Mom’s Day Reassurance
This editorial is not one which will suggest more to do, make you feel guilty for not doing enough, or force you to deal with a thorny issue.
There is a time for all of that. But not today. My only goal this month is to encourage you, to affirm what we know to be true, to perhaps renew your vision just a little bit.
I do not know about you, but I have been feeling a little put upon these days. I have the feeling that everything I do is in service to my children. I have even (gasp!) resented all that I do to arrange schedules, chauffeur children all over the city, give lessons into the late evening hours and give up any plans I might have had that interfered with what my children needed.
Yes, it is getting near the end of the school year and the daily tasks seem to be more drudgery than delight.
So once again I am writing this as much or more for my own benefit than for yours, but hopefully these words by God’s providence will be an exhortation to us all.
Several weeks ago I went to a homeschool mom’s retreat. I have never been to one of these before. A friend from Huntsville where I grew up e-mailed me that her homeschool covering was having a retreat for moms.
The speaker was to be Glenda Revell, author and homeschool mom from Virginia. My friend mentioned that several ladies I knew in high school as well as from my Auburn days would be there and she encouraged me to come.
Although it was a treat to get away in the beautiful environment of De Soto State Park, it was an even richer blessing to see friends from high school and college days! I am always so amazed and so uplifted to see how our faithful God has led my friends along similar paths — marriage, children, home education. It just does my heart good to hear about their husbands and their children and to hear specific stories of God’s grace and providence.
Glenda, our speaker, had learned the lessons of joyful obedience in the school of severe trials. She is the author of “Glenda’s Story” (her incredible testimony) and “With Love From A Mother’s Heart,” a book I am in the process of reading.
Here were some of her points in a talk on how to have our thinking transformed:
- Trust in the sovereignty of God — a comprehended God is no God. It is not about what you feel but what God says. Psalm 16:5. “You have made my lot secure.”
- Keep an eternal perspective. “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” II Cor 4:17-18
- Our focus is to be heavenward toward Christ and away from self and circumstances. Fix (literally glue) your eyes on Jesus. Heb. 12:2
- Suffering, hope, joy and glory are frequent companions and suffering always preceeds joy. Here I must add that my suffering (if one can call it that) is not a consequence of doing right but usually a result of my own foolish rebellious heart. Still God uses even that to conform us more to Christ by forcing us to cast our hope on Him as we realize how desperately we need Him.
- I have the power to control my thought life. The strongholds we must demolish are sinful thought patterns, tracks in our brains. What God uses to break these down are memorizing Scripture, singing hymns of the faith and psalms of deliverance, reading spiritual biographies, giving thanks, praying and offering service to others, resolving never to murmur or complain.
- My feelings have nothing to do with obedience. The will is king; emotions are merely servants.
- My suffering can be offered to God as a sacrifice. This is a saying from Elisabeth Elliot, who became Glenda’s spiritual mother.
- Trusting God is an exchange program. We offer up our sufferings which is an acceptable sacrifice and He gives us “beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.” Is. 61:3.
- Forgiveness is essential to leaving the past behind. It is an act of the will and not a feeling.
When I heard this talk I thought, “but this is all so basic; I know all this already.” Therein lies the rub; I should know this, I should have all this down, but I often need a reminder.
Take heart, God knows what we need and He is ready to supply.
—JMT