Pray Without Ceasing

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7

Hey, y'all, thanks for joining me again! 

I want you to think about your favorite place to pray. Is it your bedroom? Your kitchen table? Driving in your car? I wanted to share with you about my favorite place to pray and encourage you to exercise your prayer life more. 

So, daily I pray at the table, obviously, over meals and with the family. I also pray wherever I am reading my Bible, which lately has also been my kitchen table. However, the past couple of years I have found myself praying while I wash dishes. Some of you are really consistent at washing dishes throughout the day. I am going to be honest with you. By the time I have homeschooled my kids, fed them breakfast and lunch, worked on my small business, it is generally between 4-4:30 before I get to the kitchen to wash up the day's dishes. At this point, my children are either working on their own afternoon chores, or they are off playing and enjoying their free time. This means that I am usually able to wash dishes in quiet. If you've been in our home, you know quiet time is extremely (EXTREMELY) rare!

The time I spend washing dishes in prayer is always special. God will lay people on my heart to pray for. He may bring to mind people that I haven't spoken to or seen in years. He will convict me of unrepented sin and call me to confess. He will give me wisdom in regards to situations in which I've been struggling. He restores to me the joy of my salvation. 

As we tend to our homes, it's easy to be discouraged by the never ending stack of dishes, the constant piles of laundry, picking up all those shoes, folding the mounds of clothes, or cooking meals every day. However, what if we decided to use that time to spend with the Lord? What if we thanked God for the clothes He has blessed us with, or the food He has provided, or the shoes that our kids can wear outside? We can choose to dwell in a spirit of pity. Or, we can choose to 'be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication.'  

I believe as we begin to exercise our prayer lives and pray more, God will grow us. As we spend more time with Him, we will also desire more time with Him. 

Pray in all things. Bring all your requests to Him because He cares for His children. Ask for wisdom in those tough parenting trials. You can even ask Him to reveal those hidden sins...which isn't always fun, but greatly needed. 

Thanks for reading again! May the Lord bless you!

Love your husband? Pray for him!

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known for God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7

Welcome back, y'all! I'm glad you came back! 

My husband and I have been married for 13 wonderful years, and I honestly can't imagine life without him. He is the calm to my crazy...because I got some crazy.

If there is one thing that bothers me, it's to hear a wife talk negative about her husband to others. Not only does this spread slander against her husband, but it also feeds the negative feelings welling up inside the wife. In a world where divorce and adultery thrive, if we are confessing Christian wives, we should be following Christ in our marriage and as a wife. 

Many years ago, God showed me how much of a nagger I actually was. 

"Better to dwell in a corner of a housetop, than in a house shared with a contentious woman." Proverbs 21:9

I can imagine the life of a husband living with a nagging wife is pretty miserable. The verse above tells us that it's better for our husbands to go to the roof of our house and live in a corner of it, than to live with us when we are nagging and contentious. That sounds like a sad life for any husband. I would never want my husband to feel like getting out. 

Now, ladies, obviously when we married our husbands, we didn't marry perfect human beings. We didn't marry sinless and perfect men because there are none. So, what do we do when the temptation to nag your husband is so strong?  Or when the temptation to play the self-pity game is overwhelming you? Or, ...ahem..., when we think that maybe we know better than our husband? The opening verse gives us the wisdom we need in these circumstances. PRAY! Not only pray, but pray with thanksgiving! Thank God for giving you your husband. Then pray for him! Lift him up to the Lord. Name the specifics. Instead of listing them to your husband, go to the Lord with those concerns. Pray for your husband to grow in wisdom of the Lord, to strengthen him as he leads the family, to give him strength as he works daily for your family, to protect him physically and emotionally.

Trust me on this one, because it's happened many times throughout our marriage...God can change the situation without you saying a word to your husband. Without nagging, fussing, or aggravating, God can answer your prayers. We really shouldn't stand in awe of this. Surely the Creator of the universe, the Creator of all life, the Giver of every breath we take, can do something as small as strengthen our marriages. He cares for us and our marriages.

"Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you." 1 Peter 5:6-7

So, pray faithfully, then wait on the Lord to answer your prayer.

In answering your prayer,  be prepared. He may mold and teach you as well. Along with our husbands not being perfect, we, as wives, are not perfect as well. We have imperfections right along with our husband. Sometimes, God has to show us our own sin before He changes the sin in our husband. 

"And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye?" Matthew 7:3-4

In praying for our husbands, also remember the Lord Jesus prayed for us in John 17:20-26. Jesus Christ prayed for His children back when He walked the earth! That is quite humbling to me. Just as Christ prayed for us, let us as wives plead for our husbands before the Lord. Let us bring our husbands before the Lord, then wait on Him to answer prayers.

If you question your own salvation in the Lord, be encouraged. I have heard my father in law say on many occasions, " As long as you have breath, there is still forgiveness." Come to Jesus in prayer. Beg for mercy, beg for salvation. Seek Him in His Word. Pray for wisdom.  As I pray for my husband, I pray the Lord will grow me and reveal my hidden sins as well.

Love in Christ ❤

1 Thessalonians 5:11 - "Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing."

Welcome back, friends!

So...It's been a long time since I've blogged. It's only been five years since my last post...(insert awkward smile and nervous laugh). My oldest girls are 11 and 9, and they heard Mama used to have a blog.  They were 6 and 4 the last time I blogged, so this was news to them. They have been begging me to blog again, mainly because they think it's super cool 😉, but also because they enjoy reading my older posts. So, it got me thinking about it again. 1 Thessalonians 5:11 really spurred me on to get back to writing. Not only as mothers/homemakers, but also as Christians, we should be encouraging and building up each other.

Blogging was a hobby for me. I never enjoyed writing in school. Maybe because I was told what to write, or I didn't particularly enjoy doing research. Whatever the reason, it wasn't until I was older in age that I begin to enjoy writing.

For me, blogging is also a release of emotions. For those of you that also enjoy blogging, or even journaling, poetry, or another form of writing, I'm sure you understand. Even the simple form of letter writing can be a release of emotions. Through stories of humor, embarrassment, sorrow, and excitement, I hope to encourage you to keep on pressing on.

"Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:12-14

None of us have arrived yet. We all make mistakes. Through the encouragement and building up described in 1 Thessalonians, we can press toward the prize of the upward call as we mother and tend to our homes.

I also find that blogging is a great way for me to keep up with our family's memories. My family and I love scrolling through later and rereading the posts. My children love to see themselves and read the stories from their childhood. It's a beautiful and fun way to record life.

One of my main reasons for blogging is ministry. I am a stay-at-home mom of five children. Ministry opportunities outside of the home happen less frequently than ministry inside the home. I find that blogging allows me to reach women from various locations in which I may never be able to share the gospel with. My prayer is the Lord allows my blog to minister to others and to share the gospel of Jesus Christ while allowing you to see a glimpse inside our lives.

Not only do I hope to encourage and build you up with stories and "mom-hacks", but I also hope to glean from others. It's very uplifting to talk to other moms and learn how they manage their homes, discipline their children, and train their tiny disciples (that's what our children are, aren't they?). So, please, leave comments sharing your stories, tips, and suggestions!

Look for my next post coming soon!

Love in Christ, MamaOfFive