Sunday, December 7, 2008

In death... life


It's funny to see how some things can change you to the core...  

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There is the gift of salvation as it radically calls you, it can radically bring you out of darkness, and then it radically transforms you...  in death, there is life.  
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Motherhood.  It is a role that can rock us to the core, change us, and yet it seems like this is a role that is attacked quite frequently in our American culture.  The message out there can leave us full of questions and frustrated...  What are we to do?  What is our role in the home?  

Being a mommy can be exhausting to say the least.  We spend our best energy on changing diapers,  wiping noses, potty training, reading kids books, making snacks, cleaning messes, only to then have sleepless nights.    

It leaves you little time for yourself.   

But in many ways that is the beauty of it...  it's a dying to self.  

Our American culture (even the Christian culture) so often convinces us that this life is all about us rather than being all about Jesus Christ.
Leslie Ludy

We need to understand that He has called us to do this, then as we lay down our lives and serve Him it is no longer about us and what we deserve. 

No longer is it about us but about Him. No longer is it about what the world says but what He says.

Our role was designed by God Himself...
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.  
Proverbs 22:6
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One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts. 
Psalm 145:4
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And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.  And these words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart;  and 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. And you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.  And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.   
Deuteronomy 6:5-9
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Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips, nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be dishonored.

Titus 2:3-5

Once we understand what He has called us to do, then we can ask Him to fill us with a vision for our role.  
The mission of motherhood is strategic in providing the next generation with wholehearted, emotionally healthy, and spiritually alive adults. It is not simply a lifestyle choice. It is a divine calling that will indeed affect eternity.
Sally Clarkson

Then when we are exhausted, pushed beyond our limits, tired... we remember why we are doing it...  

"There they dwelt with the King for His work." That's the secret.  They do it for Him.  They ask for and receive His grace to do it.  I saw the joy in their lovely faces." 
Elisabeth Elliot

By His grace, as we surrender and seek to follow Him... we are changed, molded... 

...and we find joy in our role. Complete and full joy. 

In our death there is life.


My quiet thoughts on a  Sabbath afternoon...


3 comments:

  1. Beautiful post Carrie! I think it relates not only to motherhood but life itself-every area.
    Great quotes too.

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  2. Wow. I love this post. You are so right, and your post is so grounded in Scripture. Thanks for the encouragement!
    Blessings,
    Joy

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  3. Powerful post, Carrie. Amazing. In death there is life... always.

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