Manna For Moms

Devotions for Moms Like You!

Megan Breedlove

Almost Ten Already

Megan Breedlove No Comments

Recently, I was invited to speak to two moms’ groups in another state. I was aware that the coordinator had been trying to put this together for awhile now, and I was excited to hear that everything had been worked out. Unfortunately, I had to decline the date they offered me and request a different date if possible. Why? Because on the day I would have had to fly out, my oldest daughter Ellie will turn 10.

I can hardly believe she’s almost ten already. Almost double digits, despite the fact I gave birth to her only last week. She’s growing up, and I’m not sure where the last 9+ years have gone, but I do know they’ve gone by too fast.

At 9, Ellie is halfway toward leaving home and going to college. She’s more than halfway toward getting her driver’s license. And she’s probably only a few years from the changes that will signal her body is becoming a woman’s body instead of a girl’s.

I vividly remember bringing her home from the hospital after she was born, setting her carrier down in our large brown recliner (nicknamed “Old Faithful”) and thinking, “Now what do we do with her?” Yet that little baby is halfway to being an adult. She’s grown and changed, and that’s great. I want that for her. But sometimes I wish she were still small enough to hold easily in one arm.

Actually, Ellie’s not the only one who’s grown and changed over the past nine-and-a-half years. I have too. Motherhood grows you like nothing else will. But I’ve been growing and changing for a lot longer than I’ve been a mom.

I, too, started out as a little baby (though my kids don’t quite grasp this fact). I’m now a 41-year-old woman and a mom of five. Just the changes involved in getting from that particular point A to that point B are incredible! But they’re not the only changes I’ve experienced. In fact, they’re probably not even the most significant.

You see, my character’s been growing and changing as long as my physical body has because God’s been working on me. Before God formed me in my mother’s womb, He knew the qualities He would place within me, the weaknesses as well as the strengths. When I was born, He began to use all the circumstances of my life that He had planned out to develop me as a person into the precious creation He had in mind since before time began.

Yet when I look back, I usually notice my imperfections first. Maybe you do too. It’s easy to look back and see the things I’ve done wrong and the ways I’ve failed. It’s super-duper-easy, as my kids would say, to be aware of my struggles and the things I’m still working on. Rarely do I consider the ways in which I’ve grown.

For example, I still struggle with patience at times. Yet I’m quite certain that the amount of patience I now have as the mother of 5, even though I’m imperfect, is more than the amount of patience I had before I had children. I’m also 100% sure that even though I sometimes struggle with being critical, I’m more far more encouraging now than I used to be. When I think about it, I can see how far I’ve come in several areas.

I’m sure you can see the same. Maybe you don’t trust God as fully as you would like to, but you’ve come a long way since the day you first realized you needed to trust Him more. Or maybe you get frustrated for no good reason sometimes (don’t we all?), but these incidents are fewer and farther between than they were several years ago.

I know it’s far easier to focus on our imperfections rather than on how far we’ve come. Satan loves it when we do that. Why? Because when we focus on our imperfections, our eyes are on ourselves. But when we look back at what God has done in our lives—when we consider the countless times God has helped us and realize how far He has brought us—we’re filled with love and gratitude.

True, we need to acknowledge where we fall short. But we must not do so to the exclusion of remembering the progress we have made because of God’s help, and the constant loving Presence He has been in our lives, despite the fact that we weren’t perfect.

In what area have you come far, mom? In what way are you closer to holiness now than you were some time ago? Don’t get caught up in saying, “Oh, I still have so far to go.” Maybe you do. I know I do in some areas, and I’m not suggesting either one of us excuse our sins. But let’s not forget to celebrate what God has done for us in bringing us this far. Let’s celebrate the works of the Lord and His goodness toward us.

What works of the Lord in your life do you need to celebrate today?

Psalm 66:5—Come and see what God has done, how awesome his works in man’s behalf!

1 Samuel 7:12—Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far has the LORD helped us.”

He Already Knows

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Trying to teach kids to think for themselves can be…challenging.

My five kids are still in the stage where they often, if not usually, want Mommy to have all the answers. They bring me all sorts of dilemmas. Maybe some of these sound familiar:

“Mommy, I can’t find my shoes.” (Child then stands there waiting for you to do something about it.)

“Mommy, I want to buy (insert the name of a toy or video game here), but I don’t have any money.”

“Mommy, Lindsey’s using the markers, and I want to use them.”

It’s sometimes frustrating trying to teach children to attempt to work something out on their own before giving up and looking in the back of the book for the answers. After all, it’s so much easier just to ask Mommy. Takes less brainpower. And Mommy will often just give the answer because she’s too tired to guide the aforementioned child through the laborious process of reasoning out in 5 minutes what it took her 5 seconds to figure out.

I know for a fact that Jesus understood how hard it is to get people (even adults) to think for themselves. The Bible tells us about several instances of Jesus’ trying to get the disciples or others to figure out things on their own. We read about one such situation in John chapter 6. Jesus has been preaching to a large crowd, and it’s dinnertime. The crowd is hungry. The only problem is, nobody seems to have brought any food, and they’re out in the country, so nobody can just drive to the grocery store, either. What are they going to do?

That’s what the disciples are wondering. When Jesus asked Phillip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” Phillip must have thought, Beats me! Guess we’re out of luck.

That’s in verse 5. But look at what verse 6 says: “He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.”

The response He wanted from Phillip was something like, “I don’t know, Lord. But I bet You do.” Or maybe, “It’s hopeless unless You do something about it.” In other words, He wanted Phillip to look to Him as the source of the solution to the dilemma. Instead, Phillip stopped with “I don’t know,” and “It’s hopeless.”

But even though Jesus was asking Phillip to think things through a little bit, and even though He sometimes does the same for us, He knew then—and He knows now—what He is going to do. All the while Phillip was getting confused and coming up with the wrong response, Jesus knew what He was going to do.

And all the while you, today, are struggling, Mom—all the while you are confused and uncertain, and you don’t see any possible way to make things work out right—Jesus knows what He is going to do.

Whatever situation you face, Jesus knows what He is going to do about it. Yes, He might ask you to think and pray things through before He reveals His answer. Yes, He might even ask you to contribute a little something toward the solution (as the boy contributed his lunch). But even in the midst of everything you face—whether pain, confusion, frustration, or all of the above—He knows what He is going to do.

So why doesn’t He tell me??? you wonder. I don’t know. I don’t know why He sometimes withholds an answer long past the time when we plead for one. But I do know that there’s a reason, and it’s not because He hasn’t figured out what He should do to help you. It’s not because Jesus is confused or surprised by your situation and hasn’t had time to make plans. No, His plans for your circumstances were already in place before the foundation of the world.

And at the proper time, to be determined by Him and not by you or me, He will reveal those plans and set them into motion.

Just because He hasn’t put the solution in place yet doesn’t mean He doesn’t care. I suppose Phillip could have concluded that Jesus didn’t care when Jesus asked Him the question. But Phillip would have been wrong.

Jesus’ solutions don’t always come in our timing. But they will come at the right time, and they will be better solutions than anything we could ask or imagine. After all, the disciples picked up 12 baskets full of leftovers. Jesus not only provided a feast, He provided abundantly more than what was needed.

Guess what? He’ll do the same for us. He’s got a solution in mind that will be so perfect we’ll be amazed.

When? I don’t know. What will it look like? I don’t know that either. But I do know that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So I also know that the Jesus who knew what to do then, knows what to do now.

“He already [knows] what He [is] going to do.”

John 6:6—He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.

Hebrews 13:8—Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Blame the Elephant

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One of my son Timmy’s favorite toys is a blue elephant. It has a plush head and a crinkly body. Each of its arms and legs (well, since it’s an elephant, I guess all four appendages are legs, but two of them look like arms) ends in a bumpy plastic piece that’s apparently a lot of fun to chew on. The only problem was that the elephant was quite floppy, and sometimes Timmy had trouble getting it into his mouth in exactly the right position to chew on whatever part of it he had in mind.

Such was the case one particular morning. Timmy was crinkling that elephant’s body and trying to mash it into his face somehow, and apparently it was not going well. Timmy was making these grunting, growling noises (I couldn’t help thinking of a dog worrying a bone). Eventually, he got frustrated enough that he began crying and letting out little screams.

“What’s the matter with Timmy?” one of his sisters asked.

“He’s getting really mad at the elephant because he can’t chew on it the way he wants to,” I said.

Of course, Timmy wasn’t mad at the elephant, exactly. He was mad about the situation in general. Being mad at the elephant would have made as much sense as…well, as the way we moms act sometimes.

Some of us are masters at blaming others for “making” us feel a certain way. We tell our kids they made us mad. We tell our husband he made us feel unloved. We tell people they made us feel embarrassed, or insignificant, or stupid. To listen to us tell it, our feelings are all other people’s fault.

The problem with a statement like that is that it’s a lie.

No one else is responsible for our feelings. No one else makes us feel a certain way. Our kids didn’t irritate us. They argued with each other, and we chose to become irritated about it. Our husband didn’t upset us. He failed to compliment us, and we responded by becoming upset.

Well, what else was I supposed to feel in a certain situation? you ask. If my child disobeys for the thousandth time, what else would I feel but mad?

Answer: anything you want.

You see, you are the one who has the power to determine your feelings. Not your kids, not your husband, not your friends. Not even strangers. Nobody else but you.

How do I know this is true? Because Jesus did it.

But I’m not Jesus!

Granted. And I’m not either. But remember that one reason Jesus came was to show us not what only God could do on His own, but what He could do through human beings if they relied completely on Him and let Him determine their actions and reactions.

Saying that you can’t react any differently when people offend you is like saying the God in you isn’t big enough to change you, and that’s a lie. God is big enough, powerful enough, and wise enough to do anything. He can certainly change your heart. He can teach you new ways to respond to others. He can make you, in the area of your emotions, a picture of His loving grace instead of your own selfish desire to require others to treat you rightly so that you never have to think about forgiving or turning the other cheek.

But first, you have to admit that you have a choice as to how you react to others. You have to acknowledge that you can choose.

It’s hard sometimes. Believe me; I know. I have been deeply offended and wounded at times in my life. But I can choose how I respond to those wounds. I can either allow others’ wrong treatment of me to determine my emotional responses and get me stuck in bitterness and negativity, or I can admit that with God’s help, I’m free to choose another response that will bring emotional life instead of death.

I know which one I want to choose, though I have to admit I don’t always do it. It would be much easier to blame others for the way I feel. But the only thing I can blame them for is their words and actions. I have to blame me for my response.

I need to grow in this area. Perhaps you do too. So let’s pray for each other to be willing to accept the responsibility for our reactions and then to turn to God for help to make our responses what they should be. Because without Him, we simply can’t do it. But with Him, we can.

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

Proverbs 3:7-8— Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.

When the Time Comes

Megan Breedlove No Comments

A couple months ago, my kids and I watched the Olympic Trials in gymnastics. This was the competition based upon which gymnasts would either earn a spot on Team USA for the London 2012 Olympics, or not.

One of the competitors was the then-reigning Olympic Women’s Individual All-Around champion, Nastia Liukin. As incredible a gymnast as her title would suggest, she intended to compete on the balance beam and uneven bars in hopes of winning a spot on the team for her second trip to the Olympics.

The only problem was that her decision to try out for the team had been made a mere few weeks before, and therefore, she had only trained seriously for about three weeks before the Trials. This left her unprepared to perform at the level of which she was capable, and it showed. She had repeated major errors on both apparatus, including a fall from the uneven bars. Her performances left me cringing in embarrassment for her.

Clearly, Nastia possesses the talent to do far better than she did. I remember watching her four years ago in Beijing, when she was at the peak of her performance ability. She was truly incredible. There was no other gymnast in the world like her. Everything she did was beautiful.

Not this time. This time, she wasn’t anywhere close to ready for the Olympics. When it came time to perform, she couldn’t do it. She wasn’t prepared, so she failed.

Obviously, things would have been different had she had more preparation time. But that was just the point. She didn’t, and there are some things in this life you just can’t do right without adequate preparation.

We all face trials in life. Some are small trials at which we could succeed with our eyes closed. But there are many that will be big enough—some will even be huge—that we won’t be able to pass without adequate preparation beforehand.

What are you doing to prepare for trials that might come?

Are you pursuing wisdom now so that when you need it, you’ll have it? Do you spend time not only reading God’s Word, but studying it? Do you attend worship services and really listen to the sermon? Do you read Christian books and think about what they teach, or talk about them with others?

Are you building an intimate relationship with God now so that when trials come, you’ll be close to Him? Do you spend time in prayer, which is simply talking with Him and listening to Him? Do you meditate on the spiritual truth? Do you record the things He tells you and bring them to mind periodically?

Are you building stamina now? Are you practicing hard work when the pressure’s off, so that when it’s on, you’ll have stamina built up?

Are you connecting with other believers now, so that when you need other people around you, you’ll have these relationships to fall back on?

If you don’t do these things now, then when a trial comes, you’ll be scrambling during the trial to catch up to where you could have been before it started. And you may not be able to do it.

God is always with us. But He expects us to diligently prepare for what might lie ahead. It’s not realistic for us to expect that we can fail to prepare for life and then have Him rescue us from the consequences of our lack of preparation. That makes about as much sense as it would if we were to show up at the Olympic Trials, never having practiced gymnastics, and expect Him to make us Olympic-caliber gymnasts.

Precious woman and mom, what are you doing to prepare? What are you doing now so that you will be ready when the time comes?

Proverbs 20:4—A sluggard does not plow in season; so at harvest time he looks but finds nothing.

Counterfeit

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I bet counterfeit-money-making operations are a lot more sophisticated than what I imagine.

Even though I know better, in my mind, I always imagine a few guys hunched over machinery in their basement, cranking out—literally, as in actually using a crank—sheets of fake twenties.

See what I mean? Real counterfeiting is probably a lot different. It’s a lot more complex, because the counterfeiters know they have to make a product that closely resembles the real thing.

Okay, so let’s say some counterfeiters did a really good job, and their fifties and twenties are hardly distinguishable from the authentic stuff. And let’s say there was a pile of this pretty-good counterfeit money right in front of you. A million-dollar pile.

Let’s also say that right next to the cool million in fake money is another pile. Only, this pile is made of real money. It not only looks real, it is real. And it’s a much bigger pile. There’s fifty billion dollars of it. That’s right, a 5, and 10 zeroes. $50,000,000,000.

One million in fake money. Fifty billion of the real thing. And you have a choice. You can choose either pile you want.

Now that’s what you call a no-brainer. No sane person would choose money minted in somebody’s basement over money minted by the United States Treasury Department.

Maybe not. Yet we make far more foolish choices every day.

We choose to seek the love of human beings (represented by the pile of fake money, because even the best human love is never fully authentic) instead of God’s love (the bona fide $50,000,000,000). We spend all our time and energies pursuing what appears to be real because it seems huge to us, when little do we realize that it’s a mirage.

Even the best love a human being can give is only a shadow of what our heavenly Father offers us. And because it’s not the best, because it doesn’t originate from God Himself, human love will never satisfy us. Yet we think it will. We can’t imagine anything greater than a million bucks, so that’s what we pursue.

If we only understood that our other option is worth $50 billion (actually, it’s worth far more)! The mere million would pale into insignificance.

We are badly deceived. Satan and society have convinced us that human love is better than God’s. It’s more exciting, more comforting, more real. And we buy into the lie hook, line, and sinker, despite everything the Bible tells us. We keep insisting that we want the million bucks, and we have no clue that God is trying to offer us $50 billion. As C.S. Lewis wrote, “It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

If we put all our energies to pursuing human love, we are destined for disappointment. If we pursue God Himself, He will pour out His love upon us in such measure that we can’t even absorb it all. In fact, He already has, and we haven’t fully recognized it! 1 John 3:1 says, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” We’ve already received the fifty billion bucks, and we’re still looking for some Monopoly money.

If only we could truly grasp how wide and long and high and deep the love of God is! If only we had more than the faintest inkling of what His love is like, we’d never again be satisfied with merely human love. Instead of expending our emotional energy trying to get people to love us properly, we’d be throwing ourselves into God’s lap, or at His feet, and wrapping our arms around Him the way a two-year-old wraps her arms around her mother when she doesn’t want Mommy to leave. We’d experience the love that is vastly more than what our mind can understand, but exactly what our heart was made to receive. And we’d spend the rest of our life and then eternity marveling that we ever thought we could be content with anything less.

1 John 3:1—How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!

Ephesians 3:16-20—I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

This I Know

Megan Breedlove 2 Comments

Jesus loves me; this I know,
For the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to Him belong.
They are weak, but He is strong.

Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
The Bible tells me so.

For many years, I thought of this song as rather sweet but not terribly meaningful. At least, it wasn’t very meaningful to me. Yeah, yeah, Jesus loves me. Jesus loves everybody. Big deal.

But lately, this simple children’s song has become an eloquent and momentous expression of a truth that has only relatively recently begun to seep its way deep into my heart and soul.

You see…Jesus loves me. I mean, really loves me. Not just loves me because “For God so loved the world,” and I’m in the world, so He’s sort of obligated to include me in that. But loves ME. Me, Megan. Just the way I am, with my particular personality make-up, my interests, my abilities. Even my imperfections and all (though He’ll help me work on these). Jesus loves ME.

My friend, He loves you too. You, just the way you are, with your personality, your interests and abilities, your quirks and shining moments and imperfections. Not just because He “has” to—because He most certainly does not HAVE to love you, or me, or anybody. But because you are dear to Him. Because you have a special place in His heart. Not because of any quality you bring to the table, but just because you’re you.

There will be people in our lives who don’t love us the way we hope they would or believe they should. And that hurts.

When there is someone whose love we desire, but who doesn’t give us that love, we have a choice. We can either stay stuck in our grief and disappointment, or we can turn to the only One who can ever love us completely.

Even if that person in your life did love you as he or she should, you still wouldn’t feel completely loved. Why? Because only God can meet the innermost needs of your soul. Only He can truly fill your heart to bursting with all the love you have received. And only He always and forever, without fail and without fault, wants to do so.

We can either stay stuck in our emptiness…or we can turn to God.

If we choose the first option, we stay empty and sad. If we choose the second, we choose abundant emotional life.

I know which option I want, and I bet you want that option too.

So how do we turn to God? How do we get to the point in our relationship with Him where we feel His love so strongly that even when human beings turn their back on us, we know that we know that we KNOW, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that we’re loved? And not just that we know it in our head, but that we feel it in our heart?

We spend time with God. We get to know Him.

I know that might sound like a too-simplistic answer, but I promise you, it’s not. I’ve tried it and found that it has worked in my life beyond all I’ve asked or imagined. That’s because when you spend time with God, you get to know Him. And when you truly know Him, the only possible response is to grow in your love for Him. And as you grow, your heart opens to Him, and somehow, He fills your heart with love in the way that only He can.

It’s not an instant process. It’s not even a quick process. If you’ve been hurt badly, it might take years of getting to know God and asking Him to help you receive His love before you truly begin to feel it. But even before you begin to feel it, it’s there all the same. And it always was.

You see, God loved you from before the world began, He loves you now, and He will love you throughout all eternity. First, you’ll come to believe it. Then you’ll ask Him to help you absorb it. And then, finally, you’ll begin to feel it, and you’ll know that even when the people on earth who should have loved you, didn’t—Jesus did. Even now while they don’t love you, He does. And even if they never come to love you in the future, He always will.

Jesus loves me! This I know,
For the Bible tells me so.

No love from any human being on earth could possibly be more perfectly deep and complete than that.

Psalm 27:10—When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up .

Smells Like Breakfast

Megan Breedlove No Comments

Recently my husband had to attend a work-related conference in our state capital. Since the conference lasted only one day, and since his employer was paying for the hotel the night before, we decided that the kids and I would accompany him, and we’d stay a little longer and turn it into a mini-vacation.

For three nights, we stayed in a nice hotel. In the mornings, the hotel served a hot breakfast downstairs. One morning, Phil took a kid or two down to breakfast, and I followed later with the remaining kids once the rest of us were ready.

The elevator arrived, and my kids dashed on (good thing nobody was trying to get off). I followed them, and as I turned to tell Jessica which button to push, I noticed a delicious aroma. It was the smell of hot and sizzling sausage patties with fluffy scrambled eggs on the side. It was warm, golden-brown buttermilk waffles, sugary maple syrup, and melting butter. It was orange juice and ripe strawberries and fresh black coffee.

“Mmmm, this elevator smells like breakfast,” I said.

Perhaps the aroma had wafted up from downstairs; perhaps people who had been to breakfast had also been in the elevator. Maybe it was a combination of both. Either way, that delicious food was giving off the aroma of, well, food.

Obvious, right? After all, what else would a delicious breakfast smell like but a delicious breakfast?

And that’s the point. If it is, in fact, a delicious breakfast, it will smell like one. It will give off the aroma of yummy food, and it will cause those smelling it to become even hungrier. If, on the other hand, the foods are not fresh and healthy, the breakfast will smell quite different. Rotten eggs give off quite a different smell from fresh ones. Stale coffee smells terrible. Waffles cooked a little too long smell burnt. There’s no way to disguise a breakfast like that as anything someone would want to eat.

Did you know that you and I give off an aroma too? I’m not talking about smelling a little funny because you’ve been working out. Nor do I mean smelling floral because you are wearing perfume. I’m talking about the kind of aroma referred to in 2 Corinthians 2:14 (see below), wherein God desires to spread the knowledge of His Son to everyone with whom we come in close proximity.

The only problem is, we may not be spreading the right aroma.

Instead of spreading the aroma of Christ, His love, and His ways, it’s entirely possible to be spreading the stench of hatred and impatience. Instead of emanating a beautiful aroma of sacrifice, truth, and uprightness, we can instead emit the stink of selfishness, falsehood, and disgrace.

You and I spread an aroma to everyone with whom we come in contact. That’s a given. The only thing to be settled is what kind of aroma. When people step into the elevator of our lives, will they be pleased and want more of what we have? Or will they get out of the elevator, hurry back to their room, and vow never to eat breakfast again?

Take some time in prayer before the Lord. Ask Him to show you what people sense when they are around you. Do you spread the pleasing aroma of Christ, or do people retreat from you?

Breakfast gives off the scent of, well, breakfast. What scent results from your life?

2 Corinthians 2:14-15—But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.

The Motherhood Olympics

Megan Breedlove No Comments

I absolutely love the Olympics. I normally don’t watch much TV, but when the Olympics are on, I watch all day long. Doesn’t even matter what sport it is (though my favorite is gymnastics). Anything Olympics-related is simply awesome.

I love the sports aspect of it. I love the pageantry. I love the emotional highs and lows. I also love what a wonderful opportunity it is to teach my children. You can teach about everything from sports to geography, science to foreign languages to math. But the best lessons of all are about character.

From watching and discussing the Olympics, children can learn about diligence; endurance; being a good sport; how to deal with discouragement; how to act around people who are different from you; and how to determine what really matters in life (the answer’s not “being #1”).

Sounds like lessons we as moms need to learn, too, especially since we participate in our own kind of Olympics—the Motherhood Olympics.

In the Motherhood Olympics, there are some team sports and some individual sports. Each of us is enrolled in some events in each category. There are some things we must have the help of others to do; there are some where we’re largely on our own.

In either case, we have to train for our events. We need to work at being able to do well in motherhood. An Olympic athlete doesn’t win her event by accident. It takes training and endurance practiced over a period of years. Likewise, we moms won’t succeed at parenting by accident. We need to put effort into it. This should include, first of all, staying close to the Lord and seeking His wisdom. But it might also include things like reading books, listening to sermons, consulting others, being proactive, and making plans.

But there are two important differences between the Motherhood Olympics and the traditional Olympics. The first difference is that moms don’t pursue a gold medal; they pursue the goal of hearing Jesus say, “Well done.” And unlike the traditional Olympics, women in the Motherhood Olympics are guaranteed to win. Will they be perfect? No. But they can be faithful. In the traditional Olympics, perfection or near-perfection is what wins you the medal. In the Motherhood Olympics, what wins you Jesus’ approval is faithfulness.

The second important difference is that unlike the traditional Olympics, in the Motherhood Olympics, everyone can win. When you’re an Olympic gymnast, swimmer, or runner, it’s technically possible that someone else could share the gold medal with you. But it’s highly unlikely. Even if it does happen, the odds against more than two people sharing first place are astronomical (unless it’s a team sport).

In the Motherhood Olympics, however, billions of moms can win. That’s because, as we said earlier, all that’s required to win is faithfulness. Be faithful with the husband you are given (if you are married), the children you are given, and the resources you are given, and you will win.

It’s simple, though not easy. But then, training for an Olympic event never is. Yet you never hear an athlete standing atop the podium saying, “You know, this wasn’t worth all that work.” Hardly! They all say, “It was worth it…all the long hours…all the effort…all the exhaustion…the money…the pain….”

Likewise, you never hear a mom who receives Jesus’ approval say, “This isn’t worth it.” Instead, she says, “It was so worth it… all the long hours…all the effort…all the exhaustion…the money…the pain….”

You’re in the race, mom, like it or not. You are at the Olympics. The crowd—which consists of others who have gone before you, not to mention your precious family—is watching you. How will you run? Will you give it everything you’ve got?

I guarantee you that nothing is worth more than winning this one.

Hebrews 12:1—Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

Pigeons on the Diamond

Megan Breedlove No Comments

I love baseball. I can’t tell you the stats of every player or which team does what, but I love the game. I could watch it every day and never get tired. That’s why receiving the generous gift of front-row tickets right behind home plate at our local ballpark has been one of the highlights of my summer for the past three years.

This year, I was sitting in my leather-padded seat watching the opening moments of the game. My husband and baby son Timmy sat to my left; two friends sat to my right. The players were right there on the field getting ready at home plate, so close that if I had called out to them, they could easily have heard me.

Then I noticed that the players weren’t the only ones on the field. A couple of pigeons strutted around not too far from the plate, stopping now and then to peck at something in the turf. I found this amusing. While the ballgame was going on all around them (with 46,711 people in attendance), while important human things were taking place just yards from them, those pigeons just went about their pigeon-y business, oblivious to the spectacle.

 

That’s why I found it amusing—the incongruity of the pageantry of a sold-out major league baseball game juxtaposed against a a couple of pigeons who didn’t care.

They were a great illustration of how we human beings sometimes get too full of our own importance.

That’s one of the things about being a human: it’s really easy to focus on ourselves. We build ourselves up in our own minds until we deserve all the hoopla we surround ourselves with. We come to think we deserve the adulation of crowds of people (or at least the members of our family). Whenever we step up to the plate, people should take notice. Everybody should care.

When we discover that there are pigeons in our lives—that there are people who aren’t impressed with our greatness—we often become irritated. That person doesn’t appreciate me, we say to ourselves, and we feel that we are righteously angry.

There’s only one problem with that: we aren’t playing for the pigeons.

Josh Hamilton, one of baseball’s greatest players, played in the game that night. He stood at the plate while the pigeons ignored him. But He wasn’t playing for the pigeons. He wasn’t even playing for the fans either, really. Josh is a Christian, and he understands about playing for the Audience of One.

I wonder if you and I really understand that, and I’m afraid we don’t. Too often, we play for the pigeons. Even more often, we play for the people in the stands. Granted, we may need to serve those people in the stands, but they’re not our ultimate audience. Our supreme Audience is Christ. Or at least, He should be.

Mom, you’re going to be called to step up to the plate today. Several times, in fact. You’ll have to approach the plate repeatedly and take your best swing no matter what life throws at you. If your swing isn’t what the crowd is hoping for, there might be silence. There might even be boos. Either way, the pigeons won’t care.

What will you do then? Will you throw your bat to the ground and yell at everybody in the ballpark that they should have appreciated you more? Or will you focus on your Audience of One, knowing that He always loves and appreciates you?

On the other hand, perhaps you’ll do something the crowd likes, and they’ll cheer you. Will you run the bases and then stop at home plate, your hands in the air, acknowledging the crowd’s approval, but forgetting all about your other Audience?

Mom, think about Whom you’re playing for. It’s not the crowd. It’s certainly not the pigeons. It’s the Audience of One. The only One who really matters. Any cheers you get from those around you are just background noise—nice, but not all that important. What matters is what the Audience thinks.

Whom would He say you’re playing for today?

Colossians 3:23-24—Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.

Dance Now

Megan Breedlove 2 Comments

One of the best things about having children is that you get to do goofy, fun things with them. You have an excuse for singing at the top of your lungs while you’re driving, making the person in the next car over wonder about you; you’re totally justified in seeing who can make the best zebra noise; and you have every reason in the world to crank up the CD player in the kitchen and dance like crazy until you all fall over.

The other day, I was standing in the dining room holding Timmy when a neat song came on the radio that was playing in the kitchen. I wanted to dance! So I gripped Timmy’s right hand with my left hand, held him close with my other arm around him and his around me, and danced. Gently, of course—not crazily—because Timmy is still young. And as we danced, the thought hit me: someday, I will dance with you at your wedding. Only then, you’ll be taller than I am—probably much taller. I’ll still hold your right hand with my left, but my other arm won’t be around you holding you up, and yours won’t be helping you cling to me for dear life, lest you flop over backwards. You’ll put your hand on the small of my back to guide me, because you’ll be the leader, not I. I’ll look up into your eyes instead of down. And we’ll dance.

I know that if this time ever comes (because he might not choose to have dancing at his wedding, or might not even get married), it will be many years in the future. Time and life may intervene in unexpected ways to prevent that day from ever taking place. I have no guarantee that I’ll ever dance with Timmy at his wedding.

That’s why we dance now.

Do you dance with your children? Maybe not literally (although it’s a great activity), but at least figuratively? Do you do things with them—silly, random, fun things—that you can look back on later and remember, not just the activity, but the fun, laughter, and love you shared?

Often, we think about doing the big things, like vacations, Christmas, and birthday parties. But do we make the most of the little moments of each day with our kids? Yes, the big events can bring big memories. But so do the little ones, the special moments you make out of nothing, the moments that almost pass by as ordinary until you make them something special.

Timmy will never remember that we danced that day in the dining room. But I will. And if we have enough of these moments together, he will at least grow up knowing that home, and Mommy, were fun and secure places to be.

Both fun and security are important, but one is foundational. Security is foundational to fun. If you don’t feel secure, you won’t be having fun. But when my children say things like Ellie has said a few times—“I never want to grow up, because being a kid is so much fun”—I know they feel secure as well.

So by having fun in the everyday moments, I not only get to hear my children’s contagious giggles, I also get to know that I’m building security into them. We may not have crazy-fun moments every day, but the everyday moments can be crazy-fun, if we’re willing to seize them.

How about you? Do you have fun with your child? Does your child get to experience the precious gift of having fun with you? Because that’s what family fun is: a gift from God, designed to knit together the hearts of the parents and the children.

None of us knows what tomorrow will bring, or if there will even be a tomorrow. If tomorrow does come, we don’t know whether it will be filled with joy, tragedy, or something in between. Put simply, you can’t count on tomorrow, either to exist or to afford you the opportunities to have fun and bond in silly ways with your children. So don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today.

Dance now.

Proverbs 3:27, 28—Do not withhold good from those who deserve it, when it is in your power to act. Do not say to your neighbor, “Come back later; I’ll give it tomorrow”—when you now have it with you.

Proverbs 27:1—Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.

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