Face Your Goliath

by Angela Jamison Last week in my Women’s Small Group we discussed the Bible story of David and Goliath. We pondered on how brave David was to stand up to Goliath after soldiers twice his size ran in fear and how much faith he held to do so scantily armed and with little doubt. Even when Saul attempted to talk him out of it or Goliath himself laughed in his face, David stood strong in the belief and knowledge that God had saved him from adversity before and He would do it again.

David stood up to Goliath.

After a brief discussion, I proposed a question ...

What Goliath in your life do you need to stand up to? 

 We all have one, a giant in our life that we spend more time and energy on avoiding than simply facing. These are the moments when the Bible, and it’s truths, come alive for me.  The moments when I can insert myself into the story, see and feel, the depth of it’s meaning.

David and Goliath could be a fairy a tale. A fairy tale of the underdog winning against the big bully, taking him down with one well placed stone. It could be.

But it’s not. 

David and Goliath is a story of faith, a story of the necessity of believing in God’s mercies and arming ourselves, every day, with his power and love. David didn’t win because he had a large stone, was a top-notch pitcher or kung-fu master. David won because he believed he could and he trusted in the One who had protected him always.

David won because he had God.

The best part of this story? We can win, too! Just as David did, we too can face our Goliath and take him down because we have the strength and the power and the love of the most strong Almighty Father.

 It’s so easy to be like the hundreds of other soldiers running from Goliath in fear. It takes faith to stand up and be like David. So again, I ask …

What Goliath in your life do you need to stand up to?

 Sometimes our Goliath is an outside force, another person or situation, but often times, our Goliath lives within ourselves. Sometimes, our Goliath is the doubt, the fear, the self-deprecating talk we allow to manifest in our hearts and minds. We are our own worst enemy, our own Goliath.

David won because he had God and we can win too. Wrap yourself in the blanket of truth of God’s word, knowing and believing He will deliver you from whatever giant you are facing, inwardly or outwardly. With Him, you are capable and through Him you are strengthened.

Stock your arsenal with these Bible verses to help you stand up to your Goliath…

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. -Philippians 4:13

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” -Joshua 1:9

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. -Isaiah 41:10

You are my refuge and my shield; I have put my hope in your word.  -Psalm 119:114

The righteous person may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all - Psalm 34:19

Angela Jamison is a mother of four and works with young children as the Director of a Christian Preschool. She derives joy from children and is passionate about connecting with mothers to encourage and reiterate God’s design for the toughest job on Earth. 

 After struggling with infertility, Angela and her husband entered the world of foster care and began the journey to create their family on God’s terms.

When she is not entertaining children, or buying LulaRoe, Angela loves to read, write and explore the path being laid before her by the most perfect parent, our Heavenly Father.

Read more of Angela’s writing and journey at www.angelajamison.com

Psalm 37:4 Delight before Desire

by Rachel Schmoyer I felt restless. Unsettled. This feeling was illogical. Nothing on the surface of my day to day life had changed. I was still cooking, cleaning, teaching Sunday School, directing Vacation Bible School, reading voraciously—all the things I’ve always loved and longed to do. However, I noticed I didn’t have a driving passion for them anymore.

At first, I thought my restlessness was because God wanted to move our family to Africa, but nope. After my husband returned from a missions trip to Tanzania, he didn’t say “pack up we are moving.” Instead, he said, “I am more convinced we are exactly where we are supposed to be.” For him, that meant a renewed passion for ministry. For me, that meant I was stuck.

I was stumped. What was missing? Was their something else I was supposed to be doing? Why didn’t I feel like doing all the things I had always wanted to do? Since I wasn’t able to figure this out on my own, I asked my older and wiser friend. After listening carefully, she shared Psalm 37:4.

“Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”

I was surprised she choose this verse. Normally, this is a go-to verse for those who want something and need to know if God wants them to have it.

Something like this:

I want a new car.

Does God want me to have a new car? I don’t know. How can I find out?

I’ll delight myself in the Lord to check to see if God wants me to have a new car, too.  

The problem is, this litmus test approach to the verse is backwards. It puts the desire first and follows it up with delight. However, in the verse, the delight comes first before the desire.

My job was not to focus on myself and my desires. My job was to delight myself in the Lord.

Psalm 46:10 puts it a different way.

“Cease striving and know that I am God.”

The answer to the restless feeling in my soul was not to frantically search for a desire. That would be striving, trying to fix my life in my own strength. The solution to my unsettledness was to delight myself in the Lord. These verses were like a sigh of relief after holding my breath for too long. I began to replace my restlessness with a season of freedom to delight in the Lord.

What does it look like to delight yourself in the Lord?

• Read. Spend time in God’s word, delighting in His promises and His plan.
• Pray. Not just a list of requests, but praise, delighting in who God is.
• Rejoice. Delight in what the Lord has done for His people in the past. Not just the long past, but the recent past, too.

The result of my season of delighting was that God gave me a desire to write. Writing had not been on my radar—ever. This passion could only have come from delighting in Him. My challenge now is to keep delighting in Him so that every one of my writing goals is a desire from Him.

You might be in a season of unsettled. You may have a life transition coming up and you don’t know what your role will be in that transition. Maybe you don’t know what you want to be when you “grow up.”

Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.

Rachel Schmoyer is a pastor’s wife and a mom of four in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania. She writes at Read the Hard Parts (https://readthehardparts.com/) to encourage and equip Christians to find simple truths in complex Bible passages. Her devotionals have been published in Light from the Word, The Secret Place, and The Quiet Hour. You can connect with her on Facebook @ReadtheHardParts, Twitter @schmoyer_rachel, and Instagram @schmoyer_rachel.

Your Happy Place

by Angela Jamison

I was chatting with a dear friend this morning, griping about the number on the scale. We both tend to ride the up and down weight coaster and both are easily frustrated with the back and forth in progress. It’s not an uncommon conversation among friends and it will be a constant, life-long battle.

 I’ve often said if I could choose a super power, I would choose to be able to eat whatever I want and stay a healthy weight. Obviously unrealistic, but we can all dream, yes?

 In my conversation this morning, however, my friend said something that had me thinking. She said, “I just want to find my happy weight place”.

 I’ll adjust her phrase minimally to say - I just want to find my happy place.

 I just want to find my happy place.

 How often do we search for this? How often do each of us desire this magical, everything is how we want it, place? I know I’ve dreamed of ‘my happy place’, what it would look like and how I would feel in this imaginative state of perfection.

 I’ve dreamed of the greener grass on the other side while simultaneously destroying that which I’m tromping over. Dreaming of your happy place, opposed to relishing in your current one, can be more damaging than encouraging.

 We can find our happy place in our everyday.

 We can find our happy place in our everyday by giving our everyday to God, by focusing on His promises and provisions. We don’t have to dream of that imaginative state of perfection if we simply embrace the reality of God’s presence today.

 Is your happy place free of a current struggle?

Find it today with this truth…

 So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. - Isaiah 41:10

 Is your happy place free of financial stress?

Find it today with this truth…

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. -Matthew 6: 25-34

Is your happy place free of grief?

Find it today with this truth…

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. - Matthew 5:4

 Having dreams and aspirations are great qualities, but God is found in more than just those dreams. He is found in this very moment. Find God in your current day and He’ll guide you to your happy place, your in-this-moment state of perfection.

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Angela Jamison is a mother of four and works with young children as the Director of a Christian Preschool. She derives joy from children and is passionate about connecting with mothers to encourage and reiterate God’s design for the toughest job on Earth. 

 After struggling with infertility, Angela and her husband entered the world of foster care and began the journey to create their family on God’s terms

When she is not entertaining children, or buying LulaRoe, Angela loves to read, write and explore the path being laid before her by the most perfect parent, our Heavenly Father.

Read more of Angela’s writing and journey at www.angelajamison.com

Saying Yes When You’d Rather Say No

by Angela Jamison While I was basking in the Friday afternoon quiet before the kids arrived home from school, my phone rang. I had plans to sleep in the next day as well as enjoy the freedom that comes with having nothing on the calendar, but the caller quickly thwarted those plans when they asked for a favor. Not a favor of insignificance, but a favor of the magnitude that would claim my entire day, cost me money and be rather exhausting.

I wanted to say no.

I wanted to say no and sleep in. I wanted to say no and go to the pool or stay in my pajamas until noon. I wanted to say no, but the word “absolutely” came out instead.

After I made the commitment, the phrase “the hands and feet of Jesus” ran through my head. It was incessant, evading the possibility of grasping for understanding. I mumbled it out loud, wrote it down and became frustrated with my inability to see the significance of the phrase in my current day.

Then someone said to me, “You are being the hands and feet of Jesus and even if the situation does not go as planned, you have to know that those around you are seeing Jesus in you.”

I’m the hands and feet of Jesus. You are the hands and feet of Jesus. We are the hands and feet of Jesus. I’ve used the phrase before and even said it to my own children, but it never felt so powerful.

What exactly does it mean to be the hands and feet of Jesus, though? We easily think of cliche Christian volunteerism like feeding the homeless or going on mission trips and although those things are important and necessary, they’re directly linked to church and not our mundane every day lives.

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.

1Peter 4:10 NIV

In our daily grind it is much more difficult to actively be the hands and feet of Jesus. We get tied up in work, school, kids, ball games, traffic and stress and we simply ignore the call to serve others. We relate the phrase to the big to-dos of volunteering like described above and we miss the ever-present, simple opportunities to share Jesus’ love. We often say no because life is overwhelming and the reality is, we should say yes.

Being the hands and feet of Jesus is saying yes when you’d rather say no.

It’s hard! Believe me, I recognize the difficulty as I struggle to balance four children, a full time job and writing on the side. We can all claim understanding as each of our lives has its own plethora of struggles, but if we all continue saying no, what happens to the body of Christ?

Nothing.

Nothing happens to the body of Christ. It does not grow and He is not glorified.

Being the hands and feet of Jesus does not have to be an over-the-top act. It simply needs to be a genuine desire to show the love of our Savior. My moment of obedience came from a day trip that I’d rather not have taken. It came from saying yes when I wanted to say no.

Your moment of obedience may come from helping someone who has wronged you when you’d rather see them struggle or taking an extra minute to hold the door for a stranger when you’re already running late.

God does not call us to always be extravagant, He calls us to be obedient.

Today, I pray that you are presented the opportunity to be obedient, to be the hands and feet of Jesus. I pray you choose to say yes even if you really want to say no.

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Angela Jamison is a mother of four and works with young children as the Director of a Christian Preschool. She derives joy from children and is passionate about connecting with mothers to encourage and reiterate God’s design for the toughest job on Earth. 

 After struggling with infertility, Angela and her husband entered the world of foster care and began the journey to create their family on God’s terms

When she is not entertaining children, or buying LulaRoe, Angela loves to read, write and explore the path being laid before her by the most perfect parent, our Heavenly Father.

Read more of Angela's writing and journey at www.angelajamison.com

40 Days of Decreasing Mom Guilt

by Angela Jamison Mom guilt, the sinking feeling deep in your gut that you’re completely failing your children, scarring them for life and certainly destroying their future. The desperation to do everything right in your attempt to raise decent human beings. Mom guilt, the plague that attacks each and every one of us at some point in our lives regardless of the age of our children.

If you read that first paragraph and don’t connect with my definitions of mom guilt, kudos to you! Unfortunately though, I think more of you than not will be nodding your head in agreement. Mom guilt is something we don’t ask for, but oftentimes receive in abundance. The worst part - it’s self-inflicted!

As I thought about the Lenten season and how I can spend forty days growing closer to God, I thought about my mom guilt. Mom guilt decreases the joy I should be experiencing, takes my eyes off the One who gifted my precious children and does not honor the job I’ve been designed to do.

As many of you give up chocolate, soda or donate a piece of clothing each day, I am spending my forty days decreasing the mom guilt. I’ve created a list of ten ways to help decrease mom guilt and slowly but surely, I hope to find myself embracing the call of motherhood with more joy. Slowly but surely you can too!

• Believe you are doing a good job. It’s wonderful to be told from time to time that we are doing great at this motherhood gig, but you need to actually believe it. Trust your instincts, root your actions in love and believe in yourself. God designed you for this path.
• Don’t sweat the small stuff. The dishes in the sink, laundry on the counter and floors that haven’t been vacuumed do not define you; they are not the indicator of your success or failure.
• Take a break from Pinterest (and social media). Comparison is an instigator for mom guilt!
• Create an identity outside of your children. It is ok (and healthy!) to have a passion or hobby outside of your children. Allow yourself the freedom to be more than a mom.
• Take a deep breath, walk away, respond. When we allow our emotions to run freely, we overact. Overreaction leads to delayed mom guilt when we’ve come down from the moment and realize we just needed to breathe.
• Do the chores … or don’t. These moments with your children are fleeting, enjoy them. The chores can wait, but on the flip side, it’s a necessary evil and doing housework doesn’t mean you’re neglecting your children.
• Find a balance. Your balance will be different from mine and from your best friend; it will be uniquely yours. When you find it, hold tight and know life is a constant juggling act and you will occasionally drop a ball or two. That’s ok!
• Check your expectations. We often have high expectations of ourselves that leak over into the expectations for our children. We need to remember they are in fact just children learning how to navigate the tricky waters of this world.
• Limit multi-tasking. Multi-tasking has become our enemy as we try to accomplish more than one thing at a time. We then find ourselves in a rut of mediocrity instead of a cloud of accomplishment. I say limit because eliminating would be nearly impossible, however, we can be conscious of concentrating on one thing at a time, specifically when it comes to listening and spending time with our children.
• Have grace. Motherhood is not for the weak of heart! Grace for yourself and for your children is imperative. You won’t be perfect and neither will they, but offering grace allows you to continue and try again.

Motherhood is difficult enough without the added baggage of mom guilt we tend to carry around in our handbag. We need the grace and love of ourselves as much as we do that of our perfect Father. I pray the next forty days allows you to focus on the beauty of the job God designed for you, drawing you closer to Him through the decreasing of your mom guilt.

You are doing a good job! Believe it.

Life Lessons with Lightning McQueen

by Angela Jamison When my youngest son was three, he was introduced to Lightning McQueen. From the first meeting, they were best of friends and he is still attached to him five years later. It's one of the longest toy loves in my household.

My son still has numerous different McQueens - from wind up to color changing, mini to stuffed. It's safe to say that you can find a Lightning McQueen in any given room of the house.

As with many things from when the kids were young, I've forgotten a lot of the turmoil that came with this Lightning McQueen love. I had forgotten the incessant watching of the movie and the hours long searches for exactly the right McQueen.

Today, this picture appeared in my memories.

This picture is a snapshot of my life just a few years ago. Here is my son, in his Lightning McQueen shirt, with eleven Lightning McQueens in reach. He’s panicking here because, "I can't find Lightning!"

He couldn't find Lightning McQueen...

To this day, this picture makes me smile. There are obvious Lightning McQueens right in front of him, yet he's still searching, unsatisfied.

How often does this very picture represent us in any given aspect of our lives? How often does God lay out our desires right in front of us yet we continue searching unsatisfied?

May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.

Psalm 20:4 NIV

God intends to give us the desires of our heart. He wants to make all our plans succeed. He often lays out in front of us exactly what we need, willing us to seek Him.

Satan muddles with our perception, confusing our eyes and causing distress. He lines up the McQueens in front of us while whispering that we haven't found the right one. Satan plants the seed of dissatisfaction and waters it while prolonging the search.

Busy yourself not with Satan's lies, but rather God's promises. Break free of the Lightning McQueen traffic jam in your life and embrace the blessings right in front of you. Live in the joy of your heart's desires.

Angela Jamison is a mother of four and works with young children as the Director of a Christian Preschool. She derives joy from children and is passionate about connecting with mothers to encourage and reiterate God’s design for the toughest job on Earth. 

After struggling with infertility, Angela and her husband entered the world of foster care and began the journey to create their family on God’s terms

When she is not entertaining children, or buying LulaRoe, Angela loves to read, write and explore the path being laid before her by the most perfect parent, our Heavenly Father.

Read more about Angela on her website https://angelajamison.com/

This is My Life

by Featured Writer Angela Jamison   Some days I’m exhausted by 9am.

The process of getting four, independent, listening-impaired, beautiful children out the door for the 8am school bus is comparable to an interval training workout. There are bouts of cardio while searching the house for lost items mixed with strength training of quite literally dragging sixty pound bodies out of bed.

Most days, we make it to the bus stop, with full bellies and a few minutes to spare. Most days, I don’t look too disheveled (I hope), but on the inside I’m feeling ragged and exhausted. I’m feeling grateful for the reprieve of school and guilty that my kids didn’t have a healthy, home-cooked breakfast with a June Cleaver-like mother.

We can all relate, right? Whether it be one child, four or simply getting ourselves out the door, we all understand the stress of the morning. We read articles, study Pinterest and a number of other things with the hope of achieving a flawless start to our day.

Today, my morning started as typical with a few bleary-eyed, blanket clad kids stumbling through my doorway at 615a while I desperately try to become presentable before the flood gates of life open. Clothes are picked, kids start getting dressed and it all goes down hill.

The oldest has managed to tie his shoe in a bazillion tiny knots, tighter than your jeans at Thanksgiving.

The youngest has the dog in a headlock, attempting to release the leg of her precious baby alive.

The middle daughter is still lying in bed, eyes fixed to Monster High on the television, oblivious of the chaos around her.

But the middle son takes the cake. He is grumbling, huffing and puffing as he tries to tie his shoe. He’s stationed himself in the middle of my bathroom floor, exactly where I need to walk to finish getting ready myself. I ask him to move to another location and when he puts his foot down, he begins frantically searching the bathroom.

“What are you looking for?”

A bit panicked he says, “My shoe is missing!”

…It's on his foot.

He is frantically searching for his shoe that is solidly on his foot. The same foot he’s using to search for said shoe.

This is my life.

It may look strikingly similar to your life or you’re reading this with memories of the past flashing through your mind. Either way, we all have those moments of chaos, searching for something that is right in front of our faces. Sometimes what we’re searching for is Jesus.

Like my son’s shoe securely on his foot, Jesus sits right in front of us simply waiting for us to notice and we miss it because well…chaos. Our lives our chaotic and the devil uses that to separate us from our peace maker. How easy do we make it for him!

The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.

Zephaniah 3:17 ESV 

Take comfort in that the Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save. He is with us amidst our chaos; we simply need to seek him. Zephaniah continues to say that He will save and whether that means he will save me from my chaos, save the baby alive from the dog or the shoes from the garbage I am not sure, but what I do know is that even his smallest save is a big gift.

Some days I’m exhausted by 9am. Some days chaos overwhelms me. Even yet, all days, I am in the midst of a God who saves

Life isn’t all cupcakes and barbies

by Angela Jamison - featured columnist Life is hard.

After a particularly difficult day not getting everything exactly how she wanted it, my daughter, age six, went into a meltdown. The stars were not aligning properly and she just knew that if she had new barbies life would be perfect. My eight year old son, clearly wise beyond his years, simply told her, “Well, life isn’t all cupcakes and barbies.”

Life isn’t all cupcakes and barbies.

Hilarious, yet pertinent and insightful commentary. It’s true – life isn’t all cupcakes and barbies. Sometimes we feel entitled to “cupcakes and barbies” because we’ve accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, but that’s not what is promised to us. Eternal salvation is promised. Earthly ease is not.

In fact, life is sometimes down right crumby.

As Christians, we have the tendency to assume our place in the family of believers as one of Christ’s children means the absence of trials, tribulations or difficulties. That’s simply not the case. Satan is hard at work here on Earth and he will continue to rear his ugly head.

Being a part of Christ’s family does not mean life will be easy, but it does mean that we will never have to travel alone. The burden of pain, heartache, or trial will be shared and there will be an unyielding hope that resonates within us.

Joshua 1:9 - Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.

God is not wishy-washy, he’s commanding. He commands us to be strong and courageous, not afraid or discouraged.  He commands these things because He, the Lord your God, will be with you wherever you go. Not once does he imply that we won’t face trials that frighten us or defeats that discourage us, but rather commands our behavior and attitude for when we do.

God prepares us with his word and his promise is steadfast. Even on the hard days, we are not alone.

Life may not be all cupcakes and barbies, but it is faith, hope and love.

You are Beautiful!

I am so incredibly excited to introduce you to my friend Angela Jamison.

She is guest posting for us today at Encouraging Women and I want you to get to know her and her really big heart better. At the end of her post, you'll see her bio and info and you'll be able to catch her here as a regular contributor as well as on her own blog - https://angelajamison.wordpress.com/

I scroll Facebook and am inundated with pictures. Pictures of people who are traditionally thin with radiant complexions and perfectly styled hair. I look in the mirror and wonder where I’m going wrong. I’m not thin. My complexion fluctuates more than the weather here in Kentucky and my hair is one of two styles - loose and limp or messy bun.

 Satan capitalizes on social media and uses it to instill doubt and destroy self-worth. He nurtures comparisons and watches with delight as we sink into self-destruction. Satan doesn’t want you to know that you are beautiful.

But guess what? You are!

I don’t need to be thin with a perfect complexion and styled hair to proudly claim the title of beautiful. And neither do you. Our beauty does not lie in the number on the scale, the glow of our face or the shine of our hair. Our beauty lies in the hands of the One who created us.

 Read that again … Your beauty lies in the hands of the one who created you. You are beautiful, just as you are, because you were purposefully created by the most high God.

 In His word, God reminds us repeatedly, that we are beautiful. We are created in His perfect image and our worth does not lie in our outward appearance, but rather in the condition of our spirit.

 1 Peter 3:3-4 (NIV)

Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.

 As our seasons change, we often look to the past or the future for confirmation of what we desire. We want our pre-baby body back or we want to lose ten pounds before that summer wedding. Each season is unique and allows for our unique beauty. You were beautiful then, you will be beautiful in the future, but most importantly, you are beautiful now!

YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL NOW.

Embrace the season you’re in! Instead of turning to Facebook for validation, turn the pages of THE book and be confirmed in your perfect, beautiful design.

Song of Songs 4:7 (NIV)

You are altogether beautiful, my darling; there is no flaw in you.

Angela Jamison is a mother of four and works with young children as the Director of a Christian Preschool. She derives joy from children and is passionate about connecting with mothers to encourage and reiterate God’s design for the toughest job on Earth. 

 After struggling with infertility, Angela and her husband entered the world of foster care and began the journey to create their family on God’s terms

When she is not entertaining children, or buying LulaRoe, Angela loves to read, write and explore the path being laid before her by the most perfect parent, our Heavenly Father.