Dear Moms of Little Girls

Dear moms of little girls,

The only one who knows how to shape a woman’s heart is God. He is my only hope – my only advice. Anyone or anything apart from Him – war against. Our daughter is not the enemy. She needs to know we know that. And she needs to know she is worth the fiery battle that ensues daily. She needs to know you will never let her go no matter what strikes – even her. She needs to know that we are grateful for our gift of strength to hold her in the journey, to pray for her, to tell her truth, to guide her in Truth and Him alone. She needs to know we will never resent the lessons her questions of life and her identity present. We have no greater joy than to learn from God with her. She needs to know we are watchful, prayerful, and steadfast, so she can rest. She needs to know we see the enemy in every form, not because we are so smart, but because we were so stupid to believe him. She needs to know our story – when we say that Jesus saved us – she needs to know just what from and what that means daily. She needs to know that in our salvation – she is rescued from what we could be apart from the God who loves her. God saved her mom – for her. She needs to know that we are in the battle together and the armor of God can handle the chinks and mudslinging – That the shield of faith covers us both. She needs to know we believe big enough until she can. She needs us to show her there are lilies in the valley of war. And we will gather them all on the way to victory. And can I tell you this…when you feel like you aren’t able or worthy to go with that little girl one more step – consider your mom. She felt that way once, too.

I Corinthians 13 is a chapter about missional love. Read it with Jesus’ name in the place of love, and read it with this understanding. The Spirit of our Savior who is love – indwells you (John 17:20-23). His love is what we have been gifted to live in (John 15), and His love is what we have been created in Him to exude so that our babes will see and know Him.

Remain in love.

“Love suffers long and is kind…” (I Corinthians 13:4a)

I stood beside my mom one afternoon admiring her peaceful garden. I had retreated to her side when the struggle with a strong will had exhausted me. With tears rolling down my cheeks, I said to her “Mom, I’m going to bring my children to you. Can you finish raising them?”  I was joking – of course – but I wanted to let her know I was beside myself, and I wanted to let her know I NOW understood so much more where she had been as a mom.

She laughed and simply looked at me with eyes that spoke of our 45 years together as mother and daughter. I knew she relied on God for me and for my brothers. I knew she did not have a manual for any of us, but daily read her Bible and prayed on her knees for our lives and her impact on each one of us. I knew that my brothers and I had brought her joy as well as grief. I knew that the journey and the end result was nothing she would take credit for, nor would she dare to try to script for me the way that I should go. My mother is a good mentor. She leads me to God time after time.

Wisely she said in a warm embrace and tears of her own, “God gave them to you. They’re your gift from Him. He will accomplish what He has begun in you.”

“The Lord will accomplish what concerns me; Your lovingkindness is everlasting; Do not forsake the work of your hands.” Psalm  138:8

Love never fails. Oh how we need to hear this again and again. Hear it with me, will you? Hear it, and say it, and pray it, and share it, and rest in this Truth. And by the power of Christ that resides in us, WE will – We WILL – WE WILL … let love accomplish what Love alone can do. He is faithful.

The Gift of Hope

A new year has begun. Is there a dream tucked in the pocket of your heart, a dream so fragile that you refrain from taking it out to share, even with the dearest of friends, because – what if the dream crashes? It’s easier if it falls apart inside, isn’t it? Keeping hope hidden protects our pride, doesn’t it? The public mess of a dream deferred is spirit crushing, yes, but isn’t it also demoralizing? When the dream dies we must take ownership of what we believed would be, and accept the emotional, foolish mess we made boldly hoping. Shovel in hand we bend low over dirt and dig a grave. Do we dare ever hope again?

In the early 1950’s, America was still racially segregated. Black Americans were considered second class citizens, and not only in the eyes of white Americans, but also according to the current written laws. During this time Langston Hughes wrote a poem entitled “Harlem” in which the author posed this question. “What happens to a dream deferred?” This poem expressed the burden of the black American dream.

Harlem

What happens to a dream deferred?

 Does it dry up

Like a raisin in the sun?

 Or fester like a sore

And then run?

 Does it stink like rotten meat?

 Or crust and sugar over

like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags

like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

To this very real and pervading human ache, Martin Luther King, Jr. replied on August 28, 1963. “…We cannot walk alone…I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations…. We cannot turn back…Let us not wallow in the valley of despair…I have a dream.”

Dr. King anchored his hope and secured his message to the Word of God. He referred to Scripture in Amos and also from the book of Isaiah, because Israel’s history, like American history, was also fouled by injustice and slavery. The prophet Amos called out for social justice, and the prophet Isaiah proclaimed God would rescue the oppressed and restore His divided nation. Some two thousand years later into the bleak circumstances of American history Martin Luther King Jr. proclaimed this same message of God to those who needed to hear, needed to see, needed to believe: “…Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

He may have been called a fool for dreaming then, but he is most certainly respected and even honored for that powerful dream that changed the world then and is still changing the world today.

God, by His Word, will make all wrongs right.

So are you holding a dream close to your heart for 2015?

Is your dream anchored in the Word of God? Because if it is, there is good news for you and for me: “…no word of God will ever fail” (Luke 1:37). If you have a dream, and it is not born from God’s word, bury it with the other things of this life that fade away.

“For, all people are like grass, and their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever.” 1 Peter 1:24-25

Is your God-given dream being derailed time and time again by circumstances beyond your control? There is still good news: your hope will not put you to shame.

“Therefore since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus, Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” Romans 5:1-5

The prophets and saints of God most certainly grew discouraged. Their trials are recorded throughout the Bible. Was God reluctant to fulfill the dream that He had given? No. This is his reply to those who long and have longed, who wait and have waited for what He has said that He would accomplish:

“Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?” John 11:40

What God has said already is, and will one day be seen (Hebrews 11).

Hope in God does not disappoint; let nothing defer hope’s purpose and power within you, and let nothing defer its purpose and power through you. After all, that hope is a gift of God (Jeremiah 29:11), for such a time as this. Trust Him with it completely, and change the world.

“But blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.” Jeremiah 17:7

For further study to encourage you concerning the faithfulness of God: 

http://www.bible.ca/b-prophecy-60.htm