The Everyday Question

By Christine Hoover  taken from an article on Desiring God

"The Everyday Question asks not just about what I do but also about my attitude: Will I joyfully pour out my life as a fragrant offering before the Lord for the benefit of my children? Will I serve my children out of obligation and duty or will I serve like I'm serving God Himself? Will I die to myself so that I might live to God in the specific calling He has given me as a mom?

The Everyday Question must be answered everyday.

Because motherhood is not so much the big, dramatic acts of sacrifice, but the little, everyday, unseen ones.

Because we can have a clean house and obedient children and not sacrifice.

Because we are so easily deceived to think we can live for ourselves and be faithful to God in our ministry as moms.

Jesus said that those who live for themselves will actually have an unfulfilling life, but those who lose for their lives for His sake will really experience life. As parents, our self-death for Christ’s sake not only produces fruit in our own hearts, but produces fruit in the hearts of our children, fruit that grows by the power of God. Let us, then, choose to joyfully give of ourselves for our children.

Everyday."

“For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal bodies.” (2 Corinthians 4:11)

“For the love of Christ compels us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died, and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” (2 Corinthians 5:14–15)



God's Mission

Do you know what God's mission is? Do you know what your purpose is? Shouldn't they inter-relate?
How do you look at the Bible? As an instruction manual full of good advice on life issues? And is missions just one added issue that we have to juggle? No. Missions is THE thing.
God is on mission and you are called to be a part of it.
The Great Commission does not begin at the end of Matthew 28:18-20, it begins in the beginning.
If the Garden of Eden was "perfect", why was Satan there?
Gen 1:28 "Be fruitful and multiply and subdue the earth." God is telling a sinless man and woman to leave the garden of delights and subdue the earth. ("subdue" is a warfare term meaning to take it over and occupy.)

Eden was not perfect, it was the first battle field. The first Adam was defeated in the garden. He had all his needs met and yet they disobeyed God "not Your will but MINE be done".
The "second Adam", Jesus, goes into another battle, yet not in a garden, but in a desert where none of his needs are met. In fact, he has fasted for 40 days. But Jesus wins this battle and Satan flees when He obeys! The ultimate battle is in another garden, the Garden of Gethsemane where "not my will, but YOURS be done" and his obedience becomes the victory for all mankind.
We are in a battle with evil.
Are you called to retreat back to the comfort of Eden? No! You can never retreat. God did not create us to live a safe life in this world even though our flesh constantly cries out for it.

Then we see the Great Commission we are all familiar with:
"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore, into all the world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded. I am with you always to the very end of the age." Matt 28:19-20

Once again we see a call to leave our security and go out and obey. We are to be doers of the Word.
Our mission is just the same mission as Adam had (and failed at) and Jesus had (and succeeded at) which is: to push back the forces of evil and darkness by our obedience.
The Christian life is all about pushing back the darkness.

We grow in our relationship with God while we're on this mission. We grow closest to those we go through war with. Churches implode when we forget the call of the believer is to do battle against the enemy, not one another. Jesus stepped into hell so he could pull others out of it. It takes us stepping into the ugly to find what we were created to do. Ultimate joy comes from doing that which seems most absurd; leaving our comfort to bring someone else comfort.

We are in a battle to save souls from the darkness of enemy territory.
This is your mission if you choose to accept it.

So this begs the question: are you living in your own type of Eden thinking it's perfect and safe, thinking you've really got it made and found your purpose. I guarantee you, by the authority of God's Word, that you have not found true joy and satisfaction in a life of comfort and security. We were made to find our ultimate high from rescuing lost people out of the darkness into God's marvelous light!

I was so wonderfully convicted by this evening's message! God loving and tenderly used it to help my blind eyes to see where I have been blind to my own faults. I do not feel any condemnation, only encouragement to get on board with what He is doing!
I'm reflecting on how homeschooling is a great way to raise up straight and righteous arrows to do battle against the enemy, or it can create a stagnant stench of self-righteous security that forgets there is a greater purpose. Without knowing it, we can teach our children to hide for cover instead of looking for opportunities to obey and be like our Lord, who came on the ultimate rescue mission. We need to keep our mission ever before us and we need one another to do this!

Is your home a place that is creating weapons for spiritual warfare or have you gotten off mission?
Is God's mission your mission?
Let's get back to pushing back the darkness and leading the way for our children to follow!

What it's Like to Have a Baby with Down Syndrome

In two words: blessed delight.

  

I used to be afraid of having a baby with Down Syndrome. I'm ashamed to say I thought I should probably stop having children when I reached 40 because I might have a baby with this "defect". (I had her just after turning 37.) Praise God He knows better than I do what is best for me!
Do you believe that?
Really?
Do you believe that God knows what is best for you?
If you do, than why be afraid about anything that might happen to you?
God is in control.
God doesn't make mistakes and any baby is never a mistake. It is only our preconceived ideas about what is good that causes all these anxieties.

Babies are good; whatever form or shape or time they come.
God made Charlotte and he put her in our family. She is our gift and God has given us the grace to accept the gift with joy. I had to get over my expectations for what my sixth child would be like. I had to grieve the death of my dreams for her.
But God is not grieved by what He did and neither am I anymore. I had to get on the same page with God and realize that this was His perfect plan for her and for us. That takes faith, but God gives you the faith you need when you need it! Within 24 hours of her birth, my husband I snapped out of our pity party. We got some sleep and lots of grace and we accepted the plan.
I laugh at myself now that I ever was sad about having a baby with DS. She is such a delight to all of us! I don't feel one bit sorry she's ours. In fact, if she died, I would want another baby just like her.

Sometimes it's challenging to know if she's healthy or progressing because I can't compare her to what I've experienced with my other children. When we talk about the future we imagine "Auntie Charlotte" visiting her siblings to play with her nieces and nephews. She will be the aunt that is forever young at heart and so much fun. Jason and I think of her as our constant companion for the future and take comfort in knowing we won't be alone and neither will she when we get older.

Who cares if she never gets a job or goes to college or gets married or has children? Do those things validate your existence? Are you loved because of what you can accomplish or because you exist. You are valuable because you were created and God saw fit to create you for Himself.
Are you still trying to validate your existence by what you do? Let it go. Look up right now and smile and say "thank you God for making me!"

I am a firm believer that God doesn't make mistakes. You aren't a mistake and neither are children born with an extra chromosome. I am super-duper blessed!

Take a deep breath and smile

"Be joyful always."

1 Thess. 5:16



Remember how fleeting your life is. It is but a mist that vanishes and is gone. The weeks, days and years are flying by and if you don't enjoy this moment right now when will you ever enjoy anything? It's very easy to live with all our hopes in tomorrow and not enjoy today. I give you permission; enjoy today. Take a deep breath when life gets crazy (because it will) and just SMILE! Smile at your children. Smile at the messes. Smile at your husband. Smile so much that they ask you why you're always smiling! Remember that all your mistakes and failures are covered in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. God looks at you and only sees His own perfection. There really is nothing to become anxious or angry over! God has it all under control.

So smile.

What is your motivation?

You wake up early, you go to bed late. You do the dishes, the laundry and pick up toys without end. You plan meals and make meals and clean up meals and then the cycle begins again. You correct and teach and then you repeat yourself again 5 minutes later. Why do you do what you do? WHY? What is your motivation?

"Whatever you do,

work at it with all your heart,

as working for the LORD, not for men,

since you know

that you will receive an inheritance

from the LORD as a reward.

It is the LORD CHRIST you are serving."

Colossians 3:23-24

Is it the LORD CHRIST you are serving or are you serving your own ego, ambition, reputation? Are you serving to guarantee a particular outcome in the future? Are you trying to impress people or make people like you? What is your motivation behind what you are doing?

I admit, it is hard to have pure motives. We can even deceive ourselves into thinking they are pure when they are not! These verses are an encouragement to me. If my motive is to please others or even to please God, than I have the wrong motivation. I will struggle with discouragement and lack joy with a motivation like that. But if my motivation for working hard is out of love for all that Jesus Christ has done to save me, and I do it out of gratefulness, not because I have to but because I want to..that is key!

The only way to live this kind of life is with a determined focus on remembering the grace of God demonstrated through Jesus and the cross. It is a joyful, thankful life of work. It is a delight, not a duty, and it results in an inheritance and reward as well. Before you do another good deed, check your motive. Are you trying to earn favor with God? Impossible! You have favor with God because of what He's done already and you cannot improve upon it. Do good out of thanksgiving.

Heavenly Father, thank you for all you have done for me. Help me to serve you faithfully out of thankfulness and not out of duty. May I boast only in the cross. Amen.

Patience with the Faults of Others

I love this wise advice from Francois Fenelon (1851). It can be applied to marriage or parenting...

"One must accustom one's self to look for little from men; it is the only way to avoid disappointment. One must take that which they are able to give, as we take from a tree the fruit it bears, though indeed some trees bear nothing but leaves and caterpillars. God bears with and waits patiently for imperfect men, and is not even repulsed by their resistance; we ought to imitate this loving patience, this merciful forbearance. It is only imperfection which is intolerant of what is imperfect; the more any one has advanced towards perfection, the more patiently and quietly he will bear with though not foster, the imperfections of others."

"We, who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For Christ did not please himself..." Romans 15:1-3a

Ouch! That hurts in a good way doesn't it? This really convicted me regarding my lack of patience with the faults and immaturity in my children. I need so much grace in this area! God, help us to be like you: full of merciful forbearance!
(This quote taken from "Dialogues of Fenelon Vol II" by Lamplighter Publishing.)

MY MISSION FIELD

Here's another thought from Nancy Campbell that blessed me, especially now that we aren't going to Africa to be official missionaries.

Matthew 9:37-38, "Then said Jesus unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest."

Do you sometimes hanker to be doing some great work for God? You feel as though you are wasting your life in your home. You would love to serve the Lord in some harvest field. Yes, it is true, the harvest is great and the laborers are few. But why are they few? Because mothers have not understood God's purpose.

Are you looking for an easy path in life in life or do you have a heart to serve God as a missionary? Dear mother, you are already a missionary. God has chosen your specific mission field for you. It is your home and family. You are employed by God to train laborers for His harvest field. You don't raise children and then send them to Bible College to prepare for service. You train them for God's service from the time they are little. They should be ready to labor in the harvest field when they come forth from your home.

Is a missionary's work easy? No, it takes sacrifice. Is motherhood easy? No, but it will be worthwhile. It takes everything you've got--all your resources of time, energy and strength--but you will influence nations. It takes sacrifice--many mothering days are exhausting and overwhelming--but you will receive the fruit of your labors and an eternal reward. It will take committed prayer and intercession, but your prayers will be answered. Remember, you are not on vacation; you are on the mission field!

Maybe God has only given you one laborer to prepare for Him--that is His plan for you. Maybe he has given you six, or even twelve! Wow, would twelve be too many? Jesus trained twelve disciples who impacted the world. Are you going to train laborers who "turn the world upside down"? (Acts 17:6) You are already in the midst of an important mission... so get to work!

The Life of Faith

Living a life of faith means never knowing where you are being led. But it does mean loving and knowing the One who is leading. It is literally a life of faith, not of understanding and reason- a life of knowing Him who calls us to go. Faith is rooted in the knowledge of a Person, and one of the biggest traps we fall into is the belief that if we have faith, God will surely lead us to success int he world.
A life of faith is not a life of one glorious mountain top experience after another, like soaring on eagles' wings, but a life of day-in, day-out consistency; a life of walking without fainting. It is a faith that has been tried and proved and has withstood the test.

From My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers, March 19

Blessed Inconveniences

2 Quotes from the book I'm currently reading by Elisabeth Elliot's A Path Through Suffering; Discovering the Relationship Between God's Mercy and Our Pain.

"We are not often called to great sacrifice, but daily we are presented with the chance to make small ones- a chance to make someone cheerful, a chance to do some small thing to make someone comfortable or contented, a chance to lay down our petty preferences or cherished plans. This probably requires us to relinquish something- our own convenience or comfort, our own free evening, our warm fireside, or even our habitual shyness or reserve or pride. My liberty must be curtailed, bound down, ignored (oh how the world hates this sort of thing! how our own sinful natures hate it!)- for the sake of the liberation of others.
'Every day we experience something of the death of Jesus, so that we may also show the power of the life of Jesus in these bodies of ours.' 2 Cor. 4:10"

"There is a subtle snare in self-improvement programs. We cannot make ourselves holy. But when we surrender ourselves to the Lord, learning day by day to treat all that comes to us with peace of soul and firm conviction that His will governs all, He will see to our growth in grace. He will so govern the events in our lives, down to the smallest detail, as to provide us the conditions which may make us fruitful. It is not for our sake but for the sake of others. The beauty of the flower is not for itself. It offers itself to God's sunshine and rain, gives its fragrance to any who pass by, but it must wither and die before the fruit can be produced.
Faith need never ask, "But what good did this do me?" Faith already knows that everything that happens fits into a pattern for good to those who love God. An inconvenience is always, whether we see it or not, a blessed inconvenience. We may rest in the promise that God is fitting together a good many more things than are any of our business. We need never see 'what good it did', or how a given trouble accomplishes anything. It is peace to leave it with Him, ask only that He do with me anything He wants, anywhere, anytime that God may be glorified."

Gotta Love Fenelon

I have a few precious devotional books by Francois Fenelon that I love. He was a spiritual mentor to believers during the reign of Louis the 14th. Here's a sampling of his wisdom for you....

TO PREFER LOVE AND HUMILITY TO LEARNING.

People cannot become perfect by dint of hearing or reading about perfection. The chief thing is not to listen to yourself, but silently to listen to God; to renounce all vanity, and apply yourself to real virtues; to talk little, and to do much, without caring to be seen. God will teach you much more than all the most experienced persons and all the most spiritual books. Do you need to be so learned in order to know how to love God and deny yourself for His love? You know much more of good than you practice. You have much less need of gaining fresh knowledge than of putting in practice that which you have already acquired.

From Dialogues of Fenelon Vol 1, Lamplighter Publishing

My Utmost for His Highest

If I could recommend 1 thing to start doing this year on a daily basis it would be to read "My Utmost for His Highest" during your time with God every day. If you've never read it before, it's a daily devotional that gives you a little page to read every day but it is packed with a PUNCH! It is amazing how just systematically reading through the Scriptures as well as reading a book like this can be a useful tool for God to speak to you personally. For example, here are a few quotes from the past few days that spoke to me....

From January 1:"'My determined purpose is to be my utmost for His highest- my best for His glory.' To reach that level of determination is a matter of the will, not of debate or of reasoning. It is absolute and irrevocable surrender of the will at that point. An undue amount of thought and consideration for ourselves is what keeps us from making that decision, although we cover it up with the pretense that it is others we are considering. When we think seriously about what it will cost others if we obey the call of Jesus, we tell God He doesn't know what our obedience will mean. Keep to the point- He does know. Shut out every other thought and keep yourself before God in this one thing only- my utmost for His highest. I am determined to be absolutely and entirely for Him and Him alone."

See what I mean. With the idea of moving to Africa in the forefront our my mind, words like this are pure inspiration! Are you giving your best for His glory? The battle is in the will, once we surrender our will to God it doesn't really matter what He does with us. Here is what spoke to me from January 2:

" One of the most difficult questions to answer in Christian work is, 'What do you expect to do?' The only thing you know is that God knows what He is doing. Continually examine your attitude toward God to see if you are willing to 'go out' (referring to Abraham) in every area of your life, trusting in God entirely. It is this attitude that keeps you in constant wonder, because you don't know what God is going to do next. Each morning as you wake, there is a new opportunity to 'go out', building your confidence in God.
Have you been asking God what He is going to do? He will never tell you. God does not tell you what He is going to do- He reveals to you who He is.
Let the attitude of your life be a continual willingness to 'go out' in dependence upon God."

See what I mean. He packs a punch. I love it.

In the School of the Ordinary

"It requires the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours of every day as a saint, going through drudgery, and living an ordinary, unnoticed, and ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus. It is ingrained in us that we have to do exceptional things for God- but we do not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things of life, and holy on the ordinary streets, among ordinary people- and this is not learned in five minutes."

My Utmost for His Highest, Oct 21, Oswald Chambers

Sometimes it is very tempting to want to do GREAT things for God but it is in the hidden seasons of life that he does a work in my heart. This is the training ground, the training in self-denial, in death of self and the detoxing of idols. Staying home and wiping bottoms, scrubbing floors, making dinner, this is the stuff of which servants are made of. "He who is greatest among you must be the servant of all." Remember that in God's kingdom everything is a paradox. The weak are strong, the poor are rich, the servant is greatest. So be content to be nothing. Be content to be a servant. "He who is faithful in small things I will put in charge of many things." Be content to be a mommy.

Slowing Down the Speed of Life

The Lord has impressed upon me the need to slow down and enjoy it all. Do you ever stop and think "Why am I hurrying to save time? What am I going to do with the time I save that's oh so important?" It's perfectly good to want to accomplish a lot in a day, but not at the expense of losing my temper, or not being thankful for the work I do. Usually I'm trying to get through my housework (like cleaning the kitchen) so that in another hour I can make a mess of it again and have to clean it again. Why don't I just slow down and enjoy cleaning the kitchen? It's my life. Housework is my life. I've got 6 (messy) children and a (messy) husband (who I love) and I had better just embrace the fact that I'm going to be cooking and cleaning till the day I die! I can enjoy it or live in denial, but one way or the other it's what I do.
While I was doing the laundry the other day I was thinking about how God made me to be creative and enjoy beautiful things. He has also given me a home and family to care for. Why don't I put these together and make an art of homemaking to the glory of God? I can clean my children's clothes with a loving heart to the glory of God (instead of saying "Well I cleaned the laundry, the least you could do is fold it!) I can make bread, yogurt, and cheese at home with my children by my side enjoying the fruit of doing it ourselves (remember, we're not in a hurry anymore). I can grow vegetables and flowers and work outside enjoying the hard work and the bounty that we produce as co-laborers with the Creator. I can sit outside in the hammock and read stories to my children under the big walnut tree (if spring ever gets here) and know that I'm investing in what really matters...relationships (which you can't hurry). Do you get the picture? So slow down with me enjoy everything you have to do. It's all a gift.