Encouragement for Moms

I think this article has been circling the internet, being twittered, blogged about, etc. All I know is when I came across it, it was so encouraging to me, and while it is most relevant to moms with young kids, I wanted to share it for those of you young moms who may need it as much as I did. With the big push in the Christian church lately to "mobilize the laity" and best sellers like Crazy Love and Radical (which I am totally not bashing, I just bought them both for me to read) I feel like in some ways I have confused myself. I have made myself torn in the conviction of living selflessly and sacrificing for the Gospel and the responsibility and reality of raising a full family of young children, when in truth, for me they are one in the same. I am thankful that this has all made me more aware of the way I want to grow as a family, as I stated a few posts ago, but I also think this article helps to remind me that living a mundane life that some may reduce to just "living the American Dream" is belittling one of God's greatest mission fields. We ask God to equip us to do the best we can to teach these children about sacrifice, about the Gospel, about loving others, about living for the Eternal. And, in the meantime, I will aim to not become discontent in the wonderful mission field that God currently has me serving. 

MOTHERHOOD AS A MISSION FIELD
by: Rachel Jankovic

As someone once said, “Everyone wants to save the world, but no one wants to help Mom with the dishes.” When you are a mother at home with your children, the church is not clamoring for monthly ministry updates. When you talk to other believers, there is not any kind of awe about what you are sacrificing for the gospel. People are not pressing you for needs you might have, how they can pray for you. It does not feel intriguing, or glamorous. Your work is normal, because it is as close to home as you can possibly be. You have actually gone so far as to become home.

If you are a Christian woman who loves the Lord, the gospel is important to you. It is easy to become discouraged, thinking that the work you are doing does not matter much. If you were really doing something for Christ you would be out there, somewhere else, doing it. Even if you have a great perspective on your role in the kingdom, it is easy to lose sight of it in the mismatched socks, in the morning sickness, in the dirty dishes. It is easy to confuse intrigue with value, and begin viewing yourself as the least valuable part of the Church.

There are a number of ways in which mothers need to study their own roles, and begin to see them, not as boring and inconsequential, but as home, the headwaters of missions.

At the very heart of the gospel is sacrifice, and there is perhaps no occupation in the world so intrinsically sacrificial as motherhood. Motherhood is a wonderful opportunity to live the gospel. Jim Elliot famously said, “He is no fool who gives up that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” Motherhood provides you with an opportunity to lay down the things that you cannot keep on behalf of the people that you cannot lose. They are eternal souls, they are your children, they are your mission field.

If you are like me, then you may be thinking “What did I ever give up for them? A desk job? Time at the gym? Extra spending money? My twenty- year- old figure? Some sleep?” Doesn’t seem like much when you put it next to the work of some of the great missionaries, people who gave their lives for the gospel.

Think about the feeding of the five thousand when the disciples went out and rounded up the food that was available. It wasn’t much. Some loaves. Some fish. Think of some woman pulling her fish out and handing it to one of the disciples. That had to have felt like a small offering. But the important thing about those loaves and those fishes was not how big they were when they were given, it was about whose hands they were given into. In the hands of the Lord, that offering was sufficient. It was more than sufficient. There were leftovers. Given in faith, even a small offering becomes great.

Look at your children in faith, and see how many people will be ministered to by your ministering to them. How many people will your children know in their lives? How many grandchildren are represented in the faces around your table now?

So, if mothers are strategically situated to impact missions so greatly, why do we see so little coming from it? I think the answer to this is quite simple: sin. Discontent, pettiness, selfishness, resentment. Christians often feel like the right thing to do is to be ashamed about what we have. We hear that quote of Jim Elliot’s and think that we ought to sell our homes and move to some place where they need the gospel.

But I’d like to challenge you to look at it differently. Giving up what you cannot keep does not mean giving up your home, or your job so you can go serve somewhere else. It is giving up yourself. Lay yourself down. Sacrifice yourself here, now. Cheerfully wipe the nose for the fiftieth time today. Make dinner again for the people who don’t like the green beans. Laugh when your plans are thwarted by a vomiting child. Lay yourself down for the people here with you, the people who annoy you, the people who get in your way, the people who take up so much of your time that you can’t read anymore. Rejoice in them. Sacrifice for them. Gain that which you cannot lose in them.

It is easy to think you have a heart for orphans on the other side of the world, but if you spend your time at home resenting the imposition your children are on you, you do not. You cannot have a heart for the gospel and a fussiness about your life at the same time. You will never make any difference there if you cannot be at peace here. You cannot have a heart for missions, but not for the people around you. A true love of the gospel overflows and overpowers. It will be in everything you do, however drab, however simple, however repetitive.

God loves the little offerings. Given in faith, that plate of PB&J’s will feed thousands. Given in faith, those presents on Christmas morning will bring delight to more children than you can count. Offered with thankfulness, your work at home is only the beginning. Your laundry pile, selflessly tackled daily, will be used in the hands of God to clothe many. Do not think that your work does not matter. In God’s hands, it will be broken, and broken, and broken again, until all who have need of it have eaten and are satisfied. And even then, there will be leftovers.

Originally from desiringgod.org

Bullets

I think this month I have hit rock bottom in my blogging since back when I first started this thing. The extent of pics on my real camera are a few bath tub pics. And honestly, not sure I've got much interesting to say. But for the sake of discipline in staying with it, I think my best option is to just bullet point some highlights as of late with pics I have on my phone. Exciting, I know!

• Isn't this guy handsome? I'm kind of surprised I was able to catch a few pics of him smiling over the last couple weeks. I think it's odd how it seems like one gives me more trouble at a time than others for a stent of time, and just when one kind of gets out of their little funk, another one moves into one. A few weeks ago Hannah Grace and I were having some pretty ugly battles. That's been a lot better and now Bennett has settled in as resident whiner. And Sadie, well she's entering the lovely "terrible twos", just trying to establish her independence, of course, ha! =) That's the joy of parenting though, right? We love them just the same through all their little funks, and at this point they love us through our funks too =). 

• We are finally all healthier, after what I'm pretty sure would qualify as "weeks" of fighting the crud and more. Now we have so generously passed it on to Ross and Lori's family! But this pic below would be a prime example of why I have given up on trying to keep one from giving it to the other. It is clearly hopeless.

• Hannah was fortunate enough to be better in time for VBS and had herself a big time. Here she was on Tacky Day. 

• We've hit up a good number of swim parties, birthday parties, and showers over the last few weeks. It's been a fun way to stay busy on the weekends! Hannah Grace and Sadie l-o-v-e the water. Bennett not so much. Hoping we can work on that over our vacay.

• Just because I love this.

• Sadie. Oh what can be said about Sadie. Again, little miss independence is proving to wear me out the third time around! Here she is eating a spoonful of sour cream. Just sour cream. Mmmm. I think she's got a little cowgirl in her too. She loves trucking around in the big kids old cowboy boots. 
• I think she has some tomboy in her. Ha! Yesterday she brought me a ginormous roach from outside. I tried to remain calm. =) It's probably actually kind of shocking that that is the first time a kid has done that. Leave it to Sadie.

• She is our dinnertime entertainment on pretty much a nightly basis. I've gotten a couple videos of her making us laugh at the dinner table. I'm not going to post them directly on here, since I'm sure a lot of you could really take or leave that stuff. But for you family who maybe have not been able to see Sadie's personality explode out of her, you can check them out through the links. Took me a couple times of recording to realize I need to turn my phone sideways. Sorry.  She comes up with this stuff all on her own- of course now we prompt it for fun and to tape it, but I'm just not sure where this goofball comes from.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Og6CDzF7rJ0
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8_pi6ppRtw

• Ryan and I have been running. Yes...you read right. We are actually quite enjoying it! I think we've decided to make LUVMUD in October our first 5k together. 

• My kitchen has now looked like this for 2 weeks. I hate leaving things unfinished. Hate it. But somehow the cards have not been in my favor with this one. Despite my desire to finish up this project- the time between naps, meals, and bed when it works for me to tear apart the kitchen and bang on the wall, are short and far between. Now we have enough on our plate preparing for a trip, I'm just not sure it's gonna happen before we head out. Can't wait to finally be able to show you the finished product though!

The big To Do list is on the fridge. It is that time to scramble around here preparing to head out as a family of five for our family vacation. I told Ryan the other night, I really can't wait to get out to the country. Open land, peace and quiet, horses... it all sounds amazing to me right now! Can't wait! 

Summer Thus Far

Here is the photo documentation of our summer to this point. These are all actually from a couple weeks ago. We have been home bound for the last week with sickness--- in June? Really? Hopefully we will all be back on our feet sooner than later- it has been a LONG week!
It was tempting to do this mass of pics in two posts, but, eh, I'm just gonna go with it! Even if it goes against "blogging tips" to not make posts too long =).
 First weekend of summer = mandatory kiddie pool christening. Our one from last year (here and here) made it through two summers, but this year it was time to start fresh! You can only hose and bleach the mildew off those bad boys so many times, am I right?

Floaty rings in a 1.5 foot deep pool... that's just how we roll.

Sadie got to partake a lot more this year! She was one happy camper, and she takes her elder siblings abuse so well.. to a point...

Then again she is my most likely one to inflict said abuse upon herself, for that matter. And loves it.
(PS- I think the swimsuit has seen it's day- we're about to see some "buttons" as my mom used to call them when we were little- ha! oh the horror... =)

Alright moving right along.. I guess I was just sitting in the "sunroom" (I am being generous when I call it that!) with my camera and snapped some pics of what was going on.

 (By the way, we had to go without this man for a full work week and it was pitiful. We all missed daddy like crazy! I don't know how wives to frequently traveling men do it!) It wasn't as physically tiring as I thought it would be, we just all missed his company!

Do you see what I see in this picture... one grown girl, coming right up!!!

  Okay so here is one of those picture progressions I love to dump on you. What I like about this one is, I think it's a great demonstration of how I am going to one day remember my kids playing together.

Hannah Gracie and Sadie get started on a little post dinner dance party (those are a family fave in these parts)

 and Bennett runs in to join.

I love them, 'nough said.

We've also made our first trip to the sprinkler park/ spray park/ splash pad/ whatever your preference to call it. We joined a couple friends there, and I sure hope it's just the first of many outings there to come this summer. I was busy visiting so I didn't want to stand there the whole time snapping pics like the crazy person I really am deep down inside, so I clicked about a thousand times in a three minute time frame and this is what I ended up with. =)

We are always laughing over Sadie's round little belly. Hannah Grace I guess has caught on and now she will stick her tummy out and ask me if I think it's big and round likes Sadie's. Ha!

Pringle break!

Jump and...

...splash!

Yep! That's my Sadie girl... sticking her face right in the water over the drain and slurping it up- where every one else's loogies flow to. I wonder if it's coincidence shortly after this park trip bronchitis started running through our house! Ha!=)

Always a good time!

I include at least one spray park trip on the blog every year. For daddy or a grandma (or myself =) who likes to go back and see them grow, here's the archive from previous years!

year 1

year 2

year 3

So there you have it! Two weeks worth of blogging in one gargantuan post, pieced together over several sittings. Thanks for stickin' with me!