We want to hear from you! We want to know how God is causing growth and making you bloom as a wife and mother. Please leave your answer to this vital question in the comment section of this post. We want it to be a place of encouragement and a place that brings glory to the Lord.
I love this.
ReplyDeleteI loved hearing about this at last nights production meeting.
I knew right away what I was going to share.
In Feb. of this year, my mother in law died suddenly. It was tragic to say the least, but I won't go into all of the details.
My intention is to share how I have grown this week as a mother and how she (Mammy/Tammy) made that possible, even now.
My father in law has recently shared with us (my sis in law and I) some of Mammy's journals....12 volumes, 16 years worth of them, WOW..more precious than jewels!
I was SO eager to read them.
I mean, these journals..are not your typical diaries. Tammy Davis was an amazing Christian woman, mother and grandmother. And Amazing is an understatement.
I knew reading them would mean she would continue mentoring us through these gifted words of hers.
For the past week, oh wow! How I have grown because of her Godly words!
The gift of growth has been inevitable, the words are found in volume 11-12.
And I knew right away I needed to share them with you Bloomers.
Tmmy describes how she dreamed she had a granddaughter (little did she know in the coming 6 years she would have 5 granddaughters :) She describes seeing her smile and holding her. Soon after she began to pray, praying for months for this baby she dreamed of.
Tammy prayed constantly...and the traditional kind, on her knees!
In the next year she would pray and write how children are a gift from God..and how every gift from God is perfect and wonderful. Over and over she would pray this, on her knees and in her journal. And somehow she knew and anticipated that this gift was not far from being given to her, to us.
When Maggie was born, her first granddaughter and my first child...the words that flowed in her journal are amazing! Beautiful! Amazing!...perfect and wonderful!
These words are such a gift, such a time of growth for myself.
Mammy reminded me what a gift my children are.
That my children are gifts from God and that all of God's gifts are perfect and wonderfully made.
So for the past week, when I am down and my responsiblities as a mother are weighing on me...and the days of summer with 3 children seem long and chaotic..I am reminded of my Mammy's words and of the scriptures she shared.
I remember how she prayed desperately for my children.
Subsequently, I have been dwelling and praying on these words, "my children are a gift. A gift from God, they are perfect and wonderfully made".
Needless to say, it changes my perspective instantly.
Not dwelling on the weight of my responsibilities..nor the tiredness, or the roar of a whining 3 year old….repeating in my mind "Children are a gift".
I have even said this out loud a few times in the heat of the moment…the girls hear me and smile soon after. Knowing they are gifts from God changes their perspective a bit too :).
Thank you Mammy for helping me grow this week!
I was reading a book by Ruth Ann Barton called Sacred Rhthyms the other day and she asks this question in the first chapter: "What do you really want God to do for you?" (Very personal question, meant to involve some thought.) Then she talks about how Jesus asked the blind man Bartemaeus that very question: "What is it you want me to do for you?" And I love his answer. The blind man said, "My Rabbi, I want to see." Now I know he was talking about physical seeing because he was blind and all, but it got me to thinking in spiritual terms about being taught to see with unveiled eyes the way God sees . .. to see God in everything, to see my sons as God sees them, to see others as God sees, to see myself as God sees, to see the Truth in His Word, to see life circumstances with God's seeing, to see the difference between the temporal and the eternal. So this has become my repeated prayer: "My Rabbi, I want to see." I'll let you know if I start seeing anything new!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAt church on Sunday, God touched my heart is two ways. He reminded me that my tongue is way too loose. Hearing the verses about how powerful the tongue... It seemed like God was talking directly to me. Then, I went upstairs to work with our third graders. This little girl that has been coming to our church with her new foster family was waiting in the classroom. She had been to class during first service, and was waiting to get picked up. I've been able to have some short conversations with her the last 3 weeks. I try to encourage her as I can tell she is a bit nervous about transitioning into a new school this fall and being one of the new kids at a big new church.
ReplyDeleteThis week the clock kept ticking and no one came to pick her up. We called her foster dad to see what was going on, and they said they thought she could stay through second service. Usually if kids stay two services, we know ahead of time, and they can attend a children's worship first service and go to class second service. It was just a bit of a mix up. But, behind her glasses, those sweet little eyes started tearing up and she turned around to walk off by herself. She felt a little bit awkward and out of place, I could tell. A too-familiar feeling to her, I fear. I prayed in that moment for God to show me something I could do to make her feel better. I asked if she wanted to sit in with the second service kids for the next hour, knowing she would have to listen to the same lesson for the second time. She rolled her eyes. Then, I remembered what had worked when I taught school. Kids usually LOVE to help teachers do 'special' chores. They don't feel as awkward if they have a job to do. I told her she could help me organize our super cool but messy supply closet. She said she would give it a try. I got her started putting markers in the right spots, and sorting the colored pencils from the paper clips, and all that jazz. I told her I'd come back and check on her in a couple minutes. I went to Isaac, my hubby, and told him what was going on. Trying to hold back tears without success. I just can't stand the thought of a child feeling unloved or abandoned or out of place. I prayed some more and went to see how she was doing. You would not believe the progress she had made in about 5 minutes. Truly. She had gone way beyond the simple tasks of sorting school supplies. She had stacked boxes in order, thrown away trash, and taken the initiative to organize papers and such. I bragged on her and told her she was honestly one of the best organizers I've ever seen. She beamed. And task by task we started a special little relationship. I've been praying since Sunday, still fighting back tears, for God to show me ways I can help this precious child of His. SO many more children like her are everywhere. It overwhelms me. Wanting to do more.