Tickled Pink

I’m sitting at my kitchen table this morning after studying. It’s quiet here and so my thoughts wander to my family, scattered about today.  My daughter is on a 8^th grade field trip today, my son at school participating in field day, my husband at work, and the rest of my immediate family is thousands of miles away in Africa.  In this quiet moment, it sure feels lonely. This takes my thoughts to my studying today.  A question was posed, what have your circumstances taught you?

To me, in a lonely place, to which I have found myself more often than not these past weeks, my circumstances have brought a new light to Philippians 4:11. Paul says “for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.”  I know Paul’s situation involved many aspects but I know one of them was loneliness.  Chained in prison, he was longing for word from his beloved Philippian believers and friends.

 If I chose to dwell on my loneliness, and my mind became clouded with such feelings as self-pity or despondency, I could easily miss an opportunity God had for me. It could be in that very moment when this cloud of thoughts overtook me that God had planned an open door, and while wallowing away, I missed it. It could be in those cloudy moments that my child cries out in need for me but I missed it, or my husband needs my listening ears and shoulder to lean upon but I missed it. I saw this today, “to the world you maybe one person, but to one person you may be the world.” In others words when are minds are overtaken by selfish and discontented thoughts we miss opportunities that God has for us, but also opportunities to be there for our families.

We have a choice each day to come against our thoughts of despair, discontentment, and discouragement and choose to think upon the words found in Philippians 4:8. Today I choose thoughts of truth, nobility, purity, loveliness, excellence and praise to the only One who is worthy. If I choose to be content whether in need or want (relating not only to food, clothes or shelter) then I am ever ready for the next chapter God has for me. I am then prepared and ready to step up to the plate when He ask. There will be no missed opportunity when are thoughts are right.

I looked up synonyms for content and my favorite was, “tickled pink.”  You can’t say that out loud and not smile, right? I hope you are tickled pink today.

I look forward to this season passing and stepping into a new one but while here, as hard as it is sometimes, I rest in his peace, draw ever so close to the one who is a friend that never leaves, or forsakes, who gives me strength to press on. 

Choose to be content no matter what this world throws at you today because just around the corner there might be something grand you would have missed.

What have your circumstances taught you? I believe there is a lesson in everything we go through.

Deep Calls Out To Deep

Psalms 42

Are you a hurting mother today? Does your heart ache over your children? Do you want only good things for them? Are you praying they will grow to love Jesus more than they care for their next breath? I am and I do.  I hope this comes at a time where it encourages you. I want you to know you are not alone. As mothers, we tend to hide behind a façade when it comes to our children. What will my friend think if I told her what my daughter or son did last night? She will think I’m a horrible mom.  We keep secrets about our children because we feel they bring shame to us and we become so concerned what others around us will think. We are a loving, blessed Christian family and my children just don’t do certain things and if they do, then no one needs to know.  I’ve been there and yes, I’m still there.

There are things I would never tell another because doesn’t your child’s behavior really reflect you? I had always felt that. I felt my child’s behavior must be something I’ve done or didn’t do. Because they did this then it had to be because I wasn’t doing devotions enough with them, I wasn’t praying enough with or for them. Maybe we aren’t the loving Christian family I thought we were. These are all lies of the enemy. God help us, as mothers, to not believe these lies about us and our children.  John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”  John 8:44 “the devil….he is the father of lies.” The enemy knows who I belong to and his greatest joy seems to be confusing my children on who they belong to. 1 John 4:4 “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”

I’m not sure why we hide and try to figure it out alone. 1 John 3:20 “If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything.”  We need one another. We need loved ones and friends to come along side us and pray with us. It is then, when you have an army behind you, that God pours out his power, unleashes the heavens, and does the impossible. May we not hide any longer, but gather our army of prayer warriors and break the chains that so easily entangle our young ones today.

Our kids are the most precious gift God has given us. Psalms 127:3 “Children are a gift from the LORD; they are a reward from him.” They are truly His to begin with. I believe with all my heart I have done all I could do and I am doing all I can do. Sometimes that is only being on my knees, unable to speak because my heart is so heavy, tears that cannot seem to stop flowing. Then I see Him, Jesus, my dearest friend, who loves me with unconditional love reaches down and says “Child, I hear your prayers. I love you and I love your little ones. I watch over them day and night. I see their mistakes, their tears, and their struggles. They remember your words that you have spoken to them, they have not forgotten.”  Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”

I also believe that as we raise our children that it isn’t necessarily when they are old that will remember how they were brought up or what they were taught but even as they are still growing. I have to believe with all my heart what I have taught my kids is somewhere in their soul, that will ring loud in their heads as they face difficult times.  I pray God bring to remembrance all they’ve learned.  As parents, we certainly want to be the fly on the wall, we want to be there every second of their lives but we can’t. There is a time to let go and trust the Lord more than we’ve ever had to trust Him before. It is really that moment that becomes the hardest. It has been the hardest for me.  It’s in those times when we can’t be there they will for sure stumble and fall. Then, we can come along side them, as their biggest fan, cheering them on to rise again and overcome.

I have to get past what others think, or how they think I’m raising my kids or how I should have raised them. I’m doing the best I can, aren’t we all? We do our best, give them to the Lord, and persevere in prayer for them and never stop loving them.  If you are feeling discouraged as a mother or disappointed in some way, take heart my dear one, there is always someone on your side, gently lifting your head, wiping your tears and saying, I will never leave you or forsake you. You are not alone.

Will stand with me and pray for my children? Will you put your hope in God with me today? I will pray for yours and together we will walk this journey of motherhood chanting Joshua 24:15 "....as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord."