Lessons from a 40 year old mom

Lessons from a 40 yr old mom. 

Today, Jan 13, is my birthday. I don't know if it is the age or just the spot I am in with life, but I am really happy and content in who I am now. I have learned so many things along the way and wrote down just a few today. 

1. Be nice to everyone. It is not for them, it is for you. You feel better when you are kind and feeling better benefits your health is a positive way. 
2. Always serve those around you. I promise you, if your heart is in the right place of simply being a help you will never walk away from a situation and think "boy, that sure sucked to serve and be helpful" 
3. Snot and boogies wash out....poop...not so much. 
4. The golden rule is 100% a must. *Treat others as you want to be treated*. If you want to be treated like crap it is simply because you are reacting from a broken place and deep down you want to be treated with kindness, love, and respect. 
5. No person who is living a Godly life now and wasn't when they got married would ever say " I am so glad I had sex before marriage." I would venture out to say that most of them would agree ( if they waited) that waiting for the one God has for them and being pure for their marriage night was a million times worth it. 
6. Always get to a party a moment before and stay after if possible and help set up and tear down. The host may say no but stay and be available to help when needed. 
7. Never go to church or your quite time with God without having a notebook and pen. Without one you are setting your self up to not hear from Him. Go into his presence expecting to hear him and be ready to write it down. He likes to talk. We don't like to listen. 
8. Having lots of kids is more fun. It does get easier. I promise. 
9. Always, always, always ask God for help and creative ideas for any and all situations. He comes through every single time. 
10. Forgive. Yes, even that one person, who more than anyone else, in your entire life, doesn't deserve it. 
11. Dream and dream big and then take steps to reach those dreams. 
12. You will get angry at those precious angels you gave birth to or whoever calls you mom. React slowly. 
13. If your child is running in the parking lot and about to be hit by a car, it is 100% ok to grab her ponytail and yank. Do not feel guilty about it. You just saved her life. 
14. File those infants soft finger nails. If you cut you will almost always, at least once, make them bleed. It is ok. They won't die....cry yes, die-no. 
15. If you are married and starting to feel hate or dislike, or even a lack of love for your spouse, ask God to turn your heart toward your spouse. Talk to God and pray "thank you for ____ help me to forgive, love, etc. Heal this area of my heart or this area of our marriage and then DAILY tell God how much you love your spouse. DAILY thank  God for any and all the things your spouse does. If you have zero things you are happy about ask God to show you something.  Believe me, this works. God is for marriages and has a million ideas of things you can thank Him for concerning your spouse. Simply ask him to show you. 
16. Do not accept a life of aches and pain and bad health. God has designed everyone's body to heal from sickness. He did not forget to include your body in that. A car runs with proper fueling and your body does too. You are worth taking the time to research what your body needs to work the way it was designed. 
17. God is real and His Son, Jesus, is the only way to heaven. If you have trouble understanding that and believing it I encourage you to not take my word for it, ask God himself.  Don't get to the end of your life and find out your belief was wrong, that consequence is too much to take, Hell is not a joke or pretend horror movie. 
18. God is bigger than the permanent. He is bigger than the permanent diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis, he is bigger than the permanent diagnosis of a hereditary blood clotting disorder, God is bigger than the permanent _________ You fill in the blank with your permanent problem. God is always and will always be bigger than what ever you are facing. Your FACT is never bigger than God's TRUTH.
19. If you give a mom of young kids a gift card to get some sort of massage or manicure, it better come with the offer to babysit. Many gifts cards get wasted on moms who never get to use them bc who the heck is going to watch that sweet baby that they need a break from? Don't say dad, he is at work. 
20. Words have power. This is true for all religions, it is not just a weird christian  "speak it and believe it" thing. There are tons of books out there that talk about the power of positive talk. I tell my kids, speak what you want to happen, not what is happening. Ex: kid -"I suck at baseball or math....etc." Me- " do you want to suck at baseball?" Kid-"no" Me- " than talk to God, tell him you think you are terrible at this and want to get better then start thanking him on getting better, Thank you Lord for helping me get better at____."
21. Someone feeling strongly about their convictions does not mean it has to be yours. The Bible is the only guide line you need to walk a straight line. 
22. No one enters into marriage wanting to get a divorce so work at it. Don't give up. Marriage and raising kids is the hardest job and relationships you will ever have. God is bigger than your crappy marriage and even your disobedient kids. If you are in an abusive marriage, seek help immediately. If you enter into a marriage knowing you will want a divorce before it even starts or you are just in it for the money, seek help immediately, ask for guidance and prayer.  If you feel your  kids are the cause to you losing your mind, seek help immediately. 
23. You are not alone. There is not a single thing on this earth that you have thought, done, had done to you, or thinking about doing, that has not already been done before. You are not alone. I promise you. 
24. Baby steps in the right direction is better than sitting on your butt moving in no direction. #steponetochange
25. Be obedient in the small things like coming to a complete stop at stop signs or putting your shopping cart up in the proper area helps you practice being obedient in the bigger areas of life that really matter.   
26. Stop fighting about the toilet seat not being put down when he is done, he has to lift it up every time, so you having to put it down each time is no different.  
27. Using a kitchen timer and setting it for 10 or 15 mins to clean a room before the timer goes off will save your life, your sanity, and being on a episode of Hoarders. 
28. If you think you have food in your teeth you probably do, never assume you don't.
29. Being fat does not make a person ugly, being skinny does not make a person pretty. A kind and genuine heart makes a person beautiful.
30. Not being healed immediately can also be part of God's plan. Having surgery for something does not admit failure or lack of faith, sometimes it takes more faith to go through that then to just be healed. 
31. Don't tell someone "Wow, you look so skinny" It is neither a compliment or insult it is just a statement and hard to respond to.
32. When someone has lost a loved one and you have no idea what to say....say that..."I  have no idea what to say but i am here for you" It means the world. 
33. When someone loses a baby (pregnancy), do not say any of the above-" Well at least you have other kids or at least you are young enough to try again or at least you are still alive or at least you were not further along. Losing a pregnancy, no matter how it panned out, is hard and those statements are stupid and do not, ever, in any situation, help the person getting over the hurt. 
34. Learn to cook, it will bless you and those around you for years and years to come.
35. Open your home to others and show them what a real, Jesus loving, we have messes, we fight and make up, goofy family looks like. It may be the only one they have ever seen. 
36. Tell your family how much you love them and let them know you are proud of them. Imagine a marathon, You are in the race and at certain markers you have water stands to refresh you on this long, hard race. Your kids, your spouse, your boss, you....are all in a race of life and it is exhausting and we need people who can stand along the side lines to provide refreshment to our souls. Let your home and your words be the certain markers for refreshment. Do not dare be the one tearing down your family members with your words because they are a terrible student, they always forget something, they are clumsy...You pray for them and ask God for creative ways to speak to their gentle hearts to learn something new. 
37. Breast feeding is best. Bottle feeding is best. Your baby being healthy and fed is best. It is more important to give your child what works for you and your family then to try and fit into the - perfect -breast is best- peer pressure.
38. Do not depend on humans to fulfill you, we are all full of crap and will fail you at every corner you turn. We are human and you are designed to fully need God and can only be fulfilled by God. Even if we do every. single. thing. right. it will still be wrong. Remember those kid toys that had square, circle, diamond, and triangle shapes in the top and the toddle had to match up the toy with the right shape to fit it. Remember the frustration the toddle had because as much as they tried, that circle would not, could not, fit into that triangle hole. We do that with our lives, we rely on people to make us happy and we work really hard on trying to fit it into our lives. But, that filling of discontent is meant to only be filled by God and no other shape can fill it. 
39. Dry shampoo is awesome, shaving legs is not. 
40. A vehicle will not run if it is not filled up. You can not function if you are not filled up. Getting in God's word and his presence is 100% for you and not God. If you read your bible and pray every day God loves you so much and if you are miss hoochie mama over there and doing drugs and using the Lord's name in vain with every other word, God loves you so much. Your actions will never change that. Reading God's word is for our benefit, When the enemy wants to attack us, we will be ready for battle when we read the Word. It is a double edge sword. When the enemy attacks and we aren't reading the Word, we crumble at the first punch, we have no weapons to fight with.
    

Gideon, laziness, and social media

3 topics all different, all connected. At the end is the month goal for me


Gideon is a man in the bible who's story is recording in Judges. He was a guy who was hiding in fear when an angel spoke to him.

At our church we are doing a women's fall bible study and this one is by Priscilla Shirer and the topic is Gideon.

I am not sure I have really read Gideon's story before this study. It is only 3 chapters, it should be easy to read, but some how I have not studied it until now.

I love how it tells us Gideon was afraid and God still spoke to him. I think so many times people think they have to have their junk in order to be called by God but this story proves that theory wrong.

Laziness is kind of my game here. I am sitting in bed on a friday night and it is not even 9:30. I have no plans to get up and no plans to get my bible to write out the exact scripture for this story. I apologize ahead of time and encourage you to read it for yourself...I mean it is only 3 chapters...

This week's study has been about God narrowing down the many to get to the few. Gideon is called to lead a battle and he sounds a horn (trumpet..something....go read it and let me know) to call the men. 32,000 men show up ready for battle. God says that is too many men and the group gets narrowed down simply by telling those that were scared to go home. 22,000 men scattered. That left Gideon with just 10,000 men. The first number was too low to win the battle but now this number...this was just ridiculous. Then God goes and does the crazy, he tells Gideon that it is still too many men and the group again gets narrowed down to a measley number of 300. This number...now it was just unheard of..it was just stupid...no one could win a battle with just 300 men...This was exactly God's point and it leads me to my last word.

Social media is a huge thing in so many lives, mine included. With Gideon God was showing him that something that seemed 100% impossible to do was actually possible with God's help. Even though the first number of 32,000 men it would be hard to win a war but they could take credit if they won. With 10,000 men the battle would be next to impossible to win but they could get victory and take credit. With just 300 men it would be impossible, standing in a pile of poo impossible, surrounding by thousands of bullies who are about to crush you impossible and so when they win there would be NO WAY they could take credit and God would get all the glory.

So many times in our lives we take credit b/c of our plenty..b/c of our 32,000 and we dont give the glory to God. Many times God is wanting us to decrease the things we have so that he can get the victory, so he can increase in our lives. Sadly we silently scream NO to God's increasing simply because we hold onto the plenty in our lives. Surely God doesn't want me to have less money by taking this other job. How else will I be able to bless others? Surely God doesn't want me to say no to people asking for help, I mean hasn't he called me to serve?

When we hold onto the abundance we can easily fall into the trap of not giving God glory for victory he deserves. Even if we give God glory, others can take it from him in their own heart. When we win battles in our lives that could happen no other way then a God miracle then no one can take that away even if it is the crazy impossible.

So with the study this week and through prayer I asked my self what is my 32,000 that God is trying to trim down?
Social Media came to mind and I was like ahhhh no, not that. I know God has called me to teach and speak the Word of God. Social media is a strategic way to make friends and keep in contact. See the problem with that is I can totally take credit and God gets nothing. So starting tomorrow, for 30 days, I am cutting WAY back on things and when I still get to teach God gets the credit..not me.
I will be posting on my blog as my outlet and linking it to my facebook page. I will log in twice a week to check my actual facebook page since I have my photography page and life group pages to check.

Are there some things in your life that you, in your abundance, are taking credit for when really the victory goes to God? Maybe he is asking you to narrow it down from 32,000 to 300.

Until next time.....I will leave you with this awesomeness.