A Four generational look at motherhood

Week three: My Treasure, My Heart

Proverbs 24:3–“By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established.”

Three words, three words spoken that change your life forever, ready or not…”You Are Pregnant!”
Whether those words come to you long anticipated, or whether those words come to you as a surprise, they truly change your life forever!

I will never forget when I looked at the markings on that magical stick and it had a + sign. Then I went to my first doctor appointment and I heard those words spoken to me, “You are pregnant!” We were ready, we had prayed, and God was giving us a blessing, ready or not! Was I ready? is anybody ever really ready? I grew up playing with dolls and Barbies, dreaming of the day I would be a mom. I had fantasized about it and how I would hold that sweet bundle in my arms, rock her/him to sleep, say prayers at night over them, and cuddle them every chance I could. I was blessed to have been given two great examples of being a good mom, but still the question remained: was I ready?

Well, ready or not, it was happening! Jim and I had been married three years, and had decided together that we were ready to start trying to have a family. Little did I know it would happen so quickly! From all the stories I had heard it would take a while…First time was a charm for us, we were going to be parents, ready or not! I loved my time with Jim, starting a life together, our adventures together, just the two of us, setting up a home together, and beginning our ministry life together. Was I ready to add another? I have a feeling this is how most of us feel, when the daunting reality is finally placed before us, that we are going to be raising another life.

I want to be very sensitive here and acknowledge the fact that many try for years and struggle to hear those words “you are pregnant.” Others struggle for years and never get to hear the words, “you are pregnant.” While others hear the words “you are pregnant,” yet you never intended for that to be the outcome. While yet others of us, you hear the words “you are pregnant,” and are not blessed to carry that pregnancy to full-term. That happened to me at the end of four months with my second pregnancy. It was a painful part of my reality, but God has used it to build His character in me even further. But that is a blog post for another time.

Motherhood: in its truest form is loving, nurturing, and caring for another. We are all called to that in some way, shape, or form. You may be an aunt, you may be a stand-in-mom or grandma to someone in your neighborhood or at your church. All around us, there are children that need to feel the love of Jesus. And we can all fulfill this calling to some point. This calling brings us back to the reality of ready or not, you are responsible for another being.

Was I am ready for this task? No! Was I excited at the possibilities that lay ahead? Yes! But I think if any of us are honest, we are all scared at the possibility of being responsible for someone other than ourselves. It’s scary enough to be responsible for yourself!

There is no greater time in my life that I was drawn to my knees in prayer, to God’s word, to open its pages for wisdom and counsel, knowing that on my own I could not do this, but learning to trust and depend on my God who I knew could do it through me!

My husband and I grew together as a couple, as we learned to look to the other for their strengths and depend on them to complement our weaknesses. It forced us to learn to communicate better and more effectively, so that we could be on the same page as far as discipline, expectations, and values. It drove us to create what we call our family values: SWANEY FAMILY VALUES!

Our overriding verse was Matthew 6:33. We were going to be a family that “Matthew 6:33ed it, “To seek first his kingdom, and his righteousness, and all of these things will be added to you.”

Some simple rules we followed:

“Let your yes be yes and your no be no.” Matthew 5:37.

“You get what you get and you don’t throw a fit,” so be content in all things. Philippians 4:12

“Do everything without arguing or complaining.” Philippians 2:14

Along with our family rules or values, there were overriding truths we believed. According to Scripture, our children are gifts from God, a welcome member to our already existing family. Through marriage God creates a family.  A family begins with the husband and wife, and that is the primary, foundational relationship in any family.  If we are blessed with children, they are welcome family members and beautiful gifts from God. This helped remind this mama that even at the times when I would tend to make them the center of my universe, my relationship with Jim was central, and our kids were welcome members to our already existing family. Yes, there were times when they needed to come first, and things needed to be set aside for their benefit. But it was also equally true that there were times they needed to learn to wait, they needed to learn to give, so that someone else in the family would be first.

Another Family Value we practiced was going to church. Church was a given, not an option. We love God out of His great love for us, and we give back because of what He has done for us, not out of obligation but out of love and our desire to please Him. This meant that we did not use church as a punishment, or a privilege that they could lose. It was simply a lifestyle.

One of our most important family values was instilling the belief that God had created each of them–each one of us–with special, unique, gifts, talents and abilities. We offered many opportunities to discover those abilities to our children. Yes, this may have created a “busy schedule”, at times, but we believed this was an important training ground for our children. Sometimes we need to know what we are not good at something in order to understand what we are good at!  It was a valuable lesson to teach our children that they were not good at everything, and so they would need to work hard at the things they were not good at. It also helped them learn compassion for those who are not gifted in the same way. One of my favorite stories to tell about my daughter–but also one of the hardest stories to live through with my daughter–was giving her piano lessons. So many things came easy to her.  Playing the piano, however, did not! She started with great enthusiasm, and quickly she wanted to quit. But her dad and I told her she needed to continue. She finished out the first year and it was painful for all of us! But she continued on the second year, and the next year after that. After three years of struggling to learn to play the piano, she could learn by perseverance to do something she was not naturally gifted at, but it took a lot of hard work. At the end of that third year we felt she had indeed learned the lesson, and we were all excited when that came to an end!

For my son it was the painful lesson of “hurry.”  When he was in 5th grade, I saw him hurrying through something he was naturally good at, his school studies, but I had to stand back and let him take a lesser grade for not following all of the specific roles in the syllabus, and knew that, in getting that lower grade, he would learn how to slow down, to read over everything carefully, and to do better the next time. To this day I think it was the only C+ he ever received! And since it was only in fifth grade, it didn’t hurt any of his future transcripts! Allowing my children to try, to work hard, and too at times fail, was painful for me as a mom. But in loving them more than life itself, I knew it was the right thing to do for them.

Sports came naturally to our children, but the lessons they learned were invaluable: be a good sport, don’t go bragging and boasting, and be empathetic to all, no matter their skill level or ability.

Colossians 3:13: ” Bear with one another.” 

We worked hard to instill the belief that our children were each other’s greatest cheerleaders. We were to be the encouragers for each other first. God gave Tyler one sister, and God gave Christina one brother, God had made us a family, and we were to be each other’s greatest source of strength and encouragement! It was not an option to attend each other’s games or not: it was a family value and expectation. Not comparing oneself to the other, but celebrating each other in all of their achievements. We avoided the comparison trap!

One of the greatest family values that I haven’t mentioned yet, was being confident in the fact that God had called us into ministry as a family. Knowing and believing that God would not have called dad into full-time ministry, if he had not called mom and his children into full-time ministry as well. Once again living out the belief that we were a family, and the children were welcome members into that Christian, dad-as-a-pastor family. We taught our children what we believed: that we were blessed by God to be a blessing to others.  That everything we have comes from God, “every good and perfect gift comes from above.” And we were thrilled to be able to take them on the mission field at a very young age, and on many mission trips that followed when they were teenagers, to show them firsthand that the rest of the world needs God, and does not live like we do. This mother’s heart was full of joy and pride as she witnessed her children dig in with full hearts and willing hands!

Parenting can be exhausting! And being a good parent is even more so!

It wasn’t just enough to have our family values, and it wasn’t just enough to tell our children what to do. The hardest part of parenting is living it out by example. Taking the time to explain each value and expectation to your child not just once, but over and over and over again. It also meant giving them the “Why.” Why God is calling us to this behavior; why this is best for our family; why this is best for others around them.

Jim and I determined our goal and God-given role in parenting: “To raise a godly heritage,” one that would grow to know Him, to understand His love for them, choose Him for their own, and serve Him in whatever way, to further God’s kingdom. While this was a large goal, it kept our focus centered. When an issue with discipline arose, we acted on it from this focus. When a choice that may have seemed questionable arose, we acted on it from this focus.

The greatest lesson I learned by being a mom was humility! The reality and truth that I did not have all of the answers and that I was not always right! I was the mom and did have God given authority to train up my children in the way He desired for me to train them up to the very best of my ability. But the only way that I could do that was to seek him earnestly through prayer and to learn with His eyes and gain insight as to who my children really were. My daily prayer was for God to give me His eyes to help me be the mom that he called me to be for Christina and for Tyler. For God to help me to be the wife that Jim needed me to be, and for God to please make me a servant, a woman who would love God first, her husband next, her children after that, and then the world that He put before me.

My first child was a beautiful daughter! Her eyes were so crystal blue that after naming her Christina, my mom told me I should have named her Crystal. I learned quickly that she had the character far more like her father’s than mine! She was determined, far more intelligent than me, and very strong-willed! I used to say that James Dobson’s Book, the strong-willed Child, had nothing on my Christina girl! She was bright, and inquisitive, and was sure that she could be the boss and would be in control if I let her. But I was her mom, and I had the final say. However, she needed to be heard, she needed to make choices for herself, and she needed to know that I loved her and I respected her no matter what. God began to clearly show me that she was my treasure! She was a precious gem, priceless and beyond compare!

Tyler on the other hand, had a natural character more like mine. I never had to ask him how he was feeling: he wore his heart on his sleeve. I understood him more easily and readily, yet he was a boy and that was very different! I needed him to learn to respect me, and to let him know that I respected him as well. God clearly demonstrated to me that he was my heart, that I was to love him with all of mine, but I was to allow him to grow and develop on his own. As much as I dearly desire to, I could not hold on too tightly to my children. I had to realize that I was called to train them up in the way that God wanted them to go, and then eventually I needed to let go and let them be God’s!  They were mine for a time, for a very precious time. But our goal as parents–and my goal as a mom–was to raise up a godly heritage that would be strong and confident in Him and in Him alone so that they could go on to accomplish His will and purposes and continue to build His kingdom here on earth in their generation!

We established rules, we told them the “what” (here are the rules) and the “why” (here is why we should obey them). We told them that we were a family, but the most vital part of our call was not to “talk the talk”, but to “walk the walk!” Our children were going to become who they became, to a large degree because of who and what they saw in us. We lived under the same rules and authority that they did, the same rules that govern them under God, governed us under God!

Today, I am a mama with an empty nest! I still get a catch in my throat and a tear in my eye when I say that. I miss my children every single day! But because of God’s grace and wisdom and faithfulness, I do not worry about them. I enjoy them as the adult children that they are! They are both out there in full-time ministry, using their gifts and passions to change their world and bring people to faith in Jesus. I love them with all of my heart. And they remain to this day my beautiful girl Christina, my treasure. And my handsome son Tyler, my heart!

Truth Bomb:

Your kids are yours for a season. You are to raise them, train them and send them!

My children are God’s first and foremost! We have the unique role as Mother’s to train them, build into them, encourage them and love them unconditionally. Remember that they are only yours for a season-truthfully, they are God’s, and you have the blessing of raising them! Pour into them, pray over them, love them like crazy! The time is short, but the impact is eternal!

Proverbs 24:3 “By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established.” 

See you next week for our final week in our Motherhood series!

 

Speak Truth Love

Four Pictures of Motherhood; A Four generational look at being a Mom.

Week Two: The Devotion Of A Mother’s Heart.

“But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” -Luke 2:19

Who but a mother could truly comprehend the deep meaning found within these words? Yet God puts them in His word for all of us to read. Demonstrating the depth of a mother’s love, and the devotion that lies with in her heart.

The devotion of a mother’s heart!

The earliest memories of my mother are of us always being together. I never felt alone! I always knew without a single doubt in my mind that she loved me and cared for me and that I never needed to worry about anything. She held my hand, she dressed me, she fed me, she played with me, she laughed with me, she rocked me, she sang to me, and she made me look forward to each and every day. She made me feel like being a child was the best thing ever! She loved me and my sisters more than anything else in this world! I never felt like she wanted to be away from us. I always felt secure in knowing she wanted to be with us. She was an only child, and she was thrilled to have four daughters. I think she loved the fact that we were all together!

One of the songs I remember her singing was on Saturday mornings when it was time to get up. She would pull the curtains back and sing, “Rise and Shine, Merry Sunshine.” She made everything fun, like it was a game. Even though we didn’t really want to get up, she would tell us she was making french toast, we could watch cartoons for 30 minutes, and then we would need to do our chores. She would kiss and tickle us to get us out of bed. Just the memory of it makes me smile! She even made grocery shopping fun. She would let us select fish sticks, one of our favorites, with green beans, if my dad was going to be out of town. Then she would let us get paper dolls or coloring books. We would take them home and play for hours! She would let us turn our room into a village for our Barbie dolls. We would make houses and shops out of shoe boxes, and dress them and play for hours. She also made each vacation and holiday special from beginning to end. From decorating the tree, to making Christmas cookies, to dancing to Christmas music, to decorating Easter eggs, and even making our outfits for Halloween. Each and every tradition was followed, each and every year!

We looked forward to each with great anticipation. We were a family, and we loved being together!

I never felt like I didn’t matter, or she didn’t have time for me. She never treated one of us any more special than another, yet she was able to uniquely pull out our individual differences and talents. She taught us style and grace by the way she dressed, by the classy way she wore her make up, by the way she did her hair, and by the way she carried herself and talked to other people. She was kind and she was loving, and she was gracious with her speech. My mom didn’t use cuss words, she didn’t smoke or drink, and she cared about the way she looked. Not to an obsessive state, no; but to have pride in herself and the way she presented herself to others. She did the same for us. She always dressed us nicely, taught us how to dress modestly, always did our hair, and with four girls, that is saying a lot!

She always took us to Sunday school. This was not always easy for her, because my dad was not always there with us. But she still took us! She taught us to pray at each meal and at bedtime, and always made Christmas and Easter revolve around Church.

She loved our dad so much, and always demonstrated a great love and desire to be with him, and to have him be with us. She shared in activities with him, some that would not have been her first choice. But she graciously made them a family event. She would take us to each and everyone of his baseball games; we would go out on his boat, which he lovingly named, ‘My Linda’; we would watch football games together on the weekends, and she would make us delicious food to go along with them. She joined in his desire to have horses in our backyard, even though she was frightened by them. We would go deer hunting together on trips that would take us far from home–at one point, clear to Colorado!  She genuinely loved my father, and sacrificed a lot for him.

One of the things that stands out in my memory demonstrating her commitment and love to my father, and our family, was that she worked outside of the home, even though her desire was to be a “stay at home mom.” Her family came first, and it was clear in everything she did.

When I entered my teenage years, I could sense the tension between my mom and dad. It was something I didn’t want to admit was there, but it became evident that it was. My dad was home less and less. His construction business seemed to take him away from home more than ever. I knew my mom wasn’t happy with this, but she never let on to us about it. She would tell us that everything was fine, and that she loved us very, very much! When he was away, she would make it fun for us. She would let us choose what we wanted for dinner; she would pick movies and we would watch them together. We would go places like the Crocker Art Museum in downtown Sacramento, or the public library. She didn’t sit on the couch and sulk, and she didn’t cry in front of us, feeling sorry for herself. She truly made the best of every day and brought love and joy into our lives despite the circumstances. As I look back on those times now, I see the strength she demonstrated out of her devotion to us, her children.

She taught me more about unconditional love through those long days, then I could have ever learned any other way. She loved her daughters with all of her heart. And even though her own heart was breaking, her devotion to us remained steadfast! I know that we are all the mothers that we are today, because of her example.

When my dad was going through his struggle to stay faithful and committed to his family, money became a big issue. He would get angry at my mom and tell her that she demanded too much, spent too much, and was always asking for money. As the oldest, I could see that she was just trying to take care of her daughters. I remember one time asking my father for a dress for the prom. It was not one of his good seasons, and he yelled at me. My mom found a way to save up enough money to buy me a dress at an outlet. She did my hair, and she made me feel beautiful. I was her little girl and she held me in her heart.

My mother loved my father and her children with a strong devotion. She never wanted a divorce from my father, but he was unfaithful and ultimately that is what happened. Changes came after my mother and father divorced, and they were hard.

My mother remarried eventually and that brought in another family. There were adjustments, difficulties, and at times pain and tears. But through it all my mother kept her daughters near and dear to her heart. We knew no one would really ever take our place in her mother’s heart. As I look back over those past 38 years, I am thankful, humbled, and honored by the amount of love and dedication she has shown to her family. She has stayed married, loyal and faithful to her husband for these past 38 years. Even after the divorce, she accepted my dad into our family holidays and activities, including him with grace. Remarkably, over time my dad and her husband actually became good friends. She never badmouthed my dad to his daughters, and even when I was angry and didn’t want to be around him, she told me he was my father, and he deserved my love and respect. And she made sure I knew he always loved me! She demonstrated loyalty by being a good daughter-in-law to my father’s parents, and sister-in-law to my father’s sisters.

She loved and reached out to her uncle Art, and both sides of her parent’s family.  She was a faithful, loving daughter to her parents all of their lives! She graciously cared for them when they were sick, always having them be a part of all of our holidays and events. She truly showed us how to respect and love your parents, through the way she loved hers. She and her husband paid for many family vacations for all of us to be a part of, and opened their home for big family gatherings. She always opened her home, and still does to this day, for any visitors to stay in.

She accepted and welcomed her stepchildren into the family, and worked hard to make everyone feel an important part of the family. She always supported her children, grandchildren, and now great-grandchildren, by babysitting, helping out, and buying gifts. She set the bar high for being a grandma! One I can only hope to attain. She loves them all dearly, and they all dearly love her! She truly holds each and everyone of them in her heart as well as her children. Her grandchildren still request her world famous french toast, every time they are at her house! She was always there when you needed a phone call for advice or support. She accepted her son-in-laws as her own sons and even her grandkid’s spouses have come to love her and even call her “Grammie.”

She speaks the truth in love, and sometimes says what you need to hear, even if you don’t want to hear it. She did not take sides in her kid’s marital squabbles, but always assured us that it was worth working it out. She has a wisdom for pointing out the good traits about each person.

My mom is truly extraordinary! She demonstrated that family comes first and that love is unconditional! That a family member always deserves forgiveness and is never beyond restoration. Because of her forgiveness and restoration with my father, we were all able to heal and have a right relationship with him.

I am confident of this one thing: my mother holds me in her heart and is devoted to me. I am never truly farther than a heartbeat away.

Truth Bomb:

An ordinary Mother who loves her family unconditionally becomes extraordinary.

I have an extraordinary Mom. She has always held me close to her heart and loved me unconditionally. Perhaps you haven’t had a Mom like that, and this description doesn’t make any sense to you. The truth is, whether you’ve had an amazing example of a Mom or a disappointing one, God wants you to be the Mom He created you to be! One that leaves your children loved unconditionally, so they can get a glimpse of how their Heavenly Father loves them unconditionally. You have the opportunity to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary through God’s strength!

Speak Truth Love

Four Pictures of Motherhood: A Four Generational Look at Being A Mom

Week 1: The legacy of a godly Mother/Grandmother

“Unless the Lord builds the house, it’s laborers labor in vain.” -Psalm 127:1

I promised you a series on motherhood, and that is a lot to bite off! I am in no way implying that I am an expert on the subject. I just happen to have a relationship with the God who it is. I also know from first-hand experience that He fills in all the blanks. When you don’t have the words to say, He gives you the words. When you say words you wish you wouldn’t have said, He gives you humility to ask for forgiveness and to use that opportunity as a teaching experience. When you feel exhausted, He gives you the strength to keep on keeping on. When you want to pull your hair out, He gives you the peace that truly surpasses all of our understanding, and He allows you to get it together again.

Much more than the experience that I have had in being a mother, is what I experienced by the two wonderful mothers God graciously placed in my life! They are my Grandma, Lela, and my Mom Linda.

For decades now the world has tried to re-define what being a mother is. We get mixed messages and it messes with us!

Take care of your self-put yourself first so that you have enough to give back; you don’t need a husband, any dad for your child will do; it does not matter the amount of hours a day that you spend with your child; If you have a lot of money and are a truly great mom, give your child everything they want; educate your child in the best school and make sure their test scores are high…the world gives us so many messages!

And just in case you think I am advocating  raising kids in the church alone, we have not always done such a great job ourselves. We put such pressure on moms to be what we defined they should be, that we are making women neurotic, feel like failures, or making young women not even want to take the step of motherhood because they are afraid of failing.

According to some, you have to be a stay-at-home mom or you’re not a good mom; you have to homeschool or you’re not really a great mom; you definitely have to breast-feed or you will literally destroy your child for life! You have to have a perfect home with a bedroom for each child, and preferably their own bathroom. Do not tell them too much of what to do either. You must let them experience it for themselves, because a “good Christian mother” is loving and kind at all times, she never loses her temper, and she always has more than enough patience for her children.

This kind of ideal scenario sounds like getting a fast pass to every ride at Disneyland! And you didn’t even have to pay to get in: someone gave it to you! You have everything handed to you and you never learn to earn anything.

There has to be a balance. A place in between the two, where we can glean from the wisdom of those that have gone before us, and look to the one and only book that truly does define being a mother: The Bible!

“The B-I-B L-E, yes that’s the book for me! I stand up tall on the word of God, the B-I-B L-E, BIBLE!”

As I write those words to you, I see the picture of my Grandma’s face! Lela May Welty, Switter…she’s saying those words to me over and over again with the sweetest soprano voice that I have ever heard. She was never trained professionally to sing, but oh how she loved to sing! I’ve talked about her in past posts…She was the most beautiful woman in the world to me, she set the stage for having a signature color, before it was a thing. My grandma loved pink! She put it in her home, and she wore it beautifully. Until the day Jesus called her home she dressed up so beautifully for church and always wore patent leather heels. She was elegance and grace. She was kind and loving and accepting of every single person she met.

It wasn’t the words she said, or the book that she wrote(she didn’t write a book), that taught me what motherhood looked like. It was the way she lived her life. Nothing, and I mean nothing that she did was apart from Jesus! Yes, she would say to me, “Jesus loves you Lisa Kay. He died for you, and you are the most important person to Him.” But it wasn’t just her words, but her actions that instilled that truth into my heart. She would get up every morning and put her feet on the floor and say,

“This is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.”  Psalm 118:24

I watched her do that as her heart would break. First, seeing one sister lost to dementia, another sister lost to cancer, her husband rushed to the hospital in an ambulance from our house after having a heart attack, and yet day after day, she would continue to put her feet on the floor each morning regardless of her circumstances.

I watched her cooked meals and take them to people who were bound to their house. I watched her teach Sunday school, and vacation Bible school every year. I watched her make dinner every night for my grandpa, she would always make comments like, Oh, this is his favorite!” And “Grandpa always likes Jell-O at the end of his meal.” And “Grandpa loves ham, although it isn’t good for him. I give it to him only on special occasions!” She would tell me how proud she was of him for how hard he worked. She would even take me to the college campus where he worked on the maintenance crew. She would walk me around and introduce me to everyone and tell them that I was Gilbert Switters granddaughter, with such pride. She had dinner waiting for him when he came home. She washed and cleaned his clothes, she got him all of his favorite things, and she did it all why she herself worked full-time, cooking at a high school cafeteria.

She taught me how to bake! She would let me pull up a chair, turn it around, come up to the counter with her and teach me how to put the batter in first and whip it until it was creamy. Then add the sugar slowly, then the vanilla, and then the eggs one at a time. This made the best cookies ever!

She loved my mom, her one and only daughter, with greater love than I had seen in anyone before. She would look at her and lean over into my ear and say, “isn’t she beautiful!?” She would drive up with my grandpa from Arizona where they lived, every Christmas with a Tupperware full of homemade Christmas cookies and a trunk full of beautifully wrapped Christmas gifts for all of us. She did not have much money, but what money she had she shared with us!

She made my sisters and I five school dresses every year to start school. She bought us black patent leather shoes for fall and winter for church, and white patent leather shoes for Easter and spring. She made us our Christmas dresses, and our Easter dresses to match every year! Yes, I said made, not bought! She demonstrated to me her love and commitment to us by the time and effort she put in to making all of those dresses. My baby sister was too small at the time, but my other two sisters and I received those dresses every single year. Times three, that is fifteen dresses to start each school year, three dresses for Christmas and three dresses for Easter!

But more than all of these things put together, she taught me to love God! Not because she told me to, or she made me go to church with her, but because of the way she acted, because of the word she spoke, because of the prayer she said with me at night, because of the way she held my hand and walked with me, because of the way she went to church because she wanted to, because of the way that she opened her Bible, every day and read from God’s Word!

My grandma lived out the unconditional love that God calls us as mothers to have for our children and grandchildren every day of her life! She gave when she had little or nothing to give, she cooked and prepared when she didn’t really have enough time. She bought fabric and sewed when it took every spare minute she had, and she served and loved God because He was the Lord of her life, He was her friend, and she desired to spend time with Him! That made this little girl want to love Him too and want to have Him as her friend!

My grandmother truly lived out the verse, “Unless The Lord builds the house, the laborers labor in vain.” -Psalm 127:1

She was not attempting to do this thing called motherhood by herself. She was trusting in the Lord her God to accomplish it through her! And boy did He! I not only saw what it meant to be a good mother through her life, I saw what it meant to completely love and trust in her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Thank you, Grandma, for helping me to see what Godly motherhood truly looks like!

Truth Bomb:

The world has turned motherhood into more of a production of what we can put out, and produce, rather than a relationship.

Your children will remember the time you spend together and the special things you do for them, just as I do with my Grandma. They will remember the acts of love you show them and what you sacrifice for them. They will remember the truths you teach them. They will know how great the Father’s love is for them, because of you.

Don’t allow the world’s and especially social media’s picture of Motherhood to pressure you into trying to “put out” great children. Remember, being a mother is truly a gift from God; a relationship that you are blessed to have. Enjoy that relationship, and rejoice in the day that God has given you!

Remember, “This is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.”

My grandmother gave me her pearls, some of her “pink” glass that adorned her living room as long as my memory goes back, her treasured recipes that we made together, her grace, her dignity, but more than anything, my grandma gave me the example of her devout love and dedication to her Lord Jesus Christ!  My grandma showed me through the way she lived, not just through the words she spoke, that being a mom meant loving like Jesus! It meant going the extra mile whether you had the energy to or not. It meant giving forgiveness when forgiveness wasn’t due, it meant laughing together, crying together, praying together, and always, no matter what, loving unconditionally with a pure heart.

Motherhood means pointing your child or grandchild to Jesus! Not just simply through the words you speak, but through the life you live!

Speak Truth Love

“There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his.” -Hebrews 4:9-10

God blessed me with a vacation this past week. I could say it was okay, but that would be a gross understatement, and this is a blog on TRUTH!

It was perfect in every way but one; it came to an end too fast! Seven days of beautiful scenery, gorgeous cool weather, green hills covered in yellow floral splendor,  hikes down unknown paths, taste-testing new foods from bakeries, to 4 barrel espresso! Sublime walks holding my hubby’s hand, and dreaming our dreams together. Long mornings and quiet devotionals, followed by  dinners in new and unknown restaurants! Driving further north between yet more green covered hills lined with beautiful vineyards, to meet up with and spend time with beloved family members whom we don’t see often enough! Sharing my favorite worship with my favorite people on the weekend!

…And now, I find myself driving back to face the work week on Highway 5!

Was it worth it? Not only was it worth it, but it is commanded by my God!

God desires for each of us to enter into rest–HIS REST! We work hard, we give God our best, and in our crazy busy schedules, He desires that we take time to rest. His desire is not that we simply “take a nap.” His desire is that we rest in Him! That we pray, that we take time to be still and know that He is God, that we take in with our eyes and ears and our senses the smell that He is truly God; simply by experiencing the world that He created. That we relax and we take a walk in it, that we observe the beauty of it, and that we take time to listen to someone else that we care about, and share what we are thinking and feeling with that person.

One day out of my seven days of “rest”, I felt God’s presence especially. We got up early and took a morning walk through the city by the bay. We hiked up and over several hills to a special place where sweet smells of baked goods were filling the air all around it! Arriving to the counter, the temptation was strong to just select one of everything in the delectable case of baked goods in front of us! But with all of the self-control we could muster, we picked two fresh baked morning buns. The temptation was great to immediately sink our teeth into the cinnamon, sugar treat in front of us. But our quest that morning and had only just begun! So we resisted, and we hiked on through the streets of San Francisco, four blocks over, and five blocks up to our next destination! The sign read “Four Barrel Coffee”.  The aroma of beautifully roasted coffee beans, was wafting through the air and led us straight to our destination before our eyes ever caught sight of the sign!

We carried our coffee in hand accompanied by the brown paper sack that held our delicious morning buns to our final destination for the morning: Dolores Park! We climbed a bit higher and a bit farther then we had intended but upon reaching the top of the park we sat on a bench ready to open up our sack and dig our teeth into our delectable treat. We looked up at that moment and our breath stopped! Surrounding us was a panoramic view of the city of San Francisco, with the beautiful Pacific ocean surrounding it! My mind and heart could only focus on the splendor of my God and Creator! I sat in all of His beauty and could only thank Him. The thought of buying a morning bun and cappuccino seemed to fade from my memory as I sat and thanked my God for all that He had created.

My average work week does not lend to moments like that! Yes I talk with Him, I certainly walk with Him through all of my daily responsibilities, and at night I thank Him for my day. But it takes a purposed time away, to “Rest in Him,” and slow down long enough to hear Him speak to me, even through the beauty of His glorious creation! I am thankful for rest, and I am even more thankful for a God who cares so much about me to desire that I take a time of rest from my responsibilities!

Truth Bomb:

Rest is a gift from God when we allow it to be.

God calls us to come into His rest. He is waiting there for us, to walk with him, to talk with him, and to rest in His goodness. It is there that we find peace! We learn to relax and trust in Him. Do you understand that He is in control and will take care of all of our needs?

So as I find myself at the end of that time of rest, heading back down Highway 5, with headlights glaring at me from across the highway, I still have a peace, the peace from God that surpasses all understanding! The true peace of God that will give me strength, give me confidence, and supply me with everything I need to live my life every day the way God desires me to live it! I will go from this place of rest in Him, to take on the challenges of the days ahead, knowing His peace is ruling in my heart!

Philippians 4:7 says, “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

May you find rest in Him and experience His presence in a whole new way. May you allow Him to speak Truth to you as you lean into His loving arms and abide in Him.

Coming Up: A four week series on MOMS!

       Speak Truth Love