When the Day Seems to Get Away From You

By on December 1, 2011 in a mother's heart, The Word, worship

The day tries to take over before the sun has even reached the horizon so I am learning to be still in the dark of the morning. I am learning to be intentional about the ordering of my day because an alert mother has her wits about her when the rushing turns into tsunami flooding.

“On every level of life, from housework to heights of prayer, in all judgment and effort to get things done, hurry and impatience are sure marks of the amateur.”  -Ann Voskamp

The children jump out of bed on the right side or not so I am setting the alarm clock early…very early.

Be Intentional
The day will get away from me if I am not intentional. The day will run full force if I do not stop to get God’s permissions first. The day will rule the roost if someone does not take it by the horns and tell it, “Be still.”

So I set the alarm clock for stun and put the coffee to delay brew so I actually get up. The night before I set out my Bible, pens, notebook and timer (a way to practice silence before God 3 minutes at a time). Then I just sit in silence for as long as it takes to still my heart. Some mornings my brain is already rushing full steam ahead and other mornings I am fighting the urge to get back in bed.

It is in the silence of the morning that I learn how to rangle the day… so the day does not hogtie me before breakfast.

A few ways to take back your mornings:
1. Get up at least an hour earlier than everyone else.
There are seasons when this will be easy and times when this will be impossible: when you have nursing babies, when you work, or when kids get up super early. You will find that there are a ton of reasons NOT to do this. The best advice I can give you is to try.

2. Get to bed early.
But what about my shows? If your prime time TV shows are keeping you from making good daytime choices than perhaps it is time to turn off the TV. Get the housework finished throughout the day so that you can actually enjoy your family in the evenings. If you are a single mom do one thing at a time and leave the non-essentials so that you can get God time at some point during the day.

You have to find a way to fill the well so that it does not run dry.

3. Make mornings about quiet time
Take time to be quiet, pray, take a walk, watch the sunrise, read your Bible, listen to music or pick up a devotional if you need help getting motivated. Find some way to anchor your day in the things of God. Find some way to “cast your cares” on Him. Allow God to order your day before you rush ahead of Him.

4. Release the Guilt
But “I’m not a morning person.” “I’m a sleep Nazi.” “I work.” “I’m too tired in the morning to concentrate.” The truth is that God created you. He formed you. He knows you need 1.5 cups of coffee before you begin to have your wits about you. He gets that you do not do silence. The truth is that God is not asking you to feel shame at how you start your day, this is not a competition between you and some other mother who happens to get 3 hours of God time and you struggle to find 15 minutes.

Hear me on this: God wants you.

He wants your life to be about Him. He wants your mornings, your evenings, your every moment to be directed in worship to Him. If that happens in the middle of the night while you are rocking a fussy baby, first thing in the morning while you are groggy or in the evening rush-hour traffic – God just wants you.

No where in scripture does it say, “Get up and run around like a chicken with your head cut off.” or “You’ll find God if you rush.”

However, throughout scripture we are reminded to Be still. Seek Him to find Him. To live lives of Worship.

Take time with God everyday… even if that means you might be a little tired later.

He is worth the lack of sleep.

 

Photo Credit: Shaunie Friday of Up the Sunbeam

 

7 Comments

When the Phone Becomes Your Lifeline… Hang Up

By on November 1, 2011 in a mother's heart, Prayer, the heart, worship

It was a typical day for this housewife with three little ones (now there are four). I was running around like a madwoman, attempting to get all my house work accomplished with the phone to my ear. That phone. My lifeline. I was chatting to whoever would call.

Chatting that turned into too much information.
Chit chat that turned into too much pain and messy lives.
Chatting that turned into slander, gossip and more.

Sometimes I was an active participant with poisonous lips and a faithless heart. Other times I was an inactive participant with poisoned ears and a thankless heart. Either way…I was participating. It was the perpetuating of a vicious cycle of lies, gossip and hate.

Some of this started and even ended innocently enough. Doesn’t most sin start that way? A flirtatious glance. A snide remark. A glance of flesh on screen or print. A little itty-bitty fib. Oh it’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt. How quickly these small things get out of control.

Without even realizing it this had become a part of my life. The phone had become my lifeline. And then came a shifting of things. The beginning of a life that honors and glorifies God.  There was this moment when I realized I could not do poison anymore.

So I hung up the phone.

Have you been there?
Maybe you have this same problem. Perhaps the phone or the internet or the television has become your lifeline to the “real” world. Maybe you spend more time interacting in these spaces than you do living in your home, your neighborhood, or your family. What is just a part of the job, or a part of networking, or a part of community/friendship… has become your sole source of information, energy and relief. You thirst for more and more of this?

Is it time to turn off the TV, switch off the computer or hang up the telephone?

Is it time to learn how to keep company with Jesus… the only true source of life?

When you begin to focus your heart on the things of God instead of the things of the flesh you will find that you are less thirsty for being heard, having to know and wanting to be included. When Jesus is the source of life your spirit will be renewed daily.

This is not an exhaustive list, but perhaps a place to start… how to hang up the phone and learn to keep company with Jesus:

1. Keep company with Jesus in the quiet of your heart, empty and alert before him: set your timer for three minutes and practice silence before prayer, and again several times throughout the day practice three minutes of quiet before God (even if you have to hide in the bathroom).

“Be silent, and know that I am God!” -Psalm 46:10 NLT

2. Keep company with Jesus through Sacrifices of Praise: whispered sacrifices of praise on lips or written lists of gratitude. These will help remind you of the blessings in the midst of the chaos.

“Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.” Hebrews 13:15

3. Keep company with Jesus through Simple Acts of Kindness: whether your neighbor, friend, colleague, family member or stranger on the street, find a simple way to extend love to others.

“And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” -Hebrews 13:16

4. Keep company with Jesus through Scripture: Reading the Bible even in small amounts every day will be of immense benefit to taming boredom, reminding us of God’s truth, keeping our lives focused and offering refreshment to a thirsty heart. Write verses on notecards or post it notes, make artwork, pin these words to your fridge, mirror or hang them on the wall. Memory work is not just for children. The Bible is what teaches us:

    “For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” -Romans 15:4

5. Keep company with Jesus through Play: Learn to dance with your children, learn to wrestle on the floor, run across open fields, hike forests and play games together. Take moments every day to stop being dictator mom who cleans the house, cooks the meals, helps with homework, keeps everything organized and more, instead remember to play with your family:

“God – you’re my God! I can’t get enough of you! I’ve worked up such hunger and thirst for God, traveling across dry and weary deserts. So here I am in the place of worship, eyes open, drinking in your strength and glory. In your generous love I am really living at last! My lips brim praises like fountains. I bless you every time I take a breath; My arms wave like banners of praise to you. If I’m sleepless at midnight, I spend the hours in grateful reflection. Because you’ve always stood up for me, I’m free to run and play.” -Psalm 63:1-4, 6-7 The Message

Have you ever had a moment when you knew it was time to hang up the phone?

8 Comments

The Moral of the Story

By on October 3, 2011 in a mother's heart, homeschool, Life Lessons

Sometimes they do not understand me. There are days when I feel like I am repeating the same instructions over and over. Don’t they hear me? Do I need to have their hearing checked? Then there are those moments when I am offering the wisdom I have learned and been taught: “Be respectful of others,” “The first shall be last,” “Be a good example,” and more. Some days these words of “wisdom” seem to bounce right off my children and end up lost somewhere in outer space. It is frustrating. Some days I feel like I get this mothering thing all wrong…

But every now and then God seems to settle in our midst and we are all changed.

We are teaching our daughter how to ride her bike without training wheels. She expects to be able to master everything she does and quickly. As I steady the back of her seat and run beside her bike, I repeat the phrase, “Slow and steady wins the race. Slow and Steady wins the race.”

Her personality is such that she wants to jump on that bike, start peddling and go; no help, no fear and no crashing. But then she tilts and wabbles and things do not happen as fast as she would like. Although she needs to push and learn momentum and balance… she needs to learn how to drop the fear, brake and not freak out first. She ends up discouraged and quitting way before we even make it around the parking lot.

While rushing full steam may work for some of her endeavors, there are very few adventures that she will encounter in life where rushing and hurrying to finish will actually prove to be worth it in the long run. Each of us could probably say that we are living proof that our plans and timelines are not God’s.

“In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.” Proverbs 16:9 NIV

The Moral of the Story
After one particularily stress-filled morning of bike riding, we settled in for our afternoon reading. Bike-riding adventure girl was sprawled across the floor at my feet, while her brothers and sister pushed in close to my book on the couch. I read the story of “The Turtle and The Rabbit” (ps this was not planned, nor did I have a clue that our narration for the day would be this story). As we got to the end of the story and I read the moral I could not help but smile to myself: “Slow and steady wins the race.”

My heart stirred in that all too familiar way as I raised my eyes to watch bike-rider on the floor. Her head popped up, she caught my eyes and she smiled, knowing. I laughed out loud because her face seemed to be saying, “Mom isn’t crazy afterall.”

But the truth is that this moment wasn’t just God stepping in to teach my children something. It wasn’t just a moral appearing in the midst of our day so that my words could be affirmed by another source. This was God reminding me as much as He was teaching them.

How often do I rush ahead? How often do I race trying to finish, trying to get to the next appointment or ignore the signs along the way… all because I forget that “Slow and steady wins the race.”

I remember when I am discontent with where I am… slow and steady wins the race.
I remember when I overwhelmed in my grief and wanting to race full ahead into the morning… first the night, then the dawn.
I remember when my children seem to close their ears and avoid my words… SomeONE big and mighty has my back.

Do your children have a favorite moral to the story?

 

Photo by Jezamama

2 Comments

Boundaries| Guard Your Heart

By on September 2, 2011 in a mother's heart

“Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the well-spring of life.” Proverbs 4:23

My mother wrote these words in the front of my Bible. I was in my early teens at the time. How often I wish I had heeded this instruction. There have been seasons when I should have carried His words in my heart instead of the thoughts of man. There have been years when I have allowed the words of flesh to assault the deepest treasures of me, instead of guarding what is most precious. How often we forsake the word of God without realizing what we are leaving behind.

water

Poor Boundaries
I’m a self-professed “people-pleaser” and “approval-seeker”. This manifests itself in a variety of ways including: fear of angering others, inability to say, “No”, saying, “Yes” to keep people happy. taking the feelings of others on myself and more. These are all examples of poor boundaries. One of the consequences of having poor boundaries is that we often open up our hearts to assault because we lack the ability to protect this treasure. Sometimes we do not even recognize what is happening until it is too late. We carry the feelings and opinions of others as our responsiblity when God does not intend for it to be that way. It is important to guard your heart. Your heart is a valuable treasure to God.

“When we ‘watch over’ our hearts (the home of our treasures), we guard them. We are to value our treasures so much that we keep them protected. Whatever we don’t value, we don’t guard.” (Cloud & Townsend)

As parents our job includes the guarding of our children’s hearts. As we endeavor to help them develop healthy boundaries… we are the boundary for them. As we endeavor to instruct them in their spiritual and emotional development… we are the example of these for them. If as an adult you have no idea how to set boundaries, how will you be able to 1. protect your children and 2. enable them to learn how to set their own boundaries? If as an adult you are unable or unwilling to guard your heart, then what example will your children be following?

How to guard your heart. What to teach your children?
Step one: Scripture
By being immersed in God’s truth you take the first step towards developing the ability to guard your heart and combate lies. What does God say you are? What does God hate? What breaks the heart of God? What does God say about righteousness, belief, faith, etc.?

A heart surrounded by words of truth, thoughts of truth, beliefs founded in truth will be able to combat lies and pretense, and the schemes of Satan even when they come from the mouths and actions of those we trust. The enemy of our hearts is set against truth in our lives. If we do not seek to protect the hearts of our children while teaching them how to guard what is precious… What hope is there for the “life” that flows from it?

“Keep vigilant watch over your heart; that’s where life starts.” Proverbs 4:23 The Message

How are you at guarding the hearts of your children?

Leave a Comment
« Older Posts