A Mother’s Spiritual Impact Saturday, Nov 14 2009 

Discipling Our Children and Vision Stephanie 6:09 pm

mother son writing

 

“It is my conviction that many mothers will occupy a higher position in God’s kingdom than many prominent Christian leaders whom we might expect to find in places of greater honor.  Think of some of the great men of the Bible like Moses, Samuel, and Timothy.  Where would they have been had it not been for their praying, Spirit-led mothers?  Think of Augustine, John Newton, and the zealous Wesleys; their names might never have lighted the pages of history had it not been for the blessed influence of godly mothers!

 

The simple prayers from our infant lips were but echoes from our mother’s heart.  Can we ever forget the soft caresses of those hands of blessing on our heads as we knelt by our beds?  Can we fail to remember her night vigils, her seasons of intercession, her well-marked Bible, and her words of admonition?  Her actions spoke eloquently of Him who taught us of the greater love of God.

 

What a tragedy to neglect the counsel of a godly mother!  What eternal consequences to reject her God…’Do not forsake the law of your mother’ (Prov. 1:8)” ~Henry G. Bosch

 

Wonderful Mama Wisdom Friday, May 22 2009 

Discipling Our Children and Things I'm Learning and Titus 2 Women and Togetherness and Training and Vision Stephanie 4:42 pm

storybook woods

Ladies, I read this gem of wisdom from a mama who is past the baby stage and now has teenagers.  It was such a precious reminder to let my littles work alongside me, keeping a long-term vision rather than getting mired down in my to-do list.  I usually read Clarice’s blog for creative and crafty inspiration, but this time she has great insight for us mamas!  Precious words, don’t miss them!

 

Parenting With Love Monday, Oct 27 2008 

Discipling Our Children and Things I'm Learning and Vision Stephanie 7:55 pm

Parents must be what they want their children to be. If we want to keep them from the sin of Cain, who did not love his brother, let us beware of the sin of Adam, who did not love the commandment of his God. Let father and mother lead a life marked by love to God and man. This is the kind of atmosphere in which loving children can be trained. Let all your dealings with the children be done in love. Angry words, sharp reproof, and impatient answers are infectious. Love demands self-sacrifice. It takes time, attention, and perseverance to train our children in God’s ways. When our children hear us speak of others, of friends or enemies, let the impression they receive be the love of Christ we seek to show. Father and mother should also show love and respect for one another. Their considerate and unselfish attitudes should prove to the children that love is possible and has immediate rewards.

Above all, let us remember that it is the love of God that is the secret of a loving home on earth. When parents love the Lord their God with all their heart, then family love will be strengthened. Only those parents who are willing to live consecrated lives, entirely given up to God, will receive the full promise of the blessing. If we want to make our homes a foretaste of heaven, then ordinary, half-hearted religion is not enough. Only the love of God shed abroad in our hearts and our lives will make our homes on earth the likeness of the home above.

-Andrew Murray, Raising Your Children for Christ

 

Homemaking: A Noble Endeavor Sunday, Jun 29 2008 

Vision Stephanie 9:06 pm

I know I’m old-fashioned, but I believe that homemaking means so much more than keeping our houses clean and our families fed. Our influence is powerful and our work is important!!!

Home is the true wife’s kingdom. There, first of all places, she must be strong and beautiful. She may touch life outside in many ways, if she can do it without slighting the duties that are hers within her own doors. But if any calls for her service must be declined, they should not be the duties of her home. These are hers, and no other one’s. Very largely does the wife hold in her hands, as a sacred trust, the happiness and the highest good of the hearts that nestle there. The best husband – the truest, the noblest, the gentlest, the richest-hearted – cannot make his home happy if his wife be not, in every reasonable sense, a helpmate to him.

In the last analysis, home happiness depends on the wife. Her spirit gives the home its atmosphere. Her hands fashion its beauty. Her heart makes its love. And the end is so worthy, so noble, so divine, that no woman who has been called to be a wife, and has listened to the call, should consider any price too great to pay, to be the light, the joy, the blessing, the inspiration of a home.

-JR Miller

 

On Our Daily Routines Thursday, Jun 26 2008 

Titus 2 Women and Vision Stephanie 1:03 pm


The routines of housework and of mothering may be seen as a kind of death, and it is appropriate that they should be, for they offer the chance, day after day, to lay down one’s life for others. Then they are no longer routines. By being done with love and offered up to God with praise, they are thereby hallowed as the vessels of the tabernacle were hallowed–not because they were different from other vessels in quality or function, but because they were offered to God. A mother’s part in sustaining the life of her children and making it pleasant and comfortable is no triviality. It calls for self-sacrifice and humility, but it is the route, as was the humiliation of Jesus, to glory.

To modern mothers I would say “Let Christ himself be your example as to what your attitude should be. For he, who had always been God by nature, did not cling to his prerogatives as God’s equal, but stripped himself of all privilege by consenting to be a slave by nature and being born as a mortal man. And, having become man, he humbled himself by living a life of utter obedience, even to the extent of dying, and the death he died was the death of a common criminal. That is why God has now lifted him so high. . .” (Phil. 2:5-11 Phillips).

-Elisabeth Elliot

 

Our Role Tuesday, Jun 17 2008 

Titus 2 Women and Vision Stephanie 2:59 am

“Someone must see the family as worth fighting for, worth calling a career, worth the hard work of training a child in godliness, worth the relentless tasks involved in running a home…This ’someone’ is the wife, the mother, and the homemaker and that, as such, she must embrace a life of being the giver. That’s our role as mothers.” ~Elizabeth George

 

Beginning Monday, Jun 16 2008 

Vision Stephanie 2:35 am

Years ago, mothers felt confident about how to raise their children because of information shared among women and passed down through generations. Over time, as culture has changed, we’ve lost a lot of that knowledge. I have so many questions about how to raise my kids. Young mothers I talk to everywhere feel the same way. We love our job, but it sometimes feels thankless, and it’s often so hard to know what to do, how to bring up these little ones we’ve been given.

I believe that those of us who seek answers are part of a revival of motherhood—a revival both to recapture a vision of the power and importance of our role, and also to regain practical tools of effective mothering, knowledge that used to be taken for granted. As I discover how to be a better mom from God’s Word, wise and godly older mothers, and trial and error, my heart’s desire is to share what I learn in hopes that it might help or encourage someone else.

My greatest fear is that I’ll come across as arrogant or condescending or as though I think I know all there is to know about mothering. I’ll say right up front, I don’t. One time I thought I did. However, as I have children (four now), I realize more and more how little I know and how much I must rely on Jesus to be a good mom. I’m just learning in the trenches. What I know, insights I gain along the way, don’t come from me. I learn, little by little, from God’s Word, which He’s given in part to help me become more like Christ in every way, including my mothering.

Titus 2:3-4 says, “the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things— that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.” I love to talk to mothers (and fathers) who have successfully raised godly children. I glean great insight from their knowledge and experience. One day I hope I’ll be that wise older woman. In the meantime, I’ll just pass on wisdom gained from these Titus 2 ladies! Will you join me on my journey?