From Cindy's Heart

We Began YOUR GIRL Last Night!

Good Morning (ugh...afternoon!)!

Last night we began our new Discipleship Classes at church. I joined in on a group that I have truly been looking forward to joining all summer. Our group is studying YOUR GIRL by Vicki Courtney.  What a WONDERFUL night!

We began our study by just having a time of getting to know each other, the goals for the study, and how we would study this book together as a group and individually. I cannot express what a wonderful evening this was. Not only did we get so much spiritual challenge (didn't even begin the book yet!), but it was a treat to get some MOM-TIME to get away and share our delights of motherhood and our very real struggles. If you are ANYWHERE close to Florence, I would love to invite you to this study with us on Sunday Nights!

Anyway...here are some things that moved on my heart (I am sure that we all have different things that God spoke to us last night!)...

• We need to set GOALS for motherhood-Mother them INTENTIONALLY! Motherhood MUST be intentional!  We only have a very brief time with our children to train them. We must be intentional in training them or we will lose these precious years with our children. Set goals for what you want. Be intentional in moving toward those goals!
• Take a look at your relationship with your daughter--how is it? Are you happy with your relationship with her? What do you want that relationship to be like? Regularly take time to look at that relationship. Also, regularly ASK HER what she really thinks about your relationship--really listen!  Find what she wants in the relationship too!
• What do you most want for your daughter? Do you have a plan to accomplish that? What will get you where you want to be???
• What do you think will be the single greatest factor in influencing your daughter to become a godly woman? Yes, YOU! Prov. 22:6 challenges US to train them up.  Charmin (in our group) challenged us to have very high standards for those that we allow to influence our children. I have always been very particular about this with our children, so I really believe that this is vital! As we discussed this, God moved on my heart to CONTINUE to be very intentional about their influences in all areas--music, books, TV, friends, church leaders, etc. All that they experience will influence their godliness.  I was also very convicted about being ALL that I want for my daughter to become. One mom shared about how that God moved on her heart to ask herself, "WHAT DO I SEEM LIKE TO HER?" Isn't that convicting? What do we seem like to our children? What do they see in us?  We all know that they are watching our influence, but I want for my influence and example to be very clear for them to model after--in this I often fail! What are they "seeing" in me? Stress or rest? Devoted to my work around the home or to the call of God on my life? Could they learn how to live for God by watching me? Is the model of my life one that I would like to see lived out in my daughter's life? Yep...very convicted!
• What areas of godliness do we most struggle with? Your daughter? Are they similar?  This area brought out awesome discussion! One mom shared that she struggles with submission...another patience...another stress...another with being an example of godliness with spiritual disciplines. God has been really convicting me lately about being so busy with life and stuff that I am not taking time to rest and relax, exercise, or spend long, long times in the Word to refill (I REALLY NEED MORE TIME!). I do not have little children in my home anymore--my excuses just do not hold up! Something about being busy as a young mom has laid the foundation for these years. Yet, in these years, I really need more of the Word IN ME than ever before. The questions are harder than ever. Their needs are more spiritual and emotional, so that is more taxing...and needs better preparation from my quiet time than ever before! As I sat there last night, I was just thinking about my need for MORE time with God and MORE formal ways of filling my cup--like investing in a new journal (right now, I am keeping ALL of my stuff in one journal...today is a great day for us to begin new journals!)...beginning a new study (tomorrow Elisabeth and I begin a new study through Beth Moore's PATRIARCH study with the group at church--we are SO excited!)...etc. The ideas from the group last night were excellent. Here are a few of their ideas that may help some of you:
  • Have a daily quiet time--time with God!  Find a bit of time that is not distracted. Take time to pour out to Him...and be filled back up. Be creative in how you add this time in. You will never be sorry!
  • Give yourself a break--a LITTLE time is better than NO time. Maybe beginning with just reading through Proverbs--one chapter a day--will get you started on the right track. Even a few minutes snagged here and there is great! Be creative. Come up with creative ways to just spend time with God.
  • Keep a journal--record what you read from the Word each day, record (copy) the verses that really stick out to you, and record what God is saying to you. This treasure will record God's dealings with YOU! He wants a personal relationship WITH YOU--unless we have a regular word from God PERSONALLY, we are malnourished.
  • Pray for your daughter every day. As you read through the Scriptures, find those that would be good to pray for her and her life. Keep those in your journal or make prayer cards to use in your quiet time.
  • Be sure to have YOUR TIME with God so that what is on your heart is able to encourage and inspire your children--Deuteronomy 6: 4-9.
• Embrace Motherhood. God has rewarded you with your children. They are YOUR gift...your blessing...your prize. God has entrusted you with these particular children. We must clearly understand our mandate as mothers so we can train up our daughters to become godly women, godly mothers. Much of our focus is upon helping them deal with friends, clothes, activities, etc. Yet, motherhood and godly womanhood is not defined by our friends, jobs, accomplishments, popularity...it is defined by our position in Christ. This is what our daughters need to know during this time and for the rest of their lives. We are called to equip them for godly womanhood. This happens along the way as we snag those precious teachable moments. Those do not happen all of the time. But, we need to be ready at all times to snag each moment. We need to live this out each and every moment of every day so that they can learn by OUR WALK.

Charmin, our group leader gave three things that she felt we needed to think and act upon during our study. These were SO good that I thought you would want to see them:

1. WE, as mothers, need a growing relationship with God. Col. 1: 10--always growing; 2 Thess 1: 3--when your faith grows, your love increases. If WE are growing in Christ, we will be good influences on our daughters.
2. Be WISE about our world.  Matthew 10: 16, Ephesians 5: 15-17--we need to understand the world our girls are growing up in--we need to become students of the world and our own daughters PROFESSORS teaching them.
3. We must be prayer warriors for our daughters. Praying for them, letting them actually see us seeking God and digging into the Word, praying for them, and being transformed by the Word of God!

Just going back over my notes really moves me into even greater commitment. I think that this study and discussion will be an awesome way to really think out and plan out intentional ways to mentor my daughter toward her call. I hope that it will also help some of you who may be as desperate as I am to be all we can be as moms!

I will keep you posted!

Love,
Cindy