Emergency Numbers

Walk with Him Wednesday

How do I calm the storms through the day enough to sing the Praises of the Lord?

For this question I lack an answer, a true, real, honest answer.

The voices of man child the Father gave to me, the laughter and the tears, filled with frustration and also frenzied joy...the volume is so loud at times I cannot overcome it with Praise.

My heart quietly sings it to Him when the moments are soft, as they are now, with blonde heads lay on pillows and brown pigtails softly wrapping her neck while she breathes deep...

Thank you Lord....breathing in and out as the rhythm is natural, given by God, written in His holy name, YHWH...Thank you Father...thank you...

If I could only be a reflection of constant Thanksgiving for my children, not subdued by the temptation to be exhausted or to curse the hard work laid before me...

But, rather to breathe Thanksgiving in ALL things....all things...

Each moment of opportunity to teach my children, to train them up...

To refuse the temptation to find it inconvenient, tiresome, exasperating...

Oh selfish me...longing to make myself god-like rather than to serve the True God...

Those moments with my children should feel and come to me like Gifts from the Father, to be snatched up and given Victory in Jesus as we carve their hearts and their spirits for Him...

For the carving is often done without the words but with the look and the tone and the unintentional communication from my heart to theirs...

Rather I long to live with Thanksgiving in my heart and a joyful smile on my face, even in the harsh moments of teaching and carving, which happens often, moment by moment, that the knife would never dull but rather miraculously, through God's grace continue carving...

That the noise and the business of raising five children would only lift my spirit to sing His praise for the gifts He gave cannot be measured by mere words but a state of being, a place of rest within me that I live in the moment of Thankfulness...

That I might breathe Grace....

Mercy...

Grace...YHWH...

Thank you Jesus for the blonde hairs upon their heads, ten fingers and toes, hearts that long to please, opportunities to seize, help me not to fail...to take the moment by the hand and guide it...

Toward You...

Thank you Lord...

Breathe Grace...

Then they too will Breathe Grace...

They too will echo my look, my tone, my communication, without the words...

They too will one day Breathe Thanksgiving...

My faith runs deep in so many things...I trust, obey, listen, petition...

In the thing God has given to me to do most abundantly, most routinely, most importantly, I lack the faith...

The faith to give Thanks because it requires Trust, Reliance, Vulnerability...

Why do I avoid vulnerability so...

To breathe grace upon those small faces, the future men, and the small, precious woman, in my life, would require to be vulnerable...to share saddness, disapointment, to let anger go and embrace the emotion behind it all...

My faith has a come to a curious end in this moment where I refuse to raise them in the light of God's rejoicing for ALL things and His abundant Grace and Mercy...

Father create in me a clean heart...

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From Anne today:
"Our thanks to God is our witness to the goodness of God when Satan and all the world would sneer at us to recant."

"When I only give thanks for some things, aren’t I likely to miss giving God glory in most things?"

"Doesn’t God call His people to a non-discriminating response in all circumstances? “[G]iv[e] thanks always and for everything” (Ephesians 5:20 ESV)."

Inspiring Moments

Inspiring Moments...They come often, and quietly.

I turn and God gives inspiration in the moments that take my breath.

My children and the hope that glistens on the edges of their growing bodies as I see glimpses of goodness coming from my mothering and our parenting.

The sweet turns to sweat when I hear them love, laugh, obey, and live contently.

Inspiration, often like breathing, comes and goes with only whispers and when it comes God wisks you forward, keeps you going. He simply moves you when you feel unable to move.

It is the carrying He does when I need to train them, the movement towards the vacuum for the third time that day, the still, quiet moments you sit to read to them and they listen...

Inspiration appears with many feelings and wearing many faces and comes in various times and seasons.

Ann's words, a source of inspiration He often uses in my life as I hear her speak the words my heart sings...

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Motherhood’s a daily bravery. I can’t say that I don’t waver.

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As she, Ann, talks of her youngest daughter I think upon my oldest son, soon turning six and the world of infancy being stolen from him like a thief and manhood rising up inside my boy-child.

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I smile though it hurts. Mothers do this...

It’s like standing on the platform of the caboose, watching all the slipping world — when did they unfold out of me and into almost adults? Where do dimples on little hands go and how do you get back to the folds of necks and sweaty, sleep creased cheeks on your shoulder and when did all our beginnings become more like endings?

Why is it that the babies may birth the girl-child into womanhood? How do I make my way deep into womanhood without the babies, without a child clutching to me — or is it me, clutching a child? I need to know this. Some days I feel so bare and alone. A babe on the hip, clenched hands on the collar of my shirt, fingers on skin, this was a way to breathe. Do I forget that it is Christ who has grown me up through the babes made into men? And now, them near grown, we may both walk brave?

This is what I have always wanted, here in the hidden places. For the Holy Beautiful to use the wholly broken to shape a piece of eternity. And that need not happen somewhere else but wherever here is. This can happen at a sink, a stove, a kneeling smile into a child hopeful — the way the hands serve silent and daily.

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My heart aches and rejoices with such inspiration...my children growing longer, leaner, and lovely...

Although mine are not "near grown" I feel time wrestling me for them...his grip tight upon their bodies as they stretch and grow...

I hear true her words:

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Living slow never killed time like hurrying does

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Be inspired....
Slow the pace....
Grow slowly and steadily...
Soak it in and sink it deep...

Faithfullness

I've been considering the ways in which God is faithful to me.  I can reflect back and see the path he scored for me even in the wandering and questioning.  God is so faithful. 

In our culture definition Faith is:
Adhering firmly and devotedly, as to a person, cause, or idea; loyal..

 

In II Timothy 3:1-5, the apostle Paul describes the spirit of people at the end of the age:

But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!

This blows my mind. Our God is so faithful to US how can we be so quick to turn on Him?  Then I realize...this is what I see in my children.  Not intentional wickedness but RAW!  They are naturally unthankful, unloving, unforgiving, without self control, headstrong, disobedient to parents, lovers of themselves...the list continues.  

They seem to be a picture of what all mankind will be like in the last days...a foreshadowing of how raw and simply broken we are. 

In the same way we train our children, draw out of them the sin and pour into them the Love of Jesus and the fruit of His spirit so they might shed this exact list of sin above...Christ too pours into us. Drawing out of us our sinful nature and replacing it, little by little sometimes, with Him.

He is FAITHFUL!

I found these comments upon faithfulness:

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Paul lists nineteen characteristics, with "lovers of themselves" and "lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God" serving as bookends containing the others within them. How can a person be faithful to God when he loves himself more than God? How can a person be faithful to God when his own gratification means more to him than pleasing God? How can a person be faithful if he is a headstrong, haughty slanderer and traitor who is disobedient to parents, greedy, unloving and without self-control?
When counseling a person for baptism, the ministry almost always takes him through Luke 14:26, where Jesus states unequivocally,

If anyone comes to Me and does not hate [love less] his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.

Faithfulness hinges upon what we value as important combined with commitment. Humans have a powerful tendency to be faithful to what they think is truly important, be it a family name, spouse, friendship, employer, school, athletic team or even certain things like a make of automobile.

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Faithfulness hinges upon what we value as important combined with commitment....WOW! This is amazing.

God loves me so much and has such an awesome plan for me that He has been committed to me even when my heart is far and my sin is raw, like a child.  His value for me is high.

When something is of value to us it becomes worthy of our time, efforts, affection, and pursuit.  We, like God being made in His image, are maneuvered by those things of value to us.

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The meaning to us is clear. We must love Christ supremely, or we do not love Him much if at all. If we are not willing to give up all earthly possessions, forsake all earthly friends, and obey Him above all others—including our own carnal desires—to be faithful to Him, our attachment to Him is tenuous at best.

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Through our steadfast devotion, faithfulness, to Christ we will then be a foreshadowing of His love for us to others.  To be men who are reliable, faithful.

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In his commentary on Galatians, William Barclay writes, "This word (pistis) is common in secular Greek for trustworthiness. It is the characteristic of the man who is reliable" (p. 51).

Other synonyms include dedicated, steadfast, devoted, dependable, accurate, true, conscientious, dutiful, careful, scrupulous and thorough.

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Prayer:

Lord, help me to see your faithfulness to me. To see that you value me above all things that you would be mindful of my life, its coarse and your will in it.  Help me to follow your footsteps and be a person of faithfulness. To be reliable, steadfast, dependable, true...that I then might too draw people to you. That I might also draw my children to you. That I might show them your faithfulness so they in turn would know of your unfailing vlue on their lives.  That they would follow you with a steadfast love. That they would not fall victim to those sinful natures above but rather put them off to put you on!

Amen