Manna For Moms

Devotions for Moms Like You!

Megan Breedlove

In Between

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I love the Olympics. To me, there’s something really special about the world putting aside its differences for two weeks and each country sending its best athletes to compete. If you’re an athlete, there’s really no higher honor than having an Olympic medal—especially the gold—draped around your neck.

Athletes from all over the world work, prepare, and strive for three years and fifty weeks before converging on one location where everything they’ve done will come down to a few moments in time as they compete for the coveted gold medal and the title of Olympic Champion.

These athletes don’t wake up the week before the Olympic Games and decide to compete. They have spent the better part of their lives preparing for a few-minute shot at greatness. Take, for example, ladies’ figure skating and the long program. Years of preparation leads up to a mere four minutes on the ice. Years of preparation for a four-minute chance at glory.

I imagine there are times when even the best athletes wake up and think, “I don’t want to go to practice. I’d rather stay in bed.” Likewise, there must be times when they don’t feel well, or have other things they’d rather be doing. Yet the successful athlete learns to make training a priority. Those who don’t, don’t win the Olympics.

You and I would do equally well to make our spiritual training a priority—to be willing to put in the time training in anticipation of those times we’re going to be tested. In those times, we’ll have to rely on our training. But if we haven’t been training, we’ll have very little to rely on.

The “big” moments in our spiritual lives may not come often. Those moments or periods of time when we feel stretched to the limit may not happen every day. But we’d be wise to prepare for them. Otherwise, the times of testing or temptation will come, and we won’t be ready.

Have you ever thought about what you want to happen when the rubber meets the road? In other words, when your faith is tested, or you’re tempted, what do you want to happen? Do you want to wind up standing on the podium with a medal around your neck, or do you want to be disqualified in the first round?

Of course you don’t want to be disqualified, and neither do I. But failure to train properly may very well mean that when the hard times come, we fail. Yes, we can always fall back on God. He will never leave us nor forsake us. But it’s taking Him for granted in the worst way to ignore Him for four years and then expect Him to be there for us for our four-minute effort and to help us win.

What are you doing now to prepare for the trials that will come your way? Jesus guaranteed that we would face trials—every one of us. What are you doing now to be ready then?

1 Corinthians 9:27—But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

#1 Mom

Distorted

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feet distorted by waterI sat in the warmth of the hot tub, letting the heat and bubbles relax me. I was watching 6-year-old Jessica, who was in the adjacent pool, just to make sure she didn’t need me. But the pool was chillier than I preferred, so I watched from the hot tub.

Jessica and I were there on a “hotel night”, which Jessica had chosen to pay for with the birthday money she had recently received (she loves hotels). She paid for the room, and I took her out to supper and let her choose our activities. She got to spend one-on-one time with Mom doing whatever she wanted, and her birthday money was put to good use making great memories.

Jessica called me to join her in the pool. I stood up in the hot tub, walking slowly toward the other side. Then, for some reason, I glanced down through the clear water at my foot. At that distance, and through the water, it looked elongated. Wider. Distorted.

And I thought about how our views of ourselves are equally distorted when we look at ourselves through the wrong lens.

As human beings, we’re wired to desire a deep sense of self-worth. It’s the way God made us. We all have this hole in us that we long to have filled. And that’s okay. The problem comes when we seek an indication of our worth through the lens of others’ opinion of us.

That’s because it’s a distorted lens. Other people are mere human beings, so even the most loving of them cannot fully reflect our worth to us. Then there are those whose lens is even more distorted—those who don’t love us but should, or those who, for whatever reason, don’t think we’re worth much.

If we take our cues from human beings, the best-case scenario is that we fail to fully appreciate how valuable we truly are. The worst-case scenario is that we learn that we’re worthless and unlovable.

I spent many years of my life believing just that, because I was looking through the lens of certain other people’s views of me. In my head, I knew that God loved me, but I didn’t really “get it” that He loved me passionately. I thought it was just a “God so loved the world, and I’m part of the world, so He has to love me too” kind of love. I had some people in my life who did love me, but I couldn’t really absorb their love, because deep down, I believed I was worthless and unlovable.

It took me most of my life to begin looking at myself through the lens of what God says about me rather than what others say. When I did, I discovered an incredible truth: what God says about me is far more than what I had ever hoped others would say.

God says that I am an amazingly incredible creation of His. Not just mediocre; not even merely great. No, He says I’m marvelous! The God of all creation, who created everything there is out of His vast imagination, says I am wonderful!

Yes, He knows that I’m a sinner. But He still calls me wonderful. He doesn’t hold my past sins over my head and berate me with them. He says He has removed them from me as far as the east is from the west, and now, I am righteous and forgiven!

God even dances and sings over me (see Zeph. 3:17, below). Elsewhere in the Bible, I’m told He loves me madly and passionately, and He has committed Himself never to abandon me or leave me in the lurch.

I know it can be hard to absorb these truths when our hearts have been deeply wounded by fellow human beings. But once I began thinking about them and meditating on them, somehow, the Spirit of God ministered to my heart and helped me begin to be able to absorb His love and truly believe the words I had formerly only believed with my head.

Precious mom, He’s longing to do the same in your heart, mind, and life too. He wants you to know how amazing you are. How wonderful. How beloved.

Maybe He’ll use family or friends to minister to you; maybe He’ll use a trusted religious adviser or counselor. Maybe He’ll use all of these. But you can be sure that He will commit Himself to reaching deeply and gently into your tender soul and beginning to minister comfort and healing to you.

Are you ready to take the first step? Ask Him to heal you in the way only He can. He longs to bring healing to your soul. And Scripture tells us that if we ask Him anything according to His will, He will do it.

So ask, precious mom. Ask…and let the healing begin.

1 John 5:14-15—And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. (ESV)

Zephaniah 3:17—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. (ESV)

Psalm 139:14—I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. (ESV)

Psalm 103:12—As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. (ESV)

Imperfection

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Jessica's CupcakesI always enjoy making my children’s birthday cakes. I love the creative process, and I love their enthusiastic reactions to my creations. Even when a cake doesn’t turn out perfectly, it usually turns out pretty well, a cake I can be proud of.

That’s why it’s difficult for me to let my children help decorate cakes. When Jessica asked if she could help decorate the cake and cupcakes for her recent party, I’ll admit that I hesitated before saying yes. I could do better, I thought.

The point, of course, is not who decorates better, so of course I let Jessica (and Lindsey) help. I told them they could decorate the cupcakes, and I would do the cake. They set to work cheerfully and enthusiastically, slathering blue frosting on the cupcakes and applying sugar and sprinkles. Hiding in the kitchen with Phil, I watched them at work at the dining room table.

The blue frosting wasn’t even. The sprinkles weren’t even. The cupcakes looked like two little girls were decorating them. (What if someone thinks I decorated them? I wondered briefly.) “It’s hard for me to let them do it so imperfectly,” I said to Phil.

And then I thought to myself, I wonder if this is how God felt when He entrusted the spread of the gospel to mere human beings?

God had an important message He wanted—and still wants—to get out to the world. He’s a far better communicator than we are and could have done a fantastic job of spreading His message all by Himself. Yet He chose to entrust it to imperfect human beings who couldn’t do it as well as He could.

Beginning with the apostles and continuing down through history to you and me, God has chosen fallible men and women to proclaim His message—the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ. He didn’t have to let us help. He could have written it in the sky, or implanted it in the hearts and minds of human beings, or done some other miraculous thing far beyond what we can do. Yet He granted us the privilege of partnering with Him in His work.

Beginning in our homes with our children, God has called us to partner with Him in introducing others to Him and helping them know Him. He wants us to have the same attitude about doing His work that Jessica and Lindsey had about doing the cupcakes—enthusiastic participation to the best of our ability.

What are you doing in your home (and elsewhere) to participate with God in making His good news known? Do you have family devotions? Do you talk about God with your children, or with others? Are you at least doing something to share the gospel with those God has put within your reach?

Help Him by decorating the cupcakes. Don’t just make Him do it all Himself. It’s not only a command, it’s also a privilege that we’ve been allowed to help Him. Let’s take Him up on it.

Matthew 28:19-20—Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

Into the Light

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Jessica in ponytailsTwo days ago was my daughter Jessica’s 6th birthday party. She chose an eclectic theme—duck cake, princess plates and decorations, and rainbow invitations. She wore a sparkly pink “Birthday Girl” shirt, and she wanted her hair put in “dog ears” (otherwise known in the part of the country where I grew up as “pony tails”).

I should have known better than to do her hair in my bedroom, where the light isn’t as bright as in other parts of the house. But that’s where I was when she found me and brought me the hairbrush. So I arranged her hair in one “dog ear” on each side of her head. She looked in the mirror and grinned.

All was well, until I saw her hair when she came into the kitchen as I stood at the counter working on making her birthday cake. Her hair looked…well, messy. The dog ears were slightly uneven, and I had missed some hair in the back. It was definitely not a party-ready hairstyle.

Fortunately, my husband wasn’t busy at the moment, so he fixed my work. He did quite a good job of it, too—much better than the I had done. Jessica bounded off to play, her hair looking just right.

It looked okay back in the bedroom, I thought to myself. But it hadn’t been fine. It had only looked that way because there wasn’t enough light to see clearly. Or perhaps I simply hadn’t been paying enough attention when I did her hair.

It’s the same way with our actions. Some of what we do, say, and think looks perfectly fine when we don’t look too closely. When we keep our actions in the dark. But when those actions are exposed—in other words, whenever we’re forced to look right at them—they look like a mess.

In John 3:20-21, Jesus told Nicodemus all about this principle. “People who do evil things don’t like the light,” Jesus said (I’m paraphrasing). “That’s because they don’t want others to know what they’ve been doing. But when people do what is right, they’re glad to come to the light.”

Is there some action, thought, or attitude that you’re trying to keep in the dark so you don’t have to look closely at it? So you don’t have to see how messy it really is? So you don’t have to realize how ugly it is and do something about it?

Go before God and ask Him to give you the courage to bring it into the light. Then look at it with Him, agree with Him that it’s wrong, and repent. In other words, turn away from it and strike out on a new path.

If I had left Jessica’s hair the way it was, people at the party would definitely have noticed. With sin, if we leave it just as it is (in the dark) and refuse to deal with it, eventually someone will notice. And even if no one ever does, God knows all about it.

Get your sin dealt with today. Make it right before God and, if necessary, before others. Let God’s light shine upon it so He can wipe it away and completely, perfectly, beautifully forgive you—and then help you walk away from it.

John 3:20-21—For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.

Finding the Best

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SeashellsThis past weekend, I had the incredible opportunity to spend a couple days with several of my friends whom I had previously only met online. We’ve been friends for almost ten years, and we wanted to meet each other in person. So we all converged on the Disney resort at Hilton Head, and we had a wonderful time.

One of the things some of us did was take a walk on the beach to enjoy the beautiful scenery and look for seashells. We didn’t find many shells—it was the wrong time of day—but we enjoyed peering into the sand in search of just that perfect shell.

Some of the shells I found appeared perfect because they were partially buried in the sand. But when I picked them up, I discovered that they were broken. I tossed those back to the ground and kept looking. When I found a perfect one, I rinsed it off in the ocean and put it in my pocket—and then kept looking for more.

In the same way I looked for those shells, you and I need to look for the great things our children do. We need to be willing to search through all the things our children do wrong until we find something they’re doing right, and then we need to keep looking for even more things they’re doing right.

Yes, we need to correct and discipline our children when they’re sinned, and when they’ve made a simple mistake, we need to correct that too. That’s not wrong. What’s wrong is when we focus on the negatives to the exclusion of the positives. We put all our energy into fixing the broken shells rather than rejoicing in the ones that are unbroken.

Our children’s behavior is like that beach. It’s full of shells (actions). Some are desirable, and some are undesirable. When we find an action that needs correcting, it’s okay to stop and do that. But then we need to toss it aside and go back to looking for the good things they’ve done.

You and I as moms love it when the important people in our lives notice things we’ve done well. We wouldn’t want them to harp on the negatives while ignoring everything we do right. Yet too often, that’s what we do to our kids. We take the unbroken shells for granted and spend all our time trying to convince our children to remedy the broken ones.

How discouraged or even angry our children must get sometimes, when all they hear about is the things they’ve done wrong! Harping on their sins and mistakes is one easy way to provoke them, something the Bible tells us we’re not supposed to do.

What difference would it make in our homes if we spent as much time looking for what our children do right and rejoicing in those things as we do concentrating on the negative? Would our children be more encouraged? Would we?

Why not try it and find out?

Ephesians 6:4—Fathers (and mothers), do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. (ESV; parentheses added)

Great Enough

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Have you ever been to one of those painting classes where an instructor teaches you and your group how to paint a particular painting, and you paint it right there in class? Neither had I, until this past week. A friend of mine had her birthday party at one such venue, and I thought it sounded like a lot of fun. So, despite the fact that I know I’m not a very good artist, I decided to go.

“It’s easy!” everybody said. “It’ll be fun!”

It was a lot of fun. And it was easy to follow the instructor’s directions. I listened carefully and followed her directions as best I could. Which doesn’t explain why her painting looked like a professional painting, and mine looked like…well, like exactly what it was: a painting by someone who had never attempted to do something like this before.

“It has character,” I told my husband as I was driving home. “But don’t worry: we don’t have to hang it up or anything.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Phil said. When I arrived home and displayed the actual picture, he said, “It looks great!”

What I saw when I looked at it were the places where the brush strokes were a little too wide, the grass was a little too long, or the sky was a little too blue. In other words, the imperfections.

My kids didn’t see the imperfections. “Cool!” Ellie exclaimed when I showed it to her. “Who painted that?”

“I did,” I said.

“Wow! Cool!” she repeated.

The other kids’ mouths dropped open when they found out I painted it. “That’s amazing!” Kenny exclaimed. “I didn’t know you could paint like that!”

I was actually starting to be a little proud of my painting, with its imperfections and all.

We’re going to hang that painting up after all. Not because it’s a technically perfect painting (it isn’t), but as a reminder to me that even when I can’t perform perfectly, overall, I still do a lot that is right and worthy of admiration, especially by my children.

We as moms are often hard on ourselves, especially when it comes to motherhood. When we look at the job we’re doing, all we see are the mistakes. The times we yelled or lost our temper. The times we didn’t have patience, or weren’t creative, or said something we shouldn’t. We look at our motherhood and we see a picture that doesn’t look quite right.

Our children, on the other hand, probably see something very different. Sure, they know we make mistakes, but they have an entirely different perspective. They look at the job we’ve done, and they say, “Cool!” or “That’s amazing!”

To them, it doesn’t matter whether our motherhood looks exactly like someone else’s or is technically perfect (which isn’t possible, by the way). They’re much easier on us than we are on ourselves. They look at us and see “Wow!”

True, when we sin, we need to confess it. When we make a mistake, we need to rectify it. But the fact that we make mistakes sometimes, and sin sometimes, doesn’t mean the whole picture is ruined. Instead of frantically trying to muster up our own abilities to make the picture perfect and pleasing to our God and our children—and being afraid we still won’t be able to do it—we need to trust in the perfection of the One Who has called us to motherhood and will strengthen us and equip us with everything we need to do the job well.

When I see that picture hanging on the wall near my desk, I’m going to remember the fun time I had at the painting class. I’ll probably also be tempted to see the imperfections. But I’m going to resist that temptation. Instead, I’ll remind myself how cool my children think the picture is. And I’ll remember that being a good painter—just like being a good mom—doesn’t mean that I have to be perfect.

Painting of a barn

Isaiah 41:10—Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. (ESV)

Limmited

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LimmitedYes, I know the title of this devotional is spelled wrong. But let me explain.

This past week, my third-grade son, Kenny, participated in a spelling bee at his school. He was one of two representatives chosen from his class for his superior spelling ability. The bee contestants were third-, fourth-, and fifth-graders, all of whom had to stand before a gym packed with their classmates and parents and try to spell their words correctly.

Kenny wasn’t completely prepared. He had lost his spelling list partway through the preparation time, and it took us awhile to get another one. So he had studied some of the words, but he wasn’t as fully prepared as he could have been.

“Please, God,” I prayed, as Kenny’s first turn approached. “Please let him get through at least one round.”

It wasn’t to be. Kenny got the word “limited” and spelled it with two “m’s”. For him, the spelling bee was over.

We had told him beforehand that whether he won or lost, we would still be proud of him. I was especially proud of his attitude after he lost. He was disappointed, but he accepted the results bravely. “I’m proud of you, son,” I said, giving him a hug.

And I was—though I couldn’t help but wonder whether more preparation would have made a difference in the outcome.

It’s a relatively minor thing not to be prepared for a spelling bee. It’s much more serious when you and I aren’t prepared for the tests that come our way in life—tests that we could have prepared for, if we had only done what we were supposed to do.

I’m not saying that there is a way to anticipate everything that might happen to us, just as there is no way to prepare for every single spelling word in the English language. But Scripture promises us that we will all face trials. And when we do, it’s best to be as ready as possible.

How do we get ready for trials? How can we possibly prepare when we don’t know exactly what’s coming? Three ways.

First, we maintain a close relationship with God. Just like any close relationship, this one involves spending time with the Person we want to be close to. We need to spend regular, daily time with Him. Some of the ways to do that include prayer, Bible study, and hearing His Word proclaimed. When we encounter a trial, we don’t want to have to try to remember where we last left God, so to speak. We want to be close to Him and used to communing with Him on a regular basis.

Second, we take care of our relationships with others. During times of trial, we will need others to be close to us, to help us make it through. If we’ve allowed our relationships with family and friends to grow distant, then when hardship comes, we’ll be scrambling for support. If we are holding something against someone—or if he or she is holding something against us—we need to get that settled. Not during the midst of a trial, but right now, before the trial comes.

Third, we need to take care of our bodies. As much as possible, we need to eat well and get enough sleep. I know these two things aren’t always possible. But when they are, we need to take advantage of them as ways to keep our body strong, so that when a trial hits, we won’t fold physically under the pressure.

We may not know exactly what’s coming, but we can prepare as if we did. That way, when trials come (not if), we’ll be better able to face them to God’s glory. And maybe, just maybe, we won’t be knocked out in the first round.

James 1:2—Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. (ESV; italics added)

Greener

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potato chipsMy son Timmy loves potato chips. “Get it? Get it?” he will say hopefully, pointing to the bag on the counter.

The other day, I gave him several chips. He was happily eating them…for awhile, that is. His satisfaction with his snack came to a screeching halt when he realized that Jessica had chips too.

The minute he realized there were chips on her plate, he began doing everything he could think of to try to get to them. “No, Timmy,” I said. “You have your own chips.”

But Timmy was no longer impressed with his own snack. He climbed up onto a chair near Jessica and tried to climb onto the table. He reached for her chips. He asked for them. He screamed.

I went over to him, picked up one of his chips, and offered it to him. He clamped his mouth shut and turned away, so I backed off, at which point he immediately began demanding his sister’s chips again.

Ultimately, Timmy missed out on a snack because he wouldn’t eat his own chips, and I wouldn’t let him have his sister’s chips. He went hungry when there was a perfectly good plate of chips sitting right there in front of him—all because he couldn’t have what his sister was having.

Timmy’s attitude and actions that day remind me of us moms sometimes. We’re content with what we have in our own lives—our house, our car, our children—until we see somebody who has something “better”. Then we begin to pout, whine, and complain.

What she has is so much better than what I have, we tell ourselves. Why can’t I have it too?

And then we look back at our own lives, which seemed so satisfying just a moment ago, and suddenly, they’re not quite so satisfying anymore.

You’ve heard the saying, The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. It means that whatever someone else has always looks better. Unfortunately, this is often true. We fail to appreciate what we have because we’re too busy wanting what someone else has.

But oh, don’t belittle what you have just because someone else has more or “better”. Don’t look at the gifts God has specifically chosen for you and disparage them because they’re not what you would have picked out for yourself. God is far better at picking things out for you than you are. He knows what is best for you and ultimately what will be most satisfying—in other words, what will lead you to Him. If you don’t have what someone else has, there’s a reason. God knows it’s not in His plan for you—at least right now.

Is there something in your life today with which you’re dissatisfied? Is part of your dissatisfaction because you’re comparing what you have with what you think you could or should have?

Precious mom, trust God that what He has picked out for you is right for you. Then thank Him for it. True contentment is to be found in God alone, not in the things we possess. It’s Satan’s lie that you would be happier with the things someone else has.

Don’t believe him. Stick with the chips on your own plate.

James 1:17—Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. (ESV)

1 Timothy 6:6—Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment. (ESV)

Mall Treasure Hunt

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Christmas Mall Treasure HuntDuring the Advent season, the kids and I do various special activities all meant to help us focus on Jesus and His birth. One of the kids’ favorite activities is the mall treasure hunt.

I print out an identical sheet of paper for each child with pictures of things like candy canes, Santa, wreaths, stars, and presents. Then, we go to the mall with papers and pencils, pens, or crayons in hand.

When we get there, each child begins looking for the things pictured on the paper and crossing them off as they are found. All of them are usually pretty easy to find except one—the last picture on the paper. That’s because it’s a picture of the Baby Jesus.

As you can imagine, it’s always more difficult to find the Baby Jesus at the mall (they’re not allowed to “cheat” by going into the Hallmark store and looking at the ornaments) than any of the other items. That fact has led us to some great questions and discussions as we answer those questions.

Why is it so hard to find the Baby Jesus at the mall? Why is it so much easier to find Santa? Why don’t people want the Baby Jesus there like they want Santa?

But these questions aren’t the only point of the treasure hunt. That’s because there is more to teaching our children about Jesus than simply decrying the fact that Christmas is too commercial, or that Santa is more welcome than Jesus in many places. The real practicality of the discussions comes from the following questions:

Is Jesus welcome in our home? Is He welcome in our hearts? What can we do to show both Him and others that He is welcome here?

The answers to this second set of questions are what I want my children to take away from our Advent activity. I don’t want them merely to remember that they didn’t find the Baby Jesus again this year; I want them to make it a habit to evaluate their hearts to determine whether Jesus is truly welcome, and to consider how they can show Him and others that He is.

Have you ever thought about these questions? About, first of all, whether Jesus is welcome in your home and your heart? Jesus isn’t just a character we use for basing Christmas on; He’s the very Son of God, and as such, He deserves to be welcome. But have you ever welcomed Him into your heart and life?

If you have, that’s wonderful. If not, tell Him that He’s welcome now. Tell Him you want Him to make His home with you and be found with you whenever people are looking for Him. In fact, one of His names is Emmanuel, meaning “God with us”. Is He with you?  Have you shown Him that He’s welcome?

Think about it, mom. What can you (and your children) do to welcome Him? Why not make sure you’re doing it this Christmas?

Matthew 1:23—”Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). (ESV)

What do you do to show Jesus and others that He is welcome in your life and home?  Share in the comments below

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