I have been absent from the blog world but very much present with my mom, sister, niece, kiddos, and hubby this past week! What a precious time it was with my mom and sister (and my niece, who was loved on greatly by my children...especially Grace and Faith!). I can't wait to share pictures and memories with you...but, for today, I read a GREAT article by Jani Ortlund (thank you GirlTalk Blog) that is a wonderful follow up to a post I wrote last week about the "Dangers of the Spotlight". Thought your hearts would be blessed too...so, here it is:
"Being All There for Your Kids"
Being a mother is just plain, hard work. At times, it feels like slave labor! Moms can identify with the cartoon of a toddler looking at a wedding album with his daddy and saying, “So that’s the day Mommy came to work for us!”
In Titus 2:4, the apostle Paul instructs older women to train younger women to love their children. He must have known there would be times it would be hard to love our kids.
Do you ever wonder why it’s more rewarding for us to plan a themed ladies retreat for two hundred women than to plan an indoor picnic with our preschoolers on a rainy afternoon? I think it’s because the rewards are more immediate and the demands are not so relentless.
Remember, though, that God has called you to this ministry of mothering. He knows there are no neutral moments in your child’s life. Someone is going to influence your children, instilling values in their impressionable young minds. Let it be you!
God calls us to the ministry of character development in our children, and honors us with the position of a constant trainer in their lives (“train up a child in the way he should go . . .” Proverbs 22:6). Through your ministry, you get to pass on to the next generation all the values you treasure most: love, faithfulness, sacrifice, honesty, generosity, self control.
You have received this commission from God. As a mother, your privilege is to teach your children how to respect their daddy and be kind to their siblings; how to choose good nutrition and wholesome entertainment; why they should value courtesy and orderliness; and which causes are worthy of their efforts, their reputations, and even their very blood.
God has called us to love our children from home-base (Titus 2:4-5), and we can’t improve upon God’s design. This means more than staying at home. It means fixing your heart on your home. It’s important to understand that we as women can leave our homes through more avenues than work or outside ministry. Cell phones, emails, and chat rooms can all take a mother away from her primary calling.
Mothering means being “all there.” It means rejoicing that you get to show your children how to peddle a tricycle, make their bed, build memories, and share their toys. You serve your family—and ultimately your Heavenly Father—by helping your child do that puzzle for the umpteenth time, washing those sticky fingers, planting a little garden, acting out Bible stories, and praying together.
Your ministry is one of answering these deep questions in the heart of your child: “Am I a burden? Unwanted? Unappreciated?” Or “Am I loved with a love that can not be broken? Is someone totally committed to me? Do I bring someone joy?”
Remember this: you have the privilege of passing on to young hearts a knowledge of the very character of God, and that, ladies, is worth getting totally exhausted for.
Have you been “all there” for your kids this past week? If not, how can you begin to be more present in your home?
"Being All There for Your Kids"
Being a mother is just plain, hard work. At times, it feels like slave labor! Moms can identify with the cartoon of a toddler looking at a wedding album with his daddy and saying, “So that’s the day Mommy came to work for us!”
In Titus 2:4, the apostle Paul instructs older women to train younger women to love their children. He must have known there would be times it would be hard to love our kids.
Do you ever wonder why it’s more rewarding for us to plan a themed ladies retreat for two hundred women than to plan an indoor picnic with our preschoolers on a rainy afternoon? I think it’s because the rewards are more immediate and the demands are not so relentless.
Remember, though, that God has called you to this ministry of mothering. He knows there are no neutral moments in your child’s life. Someone is going to influence your children, instilling values in their impressionable young minds. Let it be you!
God calls us to the ministry of character development in our children, and honors us with the position of a constant trainer in their lives (“train up a child in the way he should go . . .” Proverbs 22:6). Through your ministry, you get to pass on to the next generation all the values you treasure most: love, faithfulness, sacrifice, honesty, generosity, self control.
You have received this commission from God. As a mother, your privilege is to teach your children how to respect their daddy and be kind to their siblings; how to choose good nutrition and wholesome entertainment; why they should value courtesy and orderliness; and which causes are worthy of their efforts, their reputations, and even their very blood.
God has called us to love our children from home-base (Titus 2:4-5), and we can’t improve upon God’s design. This means more than staying at home. It means fixing your heart on your home. It’s important to understand that we as women can leave our homes through more avenues than work or outside ministry. Cell phones, emails, and chat rooms can all take a mother away from her primary calling.
Mothering means being “all there.” It means rejoicing that you get to show your children how to peddle a tricycle, make their bed, build memories, and share their toys. You serve your family—and ultimately your Heavenly Father—by helping your child do that puzzle for the umpteenth time, washing those sticky fingers, planting a little garden, acting out Bible stories, and praying together.
Your ministry is one of answering these deep questions in the heart of your child: “Am I a burden? Unwanted? Unappreciated?” Or “Am I loved with a love that can not be broken? Is someone totally committed to me? Do I bring someone joy?”
Remember this: you have the privilege of passing on to young hearts a knowledge of the very character of God, and that, ladies, is worth getting totally exhausted for.
Have you been “all there” for your kids this past week? If not, how can you begin to be more present in your home?
Comments
Gen. 1:5-9
When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Gen. 1:15
The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.
Gen. 8:48-59
48 The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” 49 Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. 50 Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge. 51 Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” 52 The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ 53 Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?” 54 Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ [3] 55 But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” 57 So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” [4] 58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” 59 So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.
John 17:1
When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you,
Wow, I can't see a better way to proclaim the Gospel to your children through these very TRUE deep-hearted questions they are looking to be answered (having been a child once, I think these are questions I was looking to get answered). And mothers have the great privilege to proclaim the Gospel to their children and provide the answers to these questions. Think of the questions again: “.....Am I a burden? Far from being a burden, you were loved to the amount that someone died for you! ....Unwanted? You child are wanted to the extent that death was the price to gain you. That's how much you are loved and wanted! ....Unappreciated?” You are God's "glorious ones," and "let the little children come to me." Even adults are reminded to have "faith like a child." Or “....Am I loved with a love that can not be broken? You were loved with the price of blood, there is nothing that can break that love (Romans 8:37-39). ....Is someone totally committed to me? God could have just started over with a new you, He could have remade perfect people, but instead He has chosen jars of clay to show forth His surpassing glory. He chooses even the children to bring Him the greatest glory! So is He committed to you? YES!! ....Do I bring someone joy?” Remind your own heart and the heart of your children that God sings over you a song of His making! You, His son or daughter, bring Him much joy! (Zephaniah 3:17)
Wow, thanks sis. I was blessed by this!