#267 - MOM, You Are Enough Just As You ARE!

Happy Mother's Day! :) If you are a mom, today's blog is devoted to you!

Proverbs 31:28 - Her children rise up and call her blessed (happy, fortunate, and to be envied); and her husband boasts of and praises her...

Lets just say, yesterday was one of THOSE days! Many of you mom's out there maybe able to relate if you have young kids, but even for those mom's with older kids, this is for you! If you can hang with me until the end of the post… there really is a message for you! :)

Day in the Life…
It was Tyler's Day of Rest, which we both highly value our Day of Rest. The day that we can just have "me-time" to unwind, recharge & not do ANY work. The kids and I were going to HEAD OUT to run errands, always an interesting thing with 3 kids 4 years old and under, but we wanted to give dad some space & quiet. (AS I write this, on Mother's Day, Tyler went upstairs to check on Trinity, who is 2, as she was just waking up…. never a good sign when you hear bath water running. Uh-oh!)

Anyways… back to yesterday… I'm going to try not to go into too many details of our interesting day yesterday, but you have to know everything to really appreciate the whole picture!!! We started getting ready to head out around 10:30.

• Before leaving, I had to change Tyler Jr TWICE. Our kids walk in DIVINE health in Jesus name, but some things were going around at pre-school, and Tyler Jr had the squirts. #possibleTMI
• Tyler and Trinity were playing, and Tyler Jr shoved Trinity down, so he got a spanking. (We do time-outs a lot, but if it is something mean or deliberate, or something they know better, they get a spanking). 
• Loaded Tyler Jr and Trinity up in the van while I'm finishing their summer schedule at the kitchen table (one of our errands - to go pay MyGym) and packing Timothy up. The door leading to the garage was open and the van door open so I could see and hear (and load Timothy right in). All of the sudden, I hear a very loud RACE CAR (van) ENGINE REV'ING! Tyler Jr had come to the front seat and was playing with nobs, and pressed the gas. This was not the first time this had happened and he was told NOT to do that, probably the 4th. I screamed b/c it scared me, Timothy immediately started crying because I was loud and the van was loud. Then I went out to get Tyler Jr. He knew he was in trouble. I brought him inside and we sat down (as Timothy is still crying). Now Tyler Jr is crying, while apologizing, "I'm sorry mommy. It will never never happen again." As a sanguine child, he always is soooo remorseful when he does something wrong. BUT, in the past the "never never happen again" doesn't always play through and truly "never happen again." As we were sitting there, I told him, "Tyler Jr, I'm going to pray and ask the Holy Spirit if you need to get a spanking for this. What you did is VERY dangerous. When you play with nobs in the van, and press on the gas, that is VERY dangerous." My flesh didn't want to spank him (because he truly did look very remorseful), but as I asked the Holy Spirit, he said yes. This was the 4th time! Need to connect the BUTT with the BRAIN! So… spanking #2!
• Upon waking, Trinity took off her diaper and got poop smeared on her carpet, bed, sheets and door. Lovely. She was given a warning. 
• We FINALLY left the house around 12:30!
  

  

  Do you ever have days where you FEEL like how Trinity
  LOOKS in this picture?!

• Got back home, I laid Trinity down for her nap & went back in her room about 15 minutes after she was in there to check on her. She had taken off her diaper and got poop smeared on her carpet, bed bumper pads and rug! SECOND TIME in one day! If this wasn't about the 4th time this week….. but this time I followed through on the warning and she got a little spanking. My 3rd spanking of a child for this day! (I rarely have to spank, so this was quite an exception day!)
• PRAISE THE LORD - we got a last minute babysitter (after the day I was having, I needed out!!) for a date night. She got to our house and said the neighbors door was wide open and their dogs (3 of the 5!) were out. 
• I went outside to see if Ms Patti knew her door was wide open. As I was in our driveway, getting ready to go holler for her, the white poodle came barking at me. I decided NOT to go to her door because their big boxer was barking and I was getting "chased" by the poodle. Then, while in my driveway, the poodle jumped up on my hamstring and BIT ME!!!! BIT ME!!!(which is now black and blue).

REALLY?! Could the day get much more interesting?!?! 

Crying in my closet, partially from pain, partially from exhaustion, partially because my post-baby body I couldn't find anything to wear. I just wanted to get out of the house.  We left, went and ate (while in line, I got a phone call asking if Trinity had a diaper on when she went down for her nap - b/c it was off and poop everywhere - 3rd time!!!) and went to see the movie, "Mom's Night Out." 

At this point, I just wanted to unplug my brain! As long as my kids ate something for dinner, ANYTHING, popcorn, candy, chips (I didn't care) and went to bed before I got home, I would be happy! 

So… the movie was GREAT!!!! SOOOOO funny!!!! Tyler even LOVED it! It was OUR LIFE!!! The mini-van, the mom cleaning only for her house to get destroyed just hours later by kids, the mom escaping into her closet to get a break and hide while eating chocolate! I thought, "This is MY life!!!" 

When we chose the movie, I didn't know it was made by some of the same producers of Facing the Giants, a great Christian movie. SO, WHO KNEW that during a movie, I was going to be so ministered to and reaffirmed that GOD made me to be a mom, and despite the chaos at times, the messes, I was JUST ENOUGH being me! I even cried twice during the movie. 

Then… when we got home last night, looking at a card on the counter that I was getting ready to mail, I remembered. A few months ago, a girl I know was hit by a drunk driver and her 2 year old son Josiah was killed. ……………………………………………..

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It sunk in. And I thanked God. She would give ANYTHING to be cleaning up poop off the carpet. She would scrub the poop with tears of JOY! If only she could do that. My Timothy's middle name is Josiah. Timothy Isaac Josiah McCart. 

So friend, despite whatever chaos may be going on in your life… maybe you've even had days like my day yesterday…. despite it all, God loves you and sees you! You ARE good enough! You were made to be the mom of your kids! And even on the roughest of days, the days you want to go hide in your closet and eat chocolate, THAT'S OK! God loves you and sees you AND you are a GREAT mom!!

I decided for me, I'm going to enjoy this time. I'm going to stay in the moment. I'm going to THANK GOD for the opportunity to be the mom of my kids, poop and all! 

What are YOU thankful for on this Mother's Day? I would love to hear your thoughts!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY! 

#167 - Because of HIS delight...

What a beautiful day to be alive! We serve a God who is ALIVE, not only is His Word alive & active, like a two-edged sword, but HE IS ALIVE! Jesus is no longer in the grave, he's no longer on the cross, HE HAS RISEN! He is alive and well STILL sitting at the right-hand of our Father! Isn't that good news! That is worth being excited about. I believe you will be encouraged today. If you need encouragement, if you need hope, I believe you are in the right place. Let's get into the Word.

2 Samuel 22: 1a, 2, 20b, 21, 32-33,  - DAVID SPOKE to the Lord...The Lord is my Rock (of escape from Saul) and my Fortress (in the wilderness) and my Deliverer... He delivered me because He delighted in me. ²¹The Lord rewarded me according to my uprightness with Him; He compensated and benefited me according to the cleanness of my hands. For who is God but the Lord? And who is a Rock except our God? ³³God is my strong Fortress; He guides the blameless in His way and sets him free. For You girded me with strength for the battle!

Man! What an amazing chapter! 2 Samuel 22 just blessed me this morning! So many verses, which to choose?!?!

For starters, look at how the chapter starts.... even David, who has been anointed to be the future King, it says that DAVID SPOKE to the Lord. As a quick tangent, we look back at the life of King Saul & David. From the day the people began to sing "Saul has Slain thousands, David tens of thousands." It says in 1 Samuel 18 that from that day Saul was angry & jealous towards David. It goes on to say, "THE NEXT DAY" an evil spirit came upon Saul. Wow! Because of Saul's anger & jealousy he held toward David "out-doing" him, from that day forward, an evil spirit was upon him! The POWER of offense can change a persons life! And for Saul, He went to his death holding offense against David, in hot pursuit to have him killed. But DAVID was delivered because the LORD delighted in Him!

Anyways... that was a freebie... let's move on.... David SPOKE to the Lord. He is reminding God of how He helped David escape from Saul, He delivered David! David is recounting the goodness, the blessings, the benefits of God his Father! Then my favorite line.... He delivered me because He delighted in me.  Wow! What delight just to read that! Just think about it, because of the Lord's pleasure and delight in YOU, His child, he delivers you from your TRIALS, your enemy... maybe it's debt, whatever it is.... because of HIS delight, He delivers you! That's exciting. In verse 21 it goes on to use some words that are exciting to me.... rewarded, compensated, benefited. By staying in right-standing, in a "seeking position" with our Father, in a "pleasing/serving" position with our Father, we can receive the benefits that He has in store. And it is a DELIGHT to Him to deliver us, and bring us into benefits!


Ultimately.... as we enter in to our day, whether completing a battle or entering into one, we can take JOY in knowing that we have been GIRDED, PREPARED, CLOTHED with strength for whatever we are about to go up against! Like David, killing the lion, the bear & Goliath, He was prepared!

In the last 2 days, I have heard not one, but two stories that make me want to shout! AND, I believe it was because of the Lord's DELIGHT that He chose to lead the events. One friend of mine told me that just this past week, her parents came to town with a new van. It had the remote to open the doors, and the back. It was nice. She said they walked in and handed them the keys. "We have done for the others, and haven't really ever done much for you. Here. We bought this for you. We want you to have it!" Fully paid for, taxes for the next 6 months, tags, insurance! PRAISE THE LORD! What a blessing of the Lord! God is good! The cool thing is, He is NO respecter of persons! What can happen for one, can happen for the next! He can do that for YOU! OR maybe, YOU will be the GIVER! What a joy to have the goal of being able to bless someone in that capacity who is in need. Maybe that is a new goal, to be the one in the position to GIVE! But if you need to receive it! Receive it for yourself! Receive what YOU need from the Lord!

Another awesome story.... a friend of mine was in need of money to get her vehicle fixed. She was without a vehicle! She had to resort to walking her kids to school, or where ever they needed to go. Well, wouldn't you know it, someone felt led to give her $2500! He just felt like the Lord laid it on his heart to GIVE to her. PRAISE THE LORD! I can only imagine that tears must have welled up in her eyes as she must have said or thought, "THANK YOU LORD! You HAVE heard me!" She was able to get her vehicle fixed!

Another friend was talking about donating plasma to have money to buy groceries. If she donated twice a week, she could get enough money to get groceries, with a little left over. Plasma! Needles! And that is definitely a viable way to get some extra cash when needed, but PRAISE GOD, our God even has MORE THAN ENOUGH for her! He has MORE THAN ENOUGH to provide for her needs, her husband and her small children! GOD has MORE THAN ENOUGH! And BECAUSE of HIS delight, we can walk in HIS favor, HIS blessing, HIS rewards, HIS abundance, HIS benefits!

Pray this morning! Maybe you are the "more than enough" that God wants to use to bless someone. And  maybe you are on the "need" side. KNOW that as you seek the Lord, delight yourself in Him, HE will delight in you! He will lead you, He will guide you, He will show Himself strong in being YOUR Jehovah Jirah, God YOUR Provider! You have been girded up and made ready for battle. And with GOD on your side, is there a chance you will loose? NO!