I am Glad I am a Mom!

I am glad I am a mom, repeat. I am glad I am a mom, again. I am glad I am a mom, good. Okay so after pondering this statement and repeating it several times praying that it would soak in and consume my heart I fear it just wandered back out of hostile territory. Let's talk. I have 3 beautiful busy slightly wild "ego ecentric maniacs" in the words of Marq my preacher from the pulpit one Sunday morning. Now if you know me then you will realize simply that an "ego ecentric maniacial" mother will not mesh well with 3 "ego ecentric maniacial" children. I have those die to self motherhood days when I am able to throw myself in front of a speeding truck, figuratively speaking of course to completely give all of myself to them and then there are those other days, the days that I can't get "me" off my back so that I can be free to play and be glad to be a mom. I am also so, to much intune with the extreme responsibility of being a mother of His children that it makes me a little nauseous sometimes. Sometimes I wonder and ask God, what were you thinking giving me these amazing little creatures to raise up in Your righteousness Oh, Lord, me! Okay, so this is not everyday but there are the moments, let me explain a little more...

I grew up with a mother that ignored and avoided her daughter. I was never taught nor exposed to an example of a self sacraficing loving mother and then God kind of placed motherhood in my lap, litterally when I was 19. I still remember that little creature and those moments of strangely extreme joy even though I didn't have a CLUE in the world as to what I was doing, thank the Lord for His grace. Now after 7 almost 8 years I am the mother of 3 and still have no CLUE as to what I am doing ;0). This motherhood thing has never come naturally to me, as some would have us believe it is natural to all of us women. Motherhood came into a struggling mind and heart with me and I find it hard to embrace the I am glad to be a mother because of all the personal struggles that I fight on the inside everyday. When I push past all of my sinfulness and hangups I truly can feel the joy of being a mom and they really are more often than I make them out to be. I am a lot harder on myself than I should be, it only brings me down and I realize that it is a deception tool used by satan to sufficate the joy out of this amazing experience of motherhood that God has given me. And it is amazing! and I do love it and I am GLAD to be the mother of 3, 3 absolutely astonishing children.

I have a lot of moments of suffication but not as much as he would like for me to believe and when I loosen his grip from my life and when I remember who I am in Christ, the grace that He continually pours on me and that I am not held captive to any of the inner battles that I fight as a mother my heart overflows with JOY saying "I am glad to be a Mom!"

Leave the Heart in Valentine's Day

Love is an amazing word, an amazing feeling, an amazing act. Search the scriptures and bathe in this expression of the heart. I have been provoked to think upon Valentines Day, a day of love. At one time this day was not an expression of love but rather evil lust, it has since been taken over and transformed into a celebration of love, a remeberence of a saint named Valentine. The Catholic church took this pagan day and turned it to revolve around Christ, they turned our eyes away from the evil, the darkness and set them on the light. They redeemed it for His glory. I truly believe that we can celebrate this day in love for Christ, overcome the evil in this holiday for good, and bring Him the glory with in it. For most the origin of this holiday is irrelevant and unknown, they just enjoy the lust of candy, flowers, cards, poems, little red hearts and anything that will cover up the true identity of LOVE. They don't see it this way of course but that is what it is, it is a boastful, puffing up kind of love that has no real meaning other than "look at me" aren't I wonderful. Now I am not saying this for everyone of course but theis is the truth for many out there including myself at times, i am not excluded I have been found guilty. But here are my thought of Valentines day and the love that follows close behind.

I love the chance or opportunity that Valentines Day seems to give me to fully express my unconditional love living with in me for those dear to me. I feel like VD gives me permission to go all out, the extra mile, to be extravagant and radical with my love. This day has the power to cultivate and draw it out of it's slumber. VD is an exellent reminder of how to live out 1 John 3:18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. If we truly understood the meaning and origin of love then every day would be an outward expression of its identity.

Love is self sacraficing. In order for us to truly love one another we must be willing to hang ourselves... to crucify our flesh, otherwise our attempts to walk in love (Eph. 5:2) will proove to be in vain. Think about Eph. 3:19... how amazing is that? The "love of Christ" it is to deep, to immeasurable, that it surpasses the knowledge of our minds. We can not truly grasp or wrap our fingers around the heart of it, the self sacraficing, steadfast love of Jesus Christ. Can you imagine being controlled by this love, the love of Christ? What would happen to us? Could we possible stay the same? If we were to hand the controls of our heart over to Him we would be living a radically different life of love, completely self sacraficing.

The heart of love is often left behind in all of our attempts on Valentines Day and nothing but selfish gratification is shown disguised as something that looks, smells, and even tastes like love. We buy, we express, we show only because we are told to not because we want to and if we don't then we have failed. This day should not be all that different, when the heart of the matter is concerned, than any other day. Don't you agree?...Okay, just incase you heard this: "I hate Valentines Day, think it is a joke and completely self gratifying and stupid" let me clarify my statement as simply this: "I love Valentines Day but do feel that it has a tendency to draw out a superficial unrealistic expression rather than a true radical selfless expression of the heart, where the heart is no longer the source of motivation but the gift and praise that takes it place."

Thank LaughaDaisy for my Valentines Day ramblings today and for her generosity to give away a blog design by Summer at Designs by Summer!

And the Winner is....

Katie from By His Good Grace!!

Congratulations my friend, email me with your address and I will send these out to you asap so that you can begin enjoying them. :0)

Major... Bloggy Give-Away

Over 700 800 generous bloggers are giving away AWESOME gifts! You DO NOT want to miss this like I almost did. I can not believe how many bloggers are joining in this fun give-away. Don't you just love those 2 words placed so delicously together, give-away? Oh, I do!

I wasn't sure if I was going to do this little GIANT give-away but thought what the heck! After rading my home for something that could pass as an unused nice gift (sorry) I remembered a book, wait not one but two, I have on my shelf just waiting to be given away. Perfect! Never used and in mint condition. I must admit that I have not read either of these but love the authors, anything by them is good.

Beth Moore, Believing God

John Piper, The Passion of Jesus Christ

Let me assure you that these are not my "reject" books from my library just books that I have double of for some reason or got for a study that failed and now realize I will not read on my own. Just leave me a comment and you will automatically be entered! I will draw a name on Saturday evening! Good Luck, which I don't believe in btw.

Blogging to Glorify

I am very humbled and honored to recieve this award of discipleship from Julie at According to His Power. It is funny because just today I was searching through my old blog and reflected on all of my posts and it made me think of why I started blogging. I started with the idea in mind to encourage other women in their high and holy callings of being a mother, wife and homekeeper and I feel that in some ways I have wandered away from that first initial idea and starting place of this blogging experience. I believe that it is vitally important to have some encouragement in our journey as christians, as mothers, as wives and as homekeepers and the fellowship that is able to thrive in the blogsphere is in so many ways inspiring and motivating to the ultimate journey to the cross, to the daily adventure of glorifying our Lord and Saviour. This award has reminded me of the passion I have for encouraging in my own personal way and hopefully set my feet back in place as I desire to be a better disciple of Christ daily learning and growing deeper in my knowledge of Him.

"Mathetes is the Greek word for disciple, and the role of the disciple (per the Great Commission) it to make more disciples. I'd like to take the opportunity to award five other bloggers with this award and badge for acting in the role of a disciple of Christ. These five all share the message in their own creative ways, and I admire them all for what they do."

This award was created by Management by God

Five women of God that I feel honored to bless with this award...

Praise and Coffee

Laced with Grace

I Work from Son up to Son down

Simple Life at Home

Teaching Diligently

Thank You!

I found a lovely little award waiting for me over at Christine’s the other day.

The Nice Matters Award is given to “those bloggers who are nice people; good blog friends and those who inspire good feelings and inspiration. Also for those who are a positive influence on our blogging world. Once you’ve been awarded please pass it on to others who you feel are deserving of this award.”

I was so excited and honored to know that my simple little thoughts on life have been encouraging to a friend and that being nice is a quality that I hold… I try. I have to say that Christine herself has been a huge encouragement to me and a God blessing in my life.
Now I get the pleasure to pass this Nice award on to others who have blessed me with their encouragement and niceness. Here are a few of the many:
Sarah
Jill
Amy
Trina
Robin
Stacy

Ooh, that was hard… there are so many of you!!