Grease is for food, not grace!

Sally: I just snapped at my kids because I'm tired and irritable.  They didn't do anything wrong.  In fact, they have been perfect angels all day.  I'm just about to start my period and I keep losing it.

Beth: It's ok, Sally.  It happens. Just give yourself grace.

Becca:  I don't know what my deal is.  I just keep disrespecting my husband and verbally abusing him every time he comes in the door.

Janet: It's ok, Becca. I do that to my husband, too. Don't worry it happens. You guys are in a stressful season.  Just give yourself grace.

Mary:  I keep getting wasted every time I go out clubbing with my girlfriends.  I just don't understand why its so hard for me to stay sober when everyone else around me is plastered!!

Katie: OMG Mary, I know its so hard! Just keep trying.  God wants us to be able to reach those people so just maybe try to pray more before you go out with them.  Everyone struggles with that.  Just give yourself grace.

Do any of these scenarios sound familiar?  How often to we come to one another about our sins and struggles and receive nothing but empty advice? Everybody wants to extend grace but not inspire change.  We would rather pity than empower. As Christians, we LOVE to pull the grace card whenever we have dealt a bad hand in our lives! Grace, grace and more grace for ANYTHING and EVERYTHING.  Now grace is a beautiful thing.  We serve the most gracious God and we have been saved by grace.  Grace is available to us when we sin; when we fall.  I am not in anyway devaluing the importance of us being gracious with one another through our sins and struggles like God is with us.  But we shouldn't be all about greezy grace!! Greezy grace is the kind of grace that takes advantage of God's loving graciousness towards us.  We have to learn to strike a balance!! We have to realize that the same grace that is extended to us when we sin is the SAME grace that is given to us in order to turn from the sin. Don't believe me? Take a look at Titus 3:11: "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age..." God's grace is the catalyst for godly living! It is the means by which we gain self-control! Grace teaches us to say NO to our sin!  So in essence, we can't truly say that we are walking in and clothed in grace, if we are continuing to walk in our sin without repentance and evidence of change. If we are clothed in grace than we will be clothed in righteousness.  If we are walking in grace than we will be walking in holiness.  Grease is for good, not for grace! So lets walk in grace and be Christ-like! So maybe those above conversations should go something like this instead:

Sally: I just snapped at my kids because I'm tired and irritable.  They didn't do anything wrong.  In fact, they have been perfect angels all day.  I'm just about to start my period and I keep losing it.

Beth: Sally, I totally understand! I struggle with this myself! But let's remember that God has called us to be loving to our children regardless of how irritable and tired we are.  It's ok. Just go to them and repent. Repent to God as well and then receive his grace to act differently next time! 

Becca:  I don't know what my deal is.  I just keep disrespecting my husband and verbally abusing him every time he comes in the door.

Janet: Becca! I'm right there with you girl! Sometimes I just CAN'T hold my tongue with my husband. Let's hold each other accountable! Go to your husband and repent for the way you have been treating him and let him know that you have gotten accountability to help you change! Repent before God as well and ask for his grace to help you exercise self-control! Let's be checking in on each other!

Mary:  I keep getting wasted every time I go out clubbing with my girlfriends.  I just don't understand why its so hard for me to stay sober when everyone else around me is plastered!!

Katie: OMG Mary, I know that must be SO hard.  Have you ever considered just not going clubbing with them if you know that you are prone to stumble and drink too much?  Scripture talks about making "level paths" for your feet and being diligent to remove yourself from situations that will tempt you to sin. Why don't we find other ways to hang out with and reach those girls for a while?

Grace is beautiful. Let's not abuse it.

Feeling Invisible?

I am asking that question not to pity you, embarrass you or indirectly imply that you are.  I am asking you because I have personally felt invisible and still have many moments throughout the day where I have to remind myself that I am not.  If you are a full-time, stay-at-home wife and mother like myself, I'm sure you can relate.  In fact, any woman who is anybody, I am sure can relate.  We all slip in to deep pits of inferiority, insecurity and insignificance at times and are struck by sudden despair and even began to question why we do what we do.  Since devoting your life to full-time servitude of others, often going unnoticed and unappreciated,  is not very popular in our present culture, I feel that homemakers may potentially have more symptoms and side affects of a woman who simply feels invisible and non-impactful to the shattering world around her than others.  It's hard some days to change diapers when one could be changing bandages as a nurse.  It's hard to make meals for a picky 13 month old when one could be laying out a full delicious spread at a near by homeless shelter.  It's hard to scrub dishes and toilets and showers (and just about everything else in the house when you have a toddler obsessed with exploration and adventure lol) for no pay when at least in the workplace you get a check for it!  Sometimes its just plain HARD to give and give and give.  Especially in ways that seem small.  Even if you have the most loving and supportive husband in the world and your kids rise up and call you blessed, a good 80% (or more), of what we do as homemakers is just simply seen by no one.......EXCEPT our invisible God! He sees.  He hears.  He watches.  When it's 10:30 at night and everyone has gone to bed and you are switching over that last load of laundry so that your family can have clean clothes for the next day, He sees.  When it's 10, and 12, and 2, and 4, AND 6 and your up nursing while everyone is sound asleep, He sees.  When you are scrubbing that crusted over, hardened peanut butter off of your utensils, He sees. When you are picking practically whole meals of broccoli, quinoa, chicken and only God knows what else out of your coach when you would much rather be sitting on it, He sees.  When you are reading Romans to your 13 month old and she has no idea what you are talking about but you know you want God's Word to began to take root in her heart, He sees. He sees, He sees, He sees!! You are making a difference! You are raising the future!  You have been given the responsibility to nurture and rear world-changers! Every dish you wash, every mouth you feed and every load of laundry that you fold is setting an example of a life of servitude and dedication to others! That is what Jesus did! He served! He met needs, not to mention our greatest need for salvation! No house chore is done in vain! You are meeting needs and are following in the footsteps of our ultimate example, Jesus! I want to share a quick entry from my journal that prompted me to right this blog. Maybe what I have put on paper is a bit of what you feel.

You are with me! Emmanuel! Emmanuel! You see me! You are watching over me! You see me and are with me when I feel like no one else is! You see me when I am doing the everyday mundane tasks that seem so unimportant and non-impacting to the rest of the world! You see me washing dishes and folding clothes.  You see me nursing.  You see me preparing food.  All you want is for me to glorify you! You just want me to do whatever I do to to your glory! You are proud watching me glorify you in whatever I do no matter how small or how insignificant! You delight in me as I bring you glory! Help me to eat, sleep, breath, cook, nurse, clean, comfort, etc. to your glory because I know you are diligently watching and you are always around! You are so in-tuned with my day and daddy I am so grateful! Sometimes I think my days are so uninteresting and uneventful, like a low budget film that never made it to the big screens.  But you choose to watch all of the drama of my life unfold with such intensity and anticipation as if my life was #1 in the box office! I love that you love to watch me and be by me.  This makes me so grateful! So thankful! You make me feel like I am your star!! It's almost like I am your favorite reality TV show! Ahhh, daddy I love you so dearly!

Sometimes when I journal I feel like a little girl before God so bear with some of my cheesiness!! It's just me being honest before God and writing what I feel in those very moments!!  I hope that you felt encouraged as you read that entry.  God sees you.  He sees me.  He loves us. He is more instep and in-touch with us than we will ever know.  Go about your day to the glory of God. He's proud.  I'll leave you with this verse to remind you that He is with you and sees you all day.

"The LORD looks down from heaven, he SEES all the children of man; from where he sits enthroned he LOOKS OUT on all the inhabitants of the earth, He who fashions the hearts of them all and OBSERVES ALL THEIR DEEDS." Psalm 33:13-15 (emphasis added)

Our invisible God sees the seemingly invisible!

What the heck am I thinkin'?

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."

Philippians 4:8

1. Whatever is TRUE

What a concept: think about the truth! Don't think about the lies! If you think about the lies, you will eventually begin to act and feel on false pretenses.  A lot of times we find ourselves in a whirlwind of emotions that leave us coocoo for cocopuffs all based upon a perception that is not reality! We have to save ourselves the trouble and choose instead to only dwell on truth! The truth about who we are in Christ, the truth about the nature of our relationships with others, and the truth of God's Word.

2. Whatever is HONORABLE

To God and to others! We mustn't fall prey to the false assumption that our honor towards other people is only measured by our outward actions!

3.  Whatever is JUST

Be fair and reasonable even in our thoughts!

4. Whatever is PURE

We gotta get out minds out of the gutter! Obviously when it comes to sexual purity, but also in regards to the carnal filth that we are surrounded by day in and day out.

5. Whatever is LOVELY

Who could use a little bit of lovely in their life? 

6. Whatever is COMMENDABLE

If our thoughts were flashing on a big screen, would people (not to mention God) commend us for them?

7. If there is any EXCELLENCE

Strive for it! Even in your mind!

8. If there is anything WORTHY OF PRAISE

This one, in my opinion, carries more weight with it than we may realize.  Things that are obviously worthy of praise are good deeds, good behavior, and just good fruit in our lives.  But aren't there so many things that we think about that deserve absolutely NO praise?  The first things that came to my mind were our past sins, failures, and shortcomings.  Our sin us ugly.  Most of our failures are shameful.  Our shortcomings are just constant reminders that we truly have "fallen short" of God's glory.  In a nutshell, none of it is worthy of praise.  So why do we so often dwell on them and fail to give the guilt and shame over to the Lord?  Why do we waste so much brainpower rummaging through the thorns and thistles of our former deserted trails, rather than looking ahead on the road to glory? In Philippians 4:12-13, Paul explains how he "presses on" and forgets what lies behind and strains forward for what lies ahead.  He made a cognitive decision  to STOP THINKING about the past, to stop dwelling on the ugly, and to cease pondering the things from his past that were not deserving of any praise whatsoever.  We, my lovely friends, must do the same! We have to get our minds right!  I pray that we will begin to think on the things that will inspire praise and worship of God as well as fruitful living! May we not be trapped in our minds by our ugly and unbecoming pasts but rather move forward with a renewed mind!!

So what the heck are YOU thinkin'? Think on THESE things!

10 Ways to Make "Gettin' In the Word" as a Momma easier!

 Lose the legalistic mindset

You don’t HAVE to sit down and read your Bible for exactly one hour every single day in the same location at the same time.  There is NO WHERE in scripture that COMMANDS you to be this rigorous.  If you are this rigorous because that is what works best for you, than by all means do it and more power to ya! But if you are that way just to check it off the to-do list, or you’re simply doing it because you have been told it has to be that way, then you may want to revaluate.  I am all about structure and discipline so I am not advocating reading sporadically for 30 seconds every other day, but I am saying be realistic and give yourself grace.  Most especially on those crazy hard days as a mom. 

Include your kids

Some days you just can’t escape those adorable little people J.  So why not include them.  If you are like me just read whatever portion of Scripture you are reading out loud with the same passion and expression that you would for let's say, Fancy Nancy.  My seven month old doesn’t know the difference J.

 Put down the clicker J

I know you probably feel that you are the 4th Crawley sister (as do I) and are desperately interested in the current affairs of your make believe TV family but sometimes you just have to exercise some restraint and choose to hear instead from your ACTUAL heavenly Father. (for all of you Downton Abbey fanatics J)

Turn off the iPhone

Facebook will be there when you are done.  Really hunny, it will J.

 Keep a few Bible’s open

Having a Bible open in the rooms you spend most of your time will make it easier to read a couple quick verses here and there throughout the day! You could start with the Kitchen countertop J.  

 Take advantage of those few and far between “pauses” in your day

Even if you just read a few verses while you are waiting to reheat your coffee for the 100^th time, or while you are waiting for water to boil  it’s worth it.  We all know water WON’T boil if we look at it, so look at a few uplifting scriptures instead!

Get accountability

Ask your husband, pastor, or friend to check in on you from time to time J.

Think of it as a prenatal vitamin J

If you are like me, you consume a HUGE pill four times a day to keep all your mommy functions running at full speed.  The key is to take them spread out and not at once in order to maintain a healthy balance.  Bits and pieces of the Word throughout the day can do wonders in helping you strike some serious balance in your life!

Think of it as receiving endearing text messages from your heavenly husband throughout the day

Everyone likes to receive em’ from your hubby or anyone else for that matter.  Who better to receive a message from than God?

Remember that when it comes to the Word, leftovers won’t cut it.

Any mom knows how it feels to look at the clock and realize its 7and you have no idea what you are making for dinner.  But giiiiiiiirl, does your heart sing when you open your fridge and you remember that you made enough sauce (what we call spaghetti and meatballs in our family) to feed an entire army the night before.  But when it comes to reading your Bible, leftovers just won’t get the job done.  We can’t rely on Sunday’s message, Monday’s podcast, or even Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday’s time in the Word to be enough if it’s Friday.  You don’t want to be half full all the time.  We want to overflow! Colossians 3:16 says  “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly…”.  So go ahead and get rich quick girl and get in that Word!  I promise, we won’t be disappointed J.