Be Prepared

On the morning of May 29, 2007 a mom in Texas hung her 4 young children and herself in her closet.  She was discovered by her own sister.  What a gruesome scene that must have been.  A scene she will never be able to get out of her mind. 

2 years earlier a mom in the same town shot her 2 kids.

Andrea Yates drowned her 5 children.

Deanna Schlosser severed her baby girls arms causing her to bleed to death.

What is going on???  Are you as sickened by all of this as I am? 

Many years ago I had drifted from the Lord.  I was not reading his word, nor was I praying & seeking his guidance.  I had several small children and felt very overwhelmed most of my days.  I felt all alone, like my life was lost.  I felt useless to others & at times thought there was no hope for things to get better.  Many times I just wanted to walk away from all of it.  I thought that everyone would be much better off if I just got in my car and drove away.  But I never felt tempted to kill my children, not myself.  So, why are these moms all reaching a point of no return in their life by killing their own children.  It is so hard to imagine and understand.

I totally believe that as mothers, we are under attack by Satan.  He is alive and very real and on the prowl.  He wantes nothing better than to destroy the christian family.  His favorite place to start is with us moms.  We are the central heartbeat of our family.  Our husbands are the leaders, but we are the nurturing ones and if we fall apart then so can everyone else.  We are the relationship builders of the family.  It is just the way God created it.

So how do we remain strong and able to defend against the attacks Satan will use on us? 

Ephesians 6:10-13 says it best.

 10″Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.”

If I am to be prepared for the trials that will come in my life I have to soak myself in God’s word & know his ways.  I have to know without a second thought that he loves me and will fight for me.  If I am not prepared then I will fall.  I will be depressed or fearful of the future.  I will not nurture nor train my children in the ways of the Lord.  I will not be the wife my husband needs so that he can lead our family.  This is what Satan wants. 

Read the rest of the 6th chapter of Ephesians.  http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ephesians%206;&version=31;

It tells you the steps to get prepared. You can do a word study on these to gain a deeper understanding of the importance.

I don’t know if the moms who killed their children knew the Lord.  But they should be a huge reminder to us how dangerous it can be to be a mother these days. 

Please, if you are having feelings of despair or depression please talk to someone.  Don’t think you must suffer alone.  Galations 6:2 says to “carry one anothers burdens”.  If you don’t have some one you can ask for help from then email me.  We must help each other.  We are not fighting against each other we are fighting against evil.  We need the support of each other. 

By God’s grace & mercy, we can build our homes to His Glory!! 

Your Greatest Gift

“Jesus replied,” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.” Matthew 22:37,38.(NIV)

What is the greatest gift that you as a mother can give to your family?  Is it your time, clean underwear, or healthy food to eat?  While all of those are wonderful things, they are not the greatest. 

I love my kids more than I thought possible.  When I had my first baby I was so filled with emotion everytime I looked at her that I wanted to cry.  Now 16 years later, sometimes I still want to cry, but for different reasons.  Now, it is because I know my time with her at home is getting shorter.  I wanted to give that new baby girl I held in my arms the world.  I wanted her to have everything I never had & take her places I never went. 

Our family continued to grow quickly, but my desire to give my children everything didn’t change.  Over time though I realized that even if I could give them everything in the world it would not be what they really needed.  I realized that the greatest gift I could ever give to my children and to my husband was to fall in love with the Lord in a way I never had before. 

Learning to love the Lord is being totally loyal and obediant to him.  This goes far beyond an emotion, this is a state of being.  To love the Lord like it is stated in this verse is more like a commitment, a marriage between you and God. 

You don’t just love the Lord.  You love him with your whole being.  When you truly love someone you want to be with them, please them and give of yourself to them.  For my husband, I enjoy doing things for him that I know will please him because I love him so much. I love going places with him even if it is just to get milk at the store or go to wash his car.  We are spending time together & that is good for our relationship.

As my love for the Lord continues to grow deeper I want to spend more time with him by reading his word, worshiping him & praying to him.  I want to be obediant in what he has instructed me to do because I love him so much.  When I am obediant, I am blessed and experience his joy.  All of this makes me a better wife & mother.  I am better able to keep my life in balance. 

This is a very loaded verse.  It is full of meaning & lessons for us.  But instead of me telling all I am learning from this verse I want you to dig into the verse & see what you come up with.  Look up the Hebrew meanings of the words; love, heart and mind.

What do they reveal to you about that verse? 

What does this verse say to you about being a wife and mother?

Do you think you can completely love the Lord and love your husband and love your children too?

Email me & let me know!!

dana@livingstones4moms.com

Have a God Party!

 With 12 birthdays just in our house, not counting the ones of grandparents & my siblings, we do a lot of celebrating.   Today is my oldest’ birthday(5-10-07).  Ashley is 16 today.  This is a big deal to her of course.  Do you remember turning 16?  I do!  So, today, we are celebrating Ashley.  We will have a special dinner for her tonight, her grandparents will be here.  We will have cake & she will open gifts that we have bought for her to show her how much she means to our family.  We will pray blessings over her & thank God for putting her in our family.  We will have an Ashley Party!

Have you ever had a God party?  It is so much fun!  You spend time telling God all the wonderful things you love about him. You remember the awesome things he has done in your life and you praise him for them.  Deuteronomy 8 says to never forget what God has done for you.  Write them down so that it is easier to remember.  Say them outloud!  “God, remember when I met Christie?  Thank you so much for bringing her into my life!  She is such a blessing to me.” “Help me to never forget how you protected us.”

Another thing you can do at your God Party is to use his words to praise him.

“I will praise You, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will tell of all your marvelous works.  I will be glad and rejoice in You;  I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High. (Psalm 9:1-2)

“I will sing of the mercies of the LORD forever; with my mouth will I make known your faithfulness to all generations.” (Psalm 89:1)

Praise him for your friendships.

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”  (John 15:12-13)

Praise God for his gift of salvation.

“If you confess with you mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

Praise God for his forgiveness.

You have forgiven the iniquity of Your people; you have covered all their sin.”  (Psalm 85:2)

Praise God for his strength in your life.

“It is God who arms me with strength, and makes my way perfect.”  (Psalm 18:32)

Praise God for the trials that bring you closer to Him.

“Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philipians 1:3)

You can have your God Party anytime you want to in your day.

From the rising of the sun to its going down, the LORD’s name is to be praised. (Psalm 113:3)

 Have a God Party all day if you want to.  How fun is that to party all day long while you care for your family, do your job or whatever you do all day?  There is another word for “God Party”, it is most often called WORSHIP. 

 You can teach this to your kids.  While they are helping you fold clothes you can say things like, “God, thank you for the clothes you have given us to wear.”  When you are in your car for the 14th time that day taking a kid somewhere you can say, “God, thank you for the car you have provided us & the money to put gas in it.”

Have a God Party!  It is way too much fun not to do.  Don’t miss out on the blessing of blessing God today with your praise & worship for the totally fabulous things he is doing in your life.  If you are alive you should be praising him, if we don’t the rocks will.

Radiant!

On my family blog I have a neat little “verse of the day” box.  I went there this morning for some reason to see what the verse was.  I don’t normally go to that blog unless I am posting news about our family.  So, it was really neat for me to see this verse for today.

Glorify the LORD with me; let us exalt his name together.

I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.

Those who look to him are radiant.

Psalm 34:3-5 (NIV)

Isn’t that wonderful?  For me there is even more of a reason why it is so wonderful.  On this date (5.7.07) 8 years ago I was in a serious car accident with my 6 children and pregnant with our 7th.  We were all o’k, but I sank into a deep depression, blaming myself for the accident.  For 18 months I was in a dark state of mind as I allowed Satan to whisper his lies of shame and blame into my mind. I became very fearful of everything.  It mastered me in almost every way.  But slowly, I began to reach out to the Lord for help. 

 

One day I called out to him.  I sought him out and he answered me.  He freed my from my depression and all my fears.  No longer was I afraid of being in another car accident.  No longer did I fear losing my husband or my children.  It no longer had its grip on me.

 

He made me radiant!  He blew away all the darkness from my mind and filled me with his radiant glory.  My life has been changed every since that day. 

 Has it been easier?  No!

Have I struggled with fear at times?  Yes!

Have I struggled with depression still?  Yes!

I am still human with a very big sin nature and I still try to do things without God.  But he is always there to draw me back to him & gently remind me that he is my Lord & Saviour, ready to forgive.

 

But today I ask that you will “Glorify the LORD with me; let us exalt his name together.”  Look to him and he will make you RADIANT!

 

To His Glory!

Dana

 

Light During the Storm

Last night we had some pretty serious storms roll through our area.  I had already had a really bad day and the thought of being hit by a tornado or damaging winds didn’t help any.  My girls & I decided to make some thank you cards for some dear friends of ours.  We got all our stuff out & sat down to be creative when the lights went out.  Ugh!  I love making cards, it calms my nerves & now the lights were out.  My girls were not hindered in anyway.  The kids all began rounding up candles & lighters.  Before I knew it the table where we were trying to work had about 6 candles on it lighting it up enough to still make cards.  They spread the rest of the candles out through out the house.  For about an hour they did a lot of complaining about not having the lights on.  I admit it is not easy changing a poopy diaper by candle light, but I knew it was temporary. 

My 5 year old began to get scared (thanks to some older brothers discussing alien invasions) so I took him in my lap and we started talking about all the fun things you can do in the dark.  Before I knew it we were all singing.  Some songs were fun & loud and others were soft and reverent, but they were all meant to praise the Lord.(O’k maybe the song about the worm who ate his family didn’t, but it was still fun)  Then we made shadow animals on the wall and we all had the best time & totally forgot about the storm outside our house.

“even the darkness will not be dark to you;
       the night will shine like the day,
       for darkness is as light to you.” Psalm 139:12

 

I was reminded of this verse last night.  The darkness we can experience in our life is not even darkness to God.  He can shine through our darkness if we let him.  When we recognize the darkness as an opportunity to bring glory to God then the “darkness is as light”.  We can experience inner peace in the midst of a spiritual storm just like our family had a fantastic time last night while the winds were blowing 50 mph outside our house.  We knew the storm was there, but we chose to have fun rather than fret & worry about the potential disaster.  Does that mean we were ignoring the warnings to prepare for the worst?  No, we had a plan in case a tornado did hit or come into our area.  But we were not sitting huddled in the hallway when we didn’t need to be.  We kept our minds on more positive things, thus making the storm easier to endure.

 

Prepare yourself for the storms in life.  Read Ephesians 6.  When they do come(because they will) then you can embrace opportunities to bring glory to God & show others a glimpse of God himself through you.  You can let his light of glory shine through your darkness.

 

Read the whole chapter of Psalm 139.  It is fabulous.  Even better memorize it as a family. 

 

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=23&chapter=139&version=31