The Spirit God Gave Us (2 Timothy 1:7)

 
If you are a Christian, if you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, then God has given you his Spirit. I am no Holy Spirit expert, and frankly it's a pretty confusing and complicated concept. But what I do know is that the Spirit is in our lives, daily nudging us, speaking to us, opening our eyes to things we may not have seen on our own, and generally helping us to live the way God wants us to. This is "the Spirit God gave us."

I don't know about you, but I often feel timid in my parenting role. I second guess myself, I wonder if I'm doing it "right," I ask for others' opinions hoping they'll just tell me what I should do, I doubt my decisions if they're different from others, etc. All these things are the exact opposite of what God intended when He have us His Spirit. Even in the role of motherhood, God does not intend for us to be unsure, weak, or wishy-washy. This Spirit He gave us is to be used in ALL areas of our lives, motherhood included!

He wants us to use His Spirit for power, love, and self-discipline.  

Power, not in the sense of dominating power over our children, Lord help us, but power over timidity and doubt. Power over the schemes of the devil, trying to throw us off course. Power over the negative influence and opinions of others. Power to be confident and sure that you are a good mother.

Use His Spirit to love. Love your children well, love your spouse well, love your neighbors well. Regardless of the bumps in the road that day, the emotions you think you can't help, the situations that may make it difficult to love. His Spirit can and will help us love well anyways.

Use His Spirit for self-discipline. There are areas in our lives where each of us needs to grow, mature, and allow God in to change us. None of us are perfect wives, mothers, family members or friends. And we cannot change ourselves for the better simply with more will-power. But with the help of the Spirit, we can all improve on our weaknesses.

It's very easy to be timid and doubt yourself as a mom. There are so many opinions and critics out there. But just remember those feelings of insecurity are not from God. That doubt is not what God intend you to feel. Focus on listening to His Spirit in your heart as you walk through your day, and allow the doubt to fade as you gain power, love and self-discipline!

Your Best: 2 Timothy 2:15

"Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, and who correctly handles the word of truth." 2 Timothy 2:15

This verse really stuck out to me as my purpose for writing this blog. This is what I want to say I've done. For this blog, you first need to know that I am not ashamed that I am a Christian. I encourage you to argue (politely, please, I don't like online yelling), ask questions, or to just to keep reading, even if you don't share my beliefs.

For all of us, the big idea here is to do your best. Didn't we first hear this back in like, kindergarten?! It still applies! What more can we do? If we expect too much from ourselves, we are thinking we should do better than our best. An expectation like that will just lead to disappointment and feelings of failure. On the other hand, if we don't put in the effort to achieve our very best, we are letting down not only ourselves, but our families from experiencing the best we have to offer.

I will do my best to correctly handle the word of truth. I do not know everything. Or even very much. But, I promise to give you my best. My goal is to post twice a week, but I make no promises. And just so we get this little piece out of the way now: I have no editor. I do not have a degree in writing and I don't always remember what should or shouldn't be Capitalized, comma-ed, colon-ed: or when I should stop writing because it's a run on sentence and run on sentences make you seem unsmart and... (now is good??). Also, I make up words. Like unsmart.

For you, I want to encourage you to do your best to walk this Christian walk, and do not be ashamed. You know what your best is better than anyone. I'm confident in saying that your best should include being in the Scriptures yourself. God wants to speak to you through His Word. He has a special message for your heart at just the right time. Your best for Him will mean learning from Him, I promise you that. 

One thing that has really helped me focus on Scripture throughout the day, when I'm in the midst of my everyday life, is to pick one verse a week to focus on. I write it down. I rewrite it. I look at it often. I say it out loud. And then usually I write it down again. For me, this is the best I can do. It's not realistic for me to memorize a verse a day. Or to spend an hour in quiet time at 5am every morning. But, it would be untrue to say that I don't have time at all to learn more Scripture. I just don't have time. Lie. That's not your best. God asks that we do our best.

Are you currently doing your best? What is one area where you need to lower your unrealistic expectations of yourself? What is one area where you need to put in more effort to achieve your best?

To You, Mama

So, my year of "Confessions of a First Time Mom" was pretty fun. I enjoyed documenting all the blunders & oopsies that occurred in my son's first year. I was completely in survival mode. Keep the child alive. You have succeeded. Now, things are changing. It's still important to keep the child alive. But, he is starting to talk, and express emotions, and have temper tantrums, and walk into the street (true story), and understand the world around him. My parenting world is changing. It's no longer just figuring how to get Isaac to sleep longer at night (although, we are still working strongly on that). It's becoming about teaching and disciplining and shepherding and correcting. I thought I didn't know what I was doing in the first year of Isaac's life. Oh, just wait. This is gonna be a whole new ballgame.

I am a Christian. A believer in Jesus. Therefore, I hope my God shapes how I parent. And because I truly have no idea what I'm doing (you haven't caught on to that yet?!), I have purchased a variety of devotional books looking for some help. Some wisdom on what the Scriptures say about mothering. What I've found has been somewhat disappointing. One author is talking about how she's struggling with her toddler throwing a temper tantrum in the middle of a diaper change and she says something like, "And in the midst of this diaper change, I stopped to think, this is how God must see us."  And I'm like, "What?!? No you didn't! Nobody thinks about that while they're wiping a screaming baby's poopy butt!!" I just... couldn't relate. Or I read something like this: "My perpetual Presence with you can be a continual source of Joy, springing up and flowing out in streams of abundant Life. Let your mind reverberate with the meanings of My Names." And my half conscious mind is like... wha?! So, after a few tries, I just haven't been able to find something that's practical and Biblical and helps apply Scripture to my life.

So, in September of last year I started reading the Bible and asking God to show me what it was saying about motherhood. At first I thought I wasn't going to get much, because there's really not a lot in Scripture directly speaking on motherhood. But, wow, how I have been surprised. God has made verses and words and stories stick out to me that I never would have expected. I started keeping track of these readings and now want to blog about them. For moms, for parents, for anyone who wants to read it, really. I do not claim to be a theological expert, or even very knowledgeable about the Scripture's meaning. I just pray, read, and write what I think God shows me. Nothing fancy. I am truly not an incredibly smart person. I get confused by the writings of C.S. Lewis. It took me 7 years to read through the Bible for the first time. I forgot the verse I "memorized" last week. I have learned a lot from my time with children's ministry. You should not feel like you can't do this for yourself. Because if I can, you can too!

I try to be very conscious to take the Scriptures for what it says, not what I would like it to say. I think when we take single verses and try to manipulate them to fit our need for specific answers, we are not really growing in our faith. My plea to you is to explore the Scriptures for yourself, and not just believe whatever someone else says.

I chase a one year old all day. I change diapers. I make dinner (most of the time). I do laundry. I pay bills, and run errands, and bake cookies, and go to the park, and stand in line at the post office. And I love Jesus. I think He has shown me some wonderful things about motherhood from His Word. I'd like you to see that Scripture is relevant to your life now. I won't fake it to be like the Manicured Mother on the cover of that one book I threw away, or to make things sound flowery and religious. I'm all about honesty and real life. I hope you'll join me on my next great adventure. This is for you, Mama. 

Books to Read 2014

I've finalized my list of books to read in 2014! It's very difficult to narrow down the list, because 1) I love to read and so many books sound great. And 2) I always think I can read more than I actually do. 22 books are on my list this year, and that is a s-t-r-e-t-c-h.  But hopefully I can get all these books read!

I have my list on a site called Goodreads. If you're a book-lover and haven't found this site yet, I highly recommend it! You can keep track of all the books you've read, are currently reading, and want to read. You can rate books and leave reviews and comments. And, you can make a Books to Read in 2014 list! (Click on the link to go to my list in Goodreads.)

In case you don't want to explore Goodreads, or you are simply too lazy to click on the link (I can't blame you), here's my list:

Fiction: 
Divergent by Veronica Roth
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Songs of Redemption (Chronicles of the Kings #2) by Lynn Austin
The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty
War Brides by Helen Bryan
A Lineage of Grace by Francine Rivers (actually a compilation of 5 books so that should extend my annual total to 26!)
The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen

Nonfiction:
Forgotten God by Francis Chan
Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp
Let. It. Go. by Karen Ehman
Bringing the Gospel Home by Randy Newman
The Art of Neighboring by Jay Pathak
Feminine Appeal by Carolyn Mahaney (on my 2013 list- it was that good I want to read it again!)
The Meaning of Marriage by Timothy Keller
Love & Respect by Emerson Eggerichs
The Power of a Praying Parent by Stormie Omartian
Capture His Heart by Lysa TerKeurst
Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World by Joanna Weaver
Calm My Anxious Heart by Linda Dillow
Believing God by Beth Moore
The No Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night by Elizabeth Pantley (Yes we're still working on this and no I don't want to talk about it! ;-)

Here's to a wonderfully literate 2014! What are you reading?!?