MomLife Bootcamp 2014 Part 1

It's 5:45 on Friday evening and I am sitting in a parking lot listening to my van get bombarded by rain and hail. I am on my way to Momlife Bootcamp for the second year in a row looking forward to being blessed by the Lord yet not really wanting to be away from my family. Praise music is blaring in my sad attempt to prepare my mind and spirit for what is to come. The rain finally lifts enough that I can see more than 2 feet and I continue on my journey. A journey that is not going to go the way I think it will. A journey that is going to have an ending I never saw coming. A journey that is going to change my view of myself. Once again.

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Did you have dreams as a child of what you were going to be when you grew up? I was going to be a child psychologist who owned a book store above my office. That way I could help children from dysfunctional families and read all the books I could get in my hands. Needless to say, that dream has not come true.

God blessed me with a different dream. A dream with a handsome funny prince and a beautiful precious princess. A dream of two arrows to sharpen and send out into a world of chaos. Arrows in the hands of a warrior.

Our first session started off by having us think back to the children we used to be and to think upon how our past affects our present. It reminded us of how God sees children and how great is love is for us. We were given little flashlights as a reminder to shine our lights all around and not to let anything - not our past, our present, others or anything else block the light we have in us. The next session was a question panel and wise women took the time to remind us of the importance of lifting up our husbands and keeping good attitudes in all we do and say. We need to constantly choose joy in everything.

I was so excited this year that MomLife set up more breakout sessions! I chose to attend Dancing in Marriage with Barbara Rainey and Sharing Your Beautiful Mess with Tracy Eyster.

Barbara was so inspiring as she reminded us that God works in His own timing, towards His own purposes and has a greater vision for us and for our marriages than we could ever possibly dream. She reminded us that we need to focus on our parts in marriage which are loving, following and helping our husbands (Ephesians). Trusting our husbands, knowing our husbands, not comparing our husbands (or ourselves) to others and following our husbands leads make the most beautiful dance.

Tracy, who I have to admit I love and adore so much, spoke about how we started off walking with God in the garden of Eden and we had peace and tranquility. She went on to talk about how the deceiver shattered that peace by putting doubt in Eve's mind about God's plan. In this same way, the deceiver puts doubt in our minds that shatter the peace in our homes. He makes us doubt if we are the right moms for our children, the right wives for our husbands and our own value and worth. She continued on to remind us that when we do something wrong, don't listen to the deceiver and move away from God. Lean in closer to God because He has already leaned in closer to us and loves us so much.

Tracy continued to talk about how the deceiver tells us that we need to "do" more to be a better mom. NOT TRUE!!! We don't need to do more - we need to BE THE MOM. Be intentional in our roles as mom carving our arrows using the sword provided, the Word of God. Be relational with our children, spending time doing what they like to do and building relational equity with our kids. Be selfless and practice selflessness, not as a martyr but take time for our kids even in the midst of doing something else. Be ourselves for them. Do less, be more.

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