As I continue to look at the Proverbs 31 woman I am amazed, challenged, and may be even a little overwhelmed. However, most of all I am inspired. She is the goal, she is who I want to be. In my home being a homemaker who is not necessarily talented at homemaking and learning to juggle the responsibilities that come along with this job, I sometimes wonder about this woman in Proverbs. How did she do it all? How did she keep up? As I look at today and another day with more to do than I will be able to get done I am once again inspired. I decided that I will do the next thing and when I go to bed tonight proud of what I accomplished. See I am coming to terms with the fact that I am becoming not arriving and that is okay. So even though I need to be more organized and learn to manage my time more efficiently I will work to become better in those things and let the words of Proverbs 31 inspire me on the journey.
I want to challenge you today on your journey of becoming. Pick one area that you need to improve in your becoming process and find ways to improve in that area. Then live in peace as you work toward that.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
It Is Not About Arriving Instead It Is About Becoming
Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value.
Proverbs 31:11
As I continue with my study on Proverbs 31 I am continually challenged to be a better wife, mom, and Christian. It seems that my weaknesses seem to be challenged as I encounter concepts in this passage. My prayer is that those weaknesses would be transformed into strengths. This verse is no exception. I was sharing my struggles over this verse with my husband over the weekend. He had a lot of insight that helped me significantly.
When I left the work place one year ago on Thursday I was an emotional basket case. I had spent so much time hearing the issues of others (I was a mental health/substance abuse therapist) that I did not deal with my own issues (which were plentiful from our years of struggle) and those emotions did not simply sit there waiting to be dealt with. They had been eroding me on the inside. So a year ago I was still suicidal. I had been talking myself out of suicide every day for a very long time and I needed to heal. I am no longer in that mental state. I do not have ANY desire to commit suicide now-- ever. I have healed significantly. I will share more about this part of my life sometime in another post when I am ready to share more about it. I am not ready for that just yet. I still find that I am more sensitive than I used to be and sometimes still need to lean on my husband's emotional strength. Somehow in my mind that made me someone with whom my husband could not have full confidence. As I have studied this verse I envision that this husband would not have to be concerned with what is going on at home-- not even one thought about it because he was so confident that it was left in her capable hands. After diving into a deeper study of the passage I still believe that this is what the passage indicates. However, I was beating myself up over the fact that I still would get so emotional. I shared with my husband how I was struggling with the fact that I still have to lean on him more than I would like in this area and that I believed it made him not be able to have full confidence in me.
He told me that this was a ridiculous notion. He knows that things are continually improving in our home and he feels both comforted and at ease because I am at home with our children. Further he told me how much he sees that our whole family benefits from me being home. Then we talked about the progress made over the last year and I did not realize until that discussion how significant that progress actually is. A year from now it will be even more. Vic then reminded me that I am way too hard on myself and I do not allow enough room for grace when it comes to myself. I do with others, but not myself. He also pointed out that it is not reaching the destination to be concerned with-- it is the becoming. I will never truly arrive at being perfectly like the ideal wife, but if I can become more like her over time then I have succeeded. The words of my husband are true for you as well as for me. As long as we are working toward becoming more like Christ then our husband's should be able to have full confidence in us because our hearts are in the right condition.
Proverbs 31:11
As I continue with my study on Proverbs 31 I am continually challenged to be a better wife, mom, and Christian. It seems that my weaknesses seem to be challenged as I encounter concepts in this passage. My prayer is that those weaknesses would be transformed into strengths. This verse is no exception. I was sharing my struggles over this verse with my husband over the weekend. He had a lot of insight that helped me significantly.
When I left the work place one year ago on Thursday I was an emotional basket case. I had spent so much time hearing the issues of others (I was a mental health/substance abuse therapist) that I did not deal with my own issues (which were plentiful from our years of struggle) and those emotions did not simply sit there waiting to be dealt with. They had been eroding me on the inside. So a year ago I was still suicidal. I had been talking myself out of suicide every day for a very long time and I needed to heal. I am no longer in that mental state. I do not have ANY desire to commit suicide now-- ever. I have healed significantly. I will share more about this part of my life sometime in another post when I am ready to share more about it. I am not ready for that just yet. I still find that I am more sensitive than I used to be and sometimes still need to lean on my husband's emotional strength. Somehow in my mind that made me someone with whom my husband could not have full confidence. As I have studied this verse I envision that this husband would not have to be concerned with what is going on at home-- not even one thought about it because he was so confident that it was left in her capable hands. After diving into a deeper study of the passage I still believe that this is what the passage indicates. However, I was beating myself up over the fact that I still would get so emotional. I shared with my husband how I was struggling with the fact that I still have to lean on him more than I would like in this area and that I believed it made him not be able to have full confidence in me.
He told me that this was a ridiculous notion. He knows that things are continually improving in our home and he feels both comforted and at ease because I am at home with our children. Further he told me how much he sees that our whole family benefits from me being home. Then we talked about the progress made over the last year and I did not realize until that discussion how significant that progress actually is. A year from now it will be even more. Vic then reminded me that I am way too hard on myself and I do not allow enough room for grace when it comes to myself. I do with others, but not myself. He also pointed out that it is not reaching the destination to be concerned with-- it is the becoming. I will never truly arrive at being perfectly like the ideal wife, but if I can become more like her over time then I have succeeded. The words of my husband are true for you as well as for me. As long as we are working toward becoming more like Christ then our husband's should be able to have full confidence in us because our hearts are in the right condition.
Monday, May 28, 2012
Colorado Encouragement Pack (review)
This month for the Gabby Moms program with Eternal Encouragement Magazine I was given the high privilege to review Lorrie Flem's Colorado Pack. I have to say a big WOW!!! Every single one of the audios in that pack really and truly spoke to me. I will not be able to even tell you half or even a quarter of what spoke to my heart when I listened to these audios. If you have been following my blog for any length of time you know our family went through extended years of struggle and the roles in our family became reversed due to the seizure disorder that formerly plagued my husband. His cognitive function had deteriorated to the point that he could no longer function in his role in our family. So I ended up taking on most of his role. After brain surgery and the seizures stopped his brain began to heal. He started making new neuropathways and eventually was able to function in his role again. I say again, but really for the first time in our marriage as we discovered that he never truly recovered all his cognitive function from as far back as seizures that occurred when he was 18 months old. So it was time for me stepping back to allow him to function as head of our home or priest of our home for the first time. It was even further complicated by the fact that I did not even know what it meant to be a submissive wife or what it looked like when a husband was the head or priest of the home. In the home I grew up in my mom did not respect my dad and I was encouraged to pursue anything but being a submissive wife. However, God's Word is clear that I am to let my husband be the spiritual leader of our home. The fact that I had not been raised that way did not excuse me from this biblical command on my life as a wife. So feeling a little lost I have spent the last couple of years trying to figure out what exactly my role is supposed to be. It has not been as easy as I thought it would be as some of the descriptions in God's Word have not seemed clear to me. For example according to Titus 2 I am supposed to be a "keeper of the home". What exactly does that mean!?! The Bible is clear that I am supposed to submit to my husband, but what does it mean to submit to my husband!?! I do not doubt that I am to do those things and for some these seem so clear, but to me they just weren't. When I would ask I would get vague answers which only further frustrated me.
Then along came Gabby Moms. My friend thought I could gain a lot for being a Gabby Mom and she was right. I am growing so much and finding some answers to my questions and some direction to get me started. That is what happened in the Colorado Pack when I was listening to the audios. I had to stop and cry sometimes. Those tears were sometimes tears of relief when something I had sensed was right, but been told was wrong ended up being right. Then other times when I would see how much I had blown it and there would be tears of repentance. I had needed some help with rightly putting together Scripture. If you are a woman who has experienced some of the same confusion I have then I would really recommend The Colorado Pack.
I think the session that impacted me most was the session titled Keys to a Queenly Castle. In this session Lorrie talks about the Proverbs 31 woman (someone I have been studying a lot lately). Then she quoted from 1 Kings 17:17 where it mentions that the woman is "mistress of the house". I decided that I wanted a clearer understanding concerning the word mistress because honestly a not very good picture was coming to my mind. So I pulled out the dictionary. It defined mistress as "a woman who has power, authority, or ownership". In other words a woman is to have authority over her home. She has dominion over it. Then as I was studying Proverbs 31:11 the KJV says, "The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her so that he shall have no need of spoil." Then Lorrie said in another place during this session that a husband and wife are co-heirs of grace and each of us has a different role in our inheritance. All of a sudden a light went on in my head. As a wife I am to take ownership and rule over my home so that my husband does not have to even have one hint of concern for our home as he knows it is in my capable hands. This realization has brought freedom, vision, and a sense of urgency about my job. I started to see that God has truly good things for our family, but in order for them to happen I need to own my role and work hard at it. My husband, my children, society, and I will all be blessed if I do.
If you are a feminist you will not enjoy The Colorado Pack, but if you are a woman striving to glorify God in your home, marriage, and family then The Colorado Pack would greatly encourage you. This bundle and many other products that would be of great benefit in your journey as wife and mother can be found at the Eternal Encouragement website.
Note: I received The Colorado Pack as an official member of the Gabby Moms blogging program in exchange for my honest review.
Then along came Gabby Moms. My friend thought I could gain a lot for being a Gabby Mom and she was right. I am growing so much and finding some answers to my questions and some direction to get me started. That is what happened in the Colorado Pack when I was listening to the audios. I had to stop and cry sometimes. Those tears were sometimes tears of relief when something I had sensed was right, but been told was wrong ended up being right. Then other times when I would see how much I had blown it and there would be tears of repentance. I had needed some help with rightly putting together Scripture. If you are a woman who has experienced some of the same confusion I have then I would really recommend The Colorado Pack.
I think the session that impacted me most was the session titled Keys to a Queenly Castle. In this session Lorrie talks about the Proverbs 31 woman (someone I have been studying a lot lately). Then she quoted from 1 Kings 17:17 where it mentions that the woman is "mistress of the house". I decided that I wanted a clearer understanding concerning the word mistress because honestly a not very good picture was coming to my mind. So I pulled out the dictionary. It defined mistress as "a woman who has power, authority, or ownership". In other words a woman is to have authority over her home. She has dominion over it. Then as I was studying Proverbs 31:11 the KJV says, "The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her so that he shall have no need of spoil." Then Lorrie said in another place during this session that a husband and wife are co-heirs of grace and each of us has a different role in our inheritance. All of a sudden a light went on in my head. As a wife I am to take ownership and rule over my home so that my husband does not have to even have one hint of concern for our home as he knows it is in my capable hands. This realization has brought freedom, vision, and a sense of urgency about my job. I started to see that God has truly good things for our family, but in order for them to happen I need to own my role and work hard at it. My husband, my children, society, and I will all be blessed if I do.
If you are a feminist you will not enjoy The Colorado Pack, but if you are a woman striving to glorify God in your home, marriage, and family then The Colorado Pack would greatly encourage you. This bundle and many other products that would be of great benefit in your journey as wife and mother can be found at the Eternal Encouragement website.
Note: I received The Colorado Pack as an official member of the Gabby Moms blogging program in exchange for my honest review.
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