Glow in the Dark Bracelets

Four glow in the dark bracelets. Four bracelets lighting up the arm of my sweet five year old daughter. Then the drama begins as I innocently suggest she share one, just one, bracelet with her three year old friend. I even go so far to mention that there are nine more in the van awaiting her return, but the pride of ownership and of selfish possession had taken full control and she refused to even contemplate sharing for even a moment.

As we left the church that evening, I spoke to her about sharing with others. How it shows love. How it is kindness. How we share especially when we have so much more. She was intent though, intent on holding on to what she could see on her arm. She was intent on gaining more when we reached the van. "Not all of them mommy. Just to get to seven." As we walked outside into the chilly night and across the darkened parking lot, I was stunned by a revelation. 

I am that five year old. 

I am holding on to the things I can see here in this world, even knowing the abundant blessings that God has ready for me. Blessings greater than anything I have here on this temporary world. 

I am not the only one holding on though. The saddest ones holding on are ones who are not even saved. They know God is real. They know Jesus is real. Yet they will tell you that they are not ready to commit to God. They are not ready to accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour. They want to become better before they go to Jesus. They want to get their lives straight. 

I have heard all the excuses and each time my heart breaks for them. They are so busy holding on to what is temporary, what they can see in this world, to accept what God is offering to them. They have the logic to understand there is something greater, their hearts have been prompted by the Holy Spirit yet they keep holding on to this world. 

We as Christians do it too. We hold on to our hurts. Our selfish desires. Our possessions. Our money. Our time. Oh, how we hang on to our time. We know God. We seek God on Sundays, maybe even on Wednesday evenings. Yet when He calls to us Monday through Saturday, we are too busy holding on to other things. Our priorities are just greater in our minds. We have our excuses too. Family. Work. Hobbies. It does not give us peace. It would overwhelm us. No time in our schedules. 

The thing we forget is that when God calls us for something, everything else fades away. He calls us to His glory, not ours. He provides His peace. Our priorities will be fixed to meet His goals. But first we have to let go. Let go of our selfish desires and wants in our lives. Let go of the priorities we think are important to our family. Let go of our hurts and let Him heal us. Go to Him more than just one or maybe two days a week. We know theses things. We know His plans are so much better than ours. We know everything works to His glory. If we know, why are we still holding on?

We are all like five year olds, holding on to our glow in the dark bracelets. Even though we know our Father has more than we will ever need waiting on us. 

Momlife Bootcamp Part 3

It's the final day of bootcamp. I have been covered in God's blessings. I have met other moms struggling in similar areas as I do, I have burst into tears as I face the changes God has allowed in my life and admitted my doubts in myself and God has covered me in His love and reminded me of who I am in Him using MomLife speakers, staff and guests.

Barbara Rainey is up to speak today. She is covering the topic "The Woman God Created Me to Be". I already know it is going to be amazing!

The first thing Barbara does is puts forth four questions: Who does God want me to become? What does God want me to become? What does God want from me? How do I become that woman? My answers: I dunno (shoulder shrug and dumbfounded expression and all).

Who does God want me to become? Well, Barbara does this ingenious thing - she opens up the Bible. (Wow, why didn't I think of that?) I need to grow and become holy - like Jesus. What does God want me to become? God wants me to become unique, like no other woman, looking to Him and not comparing myself to women around me. What does God want from me? I am to be women of courageous faith. It always requires courage to follow Jesus. How do I become the woman God wants me to be? By walking in the Spirit. The Bible is the most important book I have andI need to breathe, eat, and drink His Word. Listen to the spirit and imitate God.

Also, remember - I am no to be the Spirit to my husband or children. I need to pray that my husband and children will listen to the voice of the Spirit. I need to pray for the Spirit to help me and not harden my heart towards Him. Repentance and listening to the Spirit is a constant process.


The session has ended and women are standing up taking turns sharing how they were blessed this weekend. One mom struggles with special needs child. Another mom struggles with feeling worthy of her children. A mom shares her daughter's struggle with cutting and the impact it has had on her. Another mom shares she used to be a cutter. A mom shares her husband's letter of encouragement he gave her before she left. Between struggles and praises we all came for this weekend. Everyone who shared ended with the same thing - God was here, we were blessed and God is doing great things.


It is now Sunday evening. I left here Friday just to check off something on my to do list. I returned today reminded of who I am in Christ, who I am to my children and husband, and what I need to be as a mom. I am intent that life is not going to distract me from my greater purpose - Being the mom God created me to be.

Bible references: 1 Peter; Eph 2:10, 1:5; Phil 2:13; Heb 12:2; End of John (Peter and Jesus); Eph 5:1; Rom 12:1

MomLife Bootcamp Part 2

On each chair there is a personality quiz when we go to sit down for lunch. It is a simple enough quiz where we choose one of four words that apply to us row by row. At the end, we count up our marks in each column and total them by each color - Orange, Green, Pink and Blue. I end up with blue. 

The next session we walk into is led by Susan Merrill. She starts by telling us what the different colors mean. Pink is the perfect mom - the one whose home is always prepared for company. She's deep, thoughtful, creative, purposeful, self sacrificing. As a mom, she sets high standards,  sees the problems and finds solutions, sacrifices her own will for others and encourages scholarship and talent. An example of a pink mom in the Bible is Hannah (1 Sam 1:10,24,26) Oh how I was wishing I was a pink mom. 

The next color she talks about is orange - the popular mom. She's talkative, good sense of humor, life of the party, enthusiastic. As a mom, she is liked by her children's friends, turns disaster into humor,  is a circus master. She gives Mary (Luke 10:39, John 12) as an example of a popular mom in the Bible. Oh, why or why did I not get orange? 

Then Susan starts talking about the green mom - the powerful mom. Yep, I am already wanting to be a green mom - who wouldn't want to be powerful? The powerful mom is a born leader, strong willed, decisive, not easily discouraged, can run anything. As a mom, she establishes goals, motivates her family to action, knows the right answer, delegates work. Abigail (1 Sam 25:14) is given as an example of a powerful mom. I really, really, really want to be a green mom. 

Now here it comes. The blue mom. It gets a title that just makes me cringe. The peaceful mom. Tell you what, I was not feeling peaceful right then. The peaceful mom is relaxed, patient, all-purpose, keeps emotions hidden. As a mom, the peaceful mom is not in a hurry, takes time for the children, doesn't get upset easily, good under pressure. Then Susan blows me away. Mary, mother of Jesus, (Luke 1:27) is who she sees as a peaceful mom. Wow. I'm a blue mom...and I love it! 

The whole point of this exercise was not to be envious of the other colored moms, but to know that we are God's choice of moms for our children. He picks each mom and child combination and we need to be passionate moms. Susan uses Nehemiah as a great example of being a passionate person. Just as Nehemiah protected God's children, we need to protect our children. When there was a problem, Nehemiah perceived (1:2-3), pondered (1:4) and prayed because he had a purpose. We need to do the same. We need to take time to talk to our children - ask questions and listen to them. We need a purpose for our children. We also need to have passion AND joy as moms - the ultimate challenge. How can we win other moms to Christ if we don't find joy in being a mom? We need to find meaning, joy and purpose in being the mom we are because that is what being a mom is about. 

http://www.susanme.com/passionatemom/

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.

http://www.lifeway.com/Product/be-the-mom-P005507991

Barking At Turtles - Breakout session with Jennifer Dyer

During MomLife Bootcamp we had a breakout session where we were able to choose a topic to attend. I chose Jennifer Dyer's Barking at Turtles. Now the turtle story is all hers to tell, but basically this was about the distractions that come along in a Mom's life and can keep us from experiencing a life of grace and peace. She called each of these things 'turtles' but I'm not that big on turtles so I'm just going to write about them full out.

The first she mentioned were trials. In James, it is said to take joy in our trials because they produce perseverance. Jennifer gave us a few reasons to take joy in the midst of trials. The first reason is because Jesus always comes to those who need him the most. The second reason is because suffering produces longing for eternity, our true home. Another reason is when we go through trials we catch a glimpse of how much Jesus did for us. And last, trials can bring out the best in us and we can thank God for trusting us to endure the trials.

The next distraction she mentioned was guilt - especially guilt that will not let go or that we don't let go.  The first thing we need to do is admit that we have failures. In admitting we are not perfect, we can't feel guilty for when we make mistakes, right? When we admit we have failures, we understand our need for Jesus, our hearts are able to bloom in his light, we are open to receive and understand his race, we can pass his grace onto others and we can be a light shining in darkness. Without our failures and without being poor in spirit we would not understand how much we need Him. We need to let go of our guilt and remember that there is no condemnation in Christ. (Romans 8:1-2)

Fear and failure can also be major distractions. To overcome this we need to turn to God's Word and remember "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." (Romans 3:23-24)  John 16:33 says "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome this world." We are not in charge or control of this world. God is.

Never ending messes are next on the list. We need to remember that messes are temporary and keep an eternal prospective so that they don't drag us down. "So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:18 Jennifer reminded us that there are no bonus points in heaven for dying with a perfect house. Thank goodness in my case!

We need to also remember to seek first the kingdom of God and avoid being distracted by busyness and stress. Matthew 6:33 tells us "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you." We need to avoid 'doing' things that get in the way of our relationships with God and with our family. Being stressed out with all that we are trying to do and accomplish and not nurturing those relationships is not our purpose here on earth. 

The questions we need to ask ourselves is "what is our primary purpose as a mom?" and "what are our families' goals?". Jennifer recommended we look at our family schedules and consider everything we do in a day, even including changing diapers and carpooling. She suggested we ask ourselves what does not fit in our purpose as moms or does not help meet our family goals. Then she suggested we filter these activities through those ideas. Do not allow guild to force you to say yes because life is full of seasons. We need to enjoy the one in which we live.

Hope this all makes sense and you enjoyed hearing about my bootcamp weekend! This wraps up that weekend but I am looking forward to attending Momlife Bootcamp again in March 2014!

Living the Mom Life - Part of Day 2 and Day 3

I am putting part of day 2 in with day 3 because they involve the same speaker, Barbara Rainey. Saturday evening Barbara showed us part of her Ever Thine Home collection. Her goal in doing this collection is to aid us in making our homes a place of refuge and peace for our families but more importantly helping us surround our families in God's Word. Deuteronomy 6:4-9 states:

"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates."

After giving this verse and others, she then asked a question I would have rather never heard. "What does your home say about you?" 

HA! What does my home say about me? Toys clutter up my living room, hall, both kids bedrooms and sometimes even the kitchen. My master bedroom is continually overwhelmed with so much stuff my husband bumps into it and gives me the "I'm so tired of this mess" sigh. My laundry stays piled in baskets or on the dresser after being washed rather than folded and put away. My master bath is a total wreck we won't even get into. Most of my decorations and pictures are in boxes in the garage. There is a major lack of storage in most of the rooms. Hands down, my house says I am either too busy or too lazy to maintain it, we have way too much stuff and not enough places to put it and we're just lucky the thing is still standing. There is no way my home is a refuge of peace for my family. The two kiddos maybe, but not for me or my husband. After listening to her, I definitely know I need to make more of an effort in making my home a refuge of peace and that is in the works even as I type. 

Sunday Barbara spoke to us being intentionally involved with our kids and intentionally involved in God's Word. She spoke of the Holy Spirit. Reminding us that the Holy Spirit was sent to be our Helper (John 14:16) and guide us. Jesus designed the relationship with the Holy Spirit to be very personal because the world is a dangerous place, marriage and being a mom are dangerous jobs and we need a guide. Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will be with us forever and will always be within us. He will teach us all we need to know and remind us of Jesus's teachings and words (John 14:25

Then Barbara did it again and said something I would have rather avoided. "If you are not studying God's Word, then you can not teach it to your kids. You can not remember something you do not know." Ouch. I definitely did not want this reminder that I needed to spend more time in God's Word so that when times crop up that my children ask or need it, I can provide it. 

Barbara sent a reminder out to all of us women. God has given us our children to raise. We have two jobs he has blessed us with: being a wife and being a mom. God knows what he is doing and we need to have faith that he does and remember it is his business not ours. We are so prone to looking outwardly for guidance and answers when the answers lie in God's Word and the Holy Spirit that dwells within. The only way we are going to know what God wants us to do with our lives is to listen and follow the Holy Spirit. In making choices, we know the Holy Spirit will never lead us against scripture and God's will. We need to ask the Holy Spirit to guide us, speak to us and lead us. He is here with us to help us follow Jesus's teachings and I am so glad he is! 

Living the Mom Life - Day 2 of Bootcamp

On this day, Saturday April 13th, I woke early and went down to the lake to see the sun rise. I didn't stay long enough for the sun to rise because it was freezing and dark. I figured I didn't need to be one of those dummies you see on horror films out alone, in the dark out in the woods at camp so I headed back in.

Before I returned to my bunk, I got to spend time praying, admiring God's miraculous work in a star filled sky and just meditating on what my life as a mom means. It was one of the best mornings I have had in a long time. Serenity filled my soul and mind. I was unafraid, rejuvenated and felt covered in God's love. I need more mornings like that.

That day the Mom Life crew's devotional asked us to describe God in as many words as we could and also to write down actions he has done in history and my life. He is just everything and all that is in my life that is good, pure and just has come from him. He has blessed me in so many ways.

After breakfast we joined a session with Dannah Gresh, author of "And the Bride Wore White". She spoke on what children need to become pure, holy adults and ways to live above culture. Dannah spoke two different words used to mean "To know" in the Bible. She spoke of Yada (spelling probably not right) which means to know, to be known, to be deeply respected. An example she gave of this word is in Psalm 46:10 Be still and know (yada) that I am God. The other word she spoke of is Sakab (also probably misspelled). Sakab means to exchange body fluids or the mechanics of sex without emotion. An example of the usage of this word is in Genesis 19 with Lot and his daughters. Yada is what should be in place in our relationship with God and in our marriages. The importance of friendship, deep respect and truly knowing our spouses should not be ignored.

There are two things that Dannah said was the most important things we should want for our children. The first is to love Jesus with all their hearts, souls and minds. The second is for them to marry well.  These are my prayers for my kids. I pray for their salvation and a deep relationship with Jesus but I also pray for their future spouses to also have a deep devotion to Christ.

As Dannah continued, she reminded us how important every decision we make in our children's lives are. Every decision matters and every decision builds. For example, when we give toys to our children to play with they are practicing for the future. Dolls dressed inappropriately can make a lasting impression on our kids and leave them seeking those types of clothing in their future. She also spoke of the importance of God's healing for ourselves. We can not raise sexually pure and whole children if we are not whole ourselves.

After we finished our morning session, we had free time which included things like riding horse back, volleyball, zip lining and arts and crafts that afternoon. It was a lot of fun and relaxing. :)