I don't have much to say today...

Yeah I know.....it's weird. Enjoy it while it lasts.....

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Flashback Time!

You know how they talk about that "sixth sense" you get when you become a mother? Yup....

About a year and a half ago, Mom and all of us kids were assembled at the dining room table (which is actually a secondhand conference table....the "regular" dining room tables are too small). I don't remember if it was breakfast time or if we were having a formal family meeting, but Mom was delivering a lecture on why we needed to crack down on the housework that week, or why we're going to be cutting out TV for awhile, or whatever, and one of the boys made a smart remark. Mom was visibly irritated with such a remark, and I expected the smart-aleck was really gonna get his. But she was tired, and she only said, "Listen mister, next time you smart off like that, I'm gonna punish you twice as bad."
And I thought to myself, "Twice of nothing?? Why doesn't she GROUND him?"
Mom continued whatever thought she was trying to express and then, without missing a beat, turned to me and said, ".....and yes, Ashley, I know twice of nothing is still nothing."

She scared me so bad I didn't dare think another thing in her presence for a month.

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I don't have much else to say, so I'll let Mom talk for me. Shortly after her death, I found this letter that Mom had written around October-ish for a lady who was preparing for her Walk to Emmaus. I just love to read it. It's my mom, and the things she used to say, and oh my goodness, what wisdom she had! For weeks I walked around with a paragraph from this letter in my back pocket..."as you continue to grow, remember that the increase of faith is a stretching exercise..." That whole paragraph was a lifeline to me for weeks.
So...be edified. :o)

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Mom's Letter

Dear Paige,

I’m so very excited that you are able to experience this special time! Everyone I know who has ever done so has come away refreshed, inspired, comforted, and/or refined having encountered God in a fresh, new, humbling way.

I can’t help but be reminded of our time together at the Regeneration Retreat a few years ago. God has done so very much in your life since that time! I remember praying for you and for God’s plan for you quite awhile before that retreat. Seeing how quickly He moved in your heart - and then how quickly and thoroughly he responded to your obedience - was a joy, indeed!

And here you are, today, serving the Lord by your husband’s side and fulfilling your destiny in Him by submitting yourself to His plan and His ways. Don’t ever be satisfied with the status quo in your walk with Him! There is always MORE to know of Him, MORE to have of Him, MORE to be for the glory of His Name.

As you continue to grow, always remember that the increase of faith is a stretching exercise that will require pulling you into difficult, painful, confusing, or uncomfortable places. Don’t be afraid of those things…embrace them as part of this fabulous destiny He is marking out for you. Make staying in His Word and carving out private time in His presence your ultimate priority and never allow anything to pull you from it. These are life and breath to you and the ability to fulfill the high calling to which He has ordained you absolutely hinges on the “oxygen” of these things.

The world will try to pull you away. Your own flesh will try to pull you away. The cares of living a daily life will try to pull you away and you must be completely steadfast…you must “set your face” to do these things or you will surely find yourself empty, serving the Lord from a hollow heart, with no joy or sense of adventure and purpose.

It is a trap into which most women fall at some point in their lives and every little pull away from those lifelines that calls itself “needful” or “legitimate,” whether it be business, family, personal, or religious service itself…you must recognize as a good thing warped in the “spin” of the enemy of your soul. There is nothing more “needful” than time in His Word and in His Presence.

There is a rest that many women never find - a place of quiet grace and dignity and peace. It is the rest of finding the role that the Father has asked you to fulfill…of not needing to satisfy one’s own desires for more “fill-in-the-blank”…of so delighting in the Father and trusting in His Ways and Plan that one has no greater joy and fulfillment than to do exactly what He has asked in the timing He has set.

As women, we tend to fight that rest without even realizing it! May it be a lesson you learn very early in your family life so that you may model for others and train your children in that kind of contentment that is really only a shadow of our Reward as we live our lives pursuing His pleasure instead of our own and asking of every opportunity, not “Can I do this? Is this wrong?” but rather “Is this wise? Is this the highest glory I could bring to my Savior?” That is path of victory!

With Love,
Laura Belt