From My home to Yours!

Hello!
I am a Mom! I am a woman who is just an everyday woman! I am trying to be an intentional mom, wife, friend, daughter, follower of Jesus and homemaker. My heart is that this would be a place that you could come and connect with my life and the different things that I walk through on a daily basis. I find myself in conversation often with different women and it seems that living LIFE with others is the most common thing that comes up!

So I am going to share my life here and I invite you to join in. Maybe you can learn along with me on how to be more intentional in our lives in every aspect that we are living!

Most Recently-
I am a passionate follower of Jesus and that will always be at the fore front of what who I am and what I do. Just so you know!
I have 3 bio children (8, 5, and 3) and 1 fairly new addition to our family (17). 

Lately what we have been dealing with in our home is how to treat each other and loving each other well. These lessons are usually not just for my children but apply to us "Big Kids" as well! I believe this lesson of loving each other well is one that we all learn on an every day basis. It is something that we can never think "we've got" and just sit back and coast. Because, at that moment, we will realize we have not loved people as well as we thought we were.
Today was the first time in my mothering career that I experienced the all out, major, no turning back, hair raising, toe curling, grocery store tantrum! I have had my kids have melt downs, cry because of one thing or another, and generally not be happy because I told them no. But I have never, until today, had the all out WAR in the store over my saying "no" to my child and he deciding that my saying no means that I am "the MEANEST mom EVER!" Well ladies and gents, today I had that experience and let's just say it was INTENSE! As I was trying to get my youngest son to calm down and listen to me, while he is crying and throwing this massive fit, I was thinking "do i just throw him over my shoulder, grab my purse and the other two kids and leave? Do I try to drag him to check out and get the few items that I have in my cart? Do I sit here and keep working this over with him, until he calms down and can listen to me? AAAAHHHHH What do I do? He is screaming, everyone can hear him, and this is crazy!" Well, I decided to grab the recently dropped package of cars he was throwing the fit over and put them back up onto the shelf, and just walk away from him. He quickly realized and ran after me. I got up to the counter, where I was the only one in line, thank you Jesus! I put my 4 items up on the counter and apologized to the woman who was ringing us up; On a side note, when we walked into the store, this woman greeted us, my youngest decided today was a good day to go out to run errands in his Hulk costume. She thought he looked pretty cute and he charmed her with his comment about his muscles, in his Hulk voice! Fast forward, my "Hulk" is now truly being "Hulk" and she looks at him and asks him why was he so upset now? When I apologized to her, she told me she understood because she has three kids of her own and applauded that I wasn't giving into him because he wouldn't learn if I did. We gave each other the all knowing mother look and I grabbed our things, my children and walked out to our car.
This is the part where what we are working on in our home comes in; "How do we love each other well?"
I took our youngest to the car where he continued to throw a fit and I continued to plead with the Lord to help me know how to get him to realize that this wasn't ok! After a few more not so lovely moments, he calms down and I am able to sit there and talk through things with him. My child "listen to my instruction and be wise; do not disregard it." Proverbs 8:33 "Listen, my son, to your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's teaching." Proverbs 1:8 These are some of my hearts cries for my children and for myself! As I sat there talking with my little one, I really wanted him to understand that, no, it is not okay to yell, it is not okay to throw a fit because you don't get what you want, it is not okay to be aggressive when you are upset, it is not okay say mean things because you are mad, and it is not okay to be selfish. But mostly I wanted him to understand that he was choosing to be hurtful to those that he is supposed to show his love to the most! Because of what he didn't get and what he wanted everything that he was doing was being totally un-loving. I want him to know that God has given us the job of loving people "because He first loved us." John 4:19 and we talk about this a lot in our home, as we each go out to our jobs and schools. But in this moment my young child needed to understand that he was choosing himself and his sin over the command that God has given him to love others. I know that he doesn't fully understand the weight of all of this, but I also believe that he is capable of understanding glimpses and that it is my job to "Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it." proverbs 22:6 God's word doesn't give me a time line that says, when he is 5 or 10 or 16 to start teaching these things and so because I believe that from birth we are broken and sinful, from birth we need to start learning how to draw ourselves back to the Lord and His heart for us, His creation. As the parent of my sweet children, I am their first exposure to the message of God's reconciliation plan for them and the world. That is a big deal and a tough job. Especially as they are flailing and also embarrassing me in a public place. But it is a job that I am trying to do and do it so that at the end of this race I am running, I will hear "Well done, my good and faithful servant!" I struggle daily with these tasks and many more. And my own sin gets in the way of my "Loving people well" all of the time. As we go about things in this home I am just trying to strive towards the gospel and Jesus and disciple my kids alongside me!
I hope this might have brought some encouragement to your heart and maybe even allowed the Lord to speak to you in your home and what you are walking through! 
We are not alone, if we are following Jesus, the Holy Spirit is walking right beside us, ready to give us just what we need for each moment. Even the out of control parenting/kids moments! And we have each other!!
If you have anything, parenting or otherwise that you are walking through I would love to hear about it! Questions that you would love to hear another Mom's thoughts on. Things that would be helpful to know that someone else is walking through the same stuff as you, share them! I would love for this to be a place where I can share my love for being a Mom, Wife, PASSION for God's Word, and REAL life with all of those who just might need that!!

Where to begin

I haven't been on here in a while and feel the need to write, but I am not exactly sure how this will play out. I have soo many different things going on in my life right now that I feel a little overwhelmed with the emotions and thoughts of it all!
I know that months back I wanted to have my next post be about where I believe one of the most important places to start in the job of "Gospel Mothering" is. That place is your role as a wife and lover of your husband. But I am feeling more compelled to write about the first place and MOST important place which is your role as a daughter of Christ! My relationship with God has got to be the place that I start and end my work as a wife, mom, friend, daughter... and I am hurting for so many right now that are caught up in the sins of this world and have forgotten the simple truths that keep us protected from our sin. So forgive me if my thoughts are a little messy, I have soo many running around in my head!!!

"This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief." 1Timothy 1:15
I feel like I need to emphasize that this is where I am coming from, I am not perfect nor have I figured any of this ALL out! I am a pretty good sinner and I struggle all of the time, so I share my heart in all humility and in the wisdom of the words that God has given me and in the knowledge that the Spirit has graced me with today!

Where do I begin in this journey to be a woman who lives out the gospel? At the heart/feet of the one who gave me the gospel to start with! 

I must confess to you that I am not in the word every morning as I should be and I will make NO excuses for that. There are days that I choose to be selfish and I put other things above the Lord and that is WRONG. Very often in my house we use the phrase "You can make the right choice or you can make the wrong choice. It's up to you" with our kids and I really need to do a better job of asking myself whether I am going to make the right choice or wrong? Am I going to please myself or am I going to please the Lord? When I wake up in the morning I have to choose that day that I am going to put God first and that should always start with a quiet moment in His word, soaking up the wisdom He has for me that day. He knows the day I am going to have, He's already been before me in it. So what better way to prepare myself for what I might encounter than to be in His word listening to Him? How can I best serve my Husband or Kids let alone the rest of the world if I am not first seeking God? In Jesus ministry here on earth, OFTEN he withdrew and spent time in prayer with the God. "And early in the morning, while it was still dark, He arose and went out and departed to a lonely place, and was praying there." ( Mark 1:35) He often charged His disciples to get away and rest and pray with Him. "Come with Me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest. ''Mark 6: 31'' If Christ knew that it was important to have time with the Lord than how much more important is it that I spend time with God? 

I find that there are days that I just feel like I have totally failed. I have chosen to not do the things around the house that I know need to get done. I have been short with the kids. I do not want to serve my husband in the ways that he needs. I fall into gossiping, being frustrated by the choices of others instead of looking at my own choices, and getting caught up in the world. On those days I can guarantee you that I haven't been in the word. I can guarantee you that I have not set myself up to fight against my sinful nature and against the devils schemes. I guarantee you that I didn't put on the full armor of God that day! Why would God put that part in the bible? Why would that be very specifically placed in His word unless He knew how important it would be to us?? There are very few things in the Bible that are suggestions, actually I would say that there is NOTHING in the Bible that is a suggestion. Rather there are many things commanded to us in the Bible and why are they commanded? Because God knew that we would not do them on our own. He knew that they would be hard, that we would struggle with them, and He knew that we would be prone to do things our own way. So if it is commanded, that means we better do a good job of preparing ourselves to do them, because we are gonna come across a lot of stumbling blocks! And these commandments are things that are Important and essential to our well being and our spiritual lives. There is a spiritual battle going on out there over each one of us! Satan would love nothing more than to see us fall away from God and to keep us from being an example to someone else of who God really is. I know that in order for me to be ready to do battle and for me to be able to exemplify Christ in my life I have to be in His word. I have to be learning from the one I am to be following after. I have to be able to abide in Him so that He can work in and through me! When I try to do it on my own I usually end up falling into old habits and seeing things in myself that I know are not right.

There are soo many people fighting spiritual battles around me and it charges me more to be in the word so that I can protect myself from my flesh. It makes me desire to be in prayer more over my friends and family, that they may choose Christ and His word over their flesh. It makes me desire to be in the word so that I can be a support to those around me fighting those battles. I soo want to cling to God right now so that He can keep my eyes open and my heart soft! So that I am able to be sensitive to the Spirit. How can I lead my children if I am not being led? How will my children learn to desire God's word if I don't? How will my children learn to fight these battles if first I don't learn how to?? 

I remember learning about one of the names of God in a book called Hallowed be they names by David Wilkerson. This name is Jehovah Tsebaioth- The Lord of Hosts. This name appears in Joshua, when he is getting ready to do battle with Jericho and something that David says in explaining this name is really convicting and soo true; " Tragically, a majority of Christians today aren't even aware of their need for Jehovah Tsebaioth. This is because they're not doing battle, not seeking victory, not moving forward in their walk with Christ. Instead, they've made peace with the sinful strongholds that grip them. Why would the Lord send His heavenly army to help such believers, when they're not even willing to take up the fight?" 

May I be a believer who is willing to take up the fight. May I be a believer who is actually eager to take up the fight. May I prepare myself every day to do battle by being in His word and seeking His wisdom so that I can gain the guts to deny myself and pick up my cross! May I remember that I do nothing without God, and that He is stronger than any thing that I struggle with or that anyone around me struggles with! May I NEVER forget the grace that He has given me and the mercy that He bestows on me every day and may I be ready to quickly give those things to the people around me!!! "We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Romans 15:1" 

I am going to do my best and I know that there will be days where I falter, but I am thankful that the Lord will be by my side and as I continue to trudge along in this I pray that you will join me. I pray that I may be an encouragement and support to you and that if you have needs for prayer you will share them with me. I ask that you pray for me and for my family, that we may be a vessel that the Lord uses to spread His gospel. Thank you for stepping in to take a look at my life. 

As a very good friend always signs off,

"Until the nets are full..."

New Sunrise

I am so thankful and humbled by the grace that I receive every day from so many! First and foremost from Christ, and then from those in my life who get to interact with me daily! :)
"His mercies are new every morning!" Every morning there is a sunrise, some you can see and some are covered by grey clouds. Whether or not you see the sun, you can see and feel it's effects. 
God has taken Ben and I on some awesome learning journey's in the last 3 years of our lives. He has taught us soo much about who He is and how He wants us to intentionally live our lives! We have been taught by passionate teachers of His word, passionate friends seeking Him, and passionate family members walking closely to Him. I am thankful for each of the lessons that He has taught us, but there is one lesson in particular that has struck me right in the heart. 
The lesson that has impacted me most came in this last year or so and through a woman who I hold in great esteem and respect! The lesson is, no matter what kind of "Gospelling" you are doing, when you choose to be a parent there is NO more important work that you can do for the sake of the Gospel than the work that you do at home and in the lives of your children! I don't mean to say that being intentional outside of the home isn't important, or that meeting the needs of the people around you isn't important to being like Christ. But what I do mean is that who will be a greater reflection of how you have lived out the Gospel than the little one's who watch and imitate you daily? What will be greater proof to you of how faithful you have been to meet the needs of the people around you than how people feel when they walk into your home, or how many times a day/week they do walk into your home??
I cannot believe that I will have done my best living for and like Christ if one day when my children are grown they say, "I remember mornings with mom. We watched TV or ate breakfast and she checked facebook or worked on her blog." or "Mom and Dad loved us soo much and they taught us about God, but I don't know... I guess I never really saw how that played out, and I don't think that Christ was ever really real to me." The thought that this could be the words of my children someday, breaks my heart! The things I hope and pray to hear my children say some day are things like "I remember mornings in our house, while we ate breakfast, mom was reading her bible." or "I couldn't imagine seeing Jesus more clearly than through the lives of my parents, and how they set up our home. We had people in and out all the time and we saw what it meant to meet peoples needs and to sacrifice for the sake of the gospel. We learned at a young age that we too were called to be intentional and to live as Christ did." What a gift it would be to hear these things instead of the latter! But to be able to hear these things we have to be VERY careful at the amount of time we put into our home and family. The reason that I say this is because it is soo easy to be less intentional at home because it is the place we let down, the place we relax, the place that we can just "be." But that isn't true, right? Because "In everything you do, whether in word or deed, do it all unto the name of the Lord, giving thanks to God the father through Me." Colossians 3:17 We can't just choose to do some things in the name of the Lord and others in the name of the flesh. My mom has said that when she was a young mom, she would choose to clean the bathrooms as if Christ were gonna come into her house that day and use them. That the toilet would be clean enough that she wouldn't be ashamed for Him to sit down and use it! Because she wanted to treat the next person who used her bathroom as if they were Christ. I LOVE this! I know that my mom succeeded in making people feel like they were special and making them feel completely at home in her house, because they said it all of the time! Our home was a place of refuge for many people, from adults to our friends and that is because she was intentional to live out Christ in her home! We have to work harder at home I think than anywhere else to maintain the discipline of living out the Gospel. We cannot choose Christ for our children, nor would we want to, but how they see Him and how they understand Him, starts completely and solely with us. I find that to be a HUGE responsibility and one that I don't want to take for granted, lightly, or to sacrifice for anything else! Starting our walk at home as Deuteronomy 6:4-9 says and the impact that we have on our children as Proverbs 6:20-22 says, I think is exactly what Christ wants for us in our journey of living out the Gospel and it will bring a true example of who He is and how He loves us to those around us, it will catapult us into living the Gospel outside of our homes and it will inspire our children to join us and do the same in their own lives.
This is what "Gospel Mothering" means to me! This is the place the the Lord is starting me at and causing me to re-evaluate and become more disciplined in. These are the things that I know I haven't been completely faithful in and that I have not done to the best of my abilities. These are the things that I am excited to continue seeing how Christ grows in me and uses me!
I desire to be like the sun, whether or not you know me, see me, or have interacted with me, you see Christ in me and feel His effects in your life!

A new season!

I love the changing of the seasons, especially the change that happens between summer and fall! The change that takes place between summer and fall is so beautiful and so evident, it is almost the sign of nature coming into maturity and wisdom. The young buds of spring have grown and blossomed through out summer and now are arriving to their final stage of glory in the changing of their colors into fall vibrancy! Our lives change seasons just as nature does and I am grateful for each season.


Why am I writing this blog? What is gospel mothering?? Who am I to write on something about gospeling??


I am writing this blog as a way to keep track of what the Lord is teaching me in this next season of my life, which I see as a possible fall type season. A season where I have the opportunity to mature more evidently into the woman, wife, and mother that the Lord desires me to be. I also hope to be able to be an encouragement and place of support to other women who are desiring to enter into this season of their lives and feel the Lord calling them to be more intentional in gospeling at home!


I am still discovering what Gospel mothering is, so stay tuned as I learn what this means in my life. But I do know that what I mean by naming this blog that is, that the gospel means "good news," for me this means the Good news of Jesus Christ! In our family we strive to live out the Gospel and how it effects us everyday, through our families, friends, neighbors, community, work, strangers, and actions. Philippians 1:26 "...so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus...",   Philippians 3:17 "Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us." 
I have seen more and more a lessening of the importance of mothering and what it means not only to our families, but to the world around us and the message of the gospel. Also the lessening of the confidence of the women around me to be able to mother with the wisdom and knowledge that Christ gives to them. Our culture has clung so hard to seeking the "professionals" opinions about how to raise our children, structure our home, handle our money, function in our marriages, and live out our faith that we no longer trust that "the Lord will provide what I need and I can do it with Him!"
Don't get me wrong, the Lord may use "professional" opinions to help give us wisdom and knowledge and I know that not everyone has had great examples in their lives to follow after. But I still believe that part of truly living out the gospel in our lives as mothers is making sure that we start at home with our husbands and children and believe that through seeking Him in our lives daily through His word, prayer, conversations, and community, we CAN do this and we are CAPABLE of knowing how to do this and God will provide what we need! And what we do as wives and mothers is IMPORTANT!  Proverbs 6:20-22 ESV "My son, keep your father’s commandment, and forsake not your mother’s teaching. (21) Bind them on your heart always; tie them around your neck. (22) When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you."
I am no one to be writing about the gospel. I am simply a woman who is desiring to honor Christ in my life and see a need for redefining and growing in my understanding of what it means to Gospel at Home!
So stayed tuned as I share what the Lord is teaching me on this journey through this next season in my life!