope for victory;

Nor does it deliver anyone by its great strength

Psalm 33:17

It doesn’t matter how strong the person. How secure the structure. How high the character and integrity of the man… if it’s not the promise of God, the word of God, if your hope is not in God… disappointment will be the result. Yes God will use all the above to do His work, to work out His plan, but He alone is the One to hope in.

Let Your lovingkindness, O Lord, be upon us,

According as we have hoped in You.

Psalm 33:22

My soul, wait in silence for God only,

For my hope is from Him.

Psalm 62:5

I did not too good about waiting in silence this summer. I am after all an American… waiting is not a strong area in my life. I hate red lights, because they make me stop even when nothing is coming. And I have to sit there and watch nothing coming the whole time it is red.

Of course now with the whole “no texting while driving” thing… I can now fill my red light wait with the text.

You see this is how I work.

Doing Nothing. Waiting. I have always been a person who has to be doing something. I need movement… forward motion… let’s please get somewhere with this… Results please!

So the words “I’m hoping so” were very easily and quickly mocked after only a few times of lack of results.

Yes I can soooooo see why Sarai did what she did when waiting on that promised son from God. I cannot condemn her, I have made plenty of messes, probably hurt plenty of feelings, rushed plenty of results, settled for less than God’s best… simply because I would not tolerate the wait any longer.

I wait for the Lord, my soul does wait,

And in His word do I hope.

Psalm 130:5

When you put your hope in the proof of results instead of the promise of God… disappointment and wrong decisions and bad attitudes are sure to follow every time.

God knows that we need hope.

For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD,

‘plans for welfare and not for calamity

to give you a future and a hope.

Jeremiah 29:11

God knows that we need hope. He gave Adam and Eve a promise to hope in at the very beginning. When the curse’s consequences would come and the evidence of their choices and their sin would fall upon them and those they loved… God knew they, we, would need a hope to hold on to or we would seek death to end our misery… but death in death is just an eternal place of misery. So God gave us a promise, a future and a hope, to hold on to.

And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations,

knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; 

and perseverance, proven character;

and proven character, hope; 

and hope does not disappoint,

because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts

through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Romans 5:3-5

If we put our hope in hope… we will be disappointed. If we put our hope in man or the things of this world, we will be disappointed. We can buy a lottery ticket and put our hope in it… disappointment will be the result… even when/if you win the lottery… you will discover that hope in financial security still disappoints.

If you put your faith in faith apart from the Word of God, apart from Christ… that faith will disappoint.

If you put your hope in love apart from God… that love will disappoint and you come to believe that even love fails.

The only solid foundation.

The only hope that does not disappoint.

The only Word that alone can be rested upon is that of our God. And my friend any thing we choose to hope in or for outside of the Word will eventually disappoint us if we expect them to bring us joy or peace or happiness.

The promises He has made us and recorded for us in written form are the only one’s we are to hope in. I have learned that hoping in anything added to them usually leads to me getting into a place of fleshly ick that I just do not like to be in.

The worst part was… that we both became sick of “hoping”.

But the thing was, there is nothing in God’s Word that promised us this house, this closing. It looked to us that God had lined it all up… but that was it. We in fact were actually presuming on God’s will.  It looked good to us, it was what we had peace with, so it had to be of God… right?

What I have learned this summer is that I am to hope only in the clear promises of my God given me in His Word. This is what of life He guarantees me. I am not to add to it nor take away from it. This life after all is not about what all I can get out of it before I check out. It is about lifting up my Lord and becoming conformed to His image so that I might be used by Him to draw others into the Kingdom of Light.

Yes, in the end we got the house. We do believe it was right. One reason being that we sleep here. Neither my husband nor I could sleep in our last house. Two hours max and we were awake tossing and turning, looking at the clock, dozing off and on, until finally we just got up. But here we actually rest…

Not sure what that means… if anything… I just know that it is.

 

 

 

You come to the end of your patience. You lose your temper. Then you feel worse.

The last thing you consider yourself to be is a “good mom.” And you think to yourself, It’ll be a miracle if my kids turn out okay.

And – surprisingly – that’s right where God wants to meet you. The place where you admit your powerlessness and your need for Him.

It’s only by God’s grace that any kid grows up to be a force for the kingdom.

You see, there are no perfect kids and no perfect mothers. No matter what you read in blogs, see in magazines, and learn in books. There are sinful kids and sinful moms and dads.

And the only thing greater than both is the grace of God. The God who says “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” The God who loves to forgive, to transform, and empower.

God loves you – not because you are a good mother but just because you are His precious child.

God loves you – not because you’ve mastered all the skills of parenting but because He has.

It’s divine grace that will transform your parenting – not guilt.

It’s grace that will keep you going and serving and scrubbing when you’re exhausted and worn out.

It’s grace that will conquer your feelings of inadequacy and remind you of God’s love for you in Christ.

It’s grace that goes for the heart of your kids, not just their behavior.

~ Trevin Wax

 

I don’t know about you, but I needed to read that today.

The letter is addressed to “Stay-At-Home Mom’s”, but I believe it is accurate for “Every Mom”. It seems like every time I click on my homepage the news feed is letting me know just one more way that I am, or have, or will, scar my children for life. It pushes me into a guilt fest and it’s crazy. I can even experience the same thing as I read Christian blogs and books and magazines.

Yes, I want to learn to be a better wife, a better mother, a better woman of God… but all these above articles have one huge thing in common… they are opinions of mankind.

Not only are they opinions of man, not one of them lives in my life. Not one of them bore my children, or loves my husband, not one of them cleans my house or goes to my job, not one of them walks in my shoes.

I can learn from them.

I can learn from others.

I should.

However, there is only One who does walk in my shoes, loves my husband, bore my children, and does all of life with me… and that is Christ.

I have learned that  everything I need to know to be a better mom, a better wife, a better woman of God is found only in one place, the Word of God. If I keep my nose first buried in this Book, in His news feed, then I am able to better filter the opinions of man. I am able to guiltlessly laugh at some of the things that work for other families that would be an epic fail in my life and home.

I have come to learn in this decade plus walk as a believer, wife, and mother that all I need to know and remember to be better is grace, grace, and more grace, to walk by the Spirit not by the flesh, to rest in forgiveness (received and extended), and to love without exception. If I can simply learn to choose the fruits of the Spirit over the desires of the flesh… well, I believe God will take care of all the rest.

Yes, I will still read the blogs, the books, the mags… and may even glance at the homepage news feed article… but the bottom line is I know that I love my God, my husband, and my children with all that is within me… and I have to trust that love is enough and all the rest will flow out of that love.

I am after all just a woman.

Just a woman who is madly in love with one God, one man, and the children they have given me.

If love lived out was enough for the sin of the world to be covered at the cross, then love lived out most certainly should be enough to cover any scars that I might give my children as I try desperately to raise them in a godly way in this ungodly world.

I have to remember and remind them and myself that I am a work in progress just as they are… but hey, at least we’re in this thing together 🙂

 

 

 

I awoke in our new house the morning of August 4th and I came down the stairs and located my Bible and my current spiral notebook journal and walked around the house searching for my new sacred spot…

We slept in our new house for the first time the night of July 29th, but the next morning was Sunday morning, the following day, Mon July 30th began WinShape camps (which I will share about in a separate post). So Saturday August 4th was my first uncommitted morning in our new house.

I was like Goldilocks searching through every room for the spot that was “just right”. I finally settled for our make-shift breakfast table so I could look out the window into the back yard.

I sat down with my coffee and Bible and notebook and I sighed a thankful sigh. It was the morning of August 4th, 2012. The 4th day of our 8th month so Psalm 84 came to my mind… so I opened my Bible and flipped through the Psalms and stopped at Psalm 84.

How lovely are Your dwelling places,

O Lord of hosts!

My soul longed and even yearned for the courts of the Lord;

My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.

The bird also has found a house,

And the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young,

Even Your altars, O Lord of hosts,

My King and my God.

How blessed are those who dwell in Your house!

They are ever praising You.

Psalm 84:1-4

I read these words from my God and my heart stopped… He always knows.

The journey into this home has been a rough one. It seemed that with every turn the house was trying to be taken away from us. The struggle came because my husband and I were so sure that this was the house that God was giving us… but with every wall that we hit along the way we struggled with our assurance.

Were we wrong?

Was this God telling us “NO!”?

Or was this the enemy trying to keep us from God’s purpose?

This was where our struggle lied. It wasn’t the house per say… but our ability to discern the will of our God in our life’s situations. How hard were we to fight for this house? If we lost this house did it mean that God did not want us to leave our current house or was it just that He didn’t want us moving into the house we had a contract on?

We finally came to the conclusion that we knew that whether we got the house we had a contract on or whether we lost it… we knew we had to leave where we were. Nothing was right about staying. Staying in our current house was not an option. It was time to leave the mountain.

In the end God gave us the home we have had under contract since March.

So when I sat down my first morning opportunity to be still before my God and read

The bird also has found a house,

And the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young,

Even Your altars, O Lord of hosts,

My King and my God.

How blessed are those who dwell in Your house!

 

God had given me my nest. He had given me a place to lay my young. This was indeed His house for us. I knew it the moment I walked in it the first time… and so did my husband and so did our girls. This is where I saw my grand kids coming to visit. This is where I saw our home filled with children that I would lay on the altar of my God. I met my first at WinShape camp last week… her name has been layed on the altar of my God without ceasing since she shared her story with me.

So this bird has found a house. This swallow a nest. This wife and mother a home.

The sacred spot is still in search, the nest is still being put in order, but the new journey has already begun…