Day 1

Great is Your faithfulness to each of Your children. Father thank You for loving us. God please forgive my sins. Search my heart, God. Bring to light that which I need to change. May all I do bring you glory. 

Father, I lift up my husband to You. Father, he carries a big load on his shoulders. Only in You can he truly carry out You plans for his life. God create in my husband a yearning for Your Word. May my husband choose to live out Your word daily.

Father, I bring my children before You. You have temporarily placed them with my husband and I. I ask God that You keep their paths clear so they are able to see You at all times. May they always follow the path that leads to righteousness.

God, there are many situations in the lives of my extended family and friends that need Your attention. Many of my family and friends walk this path without ever asking for help, but God, You know they need it. Lord, some carry burdens that only You know about. I pray that You will intervene in their life. Bring about a greater understanding of who You are. May they see You as gracious and kind but also just. May they lean on Your words of peace and comfort.

Father, I am thankful again for all you are accomplishing in my life and the lives of my husband, children, extended family and friends. God, thank You for sending Jesus to bridge the gap between You and Your children. May we strive to be Your example without compromise. 

In Jesus Name I pray. Amen

Growth

The last week has brought about growth for me. Will it stick? Well, I hope so, but I know that I am not perfect. Above all my family goes through, my goal is that we bring glory to God. Isn't that why we are here, to serve God and bring Him glory? God wants all of us everyday. He longs for us to place Him first in our life. We can tell everyone that we are serving Him with our whole heart, but God knows the truth in that statement. He knows if you are slacking off. He knows if you are really following His Word. You cannot hide anything from Him. I am responsible only for my life in God. I am not responsible for others' walk with Christ. I can only do my best to speak the truth in love and pray that people see their need for God. I also have to remember that my speaking truth in love may still offend others regardless of how I present it. I cannot take offense. I have to separate my feelings with the knowledge that I have spoken the truth. I am still learning, but God grace is carrying me through.

Embracing the Season of Your Life

 I have struggled since having kids really wrapping my heart around this season of my life. I love my kids and want the best for them, but never can really grasp that a big part of the "best" will come from me. It is such a HUGE responsibility! I still cannot fathom why God would choose me for this. I am selfish. I want my way. I am not patient. Once again, I go back to God's grace. Without God's grace, I would not be able to accomplish anything. Praise God for His grace and praise Him for the season of life I am in.

Today's Prayer

Father, I am in desperate need of you today. I have stepped out believing that You have asked me to do so. My heart has been laid out. This gap has been in place too long. You, God, can restore anything. 

I am praising You, Father for Your magnificent love for each of Your children. I am asking You to bless those who persecute Your children. I am praying for those who are in harms way for Your purposes of spreading the message of Jesus. I am praying for breakthroughs in the lives of those who have been searching for You for so long. 

God, please use each of Your children for Your glory. May we stand firm and strong in Your word.

In Jesus Name I pray, Amen.

Prayer Time

Father thank you for this beautiful day. You have created everything in this world to your liking. The intricate details you have placed in all living things is unfathomable. You formed me in my mother's womb. You knew me before the beginning of time. Our society says everything has happened by accident. How unnerving this is to me. The earth is perfectly placed. We are perfectly protected where the earth is. We are each unique individuals. Not one person on earth is the same. How amazing is that? From cells we gain arms and legs, nerves that cause us to feel pain. We grow eyeballs that see the world You created. How can this be an accident? Thank You God for giving us some knowledge into how You created everything. Please forgive us for not believing that it is You that did it and not some cosmic accident. I truly believe in You as the Creator. You formed the universe and stars and planets, animals, ocean, land all from NOTHING. You spoke it all into existence and it was good. Thank you God for being Creator of all things. In Jesus name, Amen.

Not Capable

It is days like this I feel like Paul when he was asking God to remove the thorn from his side. I truly do love my kids. There are some days when I get so tired of saying the same thing over and over and still not reaching them. I do not feel equipped to handle it. I feel like I am failing. I am tired of hiding in this place that says to put on the front that life is so happy and easy. Right now its not easy. It is not easy to push my pride to the side to get my way. I want to throw a tantrum just so I can be heard. I am stretched to the point where I feel like I cannot say anymore without passing out. I have extended my lungs to what I feel is the breaking point. On days like today, I do not think I can make it through.

Am I alone in this feeling? Am I the only mom that struggles to hold it together for the sake of my kids. Am I the only mom is does not want to put her selfishness aside and get my way? I feel like I am. I get very tired of the facade to be the perfect mom. Patient and loving, ready to give the perfect advice everytime. Ready to lovingly hold my children and calmly tell them how to react to certain situations, that really cannot be what reality is. Reality is red faced, verge of explosion mom, who is tired of saying the same thing over and over and over. Why can't we be honest about it without feeling like someone will call in DHS when we have a bad moment of yelling? I am NOT perfect. I make mistakes and yell at my kids. Am I wrong in doing so? Yes, most definitely. So, here is where I hang my head and heart in shame.

But you know what? I have a merciful Father who chose me for this purpose. He chose me to raise these kids. He thinks I can do it. He KNOWS I can do it. He understands all of my weary frustrations. He knows when I am at my breaking point. He asks me to lay it all on Him and not on my kids. He will lift me up if I will humble myself. He will protect me if I will hide under His wings. He will be my tower of strength. I can run to Him and find refuge. His word is filled with so many verses about His protection. He WILL protect me. He WILL comfort me. God's promises are not empty. His love his unfailing. His faithfulness will remain with me. He is not out to hurt me. He has a plan for me. He has a future picked out specifically for me. He is my Shepherd. He leads beside STILL waters, not turbulent waters, STILL waters. He leads me to PEACE! He restores me! He FORGIVES me. Even when I am walking in the valleys of what seems like death, as in not feeling like I can go much further, His righteous hand will sustain me. So when you are faced with moments of not feeling worthy of His calling remember you did not call yourself. GOD Almighty called you. You were not meant to walk this path alone. You were meant to remain in Him. Stick tight to God. Do not look to the right or the left. Look into His glorious face and follow Him. Tear off what hinders you. THROW IT AWAY!!!! Run to God and finish this race He has placed you on, for HE cares for YOU!!!!

As I sit here, I am typing this a lot more calmly than what I began. I do understand that I will make it, and you can as well. We all have STUFF that causes us frustrations, use them to grow with God. Create a habit of turning to Him. Maybe this is what He wants from you at this point. Learn to lean on Him more than ever. Draw closer to Him and not to the frustrations. Do not sit in the midst of your frustrations and focus on them. Turn to God and He will lift you up and set your feet on a solid rock. Amen.

Christian Parenting

I find I get a lot of weird looks when I say how I parent. I want my kids to have a solid foundation of God before they are sent out into the world to live their adult lives. Our society seems to think lets just let our kids out into the world first without a solid foundation, then parents wonder what went wrong? Why do my kids not want to go to church? Why do my kids do drugs? 

We have to teach our kids what God thinks of them. We have to get them away from the thinking that what they do is who they are. I want my kids to know what God says about them.

They are loved. John 3:16
They are chosen. Ephesians 1:4
They are blessed. Ephesians 1:3
They are forgiven. Ephesians 1:7
They are holy, blameless, adopted, redeemed, sealed with the Holy Spirit.

I went to a conference this weekend. One of the workshops stated that we need to impart the identity our children have in Christ. She used a gift bag as an example. The gift bag was full of things we impart to our kids as part of their identity, athlete, smart, talented, but the gift bag was flawed, there was no way to seal it shut. So, when our children lost a game (athlete) they became a failure, so athlete "fell out". They lost their identity. She then took a very nice gift box, one that is sealed ith a tight fitting lid. Inside were the identities we have in Christ, already there, they did not have to be put in because it is part of the gift given to us because of Jesus Christ. Those identities we carry with us every day. They do not fall out due to a flawed gift bag. This perfectly sealed gift, Jesus Christ, never falls apart, never dumps out our identity for us to be left with nothing. It remains the same throughout our lives. 

Wow! I wish I had been taught these things when I was younger. My identity became what I did or who I dated. It was not an identity in Christ sealed with the Holy Spirit. Don't wait. Impart Christ to your children before the world tells them their identity.