Dearest Sisters

It has been brought to my attention that my writings may possibly come across as A)  I am talking at you ladies instead of with you dear sisters and B) that I am perfect and have no struggles in my own life. 

Oh dear sisters if this is how any of you dear ladies feel when you read any of my writings I must apologize to each and every one of you for that.  I have never had anyone tell me anything other than they have always felt so very encouraged, uplifted and loved by what I write.  I have always had you dear ladies tell me how much you felt the love of the Lord come through what I share and that you have appreciated my ministry so very much.  But when this was recently brought to my attention I felt that I should humbly come to all of you and ask if there were any of you precious sisters that may feel this is true but have never spoken up about it. I have never received anything but letters of thanks from you dear sisters for my willingness to write, my honesty in my words, the use of wise words, my encouragement and my time put into the ministry and all my writings.  Like I already said once and I want to reiterate it to you all that my intent has never been to talk at anybody ever but it has always been to be the Lords willing vessel so that He could use me to help lead, guide and mentor each and every one of you precious ladies who may have been struggling in your roles as wife and mother.  My heart has yearned to help anyone who has been hurting in their walks of life because I understood first hand what it felt like to be alone and to not have a Titus 2 woman or even just another sister in Christ to be there to help when I was in need of guidance and direction.  If any of you have ever felt talked at instead of talked with please understand that has never been my intentions for it to come across that way.  I have always written exactly what the Lord has placed in and on my own heart, nothing more and nothing less, when it comes to sharing with you precious ladies.   I know that what I write will not please every single lady who reads it, for that is just unrealistic to expect such an outcome like that.  I know that not every body wants to hear about all the hard things the Lord wants us to do in our lives as wives and mothers and I know we all need encouragement to carry on for life can get hard so many times in this journey of life that we are all on together as sisters.  But I want to be sure that the majority of you ladies are not feeling anything but the Lords love when you read what He speaks through me to you precious ladies in my blog.  

I also want to reiterate to you all that I too am very human and have struggles that I go through in my own life.  I try to allow my human side to show through in my writings as much as possible without making my struggles the main focus of the writings.  I certainly want to be sure that my own weaknesses don’t overpower the message that the Lord is trying to get through to you dear sisters.  My dear husband knows all my short comings all too well and loves me anyway in spite of them all.  I also have a dear friend whom I know and love very much, her name is Paula (lvg4him) and she blogs here at Homeschoolblogger also she has known me, my husband and my children for many years now and she too can tell any of you dear ladies that I am as human as they come but she can also verify that I do my very best to live out what I share here with you ladies. 

The reason I do not focus on my own mistakes in my writings is that I have always felt that the Lord did not want me to focus on them.  I always felt like His reasons for not focusing on my mistakes in my writings was because mistakes are something we are all very familiar with and that all of you ladies know first hand what mistakes feel like as I do.  I assumed you all knew I was just as human as you all are.  I share on the experiences I have lived and on the basis that I have walked maybe a little further in my walk or have been through some trenches some of you have yet to go through or may currently be in.  Since we all know what failures look like I think what a lot of us look for are answers on how to find the peace and happiness we long for in our lives.  I have read many women’s writings where they would one day say how happy they were, how much they loved the Lord, how much they loved their husbands and how they honored their man and trained their children to do the same.  Then the next day they would talk about how they couldn't handle life how their husband always cheated on them and how they would take valium and sleep all day just to get through life.  I remember reading things like that and thinking how contradictory and confusing that could sound to someone who may be looking for answers in their life.  I do not say that to judge other ladies and their writings.  I say that because those were the reasons I felt the Lord showed me why He did not want me focusing on my own weaknesses or failures in my writings.  Bringing ladies peace and bringing them to the feet of Jesus has always been my purpose.  I have always wanted to be nothing but the Lords willing vessel and nothing more.  I am NOT looking for ladies to want to be me or to have you women mimic my life.  My goal has been nothing more than to be a vessel that the Lord could use to reach as many hurting women as possible.  To encourage and grow women in our Lord.  My intent has always been to help give a clear picture to women of where they could get to if they focused and relied on God not me and to not add confusion to their possibly already confusing lives.  I never wanted people to think I was perfect that was never my intent.  I am a woman who relies heavily on the Lord for strength and guidance.  But I always figured women need help finding the joy and peace I have found not hear about all my mistakes I may have had to live through.  I do share many of my own revelations of my own weaknesses when I write but I try not to make them the focus of my writings if that makes sense.

So if there are any of you who want to hear more of anything please share your hearts with me.  I write to please the Lord.  I write to help other women and if I can do anything that you feel would help you more in your walks then I am open to hear what that is and I promise I will bring it to the Lord.  If it is something he affirms I should include, change or add I will do so with a more than happy heart.  Thank you all for listening and for sharing in this journey we call life. 

Love a Faithful and Humble Servant of the Lords

Your Sister in Christ

Brenda

Dearest Lord I pray that all of you and none of me will always shine through to these dearest ladies.  My goal is to glorify you dearest Lord and to help bring hurting women to your feet.  I pray that they will always see me as your humble servant who loves you and wants to do nothing more than shine as your light. Thank you for loving me dearest Lord and for guiding me through the journey of life!  In Jesus name I pray Amen!

Dear, dear ladies did you know that the willingness to change only comes from those of us who truly want to be all God created us to be?  Yes it is true ladies; I once again speak the truth to you all in love!  I feel it is my God given ministry to do so!  That is the only way you will ever hear me speak to you dear loved ones in LOVE!  I want you to succeed in life and in your God given roles and so the only way that will be possible is if I am willing to be honest with you all and share the things the Lord has taught me and has laid on my heart to share with all of you!   So please remember everything I say is said with the best of intentions to see you all fulfill your purposes in life and succeed while you do so!  I want to see you all become all you were intended to be!

Dear sisters you must want change in order for you to succeed in this precious journey we call life!  I am both astonished and saddened by what I see when it comes to women truly implementing these simple actions the Lord has stated needs to be done.  I see so many dear women claim they truly want to change but then when they are given the opportunity to put their words into actions and to show the Lord that they are going to follow through on their word to Him this is what happens.  At the beginning when they say that they want to change they come and ask ladies, like myself, for help.  Then the next step they must take is that they must be willing to begin the process as you tell them the things they should be aiming for and working on changing through the baby steps in their life.  But what I have noticed is this, by the time they get to the second step, and sometimes they don’t even get that far, there are some who stop as soon as they take that first step and it is then that they begin to see and feel that life has become a little uncomfortable compared to what they were used to before they decided to make these changes.  It is then that they decide they don’t like that life has gotten more challenging and they don’t like that it seems harder now than it did before, it is then that they convince themselves that life isn’t as bad as they thought it was and that it is then that they decide that they are really doing just fine with the way things were.  With what seems like a clear conscience for them, it is then that they decide to go back to life as they have always known it, this is true deception ladies and you know it becomes a vicious cycle for everybody that lives in the path of this instability.  They then try to convince you that they just don’t have what it takes to make these changes or they try to convince you that they didn’t really need to make those changes after all.  They no longer want you to hold them accountable for that is also uncomfortable and what that means is that they would have to change if you are holding them accountable so they avoid making contact with you.  But no where in Gods Word does it say that only certain people will reap the benefit of the fruits when doing things in Him and that is because it applies to everybody and not just a few select people.

Dearest sisters what is it that we are teaching to our children when we give up in this way?   You will always find yourself just going round and round on this merry go round ride of life and when things get bad enough again you may feel the pressure enough that you may find yourself trying again only to give up once again before you ever really gave change a fair shake.  You will be on a vicious cycle of reliving your life of failure and misery over and over as you drag your family down with you.  How selfish is that dear ladies?  Do we love ourselves that much that we are not willing to be a little uncomfortable in our own life in order to implement changes that will last a lifetime and into eternity?   These changes will not only benefit you but they will truly bless your husband and children! 

Proverbs 31:28 Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.

What mother wouldn’t want to hear that from her children?  What wife doesn’t want praise from her husband?   What these ladies are forgetting is that there is ALWAYS a storm before you get to see the rainbow.  Just as we need to remember that after the gold is put through the fiery furnace it turns into its purest form of a precious metal because of that fire it had to endure was the very thing that removed any and all of its imperfections and impurities.  Because those imperfections were burned out of this precious metal it has now become more beautiful than it was or ever could be before it went through that fire it had to endure.  So it goes with our lives too.  We can learn through the world around us and see the way things in our own lives can grow us in our Lord Jesus!  Why are so many women not willing to go through that fire in order to burn off our imperfections?  Don’t you want to reach your highest potential of beauty on the inside by following the Words of our Lord Jesus? 

Dearest ladies get rid of these excuses see them for what they are which are exactly that, nothing more than an excuse to try and get out of making changes that can and will only benefit you!  A fast and easy way out of making changes that you and your families would benefit from if you would just give up your selfish behaviors and do what you know you should be doing. Oh ladies I do not say these things to condemn you, NO NOT AT ALL, for even our Lord did not condemn others, read the following verse and meditate on it.  Also meditate on the verses that follow it also and let them all soak in! 

John 12:47 And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. ⁴⁸He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.

Ladies we must realize that in order to change we must remember we are nothing and can do nothing without our Lord!  We will be held accountable one day for how we handled the time the Lord has given to us.  What we did with that time will determine how well we completed our job as helpmeet/wife, mother/homemaker and servant to our husbands our children and most of all to our Lord.

Do you hear what He is saying here ladies?  He is telling us that if we abide in Him we will bear much fruit but without Him we can do nothing.  He couldn’t be much more clear dear ones!  He spells it out in an easy to understand verse in His Word.  What more do we need to know?  What else are we expecting or waiting for?  He gives us the secret to success right here in this verse dear ladies.   We are given the power to change if only we would just be willing to do what it takes to apply it in our day to day lives.  That is the true problem, too many women live by their emotions just as I have stated before and we cannot do this ladies if we want to truly change!     

Are you truly giving change a fair chance ladies and are you truly giving your day to the Lord dear sisters?  Are you rising with Him and giving him your first fruits ladies?  Or do you hit the floor running and put our Lord on the back burner because you feel like giving Him your first fruits will cause you to fall behind?  As you can see from that verse that is not true dear ladies.  Giving him your first fruits will cause you to succeed in your day!  For those of you that have not yet read Elizabeth George’s book “Life Management for Busy Women” please do so dear sisters (thanks for the mention of that book Catherine).  I just started that book today but it got me thinking as to why so many women fail so frequently in today’s society.  Women have gotten so busy and forget to put the Lord first that they fail before they ever gave themselves a chance to succeed.  When I say busy ladies I mean in a selfish way.  I don’t mean that as a downer ladies I say it with the deepest love for you all.  We are afraid of being uncomfortable. We are afraid of things being slightly rough in our day and so we want to be comfortable and we don’t want a bumpy ride so we do all we can to avoid those situations.  But what we are doing ladies is we are choosing to fail in an indirect way.

Dearest Ladies the Lord desires to meet with you in the morning.  He desires for you to start your day off with Him and He desires to guide you throughout your day.  He longs to help you succeed but you must be willing to endure the bumpy start if He so chooses that is the best course for you. He will take your day and guide you through it but it will take some time and effort on your part.  That means you may be uncomfortable at first.  Some may some may not.  God deals with us all differently; He knows what will refine you into that precious gold the most.  He knows what it will take to get you to truly succeed and to become your purest in this journey we call life and it will not be the same as what it may take for me succeed.  We are all unique individuals in His eyes and so we all get dealt different situations in life.

Let me ask you this ladies are you willing to wake early and are you willing to get up instead of hitting the snooze button in those early hours?  You must be willing to sacrifice some of your comforts if you truly want to change dear ones!  Are you willing to make a routine and respect the system in order to make this work?  Look at all our Dear Lord Himself suffered ladies.  His life was not easy but he surely endured it.  Was he comfortable and His life all cushy?  No ladies not at all.  He suffered much for us don’t you think we can suffer a little too?  Not only are we doing it for Him but in the end it is truly for us.  He wants it for our own good.  Why should the Lord go out of His way for us ladies if we are not willing to do what it takes to get the desired outcomes we want for ourselves?  Have we gotten so lazy and lax that we have gotten to a place of where we just want to sit back and make the Lord do all the work for us?  Oh ladies this is so wrong and we need to toughen up but in a womanly way.  I am not talking about tough like a man I am talking about tough like a true woman of God!  If you don’t know what that looks life dear ladies then get out your bible and look up all the women of God and the things they did with their lives.  What are you willing to endure dear sisters in order to be successful in all you do? 

It is like I said in my post on joy and my post on contentment.  The same principal applies in this area too; you must make a conscience effort to change if you want change to happen.  To truly change it is a choice.  The Lord is not going to do it for us ladies!  Oh no!  He wants us to want this bad enough that we go to Him in the morning and start our day off with Him!  We need to go to Him and ask for His help and guidance for our day and throughout our day.  Think of your own children ladies, if your child needs help don’t you teach them to come and ask you for help?  Wouldn’t you take their unwillingness to ask you for help as a form of laziness or even pride?  I know if my child was not willing to come to me for help or was not willing to do what I told them they needed to do in order for them to succeed, then I am certainly not going to do it for them.  Our Lord is the same as us when it comes to parenting us dear sisters.  He wants us to be willing to help ourselves before He is going to be willing to help us.  We need to want Him and need Him and we will succeed!  Guaranteed!  God is a righteous judge and He will help you if only you will go to Him and ask.

TaminAz had a point the other day in her post regarding our men.  It was a different topic but what I am about to say was part of her point regarding her topic (hope you don’t mind if I use the gist of what you said Tam).  I thought it also applied to what I am trying to convey here.  How would you feel if you man laid in bed and didn’t get up for work because he didn’t feel like it that day?  What if he went to work only if he felt motivated that morning but all the other times he just rolled over hitting snooze all morning?  What if he didn’t go into work because he was up late and was just too tired?  Or what if he didn’t go into work because he was feeling a little under the weather that morning?  Do you think he would keep his job if he behaved like this ladies?  NO dear ones he certainly would not. His job would go to someone else who was more reliable and willing to do the job that was given to them.   How would your family survive ladies if your man behaved like you?  Scary thought isn’t it?  So why do so many women believe they can behave like this when we too have a job that the Lord has given us to do ladies?  Ladies the Lord has entrusted our special and precious children to us.  He has given us a very important task how are you handling this great job He has given you? 

I am not exempt from these feelings ladies.  But the key for each and every one of us is we must learn to overcome those moments and live the way the Lord wants us to live each and every moment with each and every passing day.  Make a schedule and respect it.  Make time with the Lord as your first priority and you cannot go wrong.  We will find true peace, true happiness, true joy and true contentment when we are living the way the Lord wants us to live and when we are choosing to follow His ways!  Yes ladies I said choosing because we can choose to do anything we wish to.

I think in today’s society we have gone too far on the choices we allow into our lives.  Are we making the same mistakes with our children ladies?  I hear so often that we need to allow our children to have choices.  We need to allow them to make choices for themselves at a young age.  Society tells us to give our children freedom and independence so they succeed and feel like they have some control over their lives.  Oh ladies I think this is a mistake.  Don’t you think it would be better to just teach our children that the only choices we should be worried about making are the ones the Lord has for us?  The only choices we should choose are the ways of our Lord and His ways only not all the choices that our little hearts desire?  They are the only ones that will lead us to success.  We don’t need independence ladies nor do our children!  NO what we need is our Lord and through Him all our needs will be met.  Isn’t that encouraging to know ladies?  It takes a huge burden off of us to try and succeed on our own because we know we can have true success when we give our all to the Lord and that is all that matters for us and our children!  When we choose the Lord’s ways then we will be fulfilling our purpose as wife/mother and homemaker and when we choose to follow the path we were created for we cannot help but be happy and successful!  I know I am sounding redundant ladies but I am doing this on purpose.  I want to repeat this over and over so you all realize that success comes from our Lord and by following His ways.  There is NO other way to find this success!  It is impossible ladies.  We are nothing and we can do nothing without our Lord!

So dear ones what will you do starting tomorrow?  Will you hit that snooze button when your alarm goes off?  Or will you roll out of bed (most likely you will be sleepy but that is okay)?  You will have days you will feel chipper and days you will feel groggy.  The key is to not let those feelings dictate whether you get up or not!  NO ladies let your purpose to commune with the Lord be your reason for waking.  You will feel so much better after you spend your time with Him!  You will feel invigorated but if you go back to sleep you will be overwhelmed, stressed, behind in your day, groggy regardless of if you sleep more or if you get up, you will be snappy and short with the children.  There is nothing of benefit that you will gain with a few more minutes, or a few more hours of sleep dear sisters, nothing to reap but anguish.  But if you start your day with the Lord you will reap all the fruit He promises you in His Word!  What more is there to want or desire?

So practice this ladies and if you fail don’t give up because there is always tomorrow to get back on the saddle.  If you are given the power to change you can and you will!  If you don’t succeed ladies then you never truly wanted it to begin with!  It may take baby steps at first but as long as you are taking those steps you are headed in the right direction.  It is those ladies that stop and give up without taking those steps that will never succeed! 

Come on ladies I challenge you to take this power to change and to start right away!  I know you can do this and I am here on the sidelines cheering for you!  Consider me your cheerleader!  I believe in each and every one of you!  I have no doubt that you can all succeed if you follow what the Lord says needs to be done!  Anybody who needs some cheering please email me for I would love to encourage you along the way!  Way to go sisters!  You will never regret making this change!  Please do email me or comment post with your praise reports.  I know other sisters would love to hear all those success stories!  I can’t wait to hear your stories ladies!  I am willing to be anybody’s cheerleader ladies but my time is short and precious so please come to me only if you are willing to do what it takes to make those changes.  You have the power to change ladies will you use it?  If you truly want to change ladies then I have no doubt you will succeed!  Go to Him and you cannot go wrong!

Dearest Lord we know all good things come from you!  We know you have our best interest at heart and when you tell us something so clearly in your Word we need to learn to take you at your Word and stop trying to read between the lines!  Lord so many women give up when things get a little rough so I pray you will give them resolve to change!  You have already given them the power now they need the resolve.  I know the ball is in their court Lord but would you mind wooing them in the beginning so they are enticed by your Word and I know it will help get them motivated in you.  I know this is asking a lot Lord but you are our world unfortunately some women have just not figured that out yet.   I know that so many women will learn this concept quickly if they were just able to see the fruits of meeting with you as you wooed them into your chambers.  You are such a fair and loving God and I know you will do what you see fit in order to win these ladies to you for they are your children.  So my prayer is that they will find you instantly and that they will see instant improvement in their mornings which in turn will encourage them to hit the floor in the morning instead of hitting that snooze.  I entrust them all into your hands Lord and I know and believe you will do what you see fit for each and every one of them!  Thank you Lord for loving us so much and for being the amazing and awesome God we certainly do not deserve in any sense of the word.  So thank you for loving us that much!  Bless each and every lady who reads this post and any other blog posts I have written on your behalf Lord.  I ask this and believe this and claim it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ!  AMEN! And AMEN!

Dearest sisters, may I share something with you that too many of you are just completely and utterly unaware of?  I have come to the conclusion that there are just too many women who are so very naive to the concept that I am about to share with you here and now.  How can women embrace a concept with all their hearts, souls and minds when they are completely blind to it?    

Did you know dear ladies that contentment and joy go hand and hand with each other?   You truly cannot have one without the other.  You must choose to be content just like you must choose to be joyful.  Contentment is NOT based on our circumstances just as joy is NOT based on our circumstances!   Contentment is determined by our choice to be content, it is NOT determined by those around us   It is so sad to see that so many women of today are not content with their lives and they fail to be content in their roles as wives and mothers the very purpose they were created for.  Satan tricks them into thinking that they are missing out on something in life.  That there has to be more to life than being a wife and mother.  But that is so untrue ladies.  How much more content and joyful can one be then when they are fulfilling the very purpose in which they were created for.  How is it that satan has gotten such a stronghold in the lives of our women of today?  Dearest ladies choosing contentment is something we must be willing to do.  There are many reasons we must do this.  Will you dear ladies allow me to share the reasons why contentment is an absolute must in your life?

^{1 Timothy 6:6-8}But godliness with contentment is great gain. ⁷For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. ⁸And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.

Do you ladies see that the Lord instructs us to be content for the mere reason that we have food and raiment (attire/clothing)?  He also tells us that being godly with contentment will bring us great gains (benefits/rewards).  What more can we ask for dear women?   So many of you are saying right now, “Why should I be content”?  She has no idea the things I have to endure in my life. She has no idea what my life is truly like.  My husband is unloving, uncaring, and selfish.  My children are unruly, ill-mannered, selfish, they bicker, whine and are just plain lazy.  Dearest ladies, I understand all these things and I can see your frustration.  But I still must stand on the grounds that you MUST be content in your present circumstances regardless of your situations.  The situation regarding your children can change but it must first start with you.  The situation with your husband can be brought to the Lord in prayer.  But neither one of them are excuses to ignore Gods instruction in His Word.  Being content and being joyful is what God instructs us to do.  Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice!  Who are we to argue with God?  God does not tell us to be content only if your life is a bed of roses.  NO ladies He tells us to be content for the mere fact that we have food and clothing.  In Gods eyes that is enough of a reason for us to be content.  He tells us that we will gain great rewards for following His instructions. 

When we choose contentment and joy for our lives dear ladies you will be absolutely amazed at all the things that will follow with time dear sisters.  We must never allow our circumstances to determine how we will feel, ever.  Emotions can and will ruin us if we let them dear ladies.  I believe that is why God instructs us to be joyful and content by choice and not due to what is going on in our lives and how our emotions may be feeling at any given moment.  Our moods change too fast and what kind of life would that be if everybody lived by how they were feeling at that moment?  When we choose JOY we will be CONTENT.  When we choose to be CONTENT we will find JOY.  Do you see how these two things correlate with each other dear ladies?  Do you see why they must go hand in hand?  When we allow ourselves to be content, regardless of what life deals us, we will find true happiness.  We will be filled with JOY.  You will be amazed and astonished at just how happy you can and will truly be! 

We must realize that we will have our good days and we will have our bad days.  That is just real life dear ladies.  We must learn to go with the flow dear ones but going with the flow doesn’t mean that the flow determines where we will go. Oh no ladies that is not the case at all.  Does that make sense dear ladies?  The stream that flows is doing nothing more than following the path that God has determined for it to follow.  If the stream tried to flow in a different direction than where God created it to flow it would not be successful, it is only going to succeed if it goes in the direction it was made to go.  We can learn so many lessons just by watching the nature that God has placed around us dear sisters.  Remember that it is important for us to choose to be content even when the chips are down.  As long as we follow the direction God has for us we will always be capable of obtaining contentment and joyfulness in our life.  It is when we fight Gods ways that we will be disappointed, unhappy and full of discontent. 

The best way, dear ladies, to get you to see what I am talking about is for you to allow me to give you some examples to observe.  Let’s start with how you feel when your man comes home from work and it seems as though he is snapping at you?  How does that make you feel dear ladies?  I am sure many of you are thinking YEAH, that is exactly how my man is and I can definitely tell you that I do not like it at all when he does that.  I think it is wrong for him to take his bad day out on his family, and especially on me.  Well ladies even though that may very well be true, you must remember that this is between your man and God. This does not give you a wild card to be discontented.  If you yourself don’t like to be treated a certain way then why in the world would you behave in that manner yourself?  If you don’t like your man taking his bad day out on you then maybe you shouldn’t take your bad days out on others.  Dearest ladies can’t you see that this is exactly what you are doing when you choose to be discontent.  You are allowing your day to rule your feelings and your behavior which in turn causes you to take things out on those around you.  When you choose to be anything other than CONTENT or JOYFUL you are choosing to disobey God and you are choosing to allow your emotions to rule you in life.  That is not fair to your children or your husband dear ladies.  If you do this then you are doing the very thing that you complain about when it comes to your man.

 How about your children dear mothers?  What do you do when you see your children being discontent dear ladies?  Would you agree with me ladies that it looks bad?  Does it cause you to not want to be around your children?  Are you sure to take the time to correct them dearest mothers and tell them that it is wrong for them to be discontent and that it is unacceptable behavior?  If you do not correct them dearest mothers you are doing your children a great injustice.  You are literally causing them harm.  Teach your children, while they are still young, to NEVER let their emotions rule them regardless of what life brings their way, dearest mothers.  Instead give them a tool for life.  Teach your children that the Word of God instructs us all to be content for no other reason than the mere fact that we have food and clothing.  Isn’t that enough reason ladies?  Too many of us take the simple things of life for granted a little too often!  I believe that we should each teach our children to appreciate all the things that God has given to each and every one of us regardless of whether they are big or small.  But that is another post for another day.

May I share something very humbling with you dear ladies?  It is not always easy for me to catch a fault of my own dear ones until that same fault is revealed through one of my own children’s attitudes or behaviors.  We all have blind spots and that is why we must be willing to have loved ones, like our husbands, point out our blind spots to us in love.  Sometimes I may hear one of my children say something and I will stop and think now where on earth did they get that from?  Oh dear ladies how naïve and blind I realize I can be when it comes to me seeing my own faults and weaknesses.  But unfortunately by then it is already too late because my child has now already learned this poor attitude/behavior from me.  Yes, it is true, that you can retrain a child dear ones but wouldn’t we be giving our children so much more if we were able to just follow Gods Word and obey his commands on what we should and should not do? My children would never learn to be discontent if they never would have seen me be discontent.  Do you see my point here ladies?  So when I see these faults in my children I stop and I ask the Lord, “Lord, where on earth did my child get this poor attitude or behavior from”?  It is then that the Lord reveals to me that they got this fault from watching me.  After the Lord reveals these things to me, it is then that I am then able to take off my blinders and catch myself in the act if and when I happen to make that same mistake again.  Whenever I fail my heart just sinks and I immediately stop what I am doing and ask God and my children to please forgive me for my sin and to please help me change that sin in my life.   When you behave a certain way ladies the best way to evaluate if this attitude is a proper is one you must first ask yourself would I want my man or my children behaving the way I am behaving right now?  Is what I am doing displaying true contentment or true joy?  Would I behave this way if Jesus was standing right beside me (which He is but we tend to forget that since we cannot see Him).  Lastly would I be doing this if an acquaintance or someone I was trying to impress were to be standing right beside me at this very moment?   These are the best self checks you can do ladies.  Who you are is who you are when NOBODY is looking dear ladies!  Did you hear that dear mothers?  If you were in the middle of yelling at your child and the phone rang or somebody came to the door, I can guarantee you ladies, that most if not all of you would stop at that very moment and you would choose to behave in an appropriate manner towards your child and towards the person you just encountered.  That just proves that you are completely capable of CHOOSING Contentment and Joy because of the fact that you were able to stop and change your attitude within a split seconds time.  Isn’t that proof enough ladies that your attitude is a truly a choice?!  Unfortunately too many ladies only choose to behave appropriately when they know others are watching.  But let us not forget ladies that our Heavenly Father is watching us at all times and what He sees and thinks is all that matters nobody else determines our eternity!  The problem is ladies that most of us CHOOSE to NOT be Content or Joyful.  But if you are able to do it for the sake of appearance then that proves you are capable of doing it on a regular basis dear ladies.  It is a choice that God instructs us to make and you must remember that He instructs us to do so for our own good dear ladies!  God only wants what is best for us!  Do you believe that dear mothers?  Do you believe that your Heavenly Father wants what is best for you?  Think about it dear ladies, don’t you want what is best for the dear children that the Lord has entrusted to you?  You wish them no harm, you want only what is for their own good!  When you tell them to do something you are telling them for their own good.  You are telling them because you know it is best for them and you know that they will benefit from it. Teaching our children from a young age as I said will only bring Gods best for them that much sooner in life. 

My children are so very Content and Joyful.  Let me share an example with you dear ladies.  My twins play in a play yard that is always right by us.  We do this in order to keep their funnel small and appropriate for their age.  When a child has too much freedom it brings insecurity into their lives.  Now we allow them out of this play yard and we spend time training them.  But we like to keep their playing area small for the sake of keeping their boundaries in a confined area.  If they are not in this play yard they are on a blanket, a rug or in a chair.  There are times we will let them walk around but only for a short period of time.  Anyway that topic is another post for another day.  When my twins watch me take out their other sibling but leave them in the play yard that does not cause them to be discontent.  They are content and joyful as they happily watch the other one, who is being held by me, or by someone else have fun with us.  They interact with us all from right where they are at.  They watch their sibling walk around or being played with by me or by their other siblings.  Sometimes they try to join in from in the play yard and sometimes they just go about playing by themselves.  They will smile at us all and they are completely content right where they are at.  Do you know why this is so ladies?  The reason is because we don’t allow them to behave otherwise. They know it is their siblings turn to be out of the play yard and to be with us and that their turn will come after their siblings or maybe not until another time. They know that to whine and complain will only get them nothing and it may even cause them to lose their turn completely.  Sometimes I will put the one I am holding down and then automatically get the other one.  I will not do that, dear ladies, if my children show discontent or a lack of joy.  Another example is birthdays or times of no occasion at all.  If I buy something for one child or it is one child’s birthday we all rejoice with that child.  Each child is excited and full of joy for their sibling who got the gift.  Never will you see them jealous, envious or discontent that they didn’t get something themselves.  The reason for that is because they are happy for their siblings and they know they will get their turn when their birthday comes.  The reason they feel this way ladies is because my husband and I have taught our children to be CONTENT and JOYFUL! 

So my question is dear ladies what are you demonstrating in your home?  Are you Content and Joyful dear mothers or are you discontent and lack joy in your life?  Read my post on Joy ladies and apply it along with this post regarding Contentment in your life and watch your life transform before your family and your own eyes dear mothers.  Forbid your children to model anything other than contentment or joyfulness.  Forbid the same things for yourself!  You can be Content ladies!  You can be joyful too!  You can and you must dear ones and I would love to help those of you that need some guidance in getting there! 

Dearest mothers wouldn’t you rather be content than discontent?  Wouldn’t you rather be joyful than lacking joy in your life?  What do you gain when you are discontent dear ladies?  Maybe you get an ulcer; does it cause headaches, heartache, depression, frustration, anger, lack of peace, bitterness, lack of patience, and so much more?  But when we are content mothers we experience joy, peace, patience, cheerfulness, health, a joyful heart, meekness, a quiet heart and so much more.  Which would you want to choose ladies when you see it presented in the manner I just presented it?  How and why would you be discontent when you see all the damage it causes in our lives?  But when you see the great gains the Lord speaks of by choosing to be content doesn’t it spark your desire to want to obey His command?  When you see what it has to offer why in the world would you choose anything other than obedience to Him and His ways dearest sisters?   

Contentment is a choice dear ones!!!  Joy is a choice!  May I challenge you dear ladies to repeat these two phrases all throughout your day?  Every time you desire to be discontent or lack joy remind yourself that contentment and joy are a choice and you must choose them for yourself!  Remind yourself if this was my child how would I want them to behave right now?  I will be honest with you ladies, as I always am.  These changes will not happen over night.  It surely could if the Lord chose to make it that easy for you.  But for most of you it will not happen over night.  It will take time and work on your part.  Anything worth having takes time and effort ladies and you must remind yourself of that concept over and over.  You can do this and you must!  I believe in each and every one of you!  I trust and believe that you are all capable of doing this and that you will all succeed in doing so.  Don’t give up before trying just because it seems too hard dear sisters.  There will always be hard things we must do in our lives dear sisters.  What would you tell your child if they were faced with a situation like this and they had to make a choice.  How would you direct them dear mothers?  Making the choice to be content and joyful will be one of the best most amazing decisions you will ever make in your life.  This choice holds your future dear ones.  Don’t you want to be around to see your children grow up ladies and to also watch your grandchildren come into the world and also grow up?  Well there is a good chance you won’t be around for all those things if you destroy your health by choosing to be discontent and lacking joy dear mothers.  What will you choose for your own life starting now?  Let us choose to be content and watch how you will reap what you sow!  Choose life dear sisters!  Be who you were created to be!  Embrace your role as wife and mother!  Embrace contentment and joyfulness!  Embrace life and love it with all your might!   All things are possible with God ladies but we will not succeed if we try to do things on our own!  We must allow God to change us from the inside out if we truly want to be successful!  It will be a slow process but worth every minute it takes to change.  Remember this ladies for it is easy to fall into the devils trap and to try and succeed on our own.  But we will fail and with God we shall be successful!  Now get on your content and joyful shawls ladies and let’s take back what the devil has stolen!  Remember ladies our children grow up so fast.  Don’t be one of those ladies that looks back and regrets her life and the decisions she makes.  The devil will try to guilt you and he will try to cause you to live with guilt for all your mistakes.  That is why it is important to not let him win.  Take hold of what he is trying to steal from you now and rub your content and joyful heart in his face.  The devil tricks us into doing wrong things.  He makes them seem so enticing and rewarding at that very moment.  But he is also the first one to rub our nose in our mistakes the moment we make them.  So don’t be a victim of the devils destructive ploys anymore dear sisters!  NO LADIES be a successful content, joyful wife, mother and servant of God!  You can do this sisters!  I am cheering for you!  If I can help I am here for you!  You are not alone in this journey of finding contentment and joy!

Mark 10:27 ²⁷And Jesus looking upon them saith,