Moms are meant to graduate

May 15, 2013 By

I’m graduating this week. Sunday was a Baccalaureate service for our oldest child, and the week will wrap up with the commencement of her Class of 2013. While my long-ago-little girl takes exams and anticipates her diploma, I’m doing some evaluating of my own. I’ve been the bMoms are meant to graduateest mom I could be, but I have not been a perfect mom. Is mommy guilt seeping in?  A mom can’t help but ask herself if she did the right things, made too many mistakes, or gave her children a good example to follow.

Did my children see me?

  1. … read my Bible enough?
  2. … smile often?
  3. … hug their daddy?
  4. … ignore my phone while driving?
  5. … make dinner?
  6. … call my own mom?
  7. … drink 8 glasses of water a day?
  8. … be active instead of a couch potato?
  9. … make the bed most days?
  10. … read good books?

On this graduation week, I am keenly aware I was not meant to keep my children with me for a lifetime. I was supposed to graduate to a new season of mothering.  And I will … whether or not I’m ready. Pulling out pictures of pre-school and braces and sleepovers (to decorate for our Open House) stirred up lots of joy and smiles and gratitude. How thankful I am for the daughter I see trying on her cap and gown in front of the mirror upstairs; she delights my heart. But from somewhere deep in my mom-heart, doubts and regrets arise, like wondering if I could’ve done extra credit before the semester was over.  I laid a lot of “what if’s” and “wish I woulda’s” and “maybe I shoulda’s” on my myself. 

And then I read Isaiah 53:6, “All we like sheep have gone astray;we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” 

To a mom in any stage who wonders if she did well enough or even did enough, the perfect, heavenly Parent says, “I know you’ve been imperfect. You all have, and I knew you would. I never expected you to be a perfect mother. I have taken all of your parenting failures, moments of inadequacy, bad mommy-moments, and human habits, and I have laid that on top of my Son who took them away for you. Be free to celebrate the person I am making your child to be, because I am working in their life and in yours too. My Son the Lamb has carried off your blunders. Enjoy.”

Perfection is not a requirement for graduations from pre-school or high school or college … or seasons of motherhood. Let’s not let doubts or regrets rob us of the joy purchased for us by our heavenly Daddy who invites us to dance through our mothering journey with a free and confident heart.

By Julie Sanders

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A Mother’s Heart…Sweet Smell of Sacrifice

April 4, 2013 By

Sweet smell of sacrifice In ancient Jewish tradition, a mother wove a seamless garment for her son when he left home. Did Mary do this for Jesus? No one knows but I’m pretty sure, if she held to tradition, she must have.

If Mary lovingly created it, Jesus wore it, probably wearing it before His betrayal when He went to Simon the leper’s house. As He reclined at the table, a woman came and broke open her beautiful, alabaster passion box, full of the extremely valuable, perfumed oil of spikenard.

As she lovingly poured it upon Jesus’ head, it likely trickled down His cheeks, seeped into His beard, and gently dripped upon His shoulders, saturating His garment. (Mark 14:3, Matt. 26:6-7)

In Eastern culture, the garment of the bridegroom was saturated with rich perfumes. As this woman lovingly poured out her precious possession upon the heavenly Bridegroom, it permeated His garment.

Almost as prophetic words, the Shulamite woman says of her beloved in the beautiful Song of Solomon, “While the king is at his table, my spikenard sends forth its fragrance.” (SOS 1:12 NKJV)

Don’t you know that through the long hours of His agony in the garden, during His betrayal, in the courtyard of His judgment before Caiaphas and Pilate, and until that garment was removed, Jesus must have breathed in that sweet smell of sacrificial love poured out upon Him, while this scripture likely echoed in His Spirit, “The odor of your ointments is fragrant, your name is like perfume poured out.” (SOS 1:3 Amp)

As He probably did not wash His hair, the fragrance clung to it. That sweet aroma must have wafted its fragrance of love into His nostrils throughout His torment at the whipping post and while hanging on the cross, more than likely thinking, “This is for all those who will pour out their love on Me.”

Jesus’ sacrifice for our forgiveness and eternal life cost Him His life and was a sweet aroma to God, as scripture says, “God was pleased, for Christ’s love for you was like sweet perfume to Him.” (Eph. 5:2b TLB)

Are our trust and faith as that sweet aroma of the alabaster passion box poured out to Jesus? Do our offerings cost us something, or do they have little meaning to us? If we give God what is of little value to us, how will it be of any value to Him? If a sacrifice is to be a true sacrifice, it must cost something to give it.

A true, sacrificial worship gift costs us the surrender of our money, for we give sacrificially, as the widow who gave her two mites. It costs us the surrender of our time, for we sacrifice it to put God first. It costs us the surrender of our hearts, for we sacrifice our love to those who hate us. It costs us the surrender of our lips, for we sacrifice our praise to God when all seems lost.

What have you given Him? What does it cost you? Will it be, as David said, “that which costs me nothing”? (2 Sam. 24:24b NKJV) Whatever it costs, it must come from a loving and willing heart.

Jesus gave you His sweet sacrifice of salvation. Have you given your life as a sacrifice back to Him, as that “sweet-smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God”? (Phil. 4:18 NKJV)

lynnmosher.com

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Woman, Why Do You Weep?

March 29, 2013 By

At the Tomb
In the chilly dampness of the early morning hours, a woman gropes her way through the dark city streets of Jerusalem. Carrying only a small oil lamp to light her way, Mary Magdalene is joined by Joanna, Salome, and Mary, the mother of James. Leaving the city, they wend their way to the dew-moistened garden where Jesus had been buried.

Dressed in their mourning apparel and blurry-eyed from their tears of grief, they enter the garden of the tomb, carrying the spices to anoint Jesus’ body.

The first glints of sunlight peek over the horizon as they approach the tomb. Suddenly, the ground shakes violently as an angel appears and rolls back the large stone covering the tomb’s entrance.

The angel says, “Do not be afraid; Jesus is not here. He is risen! Go and tell the others.”

Terrified, Mary Magdalene rushes to get Peter and John and returns with them to the tomb. With their hearts pounding in fear and lungs struggling for air, the men enter the tomb and frantically survey the surroundings until their eyes turn to the stone slab, where only the death cloths lay.

Seeing that the body of Jesus is not there, the disciples rush back to tell the others.

While the other women wait outside the tomb, Mary Magdalene stoops down to look inside. With tears streaming down her cheeks, she turns to leave and encounters a man, who asks, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?”

Assuming him to be the gardener, “‘Sir,’ she asks, ‘if you have taken Him away, tell me where you have put Him, and I will go and get Him.’” (John 20:15 NLT)

“Mary,” He whispers compassionately.

Recognizing a familiar voice, she gasps, “Rabboni!” and falls at His feet in worship.

I have been a Mary Magdalene. . .a follower of the Lord yet not being able to find Him. I wandered around for relentless hours, with stinging tears spilling down my cheeks, weeping in pain, sorrow, and loss. I searched the tomb of the world and found it emptied of dreams, hopes, and purposes.

My restoration came when I realized my Savior stood beside me all along, compassionately whispering my name. When I heard His loving voice, I fell at His feet in worship.

Have you ever been a Mary Magdalene? Do you weep over loss of dreams, hopes, or purposes? Pain, sorrow, or circumstance? Do you stand at the tomb, wearing the grave clothes of mourning, wondering where Jesus is?

Just as Mary Magdalene met Christ in an unexpected way, so your Easter experience comes to you in your hour of despair. Jesus will be there beside you to comfort you, compassionately whispering your name and asking, “Why do you weep? Whom do you seek?”

Jesus always brings you hope of resurrection as on that first Easter morn. He comes to lift you up, to wipe away your tears, to release you from your pain, to remove your grave clothes of fear and depression.

Jesus says to you, “Do not wear the grave-clothes stained with the tears of grief. Come into My garden of beauty and I will give you the robe of Easter’s resurrection gladness. Take My Hand and let Me lead you along the path to life everlasting. I gave My life that you might live eternally with Me.”

He says, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26 NKJV)

Do you believe this? Then, weep no more! Fall at His feet and worship Him!

May you know the power of Christ’s Resurrection Life in a deeper way this Easter season.

lynnmosher.com

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Raising kids with the urge to lead

March 22, 2013 By

John C. Maxwell said that “Everything rises and falls with leadership,” so if our children are to have a strong future, we must raise strong leaders. In less than a week, the United States Supreme Court will hear the Perry Case to determine if the 2008 proposition voted in by the people of California to protect marriage is constitutional or not. We will all feel the ripple effects. Our children will live and raise their families in the wake of the decision.

Moms are raising kids in an atmosphere antagonistic to the family, and the same is true in much of the world. How can a mom raise her child with the urge to lead?

Leadership begins at home, takes root in the church, and bears fruit in the world. Moms today follow in the footsteps of mothers who release their once-babes to become leaders in their day.

Jochebed had precious little time to retrieve Moses and train him in a home that feared the true God, before she had to release him to the house of the Pharaoh.  Even in the great family of Egypt, God was with him and steered his path to leadership.

Hannah and SamuelHannah’s time with Samuel was treasured before she willingly opened her hands to offer her only son back to the Lord. Still, she mothered him at chosen times and from a distance, adding to the firm foundation that would be his platform for leadership.

Elderly Elizabeth raised up her only son John to be a man of the wild, a grown son whose one purpose was to lead people to the Messiah.  Ultimately, her son’s life would be an earthly sacrifice with a heavenly reward.

Mary knew from the beginning that her Son Jesus was not her own, but the very child of God. She nursed and nurtured him, raising him for purposes she could not conceive. God used a humble woman to raise the God-child who would lead captives free from death and into an eternity of restoration.

 

If mothers today are to raise children to be leaders, we must face the urge to lead.

Mothering with the urge to lead

  • Resist the urge to rescue.  Children learn to depend on God, understand their design, and manage conflict when mothers choose to let children encounter hardship.
  • Feed the urge to pray. Every mother knows she will raise her child to leave her, but God will never leave them. The best gift we can give our children is a habit-heritage of calling on their Heavenly Father.
  • Overcome the urge to interfere. Children will not lead if mothers solve all of their problems. If we step in to fix trouble and buffer our kids from life’s challenges, we keep them from developing a response to the need to lead.
  • Nurture the urge to encourage. Mothers have atomic power to lift children to higher hopes and courageous confidence. The world will stifle the moral ambitions and godly initiatives of future leaders, so moms need to strengthen their hearts as they grow.
  • Cultivate the urge to model. Children learn more from how we live than how we lecture. When children see parents impacting their world as servant-leaders in the home, and in the community, they will see their own potential to impact their world.

Everything does rise and fall on leadership, so let’s raise kids with the urge to lead.

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Who’s Your First Love? And Monday LINK UP!

February 11, 2013 By


Before we begin today’s post, we want to announce the winner of yesterday’s giveaway that Julie Gillies is so graciously providing. PAMELA GRADY, you are the winner! Congratulations!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

True Love Heart

February is the month of love and romance. Red and pink hearts are everywhere in honor of Valentine’s Day—the universal day for showing and sharing love. Of course, we don’t just love in the month of February—or one day a year—but it is the day we focus on finding ways to demonstrate our love.

Little children certainly don’t limit their display of love to just one day! Whenever my grandkids come to visit, they leave me love notes with their sweet heart drawings all over the house and on my white board. And at home they do the same for mommy and daddy. They seem to have an abundance of love and they don’t mind telling the world about it!

Brandon's love note

Fill in the blank with the first thing that comes to your mind: I LOVE_________

 Love is a word we often use loosely and it can take on many different meanings….

  • I love pizza!
  • I love pink!
  • I love my husband!
  • I love my kids!
  • I love my new vacuum!
  • I love Trader Joe’s!

I think you get the idea. Obviously we love our husbands and kids more than we love pizza. So how would you fill in the following blank?

My FIRST love is _____________.

You might have had trouble completing that sentence. If you’re married, how could you possibly differentiate between your husband and your children as your first love? If you have more than one child . . . how could you determine which one of them you love first? You can’t. But when you fill in that blank with…My FIRST love is Jesus . . . He gives you the ability to have limitless love for Him and for others:

Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.”—Matthew 22:37-40 The Message

You probably know people who would fill in the blank with …

  • My FIRST love is myself.
  • My FIRST love is my career.
  • My FIRST love is fame and fortune.
  • My FIRST love is my car or house or bank account…..

Every day we see on the news or in our neighborhoods, the tragic results of lives lived with the wrong priorities.

Analogy: Earthy Love and Love for Jesus

I once read a satirical advice column:  Dear Dr. Lovelorn, Where do I go to find a lukewarm love for the rest of my life to grow old with?

Of course, none of us ever plan for our romantic love to turn lukewarm. Remember when you were first in love: when time, money, and energy were never a concern. You talked lovingly about each other nonstop, couldn’t stand to be apart, showered each other with affection, and wanted the whole world to know you were in love.

Then when you marry and children join your happy family, it becomes harder and harder to find the time, money, and energy to expend on each other. Yes, your love has matured, but you have to be careful that mature love doesn’t mean the passion and excitement has turned to lukewarm and routine. Even God wants our marriages to stay as on fire, as when we were first in love….

“Let your wife be a fountain of blessing for you.
Rejoice in the wife of your youth” (Proverbs 18-18 NLT)

God also wants us to maintain the passion and excitement we had when we first fell in love with His Son, Jesus. Have you been around a new believer lately? They have a radiance and glow…just like a new bride. New believers are on fire for the Lord and there’s a joy and exuberance about them that’s contagious and often leads others to want to know where this new found joy came from.

But as we spiritually mature, we may become like the church in Ephesus who Jesus spoke of in Revelations 2:4-5 (NIV): “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.  Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.”

Removing the lampstand meant they would no longer be an effective church . . . effective Christian witness . . . effective role model to the next generation.

Only when we place Jesus first in our life and heart, can we love others with a genuine Christ-like love. It’s His love that fuels us to be better wives and mothers and grandmothers. . . . women. Jesus helps us do things for our families lovingly, not dutifully. There’s a difference between preparing a delicious meal because we love our family, versus throwing something together just to get them fed.

How Do We Return To Our First Love?

Just like we have to make an effort to rekindle the romantic fire in our marriages, we occasionally have to reignite the fire for Jesus in our hearts! Here’s an acrostic for L O V E that works for me, and I know it will work for you too:

Linger with Him!

“Oh, how I love your instructions!  I think about them all day long.”—Psalm 119:97 NLT

Find ways to have a quiet time with the Lord every day. I know that’s not always easy if you have small children; but take a tip from Susanna Wesley, the mother of John and Charles Wesley, the founders of the Methodist movementSusanna Wesley. Susanna had 19 pregnancies, and 10 of her children lived past the age of two. That in itself requires great faith, but even with 10 children running around, Susanna believed strongly in daily prayer and if she couldn’t find a private place in the house to pray, she put her apron over her head as a sign to the children to be extra quiet, mom was praying!

 

 

 

Find that private place in your home where you can “throw your apron over your head” and help yoMother Daughter prayingur children learn to respect your time of prayer and reading your Bible. This will teach them more about the value of prayer than any Bible study. My daughter has three children 4, 7, 8 and she just read the Bible in a year on her phone by using YouVersion.

cell phone

 Obsess Over Him!

“I will praise the Lord at all times.  I will constantly speak his praises. I will boast only in the Lord; let all who are helpless take heart. Come, let us tell of the Lord’s greatness; let us exalt his name together.”—Psalm 34:1-3 NLT

The dictionary describes obsession as:

  • Preoccupied
  • Dominated
  • Fixed
  • Immersed in
  • Gripped by
  • An Infatuation
  • A Passion

AH…that we would all be deliriously, madly, and obsessively in love with Jesus!

Value Him!

“Let the whole earth sing to the Lord! Each day proclaim the good news that he saves. Publish his glorious deeds among the nations. Tell everyone about the amazing things he does.  Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise! He is to be feared above all gods.”—1 Chronicles 16:23-25

Synonyms for value:

  • Worthy
  • Worship
  • Love

We can tell what we value most by looking at our checkbooks and our calendar. Where do you spend most of your money and time? Ask yourself if it has Kingdom value.

Enjoy Him!

I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence.—Proverbs 8:30 NIV

Happy In the Lord

When we L O V E Jesus Christ with total abandonment, our hearts begin to change and we’re able to reach out with His love to those around us and L O V E them as Jesus commanded:

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”—John 13:34-35 NIV.

 

Share with us ways you’ve found to keep Jesus first in your life and how you L-inger with O-bsess over V-alue and E-njoy Him!

Have a Happy Jesus is “My First Love” Day!

PS: You might also find it helpful to do my Bible study Face-to-Face with Priscilla and Aquila: Balancing Life and Ministry.

To learn more about Janet Thompson’s Woman to Woman Mentoring and About His Work Ministries please visit her website.

 

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(Oh…and don’t forget to grab our button and share the love! :-) )



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Love is Not a Doormat

February 8, 2013 By

Love is not a DoormatDoormats are handy things–dusting off the snow before entering a somewhat-clean floor, wiping off the mud from the now-melted snow, stomping your tennis shoes to get the ever-living sand out of them, especially if you live by the beach. Doormats are weathered. Doormats can be pretty and decorative–that is until the above happens and they become grubby. Doormats are lasting. We usually keep the same doormat by each door until we move, then we finally throw the things out, like old rags.

Sometimes, whether it’s learned behavior, taught behavior or even caught behavior, we decide that Christians must in every way be compliant and, well, doormats to be humble, loving and good.

I know this for I have learned this behavior in various venues. And somewhere along the line, people began to think I was sweet and nice and kind and a doormat. Compliance has become the anchor that I drag around everywhere I go.

Sometimes I feel like a doormat, don’t you?

Then one day, I shifted the lens of perspective, though blurred with the mud wiped across my face and gritty from all that sand, and I began to see that even though it is not all about me–well, it isn’t all about them either. To be humble, I can still be emptied of pride and callousness in my thinking and actions. I can be both humble and not walked upon.

That day, I began to see that the thing I most lacked in my life were boundaries. Oh, I had put up boundaries, but they were like the snow-blown fences that no longer worked. And I realized that I did not have to walk with someone to love them or to pray for them. As my friend Diane said so well, I can stop moving toward them when I encounter them. I can stand still and be loving and humble and kind; yet, I have not moved one single inch. There is no need for me to act like a beaten dog around them and lay my head down pitifully, as if I deserve to be treated that way.

No. Love is not a doormat.

I think perhaps our culture, even our churches may teach it, but Jesus showed it best in his actions. He spoke the truth in love. He had boundaries with others and with some, he let them in close to see more of Him. And then one day, after preparing those closest to Him, He told them that he would submit Himself to being crucified. He was willing. He had strength that could overcome the obstacle and chose to be crucified. And not once, not one single time was my Jesus a doormat.

For He humbled Himself, but never acted like that beaten and pitiful dog. No. The whole time, He was strength under control. He was looking outward and praying for others and loving others and He was killed. But it didn’t last. Three days and He conquered sin and death! And when it was over, He wasn’t thrown out like our old doormats.

He was changed before their eyes and was taken to Heaven to live forever–to continue to intercede on our behalf. For the stuff of which Jesus is made is that which is incorruptible–mud cannot soil Him, fire cannot mar Him, no amount of anything man or this world could bring could take Him. But within the infinite scope of His ability, He took upon Himself the sins of the world and He submitted His material being to death…resurrecting immaterial, immortal, Immanuel–the spotless Lamb of God.

And why did He do this? He did it to change our substance, too. We are being changed from glory to glory, but my sisters, my friends, that never meant we should be debased and walked upon.

Where do you need to set boundaries today? I have been learning lesson after lesson about boundaries the past 4 years. And they are FOR my good and FOR yours. Jesus was born, so that we may not be tossed away like an old doormat, but may become immaterial, immortal and spotless.

God loves us and He IS love. He wants us to love Him and to love others.  But His love does not act nor treat us like we or anyone else is a doormat. It acts like this in 1 Corinthians 13.

“So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:

They kill us in cold blood because they hate you.
We’re sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.
None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.”
Romans 8:37-39 The Message

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He Came!

December 20, 2012 By

I grieve when I fail the Lord, when my obedience lacks its first response.

But then I remember it was for failures that Christ graced a rough-hewn manger. It was for failures that He breathed His last earthly breath as He hung in disgrace for the failings of the world.

It was to a failure, one who penned the precious psalms that touch our hearts in time of need and, yet, as a man after God’s own heart, sinned and ripped apart his fellowship with the Lord, then repented and repaired it.

It was to a failure, one who had denied Christ three times, that the command of “feed My sheep” was given.

It was to a failure that Jesus gave His first greeting in the Garden of Gethsemane on that initial Easter morn.

It was to a failure who had been the foremost despiser of believers yet became one of the greatest servants of the Gospel, the Lord blessing his ministry and his writings for all time.

I think, no, I know my greatest failure is to not give the Christ-child a place to live in my heart, in my circumstances, in all my life.

He came…

As Mary lovingly swaddled the future Sacrifice of the world, she placed Him in a trough, and there, the miracle of the manger took place: the empty manger, the vessel cradling the tiny body of mankind’s salvation, became full – full of love, full of expectation, full of holiness, and full of humanity.

With only the joyous display of heavenly praises from angels, He came, confined by the boundaries of time and limitations of a physical body.

…for failures, He came. For me, He came. For you, He came.

But where does He go to be born and live today? In the hearts of believers.

“How silently, how silently the wondrous Gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of His heaven.
No ear may hear His coming, but in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive Him still, the dear Christ enters in.”

(Third verse of “O Little Town of Bethlehem”)

Have you offered the manger of your heart to cradle the birth of the Babe of salvation? Or are you as the innkeeper, turning away the Savior of the world, telling Him that you have no room for Him, that your “inn” is full? Do you then miss the miracle of the manger?

God still seeks His mangers…hearts willing to hold Him. For you…



lynnmosher.com

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Move, You’re In The Way

June 28, 2012 By

How many times have you been forced something to happen in your own strength?

This past Sunday, as the Pastor touched on the Lord’s Prayer. He described a story of a little boy who wanted to help his Daddy move a desk across the room. The father began pushing and the little boy braced his shoulder against the desk, and told his father, “Move Dad, you’re in the way.” Daddy of course chuckled and obliged his son’s request.The four year old little boy, pushed with all his might, but the desk would not move. Have you been there?

Maybe you’re a mom who has just come to Christ and there are so many things you want to see changed, fixed, or healed. Maybe you’re working on a project with God, you know He’s got your back, but the timing is moving too slow.

Maybe it’s not moving in the direction you wanted. You’ve told God, “Move out of the way, buddy, I got it,” only to realize that when God steps back and says, “Have it your way,” you find that life isn’t moving anywhere?I’ve been there, in more ways that one. I was there for seven years trying to get pregnant. I was there trying to make a career in management work. I was there when I was trying to avoid all charges of a felony offense. I was there when I was trying to make my marriage work.I was there when I was trying to kick an addiction on my own. And I was there when I was trying to remove all the guilt and shame of past choices.

 In case you haven’t noticed, I tend to be a stubborn learner, with an education through the school of hard knocks, I’ve learned that unless I’m walking side by side with God, life doesn’t move. If I run ahead of God, I’m pushing that desk all by myself. It’s not until we invite God into our lives, that His strength begins being poured into us, when we say, “God, Your will be done, not mine. Walk with me Lord through this journey, show me Your way, and help me. I surrender. Yeah, I know what you’re saying, “Surrender, that’s a big word and huge effort.” Surrendering doesn’t mean we become powerless, it means we become filled with His power. It flows out of His spirit into ours, making the impossible happen. Whatever ‘desk’ you happen to be moving, invite God into your struggle, ask Him for help. You’ll be amazed how quickly He moves. It reminds me of one of my favorite scripture verses:

I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who infuses inner strength into me; I am self-sufficient in Christ's sufficiency]. Philippians 4:13, Amplified Bible.
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Wearing White In The Everyday

June 11, 2012 By

I never got to wear a real wedding dress. Instead, three weeks after my 18th birthday, I walked down the aisle resembling a big piece of pink cotton candy with a rain coat. I was seven months pregnant with the groom’s child. Each step was supposed to be joyful. Instead, I remember vividly how ashamed I was. As I looked at my friends and family dressed in T-shirts and jeans, I remember the wedding of my childhood dreams. I wanted to be wearing a big stark white, ball gown princess dress. My hair up in a knot with ringlets of blond hair cascading down. I wanted my dress to mean something–to know that it symbolized the fact I saved myself for my wedding night. 

The Scarlet Letter: The Guilt & Shame We Weren’t Meant to Carry

Instead, my sin, my secret showed for all the world to see. And my dress wasn’t white, but a stained color of pink. Five long hard years later, God washed away my sins. Every. One. Of. Them. As I was submerged under the water to be baptized, I remember seeing an image of myself walking before God’s throne, dressed in the whitest gown I had ever seen. I stood before God as Jesus pardoned my sins and took me as his bride.

And he does the same for each of us who feel like we carry around scarlet letters.

“Come. Sit down. Let’s argue this out.”
This is God’s Message:
“If your sins are blood-red,
they’ll be snow-white.
If they’re red like crimson,
they’ll be like wool.
If you’ll willingly obey,
you’ll feast like kings. Isaiah 1:18-19 The Msg

Modern Day Princess Bride

In my book, Mama Needs A Time Out, I talk about the shame I carried for years and how I found God in the trenches of motherhood. I discovered that God is frequently called Ish. Ish means ‘husband’ in the Hebrew language.

This aspect of God’s character is often overlooked except the few of us who love the story about the Woman at The Well or the entire book of Hosea. Many of us are stilling carrying the guilt of our past sins. Things we think are so unforgivable. And that’s when we have to choose to stand on God’s word as woman, as mothers–and fight the battle of believing who we really are.

One evening as I sat in worship, I heard Jesus’ voice tell me that I was his beloved, his bride. Jesus had taken my sins and dressed me in white, I didn’t have to carry the guilt or shame of my past anymore and chances are, Jesus is saying the same thing to you.

If we don’t begin acting like the brides of Christ, how can we teach our daughters otherwise? In a social media saturated culture, the message to our sweet, innocent girls is the same message I heard that led me down the road of being a teen mom, we are only as beautiful as we are sensual. Our hearts need to reflect the love and titles Christ has for us, as being his “Beloved”, “Captivated” and “Bride”.

photo credit

How to Walk the Walk & Talk the Talk

When you are standing in the grocery line, don’t avoid the covers. Talk about it with your daughters and address your own mind too. It’s hard not to feel like we don’t measure up to those covers! But the message is clear, if we don’t replace the lies for the truth, we begin looking to belong and loved in all the wrong places.

Ask your daugthers what is real on those covers and what isn’t, then replace the image of what she sees with God’s truth.

When a movie portrays a sensual woman is an ideal woman, pause the movie and ask your daughter what the truth of the show is.(Even the Disney shows portray younger girls as better, prettier, and sexier and are a great way to discuss who your daughter really is versus the message she hears).

As for you, my beautiful mama, how often do you tell yourself or believe that you are God’s captivating masterpiece? Have you let go of your past? Have you replaced the messages in your head with the voice of truth? Take time each day to soak yourself in God’s word, even if its just a scripture.

And trust me, you and I do not  need to carry the guilt of our scarlet letters, or of the sin that we believe is so terrible. We are redeemed, wanted, and so loved.

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