Devotions

God’s Heart for You

Megan Breedlove June 23, 2014 No Comments

I have been blessed with wonderful in-laws. They love me deeply, and they show it. They also pour out their love on my children.

One of the ways in which they do this is to invite the kids to come stay with them each summer during the week their church holds Vacation Bible School. The kids not only get to attend a quality VBS program, but they get a special week on their own with Grandma and Pampa. During the week, they get to do all kinds of things with their grandparents—make cookies, play the Wii (we don’t have one, so this is an extra treat), go on day trips to places they’ve never been.

This year, when VBS week rolled around, I drove the children to their grandparents’ home to drop them off. I planned on staying overnight (they live 4.5 hours away, non-stop) and leaving the next morning.

As I was getting my few things packed up that next day, I paused for a moment, thinking about what else needed to be done. Kenny, who was standing near me, said, “You know, Mom, that even though I won’t be with you this week, my heart will always be with you.”

My heart was touched. I thanked him, hugged him, and told him how much I would miss him. I reminded him that he is a great kid, and that every day, because I wouldn’t be there to say it, I wanted him to imagine me telling him, “Kenny, you’re a great boy.”

Kenny grinned and hugged me back.

It was a sweet, precious moment—Kenny wanting to make sure I knew that he loved me, even though he wouldn’t be there in person to express it.

God did something very similar in sending the Holy Spirit to His disciples. Jesus knew—and He explained to them—that He was going back to heaven, back to the right hand of the Father. He knew they wouldn’t be able to see Him anymore, yet would still need to hold onto the things He had said to them. He told them the Holy Spirit, whom the Father would send, would remind them of everything—including the fact that He loved them deeply.

In other words, God the Father made provision for the disciples to continue to feel Jesus’ love for them even when He was no longer physically present.

As Christians, you and I have the same Holy Spirit today. The Holy Spirit is not some nebulous Being—He is a very real Person who lives in the heart of each Christian, of you and me. And part of the reason why He lives there is to remind us how much God loves us.

One day, we will see God face to face, and we will believe His love and begin the eternity-long process of comprehending it. But until then, we need to hear about God’s love over and over.

If God had done nothing more than allow Jesus to be put to death on the cross for us, even that would have been a far greater expression of love than we deserve. But He also gave us the written Word to remind us of His love, and He gave us the spoken Word (spoken Spirit-to-spirit) to remind us as well. “I will not leave you comfortless”, Jesus says in John 14:18 (KJV). “I will come to you.” And He does, in the Person of His Spirit.

He’s there anytime you need Him. When you feel unloved, when you’re rejected or feeling unwanted, He’s there to minister to you. Pour out your feelings to Him. Then listen for His Spirit within you replying, “My precious child, you are loved far more than you know.”

John 14:25-26—”All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” (NIV)

Making Memories

Megan Breedlove June 16, 2014 No Comments

This past week, my oldest three children attended summer camp. Timmy, at 2 years old, wasn’t really old enough to understand what he was missing out on. But 6-year-old Jessica was. And she was bummed.

In order to make the week special for her, too, I decided that each day the older kids were at camp, Jessica, Timmy, and I would do something Jessica considered special. On the first four days, we did things like riding a miniature train through the largest city park (and stopping to buy popcorn halfway through); going out to eat; going to Bath & Body Works, smelling the different scented products, and buying Jessica some hand sanitizer; playing games; and going to one of our favorite parks that has a sandbox.

On Friday, the last day of camp, Jessica wanted to go to our smaller, neighborhood park—“our” park, as we call it. So I let Timmy and Jessica climb into the wagon, and I pulled them the two-and-a-half blocks to the park. Once there, I let them play on whatever they wanted, and I pushed them on the merry-go-round and the swings. I also took a few pictures to remember the day by.

But it wasn’t until later, as I was looking at one of those pictures on my computer, that I thought, We moms take plenty of pictures of the special times in our children’s and family’s lives. We want to make sure we remember those days. But what do we do to make sure we remember the special times with God? What do we put in place to guarantee that we won’t forget the things He’s done for us or the special memories we’ve made with Him?

If you’re like me, the answer is that you don’t do all that much to remember. Oh, sure, when God supplies us or our husband with a new job or rescues us from some difficulty (such as illness or financial disaster), we post about it on Facebook so everyone can “like” it and congratulate us. But what do we do to make sure that God’s mighty act doesn’t get lost in the general busyness of life, but gets passed down to our children (and maybe even grandchildren) so that it becomes part of the fabric of their memories and spiritual lives?

Many times in the Bible, the children of Israel are commanded to remember God and His deeds in some very real and tangible way. For example, in Joshua 4, when they are about to cross the Jordan River, God commands Joshua to choose 12 men (one for each of the tribes of Israel) and to command them to take up stones from the middle of the Jordan, and then to set them up on the other side of the river as a memorial to God’s mighty act in cutting off the flow of the Jordan before the Ark of the Covenant so that the people could cross. These stones were to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.

All throughout Scripture, God commands observances to be made in order to remember His great acts on behalf of His children. There are many festivals instituted for this purpose (Passover and The Lord’s Supper are only two examples). It was obviously quite important to God that we remember what He has done for us.

It still is.

So how can we make it a point to remember? There are many ways. We could record instances of His love and deliverance in a journal and make it a point to get out the journal and read it periodically. We could institute our own family festival to commemorate the day God did something very special in our family’s life. We could make up songs about the event and teach them to our children.

These are only a few examples. You can probably think of many more. The point isn’t so much what you do, as that you do something.

Thank God for the evidences of His mighty love and care toward you. Find a way to teach them to your children and make them a part of your family’s spiritual heritage. Remember them—not just once, or as long as it takes for your Facebook post to get buried in people’s news feeds—but forever.

We all know we’re supposed to celebrate God and what He has done. But we can’t do it if we don’t remember.

1 Samuel 17:12—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.”

Psalm 107:8—Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men.

Being Fully Human

Megan Breedlove June 9, 2014 No Comments

At twenty-seven months of age, Timmy has begun to tell jokes. For quite some time now, he’s loved to do things that make us laugh. He still does. But now, he’s added a new skill to his repertoire: joke-telling.

The other day, Timmy told his first knock-knock joke. It went like this:

Timmy: “Knock-knock.”

Me: “Who’s there?”

Timmy: (silence)

Within days, however, he’d gotten the idea that when someone said “Who’s there?” he was supposed to say something back. So here’s his second joke:

Timmy: “Knock-knock.”

Me: “Who’s there?”

Timmy: “I don’t know.”

Okay, so he’s not quite there yet. But the point is, he’s getting there. Slowly but surely, he is learning the social rules for interaction with others, and he’s increasing in his ability to relate the way he wants to.

I wonder whether Jesus, when He was a little boy on this earth, liked to tell jokes.

I bet He did. I bet He loved to have fun, just like any other little boy. After all, He was fully human. Yes, even in His infancy and childhood, He was fully God. But He was also fully human.

Sometimes we forget that one of the implications of that is that Jesus had to learn things as He grew up. He had to learn to tell jokes. He had to learn to relate with others. He had to learn what to say and not to say. He had to learn to work hard. He had to learn the Scriptures.

I could go on, but you get the point. Even Jesus, who was Almighty God, had to learn things that any other human child has to learn. True, all other human children are sinful, and Jesus wasn’t. But there are many things children have to learn that have nothing to do with sin, so Jesus would have had to learn them too.

He wasn’t born as a fully functioning adult who, by the way, knew everything. He was born as a tiny, helpless infant. He had to learn to nurse. He had to learn to walk. He had to learn to be potty-trained. He had to learn to dress Himself. He had to learn to read and write. He had to learn to relate to others. He even had to learn to obey (see Hebrews 5:8).

There are two reasons why we’re talking about this today. One is that it’s always good to remember what Jesus did for us—how He humbled Himself to take on human form and had to learn and grow as a human (though one unmarked by sin).

The other is this: if even Jesus had to learn things and probably made mistakes along the way (not sins; I’m talking about mistakes like cutting a piece of lumber too short), then you and I need to give our children grace while they are still in the process of learning—which will be for their whole lives.

We need to give ourselves grace, too. Sometimes we moms expect too much of ourselves. Yes, we should do the very best we can with everything we have. But too often, we expect ourselves to somehow know and be able to do everything right now. If Jesus had to grow and change, we must realize that we ourselves will have to do the same thing.

So the next time you make a mistake, remember this: even Jesus probably made (non-sinful) mistakes. He went through a learning process just as you are going through one. And that’s okay. It’s the way He made you—to need to grow and learn. (In fact, we’ll spend all eternity in heaven continuing to do so.)

Yes, you need to ask forgiveness when you sin—both from God and from the one you have wronged. But when it’s a simple mistake…give yourself some grace. Be willing to be on the journey, and not yet fully there.

Let God work the same process in you that He once worked in His Son.

Luke 2:52—And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. (NIV)

When You’re Struggling

Megan Breedlove June 2, 2014 No Comments

This has been a difficult season for me.

I don’t mean spring, which went by in a blur. Nor do I mean summer, which is just now starting to heat up.

I mean the season of life I am currently in, and have been for awhile. Over the past several months, I’ve been struggling. The details of my struggle aren’t what’s important. Suffice it to say that it’s been long enough now that I am convinced God is not going to miraculously take this season away and make everything all right.

And so, because I am in the same place many of you are, I wanted to reach out to you today, to those of us who are struggling. If you’re not struggling with anything—if life is great right now—I’m glad for you. But you may want to read on anyway, because all of us will struggle at some point in our lives, and you may find yourself doing so in the future.

When we’re going through difficulties in life, our first reaction is usually to try to change our circumstances. To make the difficulties go away. We pray. We beg God. We read books. We talk to our pastor, priest, or friends. We do everything we can think of to make things better.

All of those things are good things to do. But sometimes, even they don’t seem to help much. Our circumstances don’t change. We continue to feel stressed, discouraged, or depressed. And we realize that God has said “no” to all our requests to change things and make the problems go away.

What then? What do we do then when it looks like our suffering is going to be going on for a long time? When every day is a struggle? When there’s no relief in sight?

The Apostle Paul would have understood our dilemma. Scripture tells us that three times, he asked the Lord to remove some unnamed problem or difficulty from him, but the Lord said no.

What then?

I don’t have all the answers. I can’t tell you when your difficult season will end, or why God won’t make it better right now. But I can tell you this—what will make the most difference to you during this time isn’t knowing exactly how many more days, weeks or years you have to go, or even knowing why God chose to permit your suffering.

What will make the most difference is knowing two things: first, God loves you deeply and passionately, and He cares about what is happening to you. You are His beloved child, and when you hurt, He hurts. God does not stand idly by, unmoved by your distress. Just as you long to comfort your children when they hurt, so God longs to comfort you. He loves you. In fact, He’s crazy about you. And when you suffer, He cares. Psalm 56:8 says, ”You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle.” In other words, when you are writhing in pain, whether physical or emotional, God cares about what is happening to you. When you cry, He cares. Why? Because He loves you.

The second thing you need to know is that this, too, shall pass. I know it’s a cliché, but it’s true. It hurts now, and it might hurt for a really long time. But eventually—whether here on earth or someday in heaven—the hurt will be over. In the meantime, we won’t drown in the pain, even if it feels like it. The stress will not overcome us. God has promised that He can, and will, bring us through. So yes, right now every day might be one more day of hurt. But it’s also one day closer to your deliverance.

While you still suffer, crawl up into God’s lap and let Him love on you. Let Him comfort your soul as only He can. And remember that He does indeed have plans for your suffering to be over, plans He’s already put in motion. Until then…you’ll make it.

He’ll be right beside you, holding your hand, all the way.

Isaiah 43:1-3a—But now, this is what the LORD says—he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.”

Three Ways to Be a Better Mom — Part III

Megan Breedlove May 26, 2014 No Comments

Children praying I’ve heard it said that the longest 18 inches in the world is the distance from the human mind to the human heart.

I don’t know who first said this, but he or she is right. As human beings, we are masters of knowing something in our head but failing to fully grasp it with our heart. That’s why we can assent to so many of the truths contained in Scripture without their ever really making much of a difference in our life.

For example, we’re taught from our earliest spiritual training (whether as a child or as an adult) that God loves us. We even sing songs about His love (“Jesus loves me; this I know, for the Bible tells me so”). But somehow, many of us grow up with a distorted or incomplete view of God’s love. We don’t really understand the marvel that it is. We don’t “get it”.

Maybe we never felt loved by our parents or others close to us. Maybe we’ve been betrayed by someone we love. Maybe we’ve never heard much about His love. Whatever the reason, we’re unable to comprehend or absorb God’s love for us. We know in our head that He loves us, but we don’t feel it in our heart.

I’ve been there. For many years, I didn’t really believe God loved me in particular. I knew that “God so loved the world,” so I figured he loved me too with a sort of obligatory love because I am part of the world. I never knew He is crazy in love with me–with me!–as an individual. For most of my life, I wasn’t even aware of the truth that God loves me madly and passionately–so much so that He delights in me and rejoices over me (see Zeph. 3:17). Even when I did learn that truth, I still didn’t really “get it” because I couldn’t comprehend what it was like to be loved like that.

But gradually, God began to move the truth of His incredible love downward, from my head into my heart. He placed loving people in my life. He directed my attention to many places in the Bible where it tells me how much He loves me. He prompted me to pray that I would come to know His love. And He instructed His Holy Spirit–He must have–to begin communicating this amazing truth to my heart in a way that I could understand.

I share my story with you because I know some of you struggle in the same way I did. You might know in your head that God loves you, but you don’t feel it in your heart. You’re desperate to feel loved by Him, but you don’t know how. Maybe you’re not fully convinced, as I wasn’t, that God is crazy about you.

But it’s true. God is crazy about you. He loves you beyond measure. And it’s also true that He will help you to know and experience His love. You don’t have to know how it works. If you go to Him and ask Him to get through to you in a way that you will understand and can’t miss, He’ll do it. He knows exactly how to communicate His truth to your heart.

Yes, there are things you can do to cooperate with God in the process. You can make a diligent study of Scripture. You can pray. You can seek counsel from others. You can determine that you will believe the truth of God’s love for you even if it doesn’t feel true. You can and should do all these things. But ultimately, the true work to be done in your heart is God’s, through His Holy Spirit, and He can do that perfect work in a way no one else can.

Let Him do His work. Let Him show you His love for you. Do the things he directs you to do that will help you gain a better understanding of the multifaceted glory of His love. Your life will never be the same.

Your children’s lives will never be the same, either. For when you truly begin not only to understand that you are loved, but to believe it in your heart and absorb it into your very being, you won’t be able to help but overflow with God’s love. We love our children best when we love them from the overflow of the same love we have received. When we love them with the same kind of love God has lavished upon us. But we can’t do that until we have truly understood the reality and the magnificence of it for ourselves.

Jesus loves you; this you know, for the Bible tells you so.

May that become a reality in your life and in the lives of your children, precious mom. I’ll pray for you.

1 John 4:10–This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

1 John 4:19–We love because he first loved us.

Three Ways to Be a Better Mom — Part II

Megan Breedlove May 19, 2014 No Comments

I have a friend who is very domestically inclined. She makes tasty and healthy meals for her family; she keeps her home in good order; she sews; and she is very good at all these things and enjoys doing them.

She far surpasses me in these areas.

I have another friend who makes marvelous birthday cakes that look like they belong on Pinterest for her children. She is extremely talented in this area. In fact, she sometimes makes cakes for other people for all kinds of special occasions, and her cakes are so fantastic that people pay her.

I can’t do that.

Then there is my friend who has eleven children, all of whom are godly and well-behaved. She’s there for every single one of her children when they need her, whether that means comforting them, supporting them in their activities, or providing for their needs in some other way. And she does it all with grace and good humor.

I sometimes have trouble doing the same for my children, even though I have fewer than she does.

All of us have friends who outdo us in some way. Maybe they accomplish more than we do in a certain area; maybe they simply seem to have it all together, whereas we feel like we struggle. Sometimes, we look at our friends (or even strangers), compare ourselves to them, and wind up feeling guilty because we don’t measure up.

But God never planned for us to be just like our friends. He made us the way we are because He wants us to be unique. He delights in our uniqueness.

Yes, I need to prepare meals for my family and keep my home in decent order. But I don’t necessarily have to be as good at doing that as the first friend is that I mentioned. Neither do I have to be a seamstress. God did not make me good at sewing or even inclined to learn. That’s okay. My talents lie in other areas.

I don’t have to be a mom just like this friend, or like any of my other friends. And you don’t have to be just like any of yours. If God wanted us to be just like our friends, He could have made us that way. But He didn’t. Instead, He chose to give us different personalities, skills, and interests. Why? Because He wanted to.

God doesn’t want or need a bunch of clones. Instead, He rejoices in our differences that reflect His vast creativity.

We were never made to be just like someone else. We were carefully designed by God to be the one-of-a-kind way He wants us to be. Yet too often, we spend our efforts and emotions trying to be just like someone else.

That’s not what God wants. He wants us to be the people He made us to be, not replicas of our mom or best friend or some stranger.

There’s nothing wrong with trying to improve in a certain area. For example, it wouldn’t hurt me at all to work a little harder at keeping my house nice (an area in which I tend to be lazy). But feeling bad about myself because I’m not as good at making cakes as one of my friends, or not as good a seamstress as the first friend I mentioned? Not what God has in mind.

Instead of comparing myself to others, God wants me to be the best me I can be. He doesn’t want me to be another Lori or Rebekah or Marilee. In fact, if I spend all my time trying to be just like them, I’ll be failing to reflect the facets of His creativity that He wanted to display through me.

Precious mom, do you realize that God delights in the particular combination of traits that makes you the person you are? That He wants you to do the same?

Don’t waste time or emotional energy wishing you were just like someone else. Instead, celebrate the person you are, because you are how God made you to be. Show your children what it looks like to accept yourself the way God made you and to be content with that.

That’s how to be a better mom—not by trying to be just like someone else.

Psalm 139:14—I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

Green grape in cluster of red grapes

Three Ways to Be a Better Mom – Part I

Megan Breedlove May 12, 2014 No Comments

World's Best Mom The cards were decorated with hearts, flowers, and stickers. All over them—both inside and outside—were messages of love and uplifting sentiments such as, “World’s Best Mom!”

As I read my children’s hand-made Mother’s Day cards and admired them out loud, two things happened: first, my heart felt encouraged by my children’s sweet affirmation; second, I got stuck on the phrase “World’s Best Mom”.

That’s what I want to be for my children—the best mom they can imagine. Yet I’m well aware that I’m not always the mom I’d like to be. Sometimes, I’m impatient. Sometimes, I fail to see a child’s inner need. Sometimes, I just plain make mistakes.

You probably do, too, because none of us is perfect. We all fall short on occasion of what we know we could be. We’re alike in another way, too—we all want to get this thing called parenting “right”. We want to do a great job. And sometimes, all of us wonder if we’re doing the right thing or doing well enough.

Over the next three weeks, we’re going to talk about three surprisingly simple things we can do to be better moms. These aren’t just three ways to try harder or to spread ourselves even thinner. They aren’t ways to make meals or birthday cakes worthy of Pinterest. They’re things we can all do not only to benefit our children, but to benefit ourselves. And they don’t require trying very hard. In fact, they sometimes require us to stop trying.

The first way to be a better mom is this: give yourself the freedom not to be Supermom. You don’t have to be able to do everything. You might be terrible at making birthday cakes, and that’s okay. You might not be as creative as you’d like to be, or as energetic. That’s fine. You don’t have to be everything all at once in order to be a great mom. Even God doesn’t expect that of you. Nor do your children. So don’t expect it of yourself.

Likewise, you are going to make mistakes. Don’t beat yourself up because of them. Too many moms set perfection as their standard, and they stress themselves out when they don’t perform perfectly. Then they get burnt out.

True, there are times when we sin against others and need to make things right with God and with them. We may need to go to our children and ask them to forgive us. But if we keep beating ourselves up over what our God and our children have already forgiven us for, we will only become discouraged.

God says that He has removed our sins from us “as far as the east is from the west” (see Psalm 103:12). In other words, He doesn’t hold our sins over our heads anymore, trying to make us feel guilty. It’s Satan who does that. He knows that when God has forgiven us, we are no longer guilty, but he doesn’t want us to know it.

On the other hand, if we listen to what God says in His Word and accept—and truly absorb—His forgiveness, we’ll have no reason to feel guilty any longer. We can instead feel forgiven and free, and we can move on.

Moms, there is no such person as Supermom. Every single mom on this planet has areas where she is less than perfect. Every mom sins. So it’s not the perfect mom who’s the “World’s Best Mom!” (because remember, the perfect mom doesn’t exist). It’s you. It’s me.

My children know I’m not perfect. But they still call me the best mom ever anyway. In their eyes, I’m the best. And that’s perfect enough for me.

Psalm 103:12—As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

Being Two

Megan Breedlove May 5, 2014 No Comments

My youngest son, Timmy, is two. Some days, he’s really, really two. (If you’ve ever had a two-year-old, you know exactly what I mean.)

Consider, for example, the following conversation we had the other day:

Timmy: “Have snack?”

Me: “No, it’s not snack time.”

Timmy: “Waaaaaahhhhh!”

Or this one:

Me: “Timmy, put your shoes away.”

Timmy: “No, Mommy.”

To his credit, Timmy doesn’t defy me with a straight-up “no” very often. His usual responses, when I deny him something he wants or tell him to do something he doesn’t want to do, are to say, “Awwwww,” as if he is the most disappointed boy in the world; to cry, sometimes with tantrum included; or to pout, making sure I notice his downcast face and stuck-out lip.

When I denied Timmy that snack and he cried, I remember thinking, “I wish he would just be thankful that I am going to give him something even better than what he’s asking for.”

Of course, I knew that such a response lies far beyond a 2-year-old’s maturity level. Unfortunately, it also often lies beyond our maturity as moms.

God denies us something we want, and we pout and complain. Or He tells us to do something, and we argue with Him or give Him a flat-out “no”.

We want a nicer house, car, or vacation, so we pray about it. So far, no problem. The problem comes in when God says no to our request and we say, “Awwwww,” as if we’re the most disappointed mom in the world.

Or God tells us to do something—to sacrifice a little bit more of ourselves for our husband or children, perhaps—and we grumble about it or say, “No, Daddy.”

We expect two-year-olds to do these things. But shouldn’t we, as adults and as Christians, be far past these kinds of reactions? Yes, we should.

Then why aren’t we?

Because we don’t really trust or believe God. Sure, we believe in God, and in His Son Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. But we don’t really believe that His judgments of what is good for us are superior to ours.

If we did, then when God denied us something, we would realize—and truly believe in our hearts—that what God is offering us is something even greater. God doesn’t withhold huge blessings from us just so He can expect us to be satisfied with a pittance. In fact, the Bible tells us that He doesn’t withhold any good thing from those who are walking rightly with Him.

Likewise, when God tells us to do something, we would agree that we’d be far better off doing what God has asked than resisting doing it. God doesn’t ask us to do “busy work”. Everything He asks has a purpose.

What is your attitude when God denies you something you wanted? Do you pout, or do you thank Him for giving you something even better?

How do you respond when God tells you to do something? Do you resist His instructions, or do you obey eagerly?

I know it’s hard to have the right attitude sometimes. Not everything God asks us to do is fun, and sometimes it’s hard to be denied what we wanted so much. But if we truly believe that God knows what He’s doing, our response to His direction in our lives won’t be that of a two-year-old. Instead, we’ll respond as the loving and trusting child He wants us to be.

Psalm 84:11—For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. (NIV)

What Song Do You Sing?

Megan Breedlove April 28, 2014 No Comments

Music notes You know how sometimes, a song gets stuck in your head?

Apparently, “Happy Birthday” is stuck in Timmy’s head, because at 26 months, it is the only song he sings. Repeatedly. He’ll choose someone whose birthday it is (usually Daddy) and sing the song with that person’s name inserted at the appropriate spot. At the end, he claps and shouts, “Yay Daddy!”

I’m pretty certain as well that the songs from Frozen are stuck in my older four kids’ heads. Every day, they sing these songs. I finally bought them the CD so they could at least learn all the words instead of singing the same few phrases over and over. (In fact, even as I type this devotional, my oldest daughter Ellie is in her room singing “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?”)

I know what words are likely to come out of my kids’ mouths because I’ve heard them so often before. But I wonder what words my kids expect to come out of my mouth.

Do I speak with kindness, gentleness and helpfulness? Do I speak with love? Is that what my children expect usually to hear, or do they more often expect grumpiness and impatience?

None of us can completely control our tongue. In fact, Scripture tells us that “we all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.” (See James 3:2.) And I’m certainly not perfect, which means that I will stumble in this area. I will fall. I will fail.

Failing on occasion doesn’t mean our children will come to expect failure from us. Children understand that adults mess up, too. They know we’re not perfect, even when we don’t admit our imperfections. If the majority of our speech is good—if it builds them up—they will come to expect uplifting speech from us and will see our mess-ups as an aberration from the norm.

But if the majority of what they hear is negative—complaining, fault-finding, being grumpy or unloving—then that is what they will come to expect.

Moms, are you making a conscientious effort to build inspiring and heartening patterns of speech into your children’s lives? If not, your speech will default to what’s easiest—and what’s easiest is to fall into the patterns of this world and be unhelpful, harmful, or even degrading.

If you’re really brave (and if your children are old enough), you can ask them what they think about how Mommy speaks to them. You will either be encouraged, or you will learn where it is necessary for you to make amends.

You can always go before the Lord and ask Him whether or not your speech toward your children reflects the loving attitude of His Son. But know this: if it doesn’t, you have more than a speech problem; you have a heart problem (see Luke 6:45). What comes out of your mouth is a direct reflection of what is in your heart. That’s why it’s so important to take this matter before God: because He is the only one who can change your heart so that good things come from your mouth instead of evil.

What are you constantly “singing”, moms? What can your children expect to hear from you?

Ephesians 4:29—Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. (NIV)

Why Jesus’ Resurrection Matters to You

Megan Breedlove April 21, 2014 No Comments

Women visiting Jesus' tomb Yesterday, on Easter, I staged an Easter egg hunt for my children in the front yard. They wound up with more candy than they needed. But getting candy isn’t the reason why Jesus’ resurrection matters.

Neither does the Easter matter simply because it means the chance to dress up in new clothes and make sure we get to church on time on Sunday morning. New clothes are fine, but they’re not the reason Easter is so important.

Sometimes, it’s easy to confuse the trappings of Easter with the purpose of Easter. If we’re not careful, we wind up thinking that Easter dinner and gift-laden Easter baskets are the whole point of it all, rather than just things that help us celebrate.

We forget that the real reason Jesus’ resurrection matters is something far more and far deeper.

It matters because by it, God signified that He accepted Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf—that our sins could all be done away with if we acknowledge that His sacrifice was for us and receive His gift. This, we know. But we don’t often stop to think that the deepest, most profound reason Jesus’ sacrifice matters to us is because He was showing that we can be resurrected, too.

The Bible tells us that apart from Christ, we are dead in our sins. Not just sinful, but dead. Our physical bodies live and breathe, but our spirit is completely, totally lifeless. And it remains that way until Christ comes into our lives and resurrects us, making us alive together with Him.

If you’ve asked Christ to come into your heart—if you’ve acknowledged His right to rule over you and accepted His loving, generous gift of life—then you are now alive. You’ve been resurrected.

People who are physically dead can’t do anything. Without life, their bodies lie there, unable to rise or to commit even the smallest action. So it is with us when we’re spiritually dead. Our physical bodies walk around, having the appearance of life, but our spirits within us are dead. We are shells of what we could be.

When Christ resurrects us and makes us alive, however, we become capable of all kinds of things. We now have the potential to truly live (in other words, to know Christ), without just going through the motions of life. We can truly love with the love of God, and not just our puny human love. We can rejoice, we can create, we can share with others this marvelous life that God has given us.

There are plenty of people who think that their lives are pretty good without Christ. But they’re fooling themselves, because they’re not truly alive. They haven’t experienced the resurrection power of being made alive in Christ. They may think they’re alive, but in reality, they’re dead.

That’s why Christ’s resurrection matters, moms—not because of chocolate bunnies and fuzzy chicks, but because Christ offers us a resurrection, too. He offers us the chance to rise from the dead into the glorious, abundant life of a relationship with the living God.

If you want to know more about Christ, I’d love to introduce you to Him. Just check out my post on how to know God, or contact me through my website, and we’ll talk. And if you already know Him, I’m so glad to know that you’re alive. I’ve been spiritually alive for most of my physical life now, and I can tell you that there’s nothing better than truly living the way you can when Christ makes you alive. Again, if you want to know more, let’s talk. I’d love to share with you what I’ve learned.

About life.

Ephesians 2:1, 4-5—As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins…But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions–it is by grace you have been saved.

*To find out more about what abundant life looks like for moms, check out Chaotic Joy: Finding Abundance in the Messiness of Motherhood.

Devotions

God’s Heart for You

Making Memories

Being Fully Human

When You’re Struggling

Three Ways to Be a Better Mom — Part III

Three Ways to Be a Better Mom — Part II

Three Ways to Be a Better Mom – Part I

Being Two

What Song Do You Sing?

Why Jesus’ Resurrection Matters to You

You Missed

Priorities

I Wouldn’t Do That

Little Things

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