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Losing My Life

Losing My Life

Sometimes, I'm almost certain that I never really knew God until I had children. I say that tongue-in-cheek, of course, but I really do have to admit that I didn't fully understand what it meant to lose my life until I had a couple of little people depending on me for theirs.

I gotta tell you that nothing helps you overcome the "My-life" like regularly and willfully sacrificing for someone else, and each moment of my life as a parent has been opportunity after opportunity to lose my life and find it in the process. 

I lost my life when my body became an incubator. I lost a little more of my life when that incubator became a walking diner. Yet a little more of my life has been lost to nights without sleep, hours in the carpool lane and change after change of best laid plans. Yet every little sacrifice and every little piece of life lost is returned to me in droves as I watch my children flourish.

And thankfully, all this life-losing as a mom spills over to other situations as well. It's been the Lord's on-the-job training in losing life and I'm so thankful for the wonderful life I've found in the process.


imageAnitra Elmore is your server today! Find out more about her here and don't forget to sign up for updates by email or RSS before you go.

Monday, June 03, 2013 | Read more...
The Call of a Spiritual Mother

The Call of a Spiritual Mother


 Our week began with a celebration of Mothers and has journeyed through various thoughts and reflections by our DFF writers on what it means to be a “spiritual mom”.  For me, spiritual mothering is something very precious.  Because for me, being 31, single with no kids, it’s the only way, for the moment, I get to be a part of this whole mothering thing.   

When I was in my twenties, watching all my friends get married and have babies, I sometimes wrestled with contentment, feeling at times like I had been benched.  There I sat, looking at God all doe-eyed and hopeful, “Put me in coach, I think I could be good at this mothering thing!” At some point in this season, I came across these gems:

“Sing, barren woman, you who never bore a child; burst into song, shout for joy, you who were never in labor; because more are the children of the desolate woman 
than of her who has a husband” Isaiah 54:1

The verse from Isaiah encouraged me, though it speaks of the coming promise to Israel, it reminds me that I serve a God who likes to take the barren areas of our lives and bear great fruit. What I began to see in my life was, even though it wasn’t my season for having my own kids, God had provided an opportunity as a missionary to love on countless kids.  I was pouring my life into far more kids than I could have, if I were raising my own family at that time.  And he began to shift my heart to an attitude of thanksgiving as I meditated on that scripture.

“Let each generation tell its children of your mighty acts; let them proclaim your power.” Psalm 145:4

 This second verse inspired me with the call on each of our lives to tell the next generation about who God is.  I believe we are each called to be mothers and fathers to the next generation and that when we begin to walk fully in that calling as a body, the church will bring healing and salvation to many.  So many are hungry for someone to come alongside them and speak wisdom and truth into their lives - to nurture and to love - and simply be present in the journey.

May God reveal to each of us, the people He has placed around us to mother or father deeper into the Kingdom. And for those of us hungering for spiritual parents or mentors, I pray that God brings those people into our lives and highlights them!
sara
Sara Rust is your server today! Find out more about her here and don't forget to sign up for updates by email or RSS before you go.


Thursday, May 17, 2012 | Read more...
Moms Treasure

Moms Treasure

I attend a bible study specifically for Moms every Tuesday morning.

The content is rich. The community is supportive and encouraging.

The conviction is . . . oh, boy.

Not a week goes by where I don't leave this time, which I set apart every week, having been convicted to adjust, tweak, change, recommit . . . the list could go on and on.

At our last formal gathering for the year, we had speaker from a local church join us. Where she promptly handed all of us a good chunk of life-altering truth, initiated in part by her grown daughter who had inquired quite innocently, "Why is it that Christian Moms look no different from those who don't know Christ."

She was referring to the hamster wheel, the worry, the hovering, the endless activities, the enabling, the, ahem, treasuring the children above God.

Ouch.

And, yes!

So, while I realize I've given you absolutely NO CONTEXT from the talk with which to answer the question I pose, ask it of yourself anyway.

What is it that I treasure more than God? Or, What/Who do I love that supersedes my love for Jesus?

Wanna be a "Spiritual" Mom? Check your treasure . . . it may be a knock-off! A fake! Cheap glass that looks like the crown jewels . . . Pursue Christ as the FIRST treasure. OK?

Super. ('Cause guess what - we are not Moms first. We are first, children of God. Ooooooh, deep.)
mailJoline Atkins is your server today! Find out more about her here and don't forget to sign up for updates by email or RSS before you go.
Sunday, May 13, 2012 | Read more...