S Club Mama

  The other day I was doing a Sydney Cummings workout video on YouTube, when she said something that really struck me. She said that "location doesn't dictate your goals." She was talking about fitness, but I believe it applies to spiritual goals, too.   My goals for my children and myself haven't changed from before COVID-19. I still pray the same things:   -for my children to surrender to and love the Lord   -for my children to love others (starting with their siblings)   -for my children to kill the idols and sin in their lives   -for them to trust and obey (their parents and the Lord)   -for them to have security   My goals for myself haven't changed. I still pray the same things for myself:   -to focus on Christ   -to choose the pleasure of humility   -to take my thoughts captive and renew my mind   -to practice stillness and silence (much more difficult but maybe more important right now)   -to keep my ...

via Flickr   The ESV version of the Bible translates Proverbs 22:9 like this: "Whoever has a bountiful eye will be blessed, for he shares his bread with the poor."   I thought of Christ when I read this. He had a bountiful eye. He saw his bounty in his relationship with the Father and the Holy Spirit. He did not keep that to himself but saw us in our sin and came for us - to share his heirship with us (Romans 8:17).   What do we do with this knowledge, this privilege? Do we store up our bounty for ourselves? Yesterday, I shared the verse about not storing for ourselves treasures on earth. This is along the same lines. We cannot keep this to ourselves - this love, this amazing grace!   Are we hoarders? Do we hoard our time? Do we hoard our stuff? Do we hoard our talents? What does that look like, in this season of social distancing, to use those things for our neighbors?   A friend of mine shared a video on Facebook about how to motivate children. As...

    I went to bed last night with the song "Take Heart" from Seeds Family Worship in my head. It's from John 1 16:33, "I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."   And don't we find ourselves in troubles right now? Our lives have been affected in various ways. Some of you have canceled plans to go visit relatives or get away for awhile on spring break. You may now be working remotely or your job may be gone. Maybe you're out of toilet paper or eggs or milk. Your gym classes or your prom has been canceled.   What will next week look like? What will tomorrow look like? We don't know. But we know that in this life, we who are believers have been promised troubles. Not the same troubles, not to the same degree troubles, but troubles.   Some of you may be bitter about your troubles. And your troubles look bigger and more overwhelming than your ne...

  Time together gives us ample time to overflow our mouths. Even just a few hours can reveal so much about what we have been putting into our hearts. I always have at least one child home with me, so this is not a new norm for me, but for many of us, it's just a different time. Even if I'm used to it, I'm not used to my children being home under these uncertain circumstances.    And so what do we do when our mouths overflow isn't what we want it to be?    Prayer. Too often this is not my default as it should be. Only the Holy Spirit can help me overcome my mouth...ultimately, my heart. James says that no man can tame the tongue, so why do I always look to my own effort?    Flee. 2 Timothy 2:22 says to "flee the evil desires of youth." While it may not specifically be talking about this type of sin, I believe it's wise to flee from evil in all forms. This may mean fleeing the room when your child isn't listening and you're going to ...

I saw this meme and I thought it fitting:   Now, I'll be honest, my weekdays aren't looking much different than they normally do. We were already on Spring Break so I was already planning to have all four kids home with me. I usually have a plan, including quiet time stations/rotation stations during nap time.    But many things have been canceled for us as well: piano lessons (we did opt out of virtual lessons for now, but may if this is extended), 4H everything (including regional club days which my boys were super bummed about not getting to perform their skit), a lot of ministry things for me, and Wednesday night ministry things for my kids. Honestly, even having people over for supper will be an issue with our family of 6. Any 4 or less families want to come over? The hardest thing for me was that we were planning to visit my grandma this weekend, whom I haven't seen since last Easter.   For the most part, this is not going to disrupt our lives. We stay ...

One of my gifts is the gift of encouragement. I frequently enjoy writing notes to my friends and acquaintances, telling them what they mean to me or what they mean to our Lord. I know that words of affirmation are my love language and I like to share that language with others. Paperless Post is a website that helps me to do this in a manner that fits my life. I was frustrated after my baby was born in July. I struggled to get thank you notes written for the wonderful ways people were blessing us with meals and gifts. Once I got them written, they sat on our counter or in my purse for months because I didn't go out or I'd forget they were there. Nothing worse than undelivered mail. With the USPS price of stamps going up, I fear that will begin to kill the art of snail mail (is that still an art?). Whether that be notes of encouragement, birthday or wedding invitations, thank you notes, or Christmas cards; it gets to be expensive to send a card. this is the car...

I think that that worst run was just the kind of motivation I needed to keep going. I got some excellent encouragement via comments (seriously, I have the best readers). Thank you all for being so sweet. I will say that my friend Shannon's comment about my running meaning a lot to her and inspiring really stuck with me this morning on my run. I think that encouraging others is one of my motivators. I am not a runner. I am a former softball athlete running. Maybe some day I'll really think of myself as a runner, I don't know. I don't love it but I do enjoy it (most days). And I'd love for me running to be inspiring enough to help others to do it for themselves. I know Mariah has said I inspired her to run, too - honestly that means so much to me. I have always looked to others for inspiration and motivation. But sometimes I think we find it inside ourselves. I started running to of course, lose baby weight but also to encourage my children to live active lives. B...