motherhood

A God Who Serves Mothers

November 15, 2018 by amanda Leave a Comment

Motherhood puts my people-pleasing-talents to the test. Melting back into the couch cushions, knees to my chest, I pray to turn this burden over to the Lord. It’s hard to be a people-pleaser who can’t keep up the pace.

For one thing, I have two little children who’ve taken to heart the words of the old song: “Make all my wants and wishes known.” There’s no way one tired mama can (or should) fulfill all their wants and wishes. And yet, I end each day feeling the weight of not being enough for them.

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5 Hymns to Teach Young Children

May 31, 2017 by amanda 15 Comments

Our children will face hardship. Every mom’s heart hurts to consider her child’s encountering difficulties, but because we know that challenges will arise for our children, we want to prepare them to find hope and joy in the trials and crises of life. We also want to share truth and doctrine with them in such a way that they can build their house upon the Solid Rock, Christ Jesus.

Music is an especially ideal method for teaching biblical truths to children. My kids are 2 and 5, and we have so much fun learning to sing hymns together. Our kids need solid truths running through their hearts and minds when they face heartbreak, loss, pain, and challenges, and I trust that the words to some of the hymns we are teaching them will ring in their hearts long after this season where I sit on the couch beside them to teach and instruct them.
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The Daily Inconvenient Path to Joy

April 18, 2017 by amanda Leave a Comment

My five-year-old and I recently started some seeds indoors that we will transplant later this season into our garden. Every morning, he wakes up and goes to check on his seeds to see how they are doing.

After we first put them under the soil, my son told me he didn’t know where his little seeds had gone. He had buried them away underground the week before, and now he wasn’t quite sure what had become of them. Now we can see the little shoots, and we anticipate a bountiful harvest in the coming months. But for a while, they were nowhere to be seen.

God designed the seed’s cycle of death and life in such a way that he could demonstrate the gospel to my young son. The plant cannot live and bear fruit unless the seed is first buried away to die. Then, once the seed relinquishes its life, a plant can emerge with the promise of yielding fruit….

When You Need an Escape

January 4, 2017 by amanda Leave a Comment

Do you ever wish you could just escape it all? Press pause for a while, stop the world, and get your bearings before the next deluge of needs and demands and pressures?

I was reading about Noah and The Flood yesterday (Genesis 6-8), and a truth in this short phrase brought such cheer to my heart:

“And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood.” Genesis 7:7

Maybe you’re in a stormy trial, or you’re walking through a struggle where you see no soon escape. Maybe the demands and pressures and expectations of those around you leave you desperate for rest and relief. If you’re fighting for joy, needy for grace, and looking for a place of respite, escape into the Ark Himself, Jesus Christ….

How Busy Women Can Find Time for Quiet Time

September 20, 2016 by amanda 4 Comments

Are you in a season where you feel dry and thirsty?

Jesus promised that Living Water that wells up and spills out, satisfying and quenching our own thirst and running over to those around us. But what about when you’re in a season where the wheels have fallen off the wagon and you’re in a rut that you just don’t know how to climb out of?

Last year when I had a newborn, my soul felt so dry and thirsty during that hectic season. When it seemed that I needed the help and encouragement of the Scriptures the most, I struggled to consistently find quiet time to spend with the Lord in prayer and in His word.

James 4:8 says, “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.”

With my life feeling so upside-down, my usual routines for spending time with the Lord were not falling into place, and I didn’t know what to do to find that space in my days or the want-to in my heart to drink at the Fountain. I asked the Lord to help me to draw near to Him, and He provided for me two main ways to seek Him during those challenging months….

How to Pray for Your Family and Friends

July 27, 2016 by amanda Leave a Comment

As a wife, mother, sister, grandmother, aunt, godmother, granddaughter, or friend, we are uniquely suited to serve as INTERCESSORS before God on behalf of those we love.

In Christ Jesus, Christian women are spiritually a holy, royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:5, 9), Jesus having made us “priests to His God and Father” (Revelation 1:6). One of the roles of an Old Testament priest was that of INTERCESSOR.

When the priest went into the Holy Place to minister before the Lord, he wore an ephod and a breastpiece carrying stones with names engraved upon them, the names of the tribes of Israel. Each name of the 12 sons of Israel was carved onto those stones, and when the priest came into God’s presence, he carried those names before the Lord….

motherhood

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