Some great links and confessions and things...

by sarahmfry, November 16, 2011
My friend Lizzy posted a link yesterday to THIS article for women written by Grace Driscoll of Mars Hill.  Both parts are absolutely fantastic and full of scripture...a great starting place for my quiet time today, even!

The articles are written specifically for ministry wives, but the principles apply in many ways to all women.  I am thankful for the encouragement from other godly women.  (Liz is always finding good articles!  Stay tuned to her blog.)

Another favorite writer I have been feeding from lately is Rachel Jankovic. She has written three motherhood articles for the Desiring God website. They are excellent.

Motherhood is a Calling (And Where Your Children Rank)

Motherhood is a Mission Field

Motherhood is Application

Much of what we (and by we I mean I) read online is rather useless.  But these are some links to godly wisdom written by women after God's heart.  They are full of scripture and biblical principles.  They have encouraged me to be better. To think better.  To keep trucking, cuz I'm on the right track.  To fight back against the enemy's lies that try to get me to doubt my own focus.

I find great joy in keeping my home and love what happens when I am disciplined to keep my schedule and be diligent and persistent.  But frankly sometimes I find myself wasting precious time sitting in front of this screen following rabbit trails - some of them extremely valuable, some of them about as valuable as a marshmallow.  Many times I get up feeling defeated and insecure.  I think Facebook can be to my personal focus what going to the mall can be to my budget contentedness.  I hope you know me well enough to know that I am NOT against Facebook or malls.  But I confess that Satan uses little lovely things like facebooks and malls to suck my joy or lure me into comparison, wrong focus, and/or dis-contentedness.

Proverbs 29:25
“Fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.”

One of the things I have been struggling deeply with lately is worrying about what perfect-and-critical people will think if I post honestly on my blog.  But they'll just have to criticize away this morning.  Because confession is a huge part of being holy.  I am not confessing that I am a slob of a mother/wife/housekeeper.  I have been enjoying an imperfect-but-peaceful, managed home and doing the things that matter with our family.  BUT.  I know for sure and for certain that I need a better system for keeping track of my screen time.  I'm thinking of using a timer (a priceless flylady trick.)  I'm thinking 15 minutes is enough time to check my email and peek at a few blogs.  How many 15 minute time segments in a day?  I don't really know.  Probably depends on the day. And whether the morning chores are done.

One of my favorite first-thing morning prayers lately is "God, I'm YOUR girl.  Help me to act like it today."

I am weary with people who seem to always have it together and get it all right and speak with haughty authority or edgy criticism.  Or perhaps I'm just weary with my own faulty perception and immature comparison!   So I have been hesitant to blog, afraid that I would feed into that viscous perception-and-comparison cycle.

This is where I am:  I certainly don't have it all together.  But I'm also not falling apart.  I am learning and growing and loving it immensely.   Quality articles like these and this confession & growth in the everyday nittygritty are part of being His girl.  And I need to be able to be on this journey with my sisters.  (I'm pretty sure I spoke that last paragraph to my fear. : )

So...I'm off to be His girl.

I Timothy 3:1-7
1The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. 2Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, 5for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church? 6He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. 7Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.


Smoky Mountains - taken in August of 2005 (obviously)


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