Living Strong: It all starts with your view of God

Michelangelo--God at creation

Starting with the right foundations

If there was one legacy I wish I could leave to other women, it would be to help them think more Biblically. When a woman knows scripture--the whole counsel of scripture, not just verses here and there taken out of context-- gaining a Biblical understanding from Genesis to Revelation, then she has more confidence and ease in her walk with God. (It is also why I hope to give a good bit of my life in the next years to our leadership intensives, training conferences online, where women will learn a little of Biblical instruction, foundations, prayer, Bible study--to follow God in our lives as we serve and love Him. I love teaching women how to teach and live God in such a way in front of their children, that their children embrace a vibrant faith.  More on that later this month.)

God makes it clear throughout scripture that his priority for us is to know Him and love Him with our whole heart and mind.

"Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, let not a rich man boast of his riches, let not a mighty man boast of his might, but let him who boasts, boast of this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the God who exercises lovingkindness and righteousness on the earth for I delight in these things." Jeremiah 9: 23-24

And, "Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it." Psalm 127

And so the starting point for any arena in our lives must be God--our worship of Him and knowledge of Him and obedience--a heart that wants to please God.

So, let me begin by  praying  for all who read this today. "Lord, I pray that each one who reads these blog articles will be led by you. I pray you will provide them with insight, skill, love, wisdom and the understanding of what it means to be filled with your Spirit and to walk by faith in this journey of motherhood. And bless them with strength, joy and a sense of affirmation in their great calling as parents. I come to you in the precious name of Jesus. Amen"

A part of knowing and trusting God is to understand and embrace that He knows our circumstances, He sees us, He is able to redeem every single situation and can restore health to our weak, exhausted or damaged lives.

I love the verse for today, "‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. ‘Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. ‘You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. "

A part of us living joyfully with God in the midst of our circumstances is embracing this truth--He has "plans for our welfare"--He has our best in mind. "not for calamity--but to give you a future and a hope."

Right now, where all of us are--there is hope for a better future if we allow Him to guide our lives.

Romans  8:28 says, "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."

Often we are tempted to say:

It is too late. I have already messed up my children." "I am scarred by the decisions I have made." "I can't even imagine how God can redeem my life right now, or my circumstances."

When I gave my life to the Lord, almost immediately and for the next 12 years, my life became very hard--illness in my family, a divorce in my family, problems in my personal life, problems in the ministry, loneliness as a single woman, difficulties with work, finances--2 car wrecks, a church split, immoral leaders in our church, and on and on. Throughout some of this time, I thought, "God, do you care about me? I can't believe that I have loved you so much and you have allowed all of this to happen."

Yet, now, I look back and see that, because God was a great parent to me. He did not pay attention to my immature toddler whining, because He had my best in mind. He wanted me to grow stronger, more compassionate, more full of faith, more loving and patient. His allowing the difficult circumstances in my life helped to take away all of the false hopes I was depending on to be happy. His way of leading me led me to freedom and maturity and in the end more contentedness.

God is the God of second chances and His whole nature is to love and redeem. So, know that He is in your home, He sees you, hears your cry and may just be working great things--even if you can't see or understand how. He favors those who seek Him and obey Him and He is a God of compassion and will work in and through your life.

(Even as a Father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him. Psalm 103: 13)

Once my little girl was having a grand time eating a huge bag of potato chips she had found in our cupboard. When I had to take the chips away from her so that she would not get a stomach ache, she fell down on the floor and sobbed as though I had been mean to her! But, as her mother, I knew what was best. I ignored her crying and took her in my arms and held her and sang to her in a rocking chair until she settled down.

But a part of our submitting to God and experiencing His love and care is in releasing our expectations of life into His hands and trusting Him even when we cannot easily feel or see Him.

It all starts with your view of God--if you choose to believe that He is loving, you will face your circumstances with courage, patience, faith. But if you just want Him to do your will your way--you may find life disappointing. He is all wise and knows just how to turn every part of our life puzzle into good, or wisdom or redemption--if we trust all of the details of our lives into His hands--and trust what His word teaches us.

Ultimately, so much of what I lived and what I know to be true, I learned by reading scripture, pondering it, studying it, seeking to really know God and walking with Him. Pondering Christ, who is the perfect reflection of God, according to Hebrews 1.

Women will go the way of their church culture, media culture, family culture, peer culture--they will follow whoever is leading, unless they have developed their own convictions. We will listen to other voices if we have not learned to discern the voice of God.

The problem with this kind of approach is that it leads to whims, to whatever way the cultural wind is blowing.

And so, God, our heavenly Father, wants us to climb into His arms, to surrender all of ourselves into His capable hands. I love this verse that speaks so generously of how tender God's love is for us: ""As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you." Isaiah 66:13

God even compares himself to a mother who holds, cherishes and comforts His child.

Today, remember that His plans for you are for your welfare. He loves you and is bigger than any difficulty you face. He understands all of your ways, and He longs to give you hope and blessing.

Join me in the 10 Gifts e-conference next week as I speak of passing on faith and godliness in practical ways to your children--and how to live faithfully each day in your home!

Be sure to enter to win a ticket today, as the giveaway ends tonight!

Find out who the winners were on Good Morning Girls by going HERE. a Rafflecopter giveaway

Excellence of Character is Trained by Intention and Practice--A Giveaway and Summer Inspration!

(We have 10 more printable posters like the one above for each of you who are able to attend the 10 Gifts E-conference on July 14&15 as a gift to each one who attends.)

Training a Godly Generation in our own homes!

In a landscape of mediocrity and moral compromise amongst Christian leaders, there is such a need for heroes to emerge into the culture. Heroes are those whose character is exceptional. A heroe's character is formed by years of instruction, training, practice by someone who is qualified to give vision for the need for a life built on an excellent foundation and to ensure practice of such attributes.

Mothers are crafted by God to be those who are the shapers, trainers and instructors of these excellent attributes in the lives of their children. Training a child to become wise in life--to learn how to live with wisdom informing their every decision, giving them guidance that will help the make good decisions, the endurance in difficult times and the desire to be uncompromising in ideals is one of the highest callings God designed for mothers to embrace.

One of the truest and deepest satisfactions of my own life has been in investing years in the lives of my children and seeing them respond and flourish as adults in their world. So many years, I couldn't tell if my training was making any difference. The years of training to excellence are long, yet, the end result is so very satisfying to a mamas soul. The best book I have written is the story my children are living out now in their adult lives. To have the blessing of shaping souls is intrinsic to the very meaningful role of motherhood.

Many women have lost the vision for the importance of giving their children a foundation of excellence through training, developing habits of integrity and diligence. It is my hope that The Ten Gifts of Wisdom e-conference will focus on bringing inspiration, and giving clear goals to help women know just how to build this strong moral character and integrity into the very heart and soul of children in her home. I love to mentor moms on the journey of motherhood, as shaping the souls of the next generation is a part of passing on righteousness and faith in each generation. My passion in this area has been growing stronger and stronger this summer as I have spent so much time with my own children and hear them speak of what they are finding in the market place, as well as hearing from so many young moms who long to be mentored.

We have been attempting to host online conferences to the many of you who have asked us to make our mom's conferences more available to those who are not able to attend our yearly gatherings.

A Giveaway for the Readers of Itakejoy.com

I did not want to leave my own audience at itakejoy without the opportunity to win a free ticket to the 10 Gifts e-conference next week. I hope many of you will join me as I talk about developing a plan in your own home of raising such heroes of excellence for the next generation.  I will be giving away 10 tickets to this conference. To enter the giveaway, help me spread the word to other moms who long for encouragement and to renew their vision. It will be a grand couple of nights.

For those of you who are not able to participate live in the conference, you will be able to view the conference, download the pdf and also down load the 10 printable posters we have prepared for all 10 Gifts and listen to it at your leisure!

The host we are using for this has set limits of how many we can accept, so be sure to register early if you desire to attend live. If you win one of the giveaways, we will refund your ticket.

For information about the conference and the registration page, go HERE

Be sure to enter soon, as the giveaway is just over in a little more than 24 hours! a Rafflecopter giveaway

Amazing Salad for Pot Luck Grill Parties! Happy 4th!

This year, chilling and easing into our 4th. Tonight, movie night and chocolate chip chocolate ice cream with choc chip bars, Pizza and a bund of friends over the watch a movie. Tomorrow--sleep in this year. Older kids prefer bed to parades.

Grilling with friends and a BIG potluck bargeque--and since Colorado prohibits fire works, we have a fun, adventure patriotic spy movie planned when it gets dark.

Hope you have a great 4th of July with family or friends. Remember to say a prayer for our wonderful armed forces who sacrifice so much for us!

May God truly see our gratefulness that He has allowed so much freedom and grace to us in our beloved country and may He preserve our freedom to worship and educate our children as we desire. May you have a blessed and safe holiday weekend.

This is a simple, but beautiful salad that is a real crowd pleaser. I love salads at almost every meal. Somehow, it even seems more special when it is pretty, too.

A sweet friend brought this to my home recently and all of us ooohed and ahhed because just seeing it made it taste oh so much better.

I will call it the 4th of July Special!

Pick salad greens, lettuces or spinach to place on bottom of a large salad bowl.

Then hand place chopped vegetables around the center. Add olives to center.

Chopped:

egg yellow peppers

green onion greens of any variety

Sprinkle green peas or edamame to add color. (We prefer green peas!)

Place goat or feta cheese around the edges.

Alternate cherry tomatoes with roasted pecans (roast in over on 300 degrees for 10-15 minutes until brown) Or sprouted salted Walnuts!

(Sometimes we add bacon and a little cheddar cheese that makes it all taste a little more like a 7 layer salad! It is gone in minutes.)

Cover with plastic wrap until it is served.

Serve with large salad tongues and toss the dressing or serve it on the side. Be sure to scoop a little of each vegetable to get the full taste. Our favorite dressing with this is oil and vinegar with a touch of ranch mixed in.  Lately we have been using a Greek Dressing with Olive Oil sprinkled around.

Enjoy. Have a very memorable and happy 4th!

E-conference coming soon! Hope you can join me!

Strength & Beauty grow strong as we walk faithfully with God

Passing each other in the kitchen with mugs of coffee, crazy sleep hair, pajama'd and groggy, I kissed my daughter and whispered good morning and headed toward my front porch for a few moments of quiet as I began my day. Just before I left the room, I was prompted to ask her, "How are you, sweetness? Is anything on your mind this morning?"

Sometimes the most normal moments and mundane of places become holy when God shows up.

Though just 30 years old, my daughter had walked in wisdom for such a long time.

"I feel like God always has me in boot camp--basic training for war! It would be great to have an easy season in my life for just a little while," she said, as she sipped her coffee.

"But, you know, mom, I have decided in my heart, that no matter what comes my way, I want to keep trusting God,

keep seeking to show His light, keep loving when it is difficult, keep strong when tempted to be weak."

"I want  to be one of those people who Jesus says, 'You were one of my most vibrant, powerful warriors for the kingdom, because you always sought to be holy and you never gave up!'

"So, mom, I will stay in boot camp and God's training as long as He has me here because I want to be faithful and love Him until I see Him face to face."

Wow! What an unexpected but powerful message greeted me so early in my morning. But how grateful I was to hear from her own heart that my daughter understood that to live holy and righteous and strong in love is a battle and requires training. When we learn to accept the limitations of the place that God has us with faith and submission, we will learn to see His purposes and experience a depth of His love anew. His love is so profound that he does not want us to stay limited in our lives but to learn to trust Him and find freedom, strength in His training and deep satisfaction in life as we walk with Him. A a loving parent, He wants what is best for us--He wants us to grow strong and beautiful.

God has us in "training grounds" because He desires us to become like Jesus--holy, strong, bold, and righteous. Training and discipling us to become like him is a long term process. But in order for us to experience His profound love, we have to submit to His profound plans for our lives.

Good soldiers learn to submit to their leaders, the authorities over them, their officers, to lead them well. So, as we are warriors for Christ, we must learn to submit to His ways, to seek to be as godly as we know how, to learn the ways of righteousness, so that we can become strong ambassadors and workers for His kingdom.

My daughter has not had an easy life, but because she has walked her years trusting God, she is mature beyond her age and in so many ways exhibits His light and beauty powerfully through her life.

Each of us must choose His ways, submit to His will, so that we can truly become stronger in understanding that His love for us requires that He will train us for growth. God does not want us to just be shallow and happy--getting our own way at every juncture. He wants us to learn the depth of His wisdom and to learn the way of contentment and peace.

The verse today is from Psalm 9: 7-8: "

"But the LORD abides forever; He has established His throne for judgment, And He will judge the world in righteousness; He will execute judgment for the peoples with equity."

God's great love will require Him to act in our lives to bring us to maturity. But we can only experience the depth of His love if we choose to submit to His training. This week, give your circumstances, your life into God's hands and become a willing learner of His ways, that you might see His goodness worked out in your life as He works deeply in your life to make you more like Him.

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I am so excited to invite you to a very special conference online about the training of children in the wise ways of God. Training, instruction and growing in God's Word and His ways is the pathway to becoming a godly woman. This process of training will allow us to live in and enjoy His love.

On July 14-15, I will be hosting an e-conference to inspire parents to train and instruct their children in wisdom. I hope many of you will be able to join me for the seminar, as I am so excited to be able to share what I have learned about bring wisdom to life in my home after being a parent for 30 years. For more information, go HERE.

I found a smile hiding in my soul--and it made me happy!

"In quietness and rest shall be your strength." Isaiah 30:15

Tonight, with all my kids in town and 7 of us at every meal, I was crazy for a few minutes! I asked 20 other people over for a casual friendship dinner so my kids could see some old family friends. Somehow we actually got all the food together, and every ate and had lots of fun. 

But each mom here, each friend, commented at different ties throughout the night, "I am so exhausted! I am so weary and it just seems like life never stops!"

Funny enough, I found an article from just about exactly one year ago--where I was--SURPRISE--tired! And so I give you my admonition that spoke to me again tonight. Read the article and then Take some time to rest!

Have you ever had a child who, late in the evening started going ballistic over seemingly nothing at all? Then a fit of loud wailing began and then suddenly, in almost a moment, said child almost passed out in deep sleep! Then you responded, "Oh, she (or he) was just exhausted and needed to go to sleep." And you promised yourself that next time you would be more aware of the signs and vigilant to put the child to bed earlier.

Well, slowly, I am learning to read my own signs. Each of us has our own puzzle. Mine is very different from most because of our ministry, travel and writing, added to the other piles of responsibility of taking care of my family. Very few friends I know live my kind of life,  or my puzzle, so I cannot compare or live under the same standards as them.

I am not feeling so strong lately. My spirit is more likely to complain. My body is a little bit more than tired. My perspective is cloudy. From many years of living through various seasons, I am learning to monitor myself when signals suggest I have been overloaded for too long. Just like the baby in the above example, God has allowed our bodies to speak to us.

Instead of worrying about my spiritual life, or living in self-condemnation, or pondering deep things, I am more likely to look at my physical needs, and then I realize--I need to make some sabbatical days this summer!

Recently, somewhere, deep in the night hours,  cuddled up under my covers, much to my sweet relief, I awakened and it seemed there was a smile in my soul---almost like I was a little girl again, free of the burden of responsibilities, light as a cloud, smiling in the soft warmth of my covers with a sense of excitement, "all is well and good things are awaiting" sort of feeling.  A pleasant feeling emerged from my heart, "I am resting, living in peace, restoring and it is good."

So often, we give and give and give and then wonder why we become grumpy or short in patience. But, God has put rhythms into our lives to remind us just how much we need our bodies to go completely away from the stress of the day in order to cope with the demands of life.

The day has a cycle about it--so many hours of light and darkness. In the light we can see to read, to work, to be active--but darkness was to be a signal of closing the day and its duties off.

Sabbath was also instigated by God to remind us to stop, to put aside work, to put aside the frenzy, to rest and cultivate peace and to restore.

In our 24/7 world, with false lights to keep us up and working all hours of the day, 24 hours of internet, 24 hours of tv, cars with lights that can travel all hours, etc., we lose the concept of rest and refreshing.

No wonder there are so many stress diseases--heart, obesity, thyroid problems, nervous disorders, depression, mental disorders, and emotional disorders. We are busy all the time, guilty for all we do not get done and wearing ourselves out.

I realized many years ago that I was becoming very ill from so much push, push and work, work, work. I also realized that no one else was going to take responsibility for my health and well-being but me.

One of the reasons moms yell at their children is that they never get a break. Grumpiness and anger comes from pushing, pushing, pushing.

An hour of rest and getting away was a regular rhythm in our home. Every afternoon, I put a pot of tea to boil and poured out cups of tea, or little sippy cups of juice or whatever seemed good, and everyone learned, by training to go to their "places" for a personal time. (More on how I accomplished that later.) I could not have done without my hour in the day.I trained my children to it early and it gave me the ability to have a one woman tea time.

I also, committed to Sabbath rest on Sundays--closed all of my "work" on Saturday and did not pick it up until Monday. It was all still there when I got back to it, but the world did not fall apart when I did not work on Sunday--but, I was much more able to keep up the demands of my life when I took off and made Sunday a day or worship, rest, pleasure, fun and naps for me.

Work and travel chases me every day, demands my life's blood. But, I rule over this force that would overcome me.

Stop. Put it all aside. Rest.

My mind needs it, my body needs it, my spirit needs it. But as a woman who is attempting to grow in maturity in the Lord, I have had to be intentional about being sure that I include rest, refueling, restoration and inspiration into my own personal life-not just once in a while, but regularly so that I can keep going and going and going.

People deplete me all the time, every day, wherever I go. But if I want to last for many more years of giving out and being in ministry and meeting my children's and husband's needs, I must pace myself.

And so, though there are many letters to answer, piles to organize, rooms to clean, groceries to shop for, people to call back, ad infinitum, I will lay them all in the file folders of heaven for God to keep. I have learned that they will all still be here tomorrow, and that God wants me to leave my burdens alone--as He is the father, I the toddler and He will indeed work in all of my circumstances without my help. But if I take responsibility to take care of my own heart and soul, I will last much longer, much better, and even have peace and quietness if I take time to rest.

And so, when I stop, my soul smiles a little more.

May your soul smile very soon.

Modeling God's Love for ourselves changes lives

Joy and Sarah, my beloved cherished friends and daughters.

 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;  not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. Ephesians 2: 8-9

How do we model the love of God to our children? To our lost friends? To the world?

Learning to accept God's generous love, is not just a personal issue for ourselves, but it is a crucial part of how we show God's grace to a world of women around us who long to be loved and accepted for who they are.

Everyone we know is longing for acceptance and validation. Yet, unless we as Christian women model this to those closest to us, they will miss seeing the unconditional love of God He wants to show through our lives.

I have been blessed with two lovely daughters. Yesterday, I had conversations with both of them--Sarah by skype and Joy sitting next to me in our living room last night--sharing hearts, insecurities, failures, flaws and love and redemption. My girls are living in a culture in which bodies and looks, intelligence, clothing,  personality and behavior are marketed in such a way as to promote the message that there is a certain kind of body, way of dressing, a size or weight or body type and when any one of us measures up to this false worldly standard of perfection, we will all fall short.

Now, as to looks, some are too skinny, too tall, too short, some too overweight, some have big chests, some small.

As to personality, some are charming, some are not, all personalities are flawed in some way because all are subject to this disease called sin.

Some smarter, better, and on and on the world tempts us to think we can be enough if we just try hard enough.

But all of these arbitrary standards plague women every day. Even I, as a 60 year old fight, insecurity every year as I have to stand in front of hundreds of women at conferences, with more weight than I would wish, or more wrinkles or the kinds of clothes I should wear--I am a normal women who can be caught in the grips of cultures' temptations by seeking measure myself by some arbitrary standard that God never established.

Why in the world would even a woman like me, aging as I am supposed to, ever compare myself with the standards of a young, thin model of a woman who represents universal beauty? Because of the messages of the world being screamed in every movie, every show, every billboard, every advertisement. If it plagues even me and I am a relatively reasonable woman, and have walked with God for many years. I know it plagues my beloved daughters, and you and your daughters.

And so I have come to understand that an important part of my testimony to others, is that I am enough--just as I am.

It is God's grace every day that saves me, restores me, makes me beautiful. Not perfection or performance.

I do not want my girls to have to believe the lies of the world, I want them to grow beautiful inside because they learn to love who God has made them to be. I do not want my daughters to bear such a legacy of self-condemnation as the world would give.

They will only learn to accept their worth to the Lord if I accept my worth from the Lord.

The whole point of Christianity and redemption is that we are saved from all of our personal corruption. As women, we are beautiful because God designed us very intentionally with our personality, our skill set, our dreams and drives. He also designed us with a specific face and body and height and weight--All are beautiful when they live in the love and confidence of God's affirmation. As to personality, they are extremely different and make different choices in life because God gave them different gifts.

It is the grace and glory of God that we find freedom and joy and the life to live apart from the condemnation and criticism of this world. Then we are able to grow in our acceptance of His love. His desire for us as women is to greatly experience the "Life" of His reality of acceptance every day, because of how much He sacrificed so that we might live.

Yet,when it comes to my daughters, I want them also to understand, that they are beautiful because both are beloved by their Jesus and by me. They are both righteous because Jesus knew they would never ever be able to be perfect or good enough on their own, and so he lived and died for them so that they would never have to feel so deeply disappointed in themselves.They will always have hope and deep acceptance when they walk with His hand in theirs leading and loving and blessing them moment by moment--if they have first seen it in me.

 Do not let your adornment be merely outward—arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel—  rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. I Peter 4:3-3

It is the hidden person of my heart, the tenderness and humility before Jesus that makes me beautiful to Him and that will  make you beautiful to Him. When your heart seeks to love Him, to please Him, to rest in His love and care for you, that is your preciousness in the sight of God.

When I model this inner heart, my daughters will understand that it is their heart--not their body, their performance or their perfection that will help them to find His love.

As their mother, I hope I will make choices that lead them in this freedom and grace. They need to see me model that I feel accepted by God's love, that my beauty if from my heart, so that they will hear a different message from me than they see in the world. When I make peace with who I am, warts and all, I speak boldly of His ability to fill up all the cracks of my life. Then they learn how to live in the freedom of His love and acceptance. 

And so, I want to give them this Jesus who saved me, and who grants me His grace every day--His grace, His unmerited favor, His power to live life, His faithfulness to direct, correct and mature them little by little and His favor and unconditional love, which will never fail them. My daughters, friends, colleagues will better understand their adequacy that comes from Jesus when they see it for real in my life.

And I want to live in such a way that they will always know that they, too, can be found acceptable and beautiful in His arena of blessing.

I want my precious daughters to live in the secure ring of our own family love, grace and acceptance and to have the freedom and grace in their hearts to know that who they are, as they are is quite enough and even lovely because of the grace of God so very reflective in and through each moment of their lives.

May He bless my precious girls, and me, and each of us to so live in this true feminine beauty of His love and acceptance that we never need dwell in the insecurity of not ever being able to be perfect or measure up to the arbitrary standards of this world. May His grace truly invigorate and fuel the moments of our lives each day and may others see what is really beautiful as we reflect His reality every day.

Let us break the mold of the world and show a new acceptance--one that comes from God's grace, not as a result of anything we have done to deserve it, but acceptance that comes as a gift from God.

Grace comes every morning

 "Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day, with no mistakes in it yet?" ~Anne Shirley in Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery

It is more than a comfort to know that each day offers the promise of a tomorrow--a new day, with no mistakes in it, yet.

The yet, perhaps, is the important word in that sentence! Because mistakes will surely be made. I will speak too sharply to someone, and I'll gossip or criticize someone and then feel guilty, I will break a commitment I have made to myself one more time. Perhaps I'll forget to return a phone call or water a plant that dies--and know that I wasted my money and failed one more time. The possibilities of ways to make big mistakes and small are endless. In the past, those sorts of things weighed heavy on my heart. Why couldn't I just get everything accomplished, as everyone else seemed to do? Why was I still impatient and unorganized sometimes?

Sometimes it is assumed that anyone who speaks or writes or works to inspire other moms has "arrived" to some extent. There can be an illusion that at my house, everything is perfect, no one is ever cross, and there's no effort necessary to keep things running smoothly. This, I can assure you, is not the case!

"I do not consider myself to be a perfect mother. My aspirations and what I can idealize oftentimes far exceed my ability to live up to them in reality. Yet it is in being able to visualize the dreams of my heart and beauty of God's design that I have found a standard of maturity to move toward.

As I reflect on my own life, I feel that I have learned so much--the hard way, by making many mistakes. Many moments of stress and struggle could have been handled so much more easily if I had had a wiser, older woman to shed light on my stages of life. It was through writers like Edith Schaeffer that I was encouraged and helped along my way. My hope is that in some way, I might be able to provide that same encouragement and inspiration."~ from The Mission of Motherhood

Mistakes will be made, and our ideals are not always realized- and others disappoint while we disappoint ourselves. But the most wonderful truth that I pray will go deep into my own heart and to yours, is that the love of God is steadfast--it never changes, it remains strong, it's loyalty does not change.

Take this deeply into your brain and into your heart--The steadfast love of the Lord never, ever ceases and His mercies never come to and end. Every morning they are there waiting for you to bathe yourself in once again.

--And best of all, the truth that I can always begin again! Every day a clean slate, a new beginning, a fresh history. 

Today, you are new and fresh--walk in the newness and reality of a clean slate and live into His everlasting love.

Aim high, sweet mama. And when mistakes come, know they are covered by the One who holds all in His hands, and whose mercies are "new every morning!"

Memorize this verse and sing it to yourself every day:

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."

~Lamentations 3:22-23

Be Still: Learning to live in the goodness of His grace.

“As mothers and fathers, it is so easy to get distracted by the details of our lives. We have so much to do! We must feed our children well and take care of their health. We must oversee their education and their training to make sure they will be able to take care of themselves and live in a civilized society. We train them in righteousness so they may understand how God wants them to live. We try to relate to them in mature ways and help them learn to have healthy relationships.” -The Ministry of Motherhood

It is a great responsibility to be a mother, a cultivator of beauty and nurturer of souls. If you are finding yourself overwhelmed today with the tasks of your home ( playing with your sweet ones and listening to their hearts, cooking meals, cleaning, reading to your children, being a life-giver), consumed by anxiety, daunting tasks, and a serious lack of sleep, I invite you to take a deep breath at this moment.

Relax, even for just a minute, and remember that while you may feel alone, God sees all of the work you do (the late nights, early morning, many meals, the lit candles and lovely flowers that no one else noticed).

Don’t put unrealistic pressures on yourself, on your personal mama agenda, or on your parenting, that God never asked you to do. Perhaps the most loving and healthy thing you can do for yourself and your children is to be still for a moment today and have a quiet time. Put on some music, and invite your children to have some independent quiet time for just an hour. This is a wonderful time for them to enjoy some summer reading, while you can enjoy a moment to refuel.

"Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!" Psalm 46:10

Take a moment to reflect on the verse and ask yourself the 5 questions below: -How can you prioritize your quiet time today and squeeze it into your busy schedule? -What tiny details are distracting you from what is truly important? -Is there anything on your to-do list that can be set aside for a later date? -What tasks are you stressing about and prioritizing that God is not asking you to carry today? -How much more efficiently could you love and nurture your children if you took a moment for yourself to be still?

Be still today, sweet mamas, and know that not every day will be filled with Pinterest-perfect meals, spotless homes, intense homeschool lessons finished, or 15 DIY projects completed. Try not to put too much pressure on yourself, and remember that God loves you not just through what you do, but how you are able and willing to let Him take over. The beauty of God's grace shines when we learn to be still. 

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Remember todays amazing verse for our You Are Loved Bible study:

Oh the voices…

God doesn’t love you because….

Your sins really aren’t forgiven…

God is not pleased with you….

He is disappointed in you…

You can’t change…

If God really knew what you are like on the inside…..He wouldn’t/couldn’t love you.

Oh those voices, they speak lies to me day and night, so much so that I have to go back to God’s Word, back to the real Truth, day after day and read for myself what He says about His amazing love for me. For more, go HERE

Today, He sees you and does not condemn you. Be still and rest in Him!

The Rival seeks to destroy the beauty and reality of God's love!

Four rocking chairs squeaked gently as we sat quietly on my front porch in the cool of the mountain sunset at the end of the day. A cherished friend of many years shared the moment with my two daughters and me. All of us had shared our hearts and thoughts and conflicts and issues bubbling up inside.

I realized that, in my life, and in the experiences of all of us who were together this evening, there have been many conflicts, bruises, separations with people over many years. All of us will confront many challenges in our lifetime in a broken world. Our sweet fellowship of friendship gave comfort to each of us and we shared each other's burdens with understanding and gentle sympathy.

 So often we allow these times of difficulty to effect how we perceive God looks at us.

We think, "Because I have scars or have a failed relationship, God must be disappointed in me. Perhaps we are disappointed with ourselves because we have the illusion that somehow if we try hard enough, we can create a perfectly harmonious life. And so we feel we have failed God and He looks down upon us with angry or disappointed eyes.

But when Jesus looks upon us, he looks at us with compassionate eyes. I love the scripture in Psalm 103: 14 that says, "For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust."

Jesus died for us, because He loved us so much, he wanted to restore us to the perfect love that God had always wanted us to know. We read, "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."Romans 5: 8

Amazing--while we were stuck in our own selfishness, our own pettiness, our own scars, he loved us so much He died for us.

It is the cross that bridges the gap between our hurts, disappointments, brokenness and God's perfect love. It is the cross that brings us hope for what we will experience in eternity.

Consequently, Satan does not want us to know this freedom, this amazing grace. He seeks to steal our joy, destroy our image of the living loving God. He wants us to think somehow we are able to heal ourselves by trying harder.

"It is easy to be cynical, it is brave to be joyful."

Joy Clarkson

As we were speaking of these issues, we all were captured by a field of wildflowers in our view.  Swaying in the wind, they seemed to dance and sing of the beauty, the glory of the artist who planted them there for our pleasure. It is as though God reminded us that He was with us--that He had seen and heard our hearts, but that the beauty He had shown us was a hint of the exquisite loveliness had has prepared for us in eternity, where we will live in a perfect relationship with Him, and everyone else who dwells with Him there.

My daughter Joy observed that our sense of God's provision was a choice of faith that it is our glory to make. All around us are evidences of His reality and presence, but we must open the eyes of our heart to see His beauty and to embrace His love and joy. She finished her thoughts, "As we experience the disappointments in this world, we have a choice to make--to look at the reality of God's beauty and fingerprints to remind us of His provision of love or to ignore what He provides every day and to live in despair or disappointment. She concluded, "It is easy to be cynical, it is brave to be joyful."

We must understand, our peace will not come from our circumstances, our only hope is God Himself.

We cannot control the behavior of others in our lives. We cannot force someone else to be understanding, responsive, forgiving, sympathetic, when we experience broken or disappointing relationships.

But we do have the choice of controlling our own responses.

We can choose to forgive, to grow in humility. We can choose to give difficult relationships to God. And then we must leave the consequences and results in God's hands to work out in His time.

If we allow a broken relationship to consume us, to take up too much brain space, it will create anxiety and despair. However, if we give it to God by faith, and seek to leave the consequences of our difficulties in His hand, then we are able to move forward, to cultivate hope, to learn the pathway of His love. When we meet Him at the cross and allow Him to take our broken hopes, we can leave with peace, knowing that He knows us and still loves us and has healed once and for all, the places of our own failures. Only as we live in this way, can we experience His love--when we forgive ourselves and when we accept His amazing accomplishment and victory in our lives.

It is my prayer this week that you will learn to live into the light of His promised love, that you will give your burdens into His capable hands and that you will accept your Father's desire to love you and carry you through this world until you see Him face to face.

May you live free from burdens and worries to day, and rest in His amazing love.

For more encouragement, please join me today at: Goodmorninggirls.org and follow us as we study and read together:

You can still purchase it HERE 

Help us find 250,000 to support this great movie! God is opening doors.

Sweet friends,

Will you help Nathan get this movie out to a large audience?

We are so excited to see how many people supported Dolphin Tale and now, we are hoping to get Nathan's movie to Theatrical release. Kevin Sorbo, from God is not Dead--is the father of the prodigal son in Nathan's movie. He is helping him begin to reach the public with this message.

LOOKING FOR 250,000 PEOPLE TO LIKE THIS PAGE AND GET THE ATTENTION OF DISTRIBUTORS OF MOVIES TO GET THIS MOVIE IN A THEATRE RELEASE!

PLEASE SUPPORT THIS MOVIE AND LIKE THIS PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/ConfessionsOfAProdigalSon  

If you are receiving this, it means you are a mover, blogger, speaker, writer, a mom, or  mover and shaker that I feel embodies the powerful message of our new film Confessions of a Prodigal Son. Every single person can help us get one place closer to reaching the secular media's attention. Please share this with your friends.

This is a little note from Nathan!

Many of you have followed and supported me in this journey to bring this film to life since it was only and idea.

Now with your support and God's grace, we have a real movie on it's way with real movie stars, like Kevin Sorbo (God's Not Dead, Soul Surfer, etc...).

So I thank you for helping me on this journey!

BUT now I need YOUR help again!

This Friday (13th) we are releasing the first official teaser trailer- and we need YOUR help! If you would be able and willing, it would mean to world if you would post, shout, point to, and share the trailer in any outlet available to you Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Pinterest, Instagram, EVEN Myspace (if you have one).

We want to bring exposure to our film, and see if we can begin to spread it's name to as many eyes and ears as possible now, helping it reach even more people than we ever imagined when we actually release the film. Doing this will insure that we can partner with a REAL distributor who will put our movie on REAL DVD's, Theaters, Digital Download and more!

I believe with my whole heart in the message of this film- one of redemption, forgiveness, and unconditional love. A message we ALL need to hear. So with your help I know that this film will touch many, and maybe even call a few prodigals home.

IF you are a social media person share this link to the trailer! (at the bottom)

AND if you are interested in doing a blog-post, or website article, I've had a small post written up (at the bottom), should you want to use it!

Thank you again for all your help, support, and prayers.

Looking forward,

-Nathan Clarkson

-Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtNHYvTW0PE

Nathan Clarkson moved to New York for acting school when he was 19 with a burning desire to bring light to a dark world, and a passion for telling truly great stories. Now at 25 years old living in Los Angeles, Nathan looks back on what led him where he is now, in the midst of finishing his first feature film where he stars (also wrote and helped produce) alongside Kevin Sorbo (God's Not Dead, Soul Surfer, etc...) called Confessions of a Prodigal Son - a modern retelling of the prodigal son story from the bible -.

"I can remember coming to LA- poor, passionate, and ready to live my dreams, but what I soon found out was this dream was hard, and didn't come as easy as I thought. I began to look around me and see others, who like me, came here to Hollywood looking for something, but ultimately found disappointment and heartache in not being able to satisfy the hunger in their souls whether they achieved "success" or not.

I began to notice how lost and hurt so many around me were, and I began to realize that the city that promised, to so many, the fulfillment of dreams and desires- Was in reality a concentrated gathering of the broken and hurting looking for "more". I realized that instead of living in The City of Angeles, I was living in a City of Prodigals. I had my own long nights, weeks, months, years, when I thought giving up on following god would be easier and maybe it would've been.

But as I continued, even through the hardest times to try my best to follow Jesus, I began to find that the dream I had come here to find was slowly being replaced with a bigger and better dream than I ever could have imagined. Until, one morning I woke up, and felt a tug from God on my heart, to get up and write. I didn't know what to write, so I asked him, and like a light coming on above my mind, I realized it had to be the prodigal son story, because Jesus has an interest in bringing the prodigals home.

So I sat down and took the story Jesus told from the bible and mixed in with my experience in a modern world and long story short, we will soon have Confessions of a Prodigal Son. A story I hope will touch many, and maybe just maybe, call a few prodigals home."

Nathan began his journey into making this film, two years ago, raised all the money himself, through places like Kickstarter, Go Fund Me, and the support of people believing in the message of the story of the Prodigal Son. As word started making it's way around about the film, more and more people started to become interested and join in the cause, until eventually Nathan had a full crew of talented filmmakers and a cast that included some beloved and well-known actors. Nathan also was able to play opposite his then beautiful Fiancee who in the midst of everything became his wife earlier this year.

Kevin Sorbo is the father, welcoming His prodigal home. Nathan is the prodigal looking for meaning in his life.

Today is the OFFICIAL release of the first teaser trailer with actual footage from the film! If you believe in the dream that God placed on Nathan's heart to love, redeem, and call the prodigals home- the watch, be inspired and share with others.

Also make sure to "LIKE" the COAPS Facebook for all the up to date news on the film: https://www.facebook.com/ConfessionsOfAProdigalSon

And Visit the website for more information and materials being posted soon: http://www.confessionsofaprodigalson.com/

PLEASE LEAVE US A COMMENT AND TELL US WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE MOVIES THAT INSPIRE AND ENCOURAGE YOU AND YOUR FAMILY!  Tell us what you think about this story and how it may help a generation of kids to come home to their faith!