Good Morning Girls Bible Study Week 2

This week we continued our scripture reading and read the introduction of Ministry of of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson.  Sally shares about her relationship with her oldest daughter, Sarah, now a young woman.  I was so drawn in to her description of their relationship because I desire that with my children as well.  I love that she has cultivated such close and loving relationships with her children through a cups of tea in a quiet corner and God's word one day at a time. 

Our verse for Wednesday was Matthew 28:19-20- “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”  

This verse isn't just about sharing the plan of salvation with our children.  It is about everyday life. It is teaching them the commandments as instructed in Deuteronomy 6: 5-9

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."

This isn't something done in a day.  This is is a relationship cultivated over the course of time.  Our children watch us live our lives, see us observe and live out His commandments. They see us fail and then see how we react to those failures. This is more than a daily lesson; it is more than a moment in time. So how do we cultivate such a relationship that allows for natural teaching of the commandments? We give our children "Gifts", an acronym Sally shares: 

G – Gift of Grace

I – Gift of inspiration

F – Gift of Faith

T – Gift of Training

S – Gift of Service

I am looking forward to diving into the Word of God to see what he says about these areas and gleaning from Sally all that I can so I can improve my Ministry of Motherhood (MOM). I have my GIFTS pages added to my iPad and I am ready to go. 

I have started a board on Pinterest where I am posting things I find related to the Scripture I am studying and other things that remind me of my calling to this ministry.  If you have a MOM board please share it as I would love to follow.

Until next week...

Good Morning Girls Bible Study Week 1

 

This week I started a Good Morning Girls Bible study.  We are reading through the book Ministry of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson.  I have been following Sally Clarkson's ministry since 2000 when we first began homeschooling.  Sally is real  and speaks truth.  Since one of my favorite people in the whole wide world is leading the group I had to join.

This week one of the verses we covered was 2 Timothy 1:5.  As we were posting our daily check-ins this is where my thoughts went:

As a mom who recently who sent her oldest child "into the world" last fall when he left for college- at a state university vs a Christian college no less *gasp* (sorry little tired of the comments I get about this),  I will say it has been scary, humbling, discouraging and a blessing to see what "stuck" with my son after being under my constant care and instruction for 18 years.  My greatest fear (and keeping it real here)- That I would somehow screw him up from all my shortcomings.  Reality- He is an imperfect sinner who has struggles but honestly strives daily to improve his walk with the Lord.  I want to knock him upside the head every time I talk to him on the phone about school.  SERIOUSLY- I am not sure where he got his work ethic and study habits, but it wasn't from me.  Then we get to talking about his fraternity *gasp*.  Sorry couldn't resist ;) It is a Christian fraternity called BYX.  This fraternity has been one of the best things he has ever gotten involved with.  Last semester he shared his testimony TWENTY THREE TIMES.  I haven't given my testimony that many times in 43 years.  He still listens to sermons from our pastor online each and every week.  Why? Because he has yet to find in 24 weeks of attending church in Denton a church home that has teachings like our church home.

So what does this have to do with the verse? It is humbling to see how the legacy you leave plays out when your children become adults.  I mean I made mistakes- daily! I have been WAY less than the perfect example of faith.  Since he has left I felt like I failed him as he struggles in several areas and I blame myself for these short comings.  But I also am encouraged by his tenacity to pursue his faith, his desire to run the race.  He has guys in his fraternity listening to sermons from our church because they had never been exposed to that type of teaching.  This semester he was asked to lead one of the weekly accountability groups.

Let me wrap this up before I put you all to sleep. A page (day) in our story may be bad, with no evidence of faith based on our actions.  We live in a fallen world.  Do our children see us striving to further our walk with the Lord? These are the chapters in our story.  Does the end of a chapter (year, five years, decade) show growth? I don't think one bad day destroys our children's faith. Not even sure a bad stretch does. Our children see more about our faith than we realize.  It is the  overall picture that makes the impact.  Do our children see evidence of fruit? This is where the impact is made.  This is where the seed is planted, but let me also say this, it is not our job to "save our children".  It is our job to plant the seed and cultivate.  How am I tending that garden? Am I allowing weeds to overtake it?  As a Christian this is something I constantly have to be aware of in my walk. I want to do everything I can to be an example of faith to my children and an example to them about how when I stumble and struggle I have a forgiving Father that will use those struggles to help me grow in my faith.  Boy, I sure hope all of that makes sense.

2012 Goals- Spiritual

Wow, this year has absolutely flown. I accomplished some amazing things this year (which I hope to recap in another post) and I am looking forward to achieving some amazing things in 2012 as well.

I have two options: 1) I can type this up and actually get it posted or 2) I can fret about trying to make it all cute and then never get it up. I have opted for option one.

I like to break down my goals into different categories so I can not only have Macro goals, but micro goals as well. After all it is fine and good to say I am going to do X but if you don't have any micro goals on how to achieve X then X is likely to never happen.

The first area i am focusing on is my Spiritual Life

1) Daily quite time
- get up by 5:15 every morning for quiet time
- have Bible reading plan in place (I am reading Dr Horner's reading plan this year and very excited too. I have been waiting two months to finish another plan before starting this one) I am doing this reading plan alongside my hubby so very stoked about that too.
-I have my prayer app up to date and ready to go. I have used a couple of different apps on my phone, but my favorite right now is myPraypal.
-Continue Collossians/Philemon Bible study that I am doing with Ladies Group at Church
-Continue with my non-fiction reading schedule (will post more about this later). In a nutshell it is books that I read daily for further spiritual growth in specific areas of my life. Right now I am reading He Loves Me! by Wayne Jacobsen and Becoming More Than A Good Bible Study Girl by Lysa Terkeurst for my general spiritual growth.

2) Post Scriptures around my home and change out regularly to both inspire and challenge our family.
- I pull these verses from either something I read during quiet time or from one of our three sermons each week.
-I actually started doing Wall Scriptures a couple of months back. We are simply putting the scripture in Word, changing the font to make it pretty and then printing. For years I have wanted to do this but kept waiting for the perfect way to do it. I don't have time for perfection and I don't think God cares how I am posting these scriptures, just that i am so we can pass them on to our children.

3) I am going to start writing down the things I am thankful for- a Thanksgiving List. I have been wanting to do this for a while, but I just haven't started. I know there is a popular book out right now that talks about doing this. This is not where I got the ideas as I have not read the book. I plan to read that book over the next couple of weeks and let you know if it further inspires me in this journey.

I know I only listed this as three items, but it is a big load and will take huge dedication and commitment on my part and even that won't be enough without completely holding the Lord's hand to guide me through this year.

Do you have any goals this year to lead you closer to the Lord?