Mar. 6, 2007 - Power of Prayer

I've been a little quiet in the blog world for the past several days but things have been far from quiet in my home world.  I've been extra busy but at the same time I have been slowing down.  Slowing down because I'm so fatigued and because I'm trying to focus more on prayer.  I've been praying much for you fellow bloggers, for my family, for my daughter and our relationship, for my husband, etc.

I was recently reminded of a great answer to a prayer of mine that I wanted to share with you.

A little while back I locked my keys in the van in my garage.  The van was running but fortunately no kids in it!  And I was glad to be home and not elsewhere!

After trying several unsuccessful tactics of my own, I called a locksmith friend, Dan.  He lives quite a drive away and I had no money to pay for service but I thought he might have some suggestions I could try. Well, he came over even though I protested, unlocked my car in seconds and drove off satisfied with a simple "thank you".  I felt grateful and terrible at the same time.  

I stood there next to my van and prayed for Dan.  I thanked God for sending him.  Since I had no compensation for the service (which would have cost $50), I prayed that God would somehow bless Dan - maybe with extra business he wouldn't have had otherwise - in order to reward Dan's sacrifice for me.  Like I really need to give God ideas on how to bless someone!

I followed my prayer by mailing a thank you card to Dan including a mention I prayed a blessing for him.  Two days later, Dan called having just received my card.   He told me that in the time between taking care of my van and receiving my card, he had received the blessing I asked.   He was called to help an elderly woman who was locked out of her car.  She was so grateful to him that she gave him $50 above what she owed as a token of her appreciation. 

Dan was now calling me to tell me thank you!

So I ask myself, why don't I pray more!?  Why do I think God doesn't care about the little things? And why do I think other things are too big for God?  Shame on me!  I have had seasons of much prayer, much faith, and much blessing.  And I have had dry seasons. So why do I let fervent prayer be only a season instead of a way of life!  Well, lately I'm back to my efforts of making it my way of life.

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Feb. 21, 2007 - How To Hurt My Feelings

A friend from church called me yesterday because we hadn't talked in a long time.  We see each other in passing at church but it has been months since any conversation has been able to take place.  I like this woman but every once in awhile she says something that rubs me wrong.  Her comments usually are ones that make me feel like I don't know anything about being a mom.  Actually, come to think of it, maybe I don't and she can tell! - Read my earlier post "My Brain and How It Doesn't Work". 

So back to yesterday's phone call - a phone call that was not in any way encouraging for me.  Like me, she has 4 kids and of similar ages.  She is now pregnant with #5.  At one point in the conversation she says "Well you only have 4 children so "certain" things are easier for you."   And she says "You are only schooling 1so you're not really schooling yet". (she is schooling 2 of her 4).  No doubt there will come a day that she says to me "Well, you're only schooling 2 of your 4. It should be easy".

Ok!  So I'm not fully initiated into motherhood unless I have 5 children?  Or until I'm homeschooling 2 or more?   I'm not allowed to feel overwhelmed some days because I only have 4 kids?  I should have no challenges when schooling only 1 child?  Enter hurt feelings!

I'll push these feelings behind me. I always have before.  They're not worth get hung up on.

When my first child was born - I was overwhelmed.  Our marriage was affected.  The housework was affected. My energy level was affected. Our schedule was affected. Etc.

I now have 4 children and I am still often overwhelmed.  It's only in looking back that I think how easy only 1 child must have been.  But in reality, at the time, it wasn't easy.   And undoubtedly there will come a day, when I am schooling all 4 of my kids, that I will reflect and think, wow, how easy schooling only 1 must have been!  But it's not. It's challenging to get school accomplished with 3 preschoolers at my feet!

My challenge to you and to myself is.....1) Never forget where you've been and the struggles of the past.  In order to be a true encouragement to those on sections of the path where you've already been, you need to clearly remember what it was like.  I really think the picture gets rosier the farther off in the distance it falls.

2)  Never underestimate the struggles of another.  Don't trivialize the challenges in any way.

Due to my lack of memory, I started a "mother journal" several years ago.  In it I log my struggles, challenges, feelings, joys, etc, as they relate to motherhood.  I don't want to forget how each phase or season of life was like.  This is not much for my own sake but rather so that I will be a better encouraging friend and a better grandma some day.

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Feb. 10, 2007 - Wonder Woman Wanna Be

In my post "What Compels You" I had stated that I feel as though my husband expects me to be Wonder Woman.  But let me be fully honest.  I expect it of myself, as well.  I am a perfectionist. I also don't want to let anyone else down, especially dh, with any of my shortcomings.  I feel like a failure if I don't have the house always clean and in order from corner to corner. I feel like a failure if I haven't been the perfect mommy, or the perfect, loving wife, the perfect teacher, or always having the perfectly healthy hot meal on the table when dh comes home, and on and on and on the list goes.

Do you see my problem?  I can't possibly be perfect and in all areas.  I'm a sinful human being. Besides, perfection in the areas I mentioned above can be described differently by each per person anyway!  What's been accomplished to perfection to me may not be considered so by my husband! (Are you following my reasoning?!)

Sidenote: My husband tells me I think way too much.  I'm afraid it may be starting to show here!

Anyway, I think I would have a shot at being "Wonder WAHM" if I just had more than 24 hours in a day!  But guess who ordered the day?! God. And if God gave us 24 hours in a day, then that is all we need to get accomplished what He wants us to in a day.  I am figuring, then, that I am trying to do more than what God wants me to do.  All the things I am doing in a day seem good, important, needed, etc.  But apparently not!  So I am working on re-ordering my days.

Sidenote: Truly, aren't we all WAHMs? Or at least supposed to be?  WAHM = Work at Home Mom / SAHM = Sit at Home Mom (hee hee)

The other thing to consider is whether or not I am doing my tasks efficiently.  Maybe all the things I am trying to accomplish actually do need to be accomplished.  But the problem is that I am not using each of the 24 hours wisely?

So this is what is heavy on my mind lately.    How do I get it all done? Homeschool, errands, housework, loving my husband, loving my kids. Am I out of balance in my priorities? Am I neglecting things that shouldn't be?  Or maybe there are things that I should move to low priority.  

* Photo: Fair Use of copyright material per section 107 of US Copyright Law

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Jan. 24, 2007 - Motivation to Redeem the Time

Read my previous post first then come back to this one.

Go to each of these links and you will be given a huge injection of motivation to redeem the time each and every day.

Lorrie died the end of November. Her husband has posted a couple times since. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/grisoniranch

A family is grieving the tragic death of their 2 year old Olivia to a burn accident. http://www.everydaymommy.net/display/ShowJournal?moduleId=637481&categoryId=86287

A family of 12 was in a serious car accident causing the death of baby #10. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/hersheykiss7344/255965/Fatal+Car+Crash.html

Redeem the time!   Not a single one of us can know for certainty what tomorrow holds for each of our families.  Live with no regrets.

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Jan. 24, 2007 - Wednesday Worship - Redeeming the Time

Eph 5:15-16  "Be very careful, then, how you live - not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity." (NIV)

I have spent a lot of time thinking about "Redeeming the Time" over the last year or so.  I recently read an article about redeeming the seasons of life (single, young children, empty nest, etc.).  The writer warned of pining for the blessings of seasons future or past and all the while missing the blessings and opportunities in your current season.

I do not pine for seasons past or future.  I love the season I am in as a mom of young children.  I only wish it wouldn't go by so quickly!  But since it does, all the more reason to not waste the time and miss out on opportunity.  I instead need to focus on redeeming the time within each day. 

My problem is that I easily allow myself to become overcommitted in ministry at church.  It robs my family of my time as well as my mental availability.  I'll be too busy thinking through plans for the next Bible lesson at church and miss the lessons I should be teaching right in my own home! Well, I've almost got it balanced.  I'm currently involved in only 2 things at church and think I need to take it down 1 more, if not cut out both.

But regardless, I am commiting to start each day in prayer that I not miss any opportunity to minister to my own children.  To be alert to how it is each one needs me.  Whether it be a little more sympathy, a firmer hand, or a gentler hand, better eye contact, or more 1 on 1, etc.  Whatever it is, whether big or small, I want to notice the needs and fulfill the needs that each of my munchkins require. Yes, young children are exhausting. But I want to love them to the fullest and take every opportunity to train them to godliness.  To truly enjoy each of my children before there is no time left. 

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Jan. 11, 2007 - On My Wall - In My Memory

For all those moms who have ever lost a child (including miscarriage and abortion). 

 Mine was miscarriage at 4 months.  I then had to prevent pregnancy for 1 year after due to cancer screening.  That was a long, difficult wait.

My sister-in-law lost her baby girl just a few days before her due date.

Also remembering my friend who suffers heartache at the regretful bad choice she made many years ago. I believe her heartache is a consequence to sin but she also needs reminding that God is a God of forgiveness.

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Jan. 10, 2007 - Wednesday Worship

I don't have a Wordless Wednesday photo to post - at least not yet.  But I've come up with a Wednesday Worship. It's usually the middle of the week that I feel overwhelmed and for various reasons.  It could be because I have gotten behind on housecleaning routines or because I have allowed our calendar to become overcommitted or because of sickness.....lots of different reasons exist. 

I'm considering making Wednesday the day I post what the Lord has been teaching me.  What better thing to do than to get us all back grounded in the basics - The real purpose for our days and where our true help comes from.

Here's my encourgement for this week.

Psalm 27:14 "Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD."  (NIV)

Waiting to have more children, waiting for everyone to be potty-trained, waiting for more finances, waiting for summer, waiting for the mopped floor to stay clean longer than an hour, waiting to lose weight, waiting for healing, waiting in traffic, waiting for the baby to be born, waiting for nap time........you fill in the blank.

No matter what it is, waiting is so hard to do.  Where's the strength in waiting.!?  How did David find strength in the LORD?

I Sam 30:6  "David was greatly distressed....But David found strength in the LORD his God." (NIV)

I think that there is little you can do to make waiting easy.  If it were easy we may be misled to think we don't need God.  For me, waiting produces 1 of 2 things in me.  I am the one who chooses which it produces.

1) Discontentment. Discouragement. Guaranteed to be contagious to everyone else in the family. It will eventually go away when the "problem" goes away. But always on the heel of one "problem" is another. Discouragement resurfaces again only quicker and stronger than the last time.   How miserable!!!  How defeating!!

2) Use the waiting to gain insight into God.  What a perfect opportunity for God to show more of Himself to you.  Two things I find full of strength are praying and memorizing Scripture.  Not just any Scripture.  But find verses applicable to your situation that provide encouragement and hope.  Quote them often, meditate on them, pray them.   I search for the verse I need - God has always shown me one.  Again, the waiting eventually ends but this time with a different perspective than choice #1.

Someone has said, "To look around is to be distressed; to look within is to be depressed; to look up is to be blessed." (source unknown)

What do you do to find strength to get through the season, the day, or the hour?  Do you have a favorite verse that you seem to turn to time and again?  A certain thing you do? Or place you go?

 P.S.  I'm almost ready to post my "Feeding the Family - Menu Planning".  Just working on one last thing on it before I do.

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