Encouragement for Mommies

Being a mother is truly a GIFT.

Just as being single is a GIFT.

Just as being a widow is a GIFT. (If you don't believe me, ask Elisabeth Elliot)

In reading through old journals, old school entries with the standard school photo and the question: "What do you want to be when you grow up?"  More often than not, I answered, "A mommy."

I am beyond grateful for my two healthy, precious children.  We have prayed and prayed for both of our children, we are grateful for their health, their sweet hearts, their fun energy, and the gift of being parents.   But I must say, being a mother is not all I expected it to be.  I've never been more humbled in my life, clinging to the grace, energy, strength, and guidance from our gracious Father.  Combine my extreme humbleness with crazed hormones, a lack of what I deem sufficient sleep, the continual learning of dying to self, and bam!, you have a young mom with uplifted hands, seeking the Lord in how to raise my sweet kiddos.

From "Spirit-Led Parenting": This was me. Raising an imaginary child, pre-children, of course. Thinking "My child will NEVER act like that." Passing judgement on the poor mama with kids creating chaos in the grocery store aisles. Feeling that I've babysat enough to know how I want it done.

never. say. never.

For those of you longing to be mommies, for those of you not wanting to be mommies, for those of you grandparents that have been through the tough, but fun, little years, please

extend grace

Here are some links to some extremely encouraging articles that have given me perspective, encouragement, and the hope to press on in raising these two children the Lord has given, and equipped, me to raise.

Mom vs. Mom 

10 Ways to be a Happier Mom 

Why Being a Mom is Enough

How to be Done with Worry 

 
Labor & Deliver

I love this italicized phrase from the book "Spirit-Led Parenting."

"Contentment is essentially a matter of accepting from God's hand what He sends because we know that He is good and therefore it is good." J.I. Packer

"God is the blessed controller of all things, the king over all kings, and the master of all masters." I Timothy 6:15

Feeling blessed, humbled, and renewed by God's never-ending grace and love,

Emily

p.s. If any of you need book recommendations, or just someone to talk to, contact me.  For those who know me, I am quite the voracious reader, and I can easily recommend any number of parenting books that have encouraged me (with the Holy Bible being the best place to start).

 

Odds & Ends

Happy Weekend to you!

1) Andy made this salsa, and it's amazing.

2) I'm obsessed with these books.  Reader warning, "Divergent" is addictive, and although dark, it's a thrilling read, similar to "The Hunger Games" trilogy.

3) I got Andy the DVD "Les Miserables" for his birthday, and he's one happy camper.  I am too...Can't wait for it to re-appear on Broadway.

4) We love this show on Discovery.

5) My "high" of the weekend has been having Andy home, enjoying time with our family of four before he is out of town for work again.

6) My "low" has been my crying children in the nursery.  :(  While I can laugh about it when I pick them up, I am really disheartened and discouraged by this...whether I'm dropping them off for church or for Bible Study, both of my kids scream, and while Jackson will quiet down after a bit, once Ellie starts crying, she doesn't stop.  I know she has stranger anxiety/separation anxiety, as Jackson did too at 5 months.  But it still makes me sad nevertheless.  Any thoughts/tips from other moms?  The nursery workers are nice and encourage me to keep trying with Ellie...

7) I'm beyond a bit obsessed with these.

8) If you like Downton Abbey, I think you'll like Kate Morton's "House at Riverton."

9) At the way our country is going, this article has me thinking.

10) A bit of encouragement for us young moms.

Change

Great perspective on "Change" and on loving the little years.  A quick read, touching, and tender.

A Holy Experience

Happy Thursday!

Overwhelmed

May you find encouragement from this small tidbit from "Loving the Little Years" book by Rachel Jankovic.

I have to admit that there are some days when baby is sleeping, Jackson is quietly playing with toys, and I am at a loss for which task to tackle first:  clean the kitchen, do laundry, do my quiet time, vacuum the house, go read with Jackson, etc.  On those days, I just have to put one foot in front of the other, and repeat to myself that I WILL NOT be overwhelmed. " But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.'" (II Cor. 12:9)  Hope you are encouraged by this little read!

Reflections

As I reflect on this Palm Sunday of our Lord's graciousness, mercies, and provisions for us, I have had these thoughts, and I would love your input from other mama's with toddlers.

We are reaching the picky toddler stage, wanting certain things, certain textures, not wanting our food touching, not finishing all of our food, etc etc.  And yet my heart hurts for the children all over the world who would love to devour the applesauce, blueberries, cottage cheese, and cantaloupe that I set in front of Jackson in the morning.  Truly hurts and aches for those mamas who go without food so their famished children can eat a few morsels to sustain them for another day.  Breaks for those who are perishing from unclean water, when I have the cleanest water in the world freely flowing from my faucets.

While I am enjoying these toddler days and don't wish them away by any means, I am looking forward to the day when I can "reason" with Jackson, and I pray he and Ellie have hearts of sensitivity for those who are suffering, hearts that are sensitive to the Holy Spirit and His moving.

In the morning, we watch this Hillsong song "Hosanna" on YouTube while I finish prepping Jackson's breakfast, and it truly ministers to me, touching deep places in my heart.  May this stanza in the lyrics encourage you:

"Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like You have loved me

Break my heart for what breaks Yours
Everything I am for Your kingdom's cause
As I walk from earth into eternity

Hosanna, hosanna
Hosanna in the highest
Hosanna, hosanna
Hosanna in the highest"


Blessings to all of you as you reflect on this sacred Holy Week and our Lord's graciousness to us.

Note, for a great devotional read with your children, I highly recommend Jesus Storybook Bible. For a solid devotional with your family, check out Redeemer's devotional.

Lately

 

Last weekend, I came home from one of our many Easter egg hunts to find this garden, completed and waiting on me in our back garden space.  Wonderful Andy went to Home Depot, bought this raised cedar bed, and planted some tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, and basil. We're excited to see what will grow (and what the squirrels won't steal).

 Another Easter egg hunt with my parents great neighbors and their cute kids. (Who I used to babysit for...that makes me sound old that these precious kiddos are all grown up!)

Jackson, more interested in the egg, instead of beautiful Mary kneeling at his feet.  :)

As I reflect on this Easter weekend, I can't help but be moved by Ann Voskamp's Easter Holy Week series.  Go here for her amazing revelations, encouragement, and wisdom.

Have a blessed Easter.  He is Risen, He is Risen indeed!

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20

15 Happy Ways to Teach Kids to be Grateful

15 Happy Ways to Teach Kids to be Grateful

Great encouragement for life

A New Thanksgiving

I know I'm repeatedly posting excerpts or whole chapters from Elisabeth Elliot's amazing book, "Keep A Quiet Heart." I read this chapter today, and I felt compelled to share it with you. It's long but worth the read!

A New Thanksgiving

Those who call Thanksgiving "Turkey Day," I suppose, take some such view as this: Unless we have Someone to thank and something to thank Him for, what's the point of using a name that calls up pictures of religious people in funny hats and Indians bringing corn and squash? Christians, I hope, focus on something other than a roasted bird. We do have Someone to thank and a long list of things to thank Him for, but sometimes we limit our thanksgiving merely to things that look good to us. As our faith in the character of God grows deeper we see that heavenly light is shed on everything--even our suffering--so that we are enabled to thank Him for things we would never have thought of before. The apostle Paul, for example, saw even suffering itself as happiness (Colossians 1:24).

I have been thinking of something that stifles thanksgiving. It is the spirit of greed--the greed of doing, being, and having.

When Satan came to tempt Jesus in the wilderness, his bait was intended to inspire the lust to do more than the Father meant for Him to do--to go farther, demonstrate more power, act more dramatically. So the enemy comes to us in these days of frantic doing. We are ceaselessly summoned to activities: social, political, educational, athletic, and--yes--spiritual. Our "self-image" (deplorable word!) is dependent not on the quiet and hidden "Do this for my sake," but on the list the world hands us of what is "important." It is a long list, and it is both foolish and impossible. If we fall for it, we neglect the short list.

Only a few things are really important, and for those we have the promise of divine help: sitting in silence with the Master in order to hear His word and obey it in the ordinary line of duty--for example, in being a good husband, wife, father, mother, son, daughter, or spiritual father or mother to those nearby who need protection and care--humble work which is never on the world's list because it leads to nothing impressive on one's resume. As Washington Gladden wrote in 1879, "O Master, let me walk with Thee/In lowly paths of service free..."

Temptation comes also in the form of being. The snake in the garden struck at Eve with the promise of being something which had not been given. If she would eat the fruit forbidden to her, she could "upgrade her lifestyle" and become more like God. She inferred that this was her right, and that God meant to cheat her of this. The way to get her rights was to disobey Him.

No new temptation ever comes to any of us. Satan needs no new tricks. The old ones have worked well ever since the Garden of Eden, although sometimes under different guises. When there is a deep restlessness for which we find no explanation, it may be due to the greed of being--what our loving Father never meant us to be. Peace lies in the trusting acceptance of His design, His gifts, His appointment of place, position, capacity. It was thus that the Son of Man came to earth--embracing all that the Father willed Him to be, usurping nothing--no work, not even a word--that the Father had not given Him.

Then there is the greed of having. When "a mixed company of strangers" joined the Israelites, the people began to be greedy for better things (Numbers 11:4). God had given them exactly what they needed in the wilderness: manna. It was always enough, always fresh, always good (sounds good to me, anyway, "like butter-cakes"). But the people lusted for variety. These strangers put ideas into their heads. "There's more to life than this stuff. Is this all you've got? You can have more. You gotta live a little!"

So the insistence to have it all took hold on God's people and they began to wail, "all of them in their families at the opening of their tents." There is no end to the spending, getting, having. We are insatiable customers, dead set on competing, upgrading, showing off ("If you've got it, flaunt it"). We simply cannot bear to miss something others deem necessary. So the world ruins the peace and simplicity God would give us. Contentment with what He has chosen for us dissolves, along with godliness, while, instead of giving thanks, we lust and wail, teaching our children to lust and wail too. (Children of the jungle tribe I knew years ago did not complain because they had not been taught to.)

Lord, we give you thanks for all that You in Your mercy have given us to be and to do and to have. Deliver us, Lord, from all greed to be and to do and to have anything not in accord with Your holy purposes. Teach us to rest quietly in Your promise to supply, recognizing that if we don't have it we don't need it. Teach us to desire Your will--nothing more, nothing less, and nothing else. For Jesus' sake, Amen.

Encouragement in Times of Grief

I have had a good number of friends who have suffered through miscarriages, and it breaks my heart every time I hear about these tragic situations. This morning I was reading Elisabeth Elliot's "Keep A Quiet Heart," and this passage was of such encouragement to me, as Elisabeth always keeps a Heavenly-minded perspective. Not only is this encouraging to those who have lost children, but this passage pertains to anyone suffering and going through times of grief. (it's long, but read on!)

Elisabeth Elliot is writing to a friend who lost a baby:

"How our hearts went running to you, weeping with you, wishing we could see your faces and tell you our sympathies. Yet it is 'no strange thing' that has happened to you, as Peter said in his epistle (I Peter 4:12)--it gives you a share in Christ's suffering. To me this is one of the deepest but most comforting of all the mysteries of suffering. Not only does He enter into grief in the fullest understanding, suffer with us and for us, but in the very depths of sorrow He allows us, in His mercy, to enter into His; gives us a share, permits us the high privilege of 'filling up' that which is lacking (Colossians 1:24) in His own. He makes, other words, something redemptive of our broken hearts, if those hearts are offered up to Him. We are told that He will never despise a broken heart. It is an acceptable sacrifice when offered wholly to Him for His transfiguration. Oh, there is so much for us to learn here, but it will not be learned in a day or a week. Level after level must be plumbed as we walk with the Shepherd, and He will do His purifying, purging, forging, shaping work in us, that we may be shaped to the image of Christ Himself. Such shaping takes a hammer, a chisel, a file--painful tools, a painful process.
Your dear tiny Laura is in the Shepherd's arms. She will never have to suffer. She knew only the heaven of the womb (the safest place in all the world--apart from the practice of abortion) and now she knows the perfect heaven of God's presence. I'm sure that your prayer for both your children has been that God would fulfill His purpose in them. It is the highest and best we can ask for our beloved children. He has already answered that prayer for Laura.
Do you know the Letters of Samuel Rutherford (1600-1661)? He wrote so beautifully to mothers who had lost children. Here is one:

Grace rooteth not out the affections of a mother, but putteth them on His wheel who maketh all things new, that they may be refined; therefore sorrow for a dead child is allowed to you, though by measure and ounceweights; the redeemed of the Lord have not a dominion or lordship over their sorrow and other affections, to lavish out Christ's goods at their pleasure...He commandeth you to weep; and that princely One took up to heaven with Him a man's heart to be a compassionate High Priest. The cup ye drink was at the lips of sweet Jesus, and He drank of it...Ye are not to think it a bad bargain for your beloved daughter that she died--she hath gold for copper and brass, eternity for time. All the knot must be that she died too soon, too young, in the morning of her life; but sovereignty must silence your thoughts. I was in your condition: I had but two children, and both are dead since I came hither. The supreme and absolute Former of all things giveth not an account of any of His matters. The good Husbandman may pluck His roses and gather His lilies at midsummer, and, for ought I dare say, in the beginning of the first summer month; and he may transplant young trees out of the lower ground to the higher, where they may have more of the sun and a more free air, at any season of the year. The goods are His own. The Creator of time and winds did a merciful injury (if I may borrow the word) to nature in landing the passenger so early.

(back to Elisabeth's writing) Jesus learned obedience by the things He suffered, not by the things which He enjoyed. In order to fit you both for His purposes both here and in eternity, He has lent you this sorrow. But He bears the heavier end of the Cross laid upon you!"

Do Not Forecast Grief

(No, the title of this blog has nothing to do with Auburn's sad loss last night. It's Elisabeth Elliot's title to the chapter I read this morning.)

Elisabeth Elliot was in a chapel on an island in the South, and she heard a woman weeping. After a little time, she asked the woman if she could help. The woman confided her fears to Elisabeth: What if her husband should die? Or one of her children. What if money ran out?

This is Elisabeth's response in her book, "Keep A Quiet Heart"

"All our fears represent in some form, I believe, the fear of death, common to all of us. But is it our business to pry into what may happen tomorrow? It is a difficult and painful exercise which saps the strength and uses up the time given us today. Once we give ourselves up to God, shall we attempt to get hold of what can never belong to us--tomorrow?

Our lives are his, our times in His hand, He is Lord over what will happen, never mind what may happen. When we prayed, 'Thy will be done,' did we suppose He did not hear us? He heard indeed, and daily makes our business His and partakes of our lives. If my life is once surrendered, all is well. Let me not grab it back, as though it were in peril in His hand but would be safer in mine!

Today is mine. Tomorrow is none of my business. If I peer anxiously into the fog of the future, I will strain my spiritual eyes so that I will not see clearly what is required of me now.

'Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof'--and the work thereof. The evil is not a part of the yoke Jesus asks us to take. Our work is, and He takes that yoke with us. I will over extend myself if I assume anything more."

May you be encouraged by Elisabeth Elliot's wisdom and her encouragement.

And Happy Birthday to my wonderful dad!!

Nevertheless We Must Run Aground

I told y'all that I'm loving re-reading Elisabeth Elliot's "Keep A Quiet Heart." Here's a short chapter she wrote that has been so encouraging to me, and I find myself re-reading it often.

"Have you ever put heart and soul into something, prayed over it, worked at it with a good heart because you believe it to be what God wanted, and finally seen it 'run aground'?

The story of Paul's voyage as a prisoner across the Adriatic Sea tells how an angel stood beside him and told him to not be afraid (in spite of winds of hurricane force), for God would spare his life and the lives of all with him on board ship. Paul cheered his guards and fellow passengers with that word, but added, 'Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island' (Acts 27:26, NIV).

It would seem that the God who promises to spare all hands might have 'done the job right,' saved the ship as well, and spared them the ignominy of having to make it to land on the flotsam and jetsam that was left. The fact is He did not, nor does He always spare us.

[Here's Emily's favorite part!!]
Heaven is not here, it's There. If we were given all we wanted here, our hearts would settle for this world rather than the next. God is forever luring us up and away from this one, wooing us to Himself and His still invisible Kingdom, where we will certainly find what we so keenly long for.

'Running aground,' then, is not the end of the world. But it helps to make the world a bit less appealing. It may even be God's answer to 'Lead us not into temptation'--the temptation complacently to settle for visible things."

Ah, so wonderful to reflect on. Have a blessed day!

Encouraging Words

Thank you all for my birthday wishes yesterday. I did have a special and fun day, and Andy and I had a much-needed dinner date last night. I still am tickled at myself and the lessons I learn after college: College birthdays were so much fun, with celebrations all week long. Life-after-college-birthdays consist of real-life: going to the grocery store, doing laundry, cleaning the house, and for me now, being a Mom. That doesn't stop on your birthday. So while it's easy for me to throw a pity party at times, wishing for a "lazy day" for one day out of the year, I know that's not reality, and I have to tell myself to get over it. I wouldn't trade being a wife, mom, homemaker for anything in the world. There's my two cents on life after college. (If you're new to reading this, no, I didn't just graduate, although I feel like I did. It's been 5 years since I left sweet Auburn, the loveliest village on the Plains. I guess I'm 28 years young.)

In college, I read "Keep A Quiet Heart" by Elisabeth Elliot. My friend, Jenny Camp, recently encouraged me to pick it up again, as she told me there is wisdom for mothers at the end of the book. So, I heeded her advice and re-started it this morning. O my, can I tell you I've underlined virtually every paragraph in the introduction and the first chapter.

For those of you who don't know who Elisabeth Elliot is, I consider her my "spiritual mother." She is such an amazing, godly woman. Her first husband, Jim Elliot, was a missionary to the Aucan Indians in South America. He was killed by the Indians, and his wife, Elisabeth, went back to that tribe with her toddler-aged daughter and brought the entire tribe to know Christ as their Lord and Savior. You can see the amazing movie, "End of the Spear," for further details into this amazing story (here's the synopsis of the movie: "End of the Spear" is the story of Mincayani, a Waodani tribesman from the jungles of Ecuador. When five young missionaries, among them Jim Elliot and Nate Saint, are speared to death by the Waodani in 1956, a series of events unfold to change the lives of not only the slain missionaries' families, but also Mincayani and his people. Written by Anonymous

The true story of a group of Christian missionaries in Ecuador who set out to reach the Wadani tribe (a violent Ecuadorian tribe defined by revenge killing). When the 5 men from this group are speared to death by Mincayani and others in the tribe (who believe all foreigners are cannibals), the wives and children of those men move into the Wadani tribe to teach them about God. End of the Spear is an amazing story of Truth, Love, and Forgiveness.)

Back to my previous train of thought. Elisabeth Elliot wrote this prayer when she attended Wheaton College in 1947. This was and still is her heart's desire, and I found such great encouragement and strength in her words this morning:

Lord, give me a quiet heart
That does not ask to understand,
But confident steps forward in
The darkness guided by Thy hand.


I know, random baby picture, but blogs are always more fun with pictures :)

Have a blessed day!