Life~Trials~Inspiration

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Striving Vs. Abiding

As a mom of a now 2 year old and 7 month old, life has been quite frankly utterly insane. Navigating motherhood is like a constant cycle of evolution with lots of prayer you are evolving in the direction God would have you go. A lot of things have been on my heart lately and as I have begun to work on myself and strive to break generation curses that have affected me, a specific theme has weighed heavy. This theme is "striving vs. abiding". I think this leads into a lot of things from questions, to statements and really looking inward. Personally God has been speaking this to me in a few realms, contentment being a big one and also reliance. Our culture pushes us to constantly strive to be better and I have noticed this targets moms quite heavily. Now striving toward goals and to better oneself is not inherently bad, however like anything when you devote to much to it or perhaps even begin to worship the idea, goal etc it becomes toxic and perhaps even an idol. I will ...

Good Enough?

Take a moment and reflect, first on the world as a whole, then your community, then your affiliations in the community, then your home and lastly within yourself. As you reflect, think specifically about the main points or things you notice about each area, where your mind gravitates to the most. Church sermons tend to be a great point of reflection for me, both in the moment and throughout the week. This week a topic that I think we all struggle with immensely as individuals and as a whole population was addressed and that is the standard of good. What is good enough? Furthermore, what is "good enough" in a world that automatically sets the standard to perfect and instills that anything less than is an automatic fail? I find it quite ironic that this world sets a standard of "perfection" for everything, and yet the same world murdered the only man who was, has been and ever will be perfect. I think that all of us struggle with this unattainable standard in one way ...

Psalm 25- For the mommas

Psalm 25 4-5, "Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God, my savior, and my hope is in you all day long. This is a verse mentioned in a devotional this evening I recently started and it stood out to me as I have been walking farther along this journey of motherhood. It has always been important to learn from the Lord, to seek his instruction, guidance and peace, to hope in him completely. That being said, having now entered into the toddler plus newborn era, I am feeling that need more then ever. Honest moment here, I have absolutely no idea what I am doing. How to raise disciples? No clue. How to have patience through the cat 8 tsunami my toddler throws at me multiple times a day whilst keeping a newborn alive? Yep lost here too. This season is showing me more and more my weaknesses and my need for the Lord. Another honest moment, this has made me panic, I have felt unprepared, frustrated and I would go as far as to s...

Acceptance

I don't know about you but personally I like control... Having no control in a situation is not something I've ever deemed to be a good time. I ran across the verse today that talks about not leaning on our own understanding. The post that followed talked about how our emotions are constantly changing, our goals, our visions, the world around us. Leaning on our own understanding would be like stepping into quick sand and expecting not to sink... The Lord never changes, he is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Thus logically it makes sense to lean on him, his understanding, his wisdom. This is quite the challenge for me, as someone who loves learning and wants to understand absolutely everything... I have found though when I try too hard to understand some things, my brain goes into a panic. As I was mulling all this over today, it hit me. Some things are not meant to be understood. God wired our brains, he created our minds, and he didn't give us the ability to compr...

The fire

A thought came to me today as I stumbled upon some inspirational posts. Why are we often so eager to escape our troubling circumstances. We get trapped in the fire and get so focused on getting out that perhaps we miss the most important question of all, what refining needs to be completed in the fire? Just as a welder uses the fire to shape and refine metal, so God uses our circumstances, "fires" to shape and refine us. If he simply swooped in and saved the day, we would lack the knowledge he hopes us to gain, we wouldn't grow in character or wisdom. In the fire we think he abandom us, left us to our own devices, but in reality he is more present in the fire even then in the calm. It's when we feel abandoned that he's calling to us the loudest, beckoning us to just open our ears to listen to his voice. Take the fires in stride, don't immediately reach for the extinguisher. Allow the flames to surround you with the confident knowledge that the one whom the...

Stillness

As someone accustomed to being constantly on the go and busy, I've always found the concept of stillness almost nerving. When someone tells you to spend time being still in God's presence, I don't know about you but I always pictured literally sitting still with nothing to occupy myself. To say the least due to this perception stillness is something I'd avoid. As I've began seeking God as a new mother, he's hit me with a new perspective that I'd like to share in the hopes it can aid and encourage others to embrace being still. Stillness is different for everyone, perhaps for some it is sitting and doing absolutely nothing, meditating on God's word, for others maybe it's prayer or being alone and singing worship music. Being still with God is eliminating distractions of this world and focusing fully on him. What helps your mind go quiet? What helps you tune into God's voice and block out the world? Personally I've found its worship music and...