Let your surrender be your worship

It was one of the few times I’ve seen him openly weep.

Moments before, my husband and I had watched our son walk through airport security, grab his military bags, and walk away. We stood there staring, hoping he’d look back so we could wave, but he kept on walking, strong, confident, ready to serve our country. We quietly turned around, unable to speak, and walked back to our car. Once we were seated, I put my hand on my husband’s shoulder, and we both began to cry. Minutes later, my husband prayed.

In that dark airport parking garage, we poured out our hearts to God, thanking Him for the gift of being our kids’ parents, acknowledging that our kids are His and asked Him to use them for His glory, to protect and guide them, and continue to draw them close to Himself. The peace the flooded our soul as we said ‘Amen’ was indescribable. That day, I learned that surrender and sacrifice, of any kind, can be worship to God.

Every parent has been there: the first step, first day of kindergarten, first time reading, first crush, first day of high school, first drive, first day of senior year, first job, first time moving away. These are moments that parents hold dear in their hearts.

These milestones are beautiful, important, and intensely capable of filling our souls with the confusing collection of joy and sadness, pride and fear, excitement and worry.

As you get ready for the upcoming milestone your children face, whether it’s packing their first lunch as they go to pre-school or buying dorm accessories as your child heads off to college, use these moments to once again surrender your child into the trustworthy Hands of our all-knowing, all-present, all-powerful God. This time of rededication, of sacrifice, of surrender is a powerful way to worship. Something unique happens when you take the time to acknowledge who God is, praise Him, and surrender to Him in the midst of the unknown.

It also serves as a reminder that if your child is in the care of our Heavenly Father, you don’t need to worry. He is a good God, and He will do His will in their lives. You can’t leave a time of worship unchanged. You will always walk away with peace and joy.

We drove away from the airport that morning, with tear-stained faces, but completely comforted in the knowledge that God is in control. As hard as it is to let go, it’s part of God’s plan, and to worship Him in the midst of it makes the milestone even more sweet.

Romans 12:4
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters,

in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice,

holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

Hebrews 11:6
And without faith it is impossible to please God,

because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists

and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Dressing up as milk

My four-year-old put on a tie, successfully wrapped a bandana around his head and came proudly into the kitchen. I asked him what he was dressed up as. He smiled and yelled, “MILK!”
What? Milk!? That was not the answer I was expecting.  What does that even mean?

 
This moment of confusion and misrepresentation of the basic creamy drink reminded me of how I feel at times. No, I don’t remember ever feeling like milk, but I do get confused as to what my purpose is here on the earth. We are surrounded with distractions, messages as to who we are to be, what we are to think, and how we are supposed to spend our time that our purpose gets muddled and processed, and we may even end up feeling a little like milk.
We can’t lose focus. Don’t let the overloading pressure of this world to be busy or the noises of our culture shrewdly redefine your purpose in life.

“Be sure to fear the Lord and serve Him faithfully with all our heart;

consider what great things He has done for you.” 1 Samuel 12:24

Isn’t that beautiful? A simple definition of how you are to live your life.  Fear the Lord and serve Him faithfully with all our heart. Consider the great things He has done for you.
Fear the Lord – The great Creator of all, the All-knowing, ever-present, all-powerful God of the universe, the One who sent His Only Son to save us from our sins, He is the One we should fear, obey, respect.
Serve Him faithfully – each person was created for this. By going through your day, sharing His love with those He puts in your life, by doing your best in all that you do, by giving of your time or resources to help others, what ever it is that He has led you to do today, do it faithfully.
Consider the great things He has done for you – remind yourself of how He has saved you, how He has made all things work together for the good of those who love Him, how He has rescued you, answered prayer, and brought you to this moment. Taking time to consider all He has done refreshes your mind and infuses courage into your soul.
Let’s not dress up as milk today. Let us be who God called us to be.

“Be sure to fear the Lord and serve Him faithfully with all our heart; consider what great things He has done for you.” 1 Samuel 12:24

Dear weary parent

Dear weary parent,

“Let us not grow weary in doing good,
for in due season we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
Galatians 6:9

Recently, I was forced to take a step back and reexamine my parenting methods. You would think this parenting thing would be second nature to me by now, as I’ve been a parent for over 20 years, but seasons change, focus gets blurred, and exhaustion put me in a type of insecure auto-pilot mode.

My lack luster parenting style was on display last week when my little guys started swim lessons. My eight-year-old did great, which was a very pleasant surprise, but my two-year-old and four-year-old paraded their disobedient hearts around as proudly as they wore their new swim goggles. I could feel the eyes of sympathetic parents trying not to stare, but they just couldn’t look away from our train wreck.

The struggle to have my little guys listen and obey was something I was aware of, and felt like I had been working on, but with their history I just didn’t approach parenting them as boldly as I had my older kids. I drove home feeling ashamed and hopeless, and began to pray…a lot.

I realized that during those years of our life when we were foster parents, having caseworkers make surprise visits along with the monthly check-ins critiquing me and telling me how to parent had left me extremely insecure and feeling lost in my parenting skills, especially for our younger three whom we’ve adopted through the system. God began to reveal to me how fearful I am in my parenting skills. Then I read this verse:

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear,
but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
2 Timothy 1:7

God chose me to be the parent of each of my kids. He has equipped me with everything I need to raise them up to love and serve the Lord. I don’t need to be fearful, I need to be filled with His power, love, and, isn’t this beautiful, a sound mind. (That last one is particularly awesome because I truly thought I would go crazy this past year, due to the hopelessness I felt with the struggles of our little guys) But guess what! I can do this. God makes no mistakes, and me getting to be their momma is something He decided long ago, therefore He has given me everything I need to succeed.

After this come-to-the-altar moment, I turned to the back of my Bible, where I found some notes I took from a visiting preacher quite a few years back. It was a timely and practical reminder of how I want to parent.

1. Have well-defined, well communicated boundaries.
2.  Have well-defined, well communicated consequences.
3.  Be consistent.
4.  NEVER discipline in anger.
5.  Take time to build relationships with them. Invest time in their world.

Five simple steps to help keep my perspective on point. Five reminders of my role as a parent.

We are called to impress on our kids hearts the need for a relationship with God, to teach them to obey His Commandments, to demonstrate as much as humanly possible how important it is to know God and accept His Love for them and in turn share that love with those around you. We are commanded to not exasperate them, but to bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. We can not forget that we are called to raise up the next generation of Christ followers. So fellow exhausted parent, don’t lose sight of the mission, don’t let fear take away the power, love, and sound mind that we need to have while raising our kids. “Don’t grow weary in doing good, for in due season you will reap a harvest if you don’t give up.”

 

 

*It’s been a week of reapplying these five steps.  I have to say, the week was hard because it takes a lot of energy physically and emotionally to be consistent in parenting.  However, the fruit of it has been so amazing!  More peace in our home, more smiles when we go places..the fruit of not giving up is worth the work.

introduction by numbers

 quick panoramic paint-by-number sketch of the life I live

a follower of Christ for 25 years

in the last year of  my 30’s

celebrating marriage of 20 years

mom of seven kids*, ages from 2-20 years old

*four pregancies; three adoptions
*two girls and five boys
*one Marine

caretaker of a 95-year old stranger

nine miles away from the nearest market

two dogs, two bunnies, a horse, two goats, six cats, two fish

Wednesday’s Word of Wisdom

I was at my baby shower for my first born, my Answer from God, my baby doll. Ladies in my family were going around the room sharing beautiful words of encouragement, along with hysterical forewarnings about what my life was about to look like. It came time for my husband’s Grandma to share. I leaned forward with anticipation, along with all the other ladies in the circle. We knew this was going to be good, and wanted to catch every word.
“When you are holding your new baby, singing to your baby, ‘Jesus Loves Me’, be sure to sing that truth to yourself as well.”

The fellow moms in rooms began to dab their eyes because they knew the importance of that truth. This advice pierced my soul. I wanted so badly for Jesus to love me again. After the poor choices, I had accepted God’s forgiveness and healing and blessings, but there wasn’t a day that went by where I questioned if He still loved me. Hearing my husband’s Grandma state the importance of reminding myself, and fellow moms, that in spite of wrong decisions of the past or present, exhaustion from a day filled with endless chores that seem to only be noticed by moms, time and energy that is demanded from us before our eyes open causing our time with God to feel rushed or non-existent, in spite of these things don’t forget that Jesus loves you.

“Jesus loves me” Such a simply saying, yet the power of His love can do more than we can ever imagine. Jesus wants you to remember that in the midst of your exhaustion, your survival, your chaos, He loves you.
Don’t forget that. Next time you are rocking your little one and singing ‘Jesus Loves Me’, take a minute and tell yourself, “Yes, Jesus loves me…the Bible tells me so”.