5 Ways to Love Your Kids When You're Running on Empty

My son, Caleb, has a new way of telling us how tired he is. He gives us a percentage.
“Mom, my legs are 35%, ” he declares in the middle of downtown Atlanta on vacation.
“Mom, my legs are 8%,” he warns in the line at the grocery store.
“0%. No power,“ he calmly states as he wilts into the ground at Sam’s Club.”

And when I see him there, a part of me thinks, “Me too, buddy. Me too.”

0%. No power.

I so want to love my children like my battery is at 100% all the time, but I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how in the world that could happen.

My mom did it. She managed to create an atmosphere of love and care in our home when she had to have been at 0% a time or two herself. Even now, my mom is still doing everything she can to remind me of how loved I am.

In a few days, it will be my birthday. My mom is a master of birthdays and holidays. She makes me feel like I’m are the only important person in the world. She tells me what she loves about me. She sends me thoughtful gifts. She asks to spend time with me, but she doesn’t demand my attention. She calls me and texts me and reminds my siblings to call and text.  And those are just what I get when I’m a thirty-five-year-old adult living states away.

My mom’s example is sometimes overwhelming to me. How did she find time to love us so well even one day a year? How did she do it day after day after day? How did she find the strength to pursue us when we pulled away, to listen to us when we weren’t making any sense, and to do just the right thing we needed it?

After reflecting a little myself, I think I’ve figured out how my mom loved me when I know her batteries were running low:

She listened. When chatter spilled from my mouth about friends and people and ideas and activities, she always made me feel like my story was interesting and important. She asked follow-up questions, made understanding faces, and stopped what she was doing to hear me.

She included me in her world. Whether it was a trip to the grocery store or a stop by the Dairy Queen, my mom always invited me and my siblings to come. Sometimes she made us go with her when we didn’t want to, but even though we were mad, there was something about being wanted and valued that made us feel important, and we never knew when a trip to the grocery store and a trip to Dairy Queen might be one and the same.

She told me. My mom was great at telling us she loved us, at praising us for our efforts and for our character. She noticed what I did and told me about it. I felt noticed and affirmed and loved.

She thought about me. My parents would often come home from a date night or a trip or an errand with an extra treat for us. Something about the way mom said, “ I bought those chips you like” sounded to me like, “I love you and know what you like and went out of my way to make sure you know that I was thinking of you today.” For all I know, chips were on her list, but it felt special to me.

She forgave me. I had a bit of a temper growing up. I can be direct. I am not the sensitive and thoughtful woman that my mom is. But every time I stepped out of bounds, my mom forgave me, most of the time before I asked. “There’s nothing you can do to make me stop loving you, but I love you too much to let you act this way,” she would say.

In our material society, loving our kids sometimes feels like so many tasks: making them elaborate Valentine’s boxes and taking them to the zoo and feeding them homemade bread and doing and planning and performing. These things drain my battery all the way to 0%.

But listening doesn’t cost anything, and bringing my son Nathan along to Sam’s Club to get frozen yogurt and have a conversation about nothing doesn’t take any extra time. Telling Isaac that I love it when he smiles and gives me a thumbs up or making sure Caleb’s burger has pickles on it—just the way he likes it—doesn’t take too much energy.

Letting my kids know that nothing they can do will stop me from loving them fills all of us with the energy we need to face a new day.
It’s not the elaborate tasks that charge our batteries. It’s the simple and consistent ones.

Originally written by Laura Wailes for Mothering Beyond Expectations.

25 Scriptures to Pray For Your Family

Prayer in and of itself is powerful. When you combine it with scripture, well, let’s just say you should be prepared to see some mighty things happen.

It is very important to pray for your family and for each family member, because right now our families are under attack. Satan is seeking to destroy the family unit, and we are constantly bombarded with the world’s views of what a family can look like, so that we can easily lose sight of how God intended our families to be. God created our families to be a holy unit, one in which He is priority, in which the husband and wife lovingly live out their God-given roles in marriage, and the children are obedient to their parents. Once we get our own families in alignment with God’s desired order for families, I think we’ll see God do mighty things in our churches, in our nation, and around the world. But it starts with us, in our own homes and within our own families.

Praying scripture is powerful because:

• God gave us His word and He wants us to pray. When you combine the two spiritual disciplines of reading the Word and praying by praying scripture, it will help you apply God’s word to your life while growing deeper in your prayer life.

• Praying scripture honors God by using His own words to praise Him and pray to Him.

• We tend to pray for things WE want, but praying scripture will help align your desires with what HE wants. And when our desires are aligned, that’s when we’re most likely to see God move powerfully in our prayers.

Feel free to print out this list of scriptures to pray for your family. Personalize the scriptures while you pray them with the specific things your family needs in that area. You may even want to consider focusing on only one Scripture to pray each day, making it a month long praying scripture challenge.

And so without any further ado:

Scriptures to Pray For Your Family

1. Pray that your family would always be submitted to God, that God would be its chief builder and protector. “Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.” Psalm 127:1

2. Pray that every member of your family would love the Lord. “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and all your mind and all your strength.” Deuteronomy 6:5, Mark 12:30

3. Pray that your family would be one who would be dedicated to serve the Lord. “As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” Joshua 24:15

4. Pray that your family would value God as priority in your lives and conversations. “These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” Deuteronomy 6:6-7

5. Pray for protection for every member of your family. “If you make the Most High your dwelling-even the LORD who is my refuge–then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” Psalm 91:9-12

6. Pray for your marriage, that you would always remember it is a holy covenant to be treasured and nurtured. “God made them male and female. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no man separate.” Mark 10:6-9

7. Pray for your husband, that he would be the provider and protector of the home God created him to be. “The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” Genesis 2:15

8. Pray for your role in the home and within your family. “Train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands so that no one will malign the word of God.” Titus 2:4-5

9. Pray that you and your husband would lovingly embrace your role in your marriage. “Wives, submit to your husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church…Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies.” Ephesians 5:22-28

10. Pray that regardless of what challenging life circumstances you are facing, you will face them together with your husband. “Then Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried.” Ruth 2:18

11. Pray that as parents you would wisely love, teach and train your children. “Do not exasperate your children, instead bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” Ephesians 6:4

12. Pray that your children would grow as Jesus did, “in wisdom and in stature, and in favor of God and man.” Luke 2:52

13. Pray that your children would grow in obedience. “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your father and mother’ (this is the first commandment with a promise), ‘that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” Ephesians 6:1-3

14. Pray that every member of your family would experience health. “I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.” 3 John 1:2

15. Pray that when there is conflict among family members, you would remember Satan is the enemy, not the family member. “Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:11-12

16. Pray that each member of your family would grow in every fruit of the spirit. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” Galatians 5:22

17. Pray that each member of your family would grow in love toward one another. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” 1 Corinthians 4-8

18. Pray that each family member would be forgiving. “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as Christ forgave you.” Ephesians 4:31-32

19. Pray that each member of your family would grow in understanding, “turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding–indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.” Proverbs 2:2-5

20. Pray that your family would be devout and generous, like Cornelius. “He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; they gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly.” Acts 10:2

21. Pray that each member of your family would be surrounded by good, godly friends. “There are ‘friends’ who destroy each other, but a real friend sticks closer than a brother.” Proverbs 18:24

22. Pray that your family would always be thankful for blessing, “always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Ephesians 5:20

23. Pray for each member of your family’s minds, that their thoughts would be fixed on healthy, godly things. “Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things.” Philippians 4:8

24. Pray that your home and each member of your family would be filled with peace. “The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever. My people will live in peaceful dwelling places; in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest.” Isaiah 32:17-18

25. And finally, pray that your family would flourish and be blessed. “He is like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.”

Originally written by Jenn of Embracing Life.

Having Faith Through Trials

Recently, within the last several weeks my family and I have undergone a series of various trials; from confrontational business deals and bicycle accidents, to our kids catching hand food and mouth disease and spending a week indoors. It seems like when trouble rains… it pours. I know God sees, I know he hears, and I most definitely know that there is power in the name of Jesus. Sometimes however, I slightly wish that I could behave like one of my toddlers and flail myself on the ground in complaint with a little tantrum to God.

I will admit that I wouldn’t be telling the truth 100% if I said my prayer life never consisted of a long laundry list of complaints to the Lord. Most people would tell me that I have every right to complain, and some might even say that letting it out might even make me feel better. After all, the majority of the bad things happening in my life were things that others did to me anyway.

“But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” Matthew 5:44-45

Being out in the world is a lot like being out in the rain, just because you are a “good person” doesn’t mean that you aren’t going to get wet if there is a storm out. Hardships and trials are never convenient. It is almost always easier to write God a laundry list of our complaints than it is to thank Him for the good things He has done and the good things He is about to do. God’s heart is to bring forth blessings in our lives not sorrow.

Sometimes in the midst of our hardships it feels as though we have been cornered and isolated by the enemy. We can’t see a way out of the storm and we couldn’t possibly see how God could ever use this for our good. We feel chained to our decisions and misfortunes and we are ready to give in and give up. In Acts chapter 16 Paul and Silas were literally chained, unjustly imprisoned, and ready to give up. They may have even sat there for a while in that cold dark prison complaining to one another and trying to make sense of what had just happened to them. In verse 25 of chapter 16 it says “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.” It wasn’t until the late hours of the night that Paul and Silas began to pray and offer praises to the Lord. If you continue to read on in the story in verses 26-34 you will find that while they were praising God there was an earthquake that shook the prison so much that it set all of the prisoners free. Thinking that the prisoners had escaped the jailer was about to take his own life, Paul and Silas then called out to the jailer and told him that all of the prisoners still remained. The jailer was astonished and he along with his whole household accepted Christ as their salvation because of the witnesses of Paul and Silas.

Often times it is so much easier to complain than it is to offer God praise. We can offer God praise because we know that He is already in the victory on the other side no matter how intense or devastating the trial may seem.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” Hebrews 12:1-3

Not only was the jailer and his entire household saved, I think it is safe to assume that all of the prisoners were as well. If they were not saved then perhaps they were later. In verse 25 of Acts chapter 16 it says that Paul and Silas offered prayers and praises to the Lord and that the prisoners were listening to them. After the earthquake I don’t think the prisoners were compelled to not escape because of their good merit. I think they stayed because of the testimony of Paul and Silas. As Christians, we are called to be “Christ-Like” this means the evidence of our faith is based upon our response to the people, events, and things around us. How we choose to respond to hardship and trials determines the type of platform we are going to have for the Lord. Do not let an attitude of complaint keep you from breaking through to the blessing God has for you.

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Philippians 4:6

Originally written and posted by Joanna Rogers.

Soak Up the Dew

How do you recover after the worst kind of night? The hour after hour of sleep-eluding desperation followed by the morning light creeping in at the edges making you despise the very thing that’s ushering in the new mercies—the dawn.

The only way I know how to survive those sanity-killing nights (like the ones I’ve had lately) is to become a succulent—someone who can live off the dew.

Flood yourself with the scriptures when your brain is coherent and even when it isn’t, so that through the night and in the awful morning, you’ll have a heavy dew of truth to sustain you. Let even the mist and residue of God’s Word feed your soul.

This is warfare. We don’t read the Bible to feel like good Christians or to check it off the list or as a photo op. We do it because it’s our life and water and we don’t want to die of thirst.

There are a million things that you can fill yourself up with that will ultimately starve you. Junky movies, trivial books, shop therapy, shallow friendships, image building. But God’s word makes us impenetrable when we’re hidden in Christ. His holy people are his grace in our lives. So we soak up the dew and lean on his body and live.

Originally shared by Abigail Dodds.