Monday Mornings for Moms

My children all were once so small,

Now they are so very tall.

Some days were long and filled with tears,

Others filled with laughter now passed in years.

The seasons come, the seasons go

As we drive them to and fro.

Lean in sweet mama and hear me say,

“You’ve got just one job to do today.”

Love them hard and love them well,

Listen to each tale they tell.

Soon you’ll miss this precious face,

Respond to the challenge filled with grace.

They won’t remember each meal you make,

But they will recall the time you take,

To help them feel special and safe,

because of the smiles you share and the love you display.

By Victoria Duerstock

©2018

The Value of a Good Attitude

As a mom who has worked with my own children and many others in my music studio for more than twenty years now, I have realized that if I could encourage parents along the journey with something in particular it would be in the area of life lessons.  I began a blog and outlined a book about life lessons with this sole purpose, and still believe it to be one of the biggest things that I would love for parents to hear and understand. Learning life lessons that enable children to become better, more responsible adults truly begins in our homes.  Reading this week here, I was surprised to find that many millennials when asked what age adulthood begins respond with the age of 30 or even 40!  What?!  How did this happen? Why did we allow them to believe that their adolescence should and could stretch this far?

While I cannot and will not say that I have all the answers because I truly don’t, I think that we can as parents take an active role in helping our children in their maturity.  We can then encourage those young families with young children to begin the same process in their homes.  While we can’t reap mature adults right away, we can begin to make progress and turn this ship around!

Read the rest over at my post on w2wministries.com

The Importance of Prayer Ministry

One of my favorite books on prayer, Quiet Talks on Prayer, relates a story from DL Moody’s evangelistic ministry. The story hinged on one woman’s prayers during a season of sickness. Homebound and heartsick, she found instead a greater calling to a deeper prayer time. She spent time in prayer for her church, for the services, and for salvation of the lost souls in her community. She read a story in a journal, sometime into her new season of life, about Mr. Moody and the work he was doing in the United States.  Her prayer became an almost daily petition.   For more than year, she prayed that he would come to London and preach in their church. Yet during all this time she had no sign that her prayers would be answered. No encouragement. No confirmation.  Nothing.

This is an except of a post I have up at Woman to Woman today - you can read the rest here...

Owning my Inadequacy

My current Bible reading plan has me reading 10 chapters a day. Mostly you move ahead to the next book of the Bible as each is completed, with readings through the Old and New Testaments.  The only difference is the book of Acts and Proverbs.  When you finish those you start again.  It's a little confusing to explain, but if you google Professor Grant Horner's Bible Reading system you can find some more info there.  I have really enjoyed this method this year. I try to change things up each year as I read through the Bible, because I just find new and wonderful nuggets along the way.  This morning was just such a time for me but it happened in my first chapter - so I was stuck just pondering the passage for a while. Has that happened for you? You've read something before, but never has the thought struck about the way things are worded or why Jesus said or did something the way he did?  It's so exciting for me after all these years to continually be shown new things, and to have new thoughts leap up from the pages to my brain so I thought my encouraging word for you today would come from what I read this morning - I hope you will be encouraged by it.

Luke 9:10-17 Sets the scene once again for the feeding of the five thousand.  This is such an exciting time in the gospels as Jesus is teaching and leading and healing the people coming to him for help.  This is also not the only time we read of this story - it's just from Luke's gospel this time.  This record of events states that the 12 disciples came to Jesus asking him to send the large crowd away.  They needed food and lodging and the disciples were concerned because they were in a desolate place.

Now mind you I've read this account multiple times before but I was struck today by Jesus' reply - vs. 13 But he said to them, "You give them something to eat."  Now Jesus was already aware that they had no provisions for 5,000 men but they responded anyway with the fact that they only had five loaves and two fish.  I found it interesting that instead of Jesus just saying, yes you are right, we have no food I need to perform a miracle with the little we have, his first response was to tell them to feed them.

For me in that moment, I couldn't just keep reading, because I know that is exactly what God does with me in my life.  He reveals my complete lack. My emptiness, and brokenness. My weakness and my failures. My inadequacy to do anything meaningful on my own. My complete mess of my own making with no answers in sight, so that He can reveal His glory in my story.  He took the little they gathered and blessed it and fed the crowd WITH LEFTOVERS afterward.  He revealed to them what they could not do so that they could see His vast omnipotence and miraculous hand in and over all.

How exciting!  Let me be honest though, it's not often that I want to count up my failures and weakness.  Truth be told, I'm rather a "take charge" and get it done kind of person and  I work to get things figured out.  He reminded me in the quiet this morning that He already has it all figured out, and He is just waiting for me to realize it.

What a gift our relationship is with Him. My encouragement for you is to please - take the time to sit in His presence.  Nothing will help you face your day better than to dwell with Him.

Bible Studies & Giveaways!

The recent Bible studies released through Women of Faith include 3 titles – Building Your Strengths, Praying with Power and Giving God your Future. Each study includes twelve weeks of lessons with easy to understand illustrations.  The questions for each lesson have you turning in your Bibles to find the answers and prompt deeper thought about each topic.  There are multiple insets throughout the book with a quote or verse highlighted for special focus. Each lesson also contains three smaller sections at the end helping to dig deeper into the topic for the week, how to meditate and pray, and a trinket to treasure – an object designed to help us remember the lesson.  The format is easy to follow and the consistency between the books make each one an easy transition to the next.  With forwards written by Patsy Clairmont and Thelma Wells, the name recognition give to each study should help it be very successful on shelves in bookstores. Each lesson is fairly short.  The illustration/explanation is usually just the first page, most of the study relies on answering the questions which are firmly based in Scripture.  These studies will not take an enormous amount of time each day to complete and can be easily added to your ongoing Bible reading without creating too much additional work.  I appreciate so much that the majority of the questions in these studies leads you back to your Bible – the answers aren’t found in the book itself.  This is a feature that is a huge benefit I believe for encouraging actual study to take place in our Bibles.

Included in the back of the book is a leader guide, in case someone chose to do this study with a small group – no extra purchase is necessary.  It is extremely convenient, not to mention a great savings for those of us used to having to purchase an additional leader’s guide to conduct a study.

After having planned on reading Praying with Power first, I decided to sit down one afternoon and take a quick glance through on Building Your Strengths.  Instead of glancing through though, I stopped and did the study and read the book in its entirety.  This is a very practical guide to thinking through our strengths and how God can use them to further His kingdom.  Not just stopping with our own strength though the author does make sure to acknowledge the Divine Strength that we as children have access to in God our Father.  The practical application of all the chapters is an outward focus which I believe is an important one for us women as we can many times become consumed by the demands on our time and energy. I look forward to finishing all 3 of these studies in the days ahead.

From the foreword Building Your Strengths - "If God sends us on strong paths, we are provided strong shoes.” Corrie Ten Boom

IF you’d like a free copy of each of these three studies – you are in luck!  I’m giving away one set of these three books to one lucky winner!  Follow the instructions below - do all three things:

1. Leave a comment on the blog by sharing which book you’d be most interested in reading.
2. Like the Encouraging Women Today Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/encouragingwomen2day/
3. Share this giveaway with others –either by sharing the links to the website encouragingwomentoday.com or the Facebook page link to this blog post.

Goal Setting is Inspiring & Encouraging

I made a quick Facebook post yesterday asking what people were planning for their goals for 2017.  It was a post generated from my personal assessments and plans that I'm putting into place for this next year.  I always spend most of December thinking through the last year and anticipating what things I can jump into for the new year. Here's what I posted -

What goals are you setting for 2017? I'd love to hear them. Share away!!

I'm not sure what kind of response I would receive but I was pleasantly surprised to see that the longer the post has been on my page, the more responses I receive.

One of the things I have learned through adulthood is the value of accountability.  I'm mostly a lone ranger at heart - only child, very driven and ambitious, and not much of a team player.  I've always been able to do more on my own.  But as I get older, I can see the value of accountability in relationships.

Perhaps it's the blunting edge of age on my life, or motherhood and finding sisterhood in that journey that's helped me see that journeying WITH others is better than lone ranger.  While I'm still in charge of my own destiny, knowing that others are aware of what I'm trying to accomplish and that they are cheering me on or giving me a swift kick when I'm down, accountability has been such a good thing for me to seek out.

Accountability to others helped me accomplish my goal to memorize the book of James this summer.  Knowing that I would receive a text asking how my scripture memory was going, or an email or even an encouraging message on Facebook about what it meant to them to hear those verses recited out loud.  I felt the extra push some weeks that someone would regret not hearing me share if I didn't reach the memory goal for the week.

Sometimes I think we don't actually share our big dreams, or goals because we are worried about failure.  I wrote about failure not too long ago over on my other blog - you can read more here if you'd like.  The reality is most of us are afraid to fail.  We'd rather not step out of our comfort zone if it means we risk failure.  The beauty of success though is looking back and realize that failure might have happened along the way but it was not a stopping point, it was the catalyst to the success that came later!

Anyway - I found that several people were willing to share their goals with me - and I was given the unique opportunity to cheer them on.  Some I know very well, some not so much - but we were each bound with the anticipation and inspiration of looking ahead and saying out loud what we want to accomplish.  So.very.powerful.

So I ask you the same question - I don't care how young or old you are.  I don't care how busy you are or how difficult is right now.  The moment you stop dreaming you stop living. I speak from experience.  Sometime in the middle of motherhood, I found myself just doing what needed to be done each day without really allowing myself to dream about the future.  With dreaming about the future, planning ahead is so important, and for so long I didn't do it.  I was afraid to fail, and afraid to want something that I couldn't have.  Totally faulty mindset there.  Don't fall in the trap!  Be inspired!  Be encouraged!  Think about those things you've always said you'd do. One day. When the kids are grown. Maybe that's not what you are waiting for, waiting for any next step to happen before you dream about the future is stifling and limiting.

So share with me!  What are your goals for 2017?  I'd love to hear them and cheer you on!

Be an Encourager!

An encourager is one who by definition inspires others with hope, courage or confidence.  Don't you enjoy being around someone who is encouraging? Aren't they like a breath of fresh air? Perhaps you are naturally gifted in this area, and it's easy for you to speak kindness and encouragement into those around you.  If on the other hand you are like me, and you tend to see all that's wrong around us, you have to work at it some more.  Just like we work at being purposeful in our daily lives with our activities and goals, I would also like to propose that we be INTENTIONAL with choosing words of encouragement to be spoken to those around us.

Perhaps it's our family members that need to know they are doing a good job, or that they are appreciated for their hard work - don't just think those thoughts, be sure to speak them.

Maybe it's a co-worker, classmate or sweet friend who is battling a difficult time - depression, cancer, loss of a mate, failing grades - what can you do to encourage them through this trial?  Maybe it's just a verse of Scripture that means something special to you, or an inspiring quote that has been encouraging for you, will be just the thing that will encourage another person.

While each of us do not likely have the capacity to change the world, we do have the ability to change one person's day.  The opportunity to bring a smile, squeeze a hand or give a hug for one person is something that can spur others to action as well.  In that small action, we do have the capacity to be world changers.  All it takes is a little thought, a bit of openness to share and encourage.  Be light to someone in your world today!

When the Music stops

I was recently talking on Facebook with a college friend.  She has had some very grave trials in her married life and she is just starting to take up her music again.  She is a talented singer, pianist and teacher.  It reminded me of a dark time in my life, when it seemed like that thing that I loved so much, music, and writing music, made no sense anymore.  My writing was dark, and not hopeful, and I stopped composing.  I stopped playing because it just felt fake. I wonder have you been there?  Have you encountered a time maybe when your joy was less than full and the thing that you loved brought you more pain than happiness?  My musical journey has been more painful than anything, and yet it's still something that I have invested a lot of time and energy in.  God has blessed in amazing ways but not always the way I wanted him to.

I was thrilled my friend, had enough distance from her trials to be able to feel the music again.  Whether you are in the middle of the pain, just starting or just ending a trial, there is hope.  God is our lamp in the darkness and while he doesn't remove our pain or grief, He does promise to walk with us through the darkness, and to turn into eventually into light! (II Sam.22:29)

I hope you find encouragement here.  Tragedy doesn't keep us sidelined forever.  God makes a way for us to make the music again.  My prayer is that you can find great comfort in these words!