The Thief Comes to Destroy Families…Not Just Hurt Them

“The thief comes only to steal…”

A mom emails me asking for prayer for her daughter who has moved in with abusive family members.  The daughter has a new baby out of wedlock and the father of the baby is not supporting her financially.  The mother is beside herself in worry and fear for the life of her daughter and grandson.

“…and kill…”

A friend shares about her daughter who has moved in with a boyfriend.  She has been arrested and refuses to respect her parents rules so she chooses the boyfriend instead.  My friend has given up any hope of her daughter returning to the truths that were taught to her as a young girl.  My friend fears the worst will happen to her daughter.

“…and destroy.”

I am asked to pray with friends over a close friends daughter.  This daughter has fallen in love with a man who has decieved her into thinking that he loves and will marry her.  He has introduced her to Wiccan and now as she plays around with witchcraft her family asks how this could happen.  She has moved out and is angry with her family for not supporting her new fiance.

These are all stories that I have heard just in the past 2 weeks.  These are all mothers who raised their daughters in the Word.  They began when their children were young and taught them the truths of Jesus Christ.  Their daughters all professed to believe in Jesus and seem to desire a life dedicated to God.  They did everything they knew to do so that this would not happen.  One mom said to me, “I feel all of those years of teaching and training and praying were all for nothing!  Where did we go wrong?”

“I have come that they might have life, and have it to the full.”(John 10:10, NIV)

A reality of being a mom is that when our children leave our home we are not guaranteed that they will choose correctly.  They now choose their decisions. We have taught them and discipled them, praying that they will choose Christ and not themselvcs.  It rips at my heart to think of one of my children walking a path like one of the girls I mentioned above. 

3 John verse 4 says, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”  This is what we want as parents…to know that our children will walk in the truth.  I want to know that my child will choose a life for Christ rather than for him or her self.

Here is what I believe is our guarantee. 

Jesus says in John 11:25,26

 “I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in me will live…and he who believes in me will never die.”

If my child believes in Christ as the resurrection and the life, as the Son of God, he/she will live eternally in Heaven.

Jesus said again in John 10:28, 29,

“I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, no one can snatch them out of my hand.   My father, who has given them to me is greater than all, no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.”

 

These moms all know that their daughters are Christians.  They are confidant that they trusted Christ as their Savior and now, for reasons that we may never understand, their daughters have walked away from Christ.  But these moms know that their daughters all belong to Christ and he will return them in his timing.

The thief is out to get our families!  We need to wake up and realize that he is on the prowl and he is not out to just hurt us, he is out to destroy us!  He wants to break up our families and turn our hearts away from God.  But we are reminded by Paul in Romans that nothing can separate us from the love of God.  Nothing, “neither death nor life, neither angels or demons…not anything else in creation.”(Romans 8:38,39)

Does that bring a little peace to your heart?  It does mine.  My children are HIS, they belong to Christ.  The enemy can try everything in his power to destroy my family, but because of the power of the blood of Jesus, he cannot succeed.

If you have young ones start now immersing them in the truths of God.  Speak to them during play about how much God loves them.  Teach them now about sin and how much God hates it.  Read them the stories in the Old Testament about the amazing things God did for his people and show them in the New Testament how Jesus came to Earth to show us how to love one another.  Pray with your children everyday.  Talk with them and look them in the eyes and ask, “What has God done for you today?”

I asked my 3 yr old, Gracie what was the biggest blessing God had given her.  She very sweetly & quickly anwered, “Jesus!”.  I couldn’t have come up with a better answer myself.

If you have teenagers, take time to find out what they believe and do they know why they believe it.  Keep this as an ongoing conversation.  Share with them what God is teaching you in your quiet time.  Pray with your teens.  Show them how important your relationship with the Lord is and how vital that they too have one.  They need to take Jesus from the stories and make him personal.  Show them that the words in the Bible were written just for them to guide them and protect them.  Teach them to put on the shield of faith so that when the enemy comes knocking they can stand against his evil plans to destroy their life. (Eph 6)

There is no secret formula to raising kids who will turn out right.  But I believe that when we raise them according to God’s word and with His wisdom and guidance, then when they hear the call to trust Christ, they will follow him.  They will gain a heart to know him early and seek him.  If they go astray he will hold them and bring them back in His perfect timing.  We have to let go and trust in His timing.  That will be the hardest part of being a parent, I think.

Abundantly blessed

I haven’t been real good at posting my gifts here at the blog, but it doesn’t mean that I’m not still counting them.  I have a small planner that I am writing them down in instead of appointments.  This is helping me to at least stay conscious about how blessed I am.

 Some of the entries I have made are;

• long talks with my teenage daughters
• hugs from my teenage sons
• cool spring breezes in the morning through my window
• watching my husband sleep with a child sleeping under his arm
• hearing my 3 yr old sing her made up songs to Jesus
• 6 yr old little boy prayers
• praying friends
• tears of joy over prayers answered
• reminders that I was created by God Most High; El Elyon
• Davids faithful cries to God for mercy and wisdom in the Psalms
• merciful whispers to my soul to “wait & trust”
• new mornings given to worship my Yahweh
• Long phone conversations with old friends

So see, I haven’t stopped recognizing his gifts, I just got behind in sharing them with you.

What gifts have you recieved from your Merciful Savior?

“Praise be to the LORD, for he showed his wonderful love to me.”

Psalm 31:21

Interested in Reducing Stress?

 

I saw this posted on HOLY EXPERIENCE and thought it was worth sharing and posting here.  A university student (and mother) is performing a study on the results of gratitude in one’s life.  It sounds like it is a very good idea.  Just follow her directions & contact her if you are interested in partcipating.  I would also like to hear if you participate & what was the result for you.  Just drop me a line here as a comment or on my contact page.

~Dana

She writes:

WANTED: Parents who desire to reduce child-related stress.

COST: A little bit of your time.

PERKS: Improved outlook and better parenting relationships! HOW? Introducing an exciting study in the works with an outcome that will benefit you! We are happy to present you with the chance to participate and hope that you will find this helpful to your daily life. Read on for more information ~

The Purpose of the Study:

- To consider gratitude as a method for reducing stress in parenting
- To measure instances of parenting stress using the method below
- To measure the potential benefits (and maintenance) of gratitude as a means of stress reduction in parenting

The Method of the Study:

The 2 Simple Steps:

[Prior to beginning, compile a list of 10 specifics for which you are grateful. This should make the required expressions of gratitude easier.]

#1: When you experience a moment of stress related to one or more of your children, “reset” your thinking by verbally expressing gratitude, either in reaction to the current stressor, or by reading/saying something from your list.

#2: Add a mark to your daily tally (so that we have a record of how many times this happens each day).

That’s it.

This exercise will be carried out for seven days, beginning on Tuesday, April 1st, followed by a seven day break, and then repeated for a second seven day period.

If you want to participate, please e-mail gratitude.study@gmail.com by Tuesday so we can have an idea of the size of the study. Give your name, age, and gender—although you are welcome to participate anonymously, if you like. Feel free to spread the word to as many adults that you know that wish to participate. (This would make a fun project to do with friends and/or a spouse—men being specifically encouraged to participate as most studies tend to neglect the impact of gratitude from a male perspective.)

What’s in this for you?

Multiple studies have shown that people who feel more gratitude are much more likely to have higher levels of happiness, lower levels of depression and stress. They are seen as more empathetic, agreeable, and extraverted. Grateful people should be more likely to notice they have been helped, to respond appropriately, and to return the help at some future point.

You mean, you’ll get all that, just by adding some gratitude to your life? YES!

Definitions, for the purpose of this study:

Gratitude: Being aware of and thankful for the good things that happen; taking time to express thanks.

Parenting Stress is defined as those moments when life as a parent seems overwhelmingly unpredictable and uncontrollable (based on the 10-item Perceived Stress Scale). Within the context of parenting,

- you become upset because of something that happens unexpectedly.
- you feel you are unable to control the important things in your life.
- you feel nervous and “stressed.”
- you feel you cannot cope with all the things you have to do.
- you become angry because things are outside of your control.
- you feel difficulties are piling up so high that you cannot overcome them.

Obviously, this will be a largely subjective assessment—that is the difficulty in measuring an emotional state. Just try to be as aware as possible.

Thank you! We look forward to sharing the results of the study.
Join us at gratitude.study@gmail.com by Tuesday (April 1).
(Feel free to repost this post in its entirety. Let’s give thanks in all things!)

The Tale of Two Brains

This is great!  It helps to explain the wonderous differences that God created between man and woman.

Don’t forget to turn off my music in the sidebar at the very bottom.

Capturing Thoughts

 

This post was written by Paula Moldenhauer of Soul Scents.  She has a blog called Grace Reign in which I have listed in my blogroll.  Paula has 4 kids and gets most of her inspiration to write & lessons on grace from them.  I can so relate to that! 

 I thought you would enjoy an article that she had in a newsletter called Emphasis on Moms.  It was very good with a very important reminder.  How often do we let our thoughts slip into the negative aspects of our life.  Just the other day someone reminded me of the scripture in Psalm 126:2, “…The LORD has done great things for them.”. When my mind is focused on all the negative things happening, I forget about all the great things that God has done for me.  I know that you will enjoy Paula’s words.

Paula writes: 

“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds .” 2 Corinthians 10:3-4 (NIV)

“I look in the mirror and think, ‘you are so ugly.’”

“Thoughts like ‘I’m stupid’ or ‘I’ll never be good enough’ swirl around in my head.”

“I’ll be doing the dishes and suddenly I realize that I’ve spent the whole time worrying about how to handle a situation I’m afraid of. The situation hasn’t even happened yet, but I’ve wasted 30 minutes trying to come up with solutions to a problem that doesn’t even exist.”

“I find myself rehashing painful conversations over and over and trying to figure out what I could have said to have made it different.”

I’ve met a lot of people who’ve shared comments like those above. I, too, have struggled with my thought life. I’ve looked in the mirror and hated myself, not just the way I look on the outside, but the person on the inside, too.

I’ve felt like a failure, like I can never get it right, and have worried over frightening scenarios that never happen. I’ve thought about painful encounters over and over never coming to a place of peace, always wishing I could have stood up for myself or made the other person understand my position.

But I don’t live that way anymore.

I’m not saying I never struggle with this, but I am saying this negative way of living is no longer a habit. When it does slip in, I know what to do. I know I don’t have to live in the emotional turmoil that a bad thought life brings.
 
For example, fear ruled my life for many years: fear of people’s opinions, fear of failure, fear of relationships, fear of not being good enough, and crazy, wild fears that didn’t even make logical sense. I worried that something bad was going to happen to loved ones. Illogical and logical fears battered my mind and made it difficult to live in the peace God promised. I couldn’t focus on God because I focused on fear.

Then I heard a new application for a verse I memorized years ago, in college. It’s found in;

 2 Corinthians 10:5. “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (NIV)

Beth Moore writes in her book, “Breaking Free” that we are to take captive those thoughts that go against God’s word. Basically, she means that we are to reject the thought and stopping thinking about it. We shouldn’t allow it to roam free in our minds. It belongs in jail! She actually has a picture sketched into her text of the thought behind bars.*

My husband says it’s like trying to get rid of a computer virus. Our computer software catches viruses that come over the Internet and puts them in quarantine. Then we go into the program and delete the virus. Sometimes the virus can’t be deleted and it takes more serious measures to overcome it, but we don’t let it run free in our system. We put it in “jail” until we know how to address the problem.

Thoughts are like that. Some we can quickly reject and delete. Others can sit quarantined until God shows us how to address them, but in the meanwhile we don’t have to give ugly thoughts free roam of our mind!  

I know worry and fear are not God’s will for me. Throughout the Bible I read things like “fear not” and “be anxious for nothing” and “trust in the Lord”. So now when I start to be afraid, I stop, put that thought in “jail”, and replace it with truth from God’s word.

My favorite verse for overcoming fear is “For God hath not given us a spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (II Timothy 1:7 KJV)

There have been times I’ve felt such overpowering fear that I repeated the scripture over and over in a short period of time. Inevitably, the fear would return and I’d go through the process again, rejecting the fear and replacing it with God’s truth. There was a six-month to a year period when that particular verse was my constant companion. I have no idea how many times I said it to myself, but it was a bunch!
 
I don’t battle fear as much as I used to. I’ve spent the last four-years renewing my mind with the truth of God’s word. It’s not that I’m never afraid anymore. I just chose not to waste time feeling scared! To wallow in my fears is direct disobedience to God’s word and it doesn’t feel good either!

I believe fear was a stronghold of the enemy in my life. I don’t think any amount of positive thinking could bring victory in this area. But God’s word did. It’s like it says in 2 Corinthians 10:3-4, God’s weapons have divine power to demolish strongholds.

Fear is just one of many areas I’ve asked God to help me conquer in my thought life. I’d encourage you to ask God to show you what thoughts might go against our Lord. Then, ask Him to give you a special verse to use as a weapon in the battle for your mind.
“Father, help me to recognize thoughts that cause me to feel distant from You. Teach me to capture them and to replace them with truth from Your word.”

~ A mother of four, Paula Moldenhauer is passionate about God’s grace and intimacy with Jesus. Her website offers book reviews, homeschooling hints, and a free weekly devotional, Soul Scents. Subscribe to Soul Scents at www.soulscents.us. Visit her blog at www.gracereign.blogspot.com. Contact Paula at Paula@soulscents.us.

Worship First, Complain Later

 

I should of known that when I decided to do a few post on worship yesterday that the Lord would use my quiet time this morning to show me what I need to learn for myself about worship. 

My youngest child woke up this morning at 5:30.  You know who wakes up at 5:30?  Roosters!  Not me!  I changed the baby’s diaper, gave him a bottle of milk & put him back to bed hoping he would go back to sleep.  I then went back to bed.  But I just laid there with my eyes wide open.  I could not go back to sleep.  Believe me, I tried.  It was still dark outside, I did not want to get up yet.  But, I knew that the Lord was trying to get me up & really, truly I didn’t want to miss an opportunity for him to speak to me so I got up, grabbed my Bible & went into our Living Room.  I got the coffee pot started and then sat down to pray.

“Lord, I just don’t feel that you are hearing my prayers these days.” I started off.  “I wish that you would give me an answer and let me know that your are there.”  (Can you believe that?)  I sat there for at least 5 minutes dumping all of my complaints on Him.  I was not feeling any better about my “troubles” either.

 The coffee pot was ready so I went & loaded up on some coffee and then sat back down, opening up my Bible.  I have been starting my reading off by reading a chapter in Psalm & Proverbs for whatever day it is.  so today, I read the 13th chapers.  And what do you think the first verse is in Psalm 13?

“How long O Lord? Will you forget me forever?  How long will you hide your face from me?”

I’m thinking…”Yeah, where are you?”

I keep reading and the longer I read the more convicted I get.

The last verse is, “I will sing to the Lord, for he has been good to me.”

Oh Lord, my God.  I sat here giving you all of my whimpy little complaints when I should have been worshiping you.  Forgive me for being so selfish and focused on myself.  You are the one to be praised.  You are the one who has never forsaken me or let me down.  You are the one to trust in, not me.  You have been so good to me.  Your love for me is so far reaching and uncomprehendable.  I will sing to you and bless you with my praise because you have been so good to me.

Memo to self:  Worship & praise my God first, then I won’t remember the complaints.

It’s a Party!

This week there is a massive Blog party going on over at 5 Minutes for Mom!  If you have a blog and you are a mom(sorry no dads allowed) then you can participate with us.  I’m number 1317 on the party list!  Crazy!

 The whole point of the party is to get to know other blogging moms.  We are everywhere!  I have made some really neat friends in the blogosphere.  Here are a few of my favorite blogs to visit;

Holy Experience

Heart of Wisdom

I Take Joy

My sweet friend, Robyn @ No Place Like Home

My twin sister in Christ, Penney @ Becoming Real

 JavaDawn with her chocolate & coffee!

These are just a few of the blogs that I like to visit every now & then and draw encouragement from.  They all take me back to the feet of Jesus & that is what matters most.  They are all moms who are striving everyday to become the Godly wife & mother they were designed to be.

Since we are talking about having a party, there is no better person to celebrate than our God, The Almighty.  I thought I would grab this opportunity to write a few posts on the importance of true worship.  We live in a day and time when the meaning of worship has been confused with a style of church service.  It isn’t about the style of your church service it is about the condition of your heart. 

Who are the eyes of your heart focused on? 

When can we worship?

Where can we worship?

Who should we worship?

We are having a God Party here at Living Stones Mom Blog!  If you would like to join me leave me a comment with your blog link.  We can celebrate our Savior together!

Turned On By Prayer

From the Writings of Ray Stedman

Turned On By Prayer March 3rd READ: Ephesians 1:15-23 …that the eyes or your heart may be enlightened… (Ephesians 1:18a). “The eyes of the heart” is a strange expression, isn’t it? Eyes are the instrument by which we perceive things. The mind also has eyes. If you listen to truth in any area, the eyes of your mind are grasping ideas. But the apostle tells us here that not only does the mind have eyes, but the heart as well. The heart needs to see things, needs to grasp truth and understand it. And the heart is always used in Scripture as the seat of our emotions. Remember the episode in Luke 24—that walk to Emmaus when the risen Lord appears to the two disciples? The Lord joins them, but they don’t know who He is. He walks along with them and unfolds to them all the Scriptures concerning the promised Messiah. Afterward, they said to one another, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” (v. 32). That “burning of the heart” represents the heart’s eyes being opened. It is the inflaming of the heart, so that it comes alive and is deeply moved. It is this burning of the heart that the apostle desires for these Christians. When the heart begins to burn with truth, when it takes root in you and you simply must respond to it, that is when you know with certainty that God is real, that the hope of your calling is genuine, that the power of His presence is available, and that the riches of His ministry through you is manifest to others as well. I remember when a young man became a Christian, came into the church, and married a girl who had grown up in the church. At first his Christian life was glorious to behold. He eagerly read the Scriptures. But after a while it all began to ebb away. He lost his interest in the Scriptures, and quit coming to church. He was no longer interested in fellowship with other believers. Naturally his wife became concerned. So she and a friend decided that they would pray together for her husband every day. She decided in her heart that she would not nag him, because she didn’t want him to come unless his heart genuinely directed him to. She resolved simply to pray daily. For a month or more nothing happened. But she kept on praying. Gradually her husband’s attitude began to change a bit. One day she found him reading the Bible. She didn’t say anything to him, but it was a note of encouragement. Then, one Sunday, he announced that he was going to church with her. Again she rejoiced inwardly. After a while, he said to her, “You know, dear, I’ve really been way out of it! Somehow or other I lost all my interest in the Lord. But God has moved in and met me and brought me back.” What a wonderful testimony to the power of prayer to open eyes! It isn’t enough simply to teach truth. You never affect the whole person until the eyes of the heart are enlightened. When truth is moved from the head down to the heart, it has gripped the emotions. Then the will is properly motivated. Then the person begins to grow tremendously. Father, open the eyes of my heart. I see that for that to happen there must be the bending of the knee, the imploring of the Spirit in prayer, so that truth becomes vital and compelling.

I recieve a daily devotional in my inbox everyday written by Ray Stedman.  I highly recommend subscribing to this as they are full of Truth and motivation to know your Jesus deeper.  Click Here if Subscription information.