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Our Director in the Journey

May 15, 2013

“Here is one of the most amazing privileges about growing intimately in our relationship with God, as well as in our marriage: We never “arrive.” There are always more journeys ahead, more opportunities, more challenges. This challenge is before you now. We’re here to help and guide and provide plenty of suggestions. Most of all, God is readily available to direct—and bless—your journey.”
 
Excerpted from Faith Tango by Carolyn and Craig Williford

Daily Reflection: How can you take another step in growing more intimate in your relationship with God?

Battle-times

May 10, 2013

Battle-times are painful times. But they also are defining moments, providing opportunities to identify more clearly what we stand for…and what we do not. When we’re challenged, truly challenged, to fight for the things we deem most important—faith, family, friendship, life itself—we recognize that everything else is transitory, temporal. And we also recognize our dependence on God as our ally, our strength, our shield (Psalm 28:7).

As parents, we’re tempted to shield our children from every strife. The bully. The bad teacher. The pain of false accusations and unfair decisions and attacks on their faith. We
want to protect them when we really should be teaching them how to protect themselves—to truly utilize the weapons of God’s Word, prayer, truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation. Are we helping them commit Scripture to heart? If so, God can bring those [ … ]

Finding the Mother Inside

May 9, 2013

I’m a step-parent so Mother’s Day always holds some bittersweet moments for me. I’ve learned through 36 years how to step back, step-aside, step-away and even step-up to support my husband and to honor the mother of his children as well. Mothering didn’t appear the way I had always imagined it would — as a Hallmark Card.  It’s been more like the cards that make you laugh or even tear up with the honesty of sentiment. My step-children have always remembered me on mother’s day often giving me the greatest gift which is to share their father with me through the years.

Dorothea Dix, a social reformer of the 19th Century was never a mother nor was she a step-mother. Her own mother may well have been mentally ill. At least she was "unavailable."  Dorothea tried desperately to adopt a [ … ]

Failing

May 8, 2013

As parents, we don’t like to see our kids fail—even if failure might provide just the reality check they need. I’m no scientist, but I think we’re biologically programmed to try to protect our children from the hurt and pain that failure brings, even if it means pushing them to persevere in something that lies outside their strengths and long-term interests. We make the tone-deaf kid practice piano. We book time at the batting cages for a child who’s better suited to the library than the ball field. We insist on the advanced-placement class, thinking it will aid on college applications, even though the pressure makes the child (and therefore the whole family) miserable all year.

Factor in the reality that we somehow think a child’s failure is a reflection on us—What will people think of me if my child [ … ]

Leaning In

May 7, 2013

As women, most of us need an example like Mary’s [the mother of Jesus] to help us believe God can use us in any significant way. We have no trouble believing God can use others, but when we look at ourselves, all we can see is our inadequacies and inabilities. So, clinging white-knuckled to our comfort zones, we tend to stick with what comes naturally. We shrink back from God’s upward call and find ourselves reluctant to say, “Yes, Lord! I’m Your servant. Use me as You please!”

I’ll be the first to admit that’s often been true of me. I find it easy to believe God can use my husband. When we started Gateway Church, for instance, I had no doubt God would bless it. My excitement soared, and my faith roared into action as I stood on the [ … ]

Praying for our children

May 6, 2013

As Christians, we’re called to take the lead when hard times hit. To stand and be counted among those who place their confidence in a God who is completely good, even when life feels bad. Yes, life is rough. At times, brutal. But it’s also amazingly, achingly beautiful. Full of hope and potential and possibility. And if we want to raise children whose faith can thrive in difficult circumstances—children who live in a loving, wholly trusting relationship with their God, who are able to see the beauty even in the midst of the fire and smoke, who remain alert for signs of hope amid the rubble—we have to model that kind of relationship with our God. Come what may. As parents, we want to equip our children to be strong and courageous disciples. But we can only teach them what [ … ]

Mary’s Faith

May 3, 2013

Most of us have heard Mary’s story so many times we take it for granted. We sang about it at Christmastime standing on risers, dressed as white-robed preschool choir cherubs. We acted it out in nativity plays at church. We heard over and over again about the angel who came to tell Mary of God’s plan and how she responded with a statement so simple and full of faith that it’s echoed through the ages ever since: “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.”

As children, we didn’t grasp the gravity of the statement. To us it was just a line from a Christmas pageant. Even as adults, we sometimes think of it that way. But Mary never did. For her it was a momentous declaration of faith that forever changed [ … ]

Be Fruitful

May 2, 2013

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ
Jesus for good works, which God prepared
beforehand that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2:10

What an incredible thought! You and I have been created for the purpose of doing good works. God designed you, He gifted you, and He placed you in the world so that the fruit of your life would have an everlasting impact. He even prepared those activities for you before you were born.

Out of all the centuries in time, this is the generation into which God chose to place you. Of course, you had nothing to do with the country in which you were born or the family you were born into. But clearly God placed you in His world at this particular time so that you could do something special. [ … ]

Children Leading

May 1, 2013

The day had been a stressful one, and my patience had ebbed away, when my son Brett looked at me and said, “Dad. Chill.”

In one word he told me to slow down, not take life—or myself—too seriously. Not bad advice.

I’m not sure I know how to chill. I see kids milling around, not doing anything, and they say they are chilling. Chilling is apparently the absence of activity, and that is something I find difficult. Yet if I am willing to follow my son’s example, I just might learn this fine art. I have a feeling it will prove beneficial.

It’s been said that children laugh three hundred times a day, and adults average five times a day. When it comes to enjoying life and living each moment to the fullest, we need to let our children [ … ]

Grace

April 30, 2013

The best prescription for the Slump Syndrome is grace. We give ourselves grace when we refuse to expect more from ourselves than we can possibly deliver. We give ourselves grace when we grant ourselves permission to rest, sleep, play, take a break, and get alone with God. A few minutes of quiet interaction with God can get us out of a rut much faster than striving, trying harder, and forcing ourselves into overdrive…

Next time you’re in a rut, be gentle with yourself. Rest. Take a break. Quiet your mind. Clarity will more likely come when you are peaceful than when you are pushing so hard. Close the door on the clutter and open your heart in the throne room. Ask God to speak to you. Listen carefully.

Excerpted from Espresso for Your Spirit by Pam Vredevelt

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