5 Things to Keep in Check While Waiting on the Lord

I have heard it said that the teacher is always silent during a test. This may be true at some times, but I think that we often allow our own impatience to overcome our availability to actually hear God’s voice. 

This is exactly what happened to me when my husband first entered into the Navy. We had been given the news that we would soon be moving our family across the country to Chicago  where my husband would finish his training. We were not able to talk much at all while he was away aside from an occasional phone call and hand written letters. The responsibility of picking out our new home and moving our belongings had been entirely left up to me. At the time our oldest was only eleven months old and I was currently pregnant with our second child. I was having difficulty finding a home in a place that I had never been to before and the overwhelming urge to nest was beginning to consume my brain day and night. I finally decided that it would be best for our family to live in an apartment nearby the base and not in military housing. The area I had chosen had good reviews and seemed to be in a safe environment. I had based my decision off the urgency to find a home and what I had thought to be wise. 

The time had passed and we were finally able to make the journey across the country to be reunited as a family and move into our new home. Our new apartment was nice but what we didn’t realize was that the other expenses that came with our apartment would push us way over our housing allowance. Soon after that I became very sick with what I thought was the stomach flu and had to be rushed to the hospital twice. I was nearly 30 weeks pregnant during both of my visits to the hospital. The nurses were very concerned and placed me on a monitor because I had been having contractions that were closer together than most of the women who were in active labor. Thankfully, they were able to give me medicine that helped to control my upset stomach and all of my contractions. I was able to leave the hospital with my family but we weren’t able to go to our new apartment because there had been black mold discovered throughout our kitchen. 

My decision to move our family into the apartment was hasty and I had not given the Lord an opportunity to confirm the decision to me. God is very gracious, and we were able to stay in a hotel for a month through our insurance and later move into a military home. Our son was born shortly after that and he was perfectly strong and healthy. Seasons of waiting can be so challenging and sometimes our hasty decisions can lead us into seasons of turmoil. I like to go by these five reminders whenever I find myself needing to hear God’s voice:

1. You will have peace. 

Even if your situation is dire, God can still give you peace, because it’s not about your physical surroundings being at peace it’s about your heart. He wants you to have that same peace that He gave to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego when they chose to take on the flames of the fiery furnace in Daniel chapter 3. “You, Lord, give perfect peace to those who keep their purpose firm and put their trust in you” Isaiah 26:3. Although my situation with the apartment seemed to be very logical, I felt very restless about the endeavor. Walking in peace doesn’t mean that you are waiting to see or hear various signs and wonders from God, it simply means that when and while you are making a decision your heart will be confident and at peace.

2. Is your heart filled with gratitude? 

Madame Blueberry is one of my most favorite Veggie Tales movies. If you’ve heard of Veggie Tales or maybe you’ve seen them when you were younger or with your kids now, you will know exactly what I am talking about. I love Veggie Tales because their shows are always filled with little nuggets of truth. “A happy heart is a thankful heart.” This statement couldn’t be more accurate. A happy heart truly is a thankful heart. Whenever I am waiting for something I always double check my heart posture. Discontentment makes it difficult to make decisions with patience. The best way to cultivate a heart of thankfulness is to think on things that are true. “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Philippians 4:8

3. Other believers will confirm what God wants to say to you.

The Bible says in Proverbs 11:14 “Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.” It is important to be in fellowship with other believers outside the average Sunday church service in order to obtain Godly counsel. The best way to get into fellowship with other believers is to join a weekly Bible study that encourages members to be open with one another and talk about real life problems. I love going to my weekly women’s study. Having the opportunity to be around other women from different generations and various backgrounds has really helped me to stay in alignment with God’s plan for my life.

4. God’s Word will confirm it to you.

“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” Hebrews 4:12. It’s so important to spend time in the Word and get quiet with the Lord. You won’t be able to hear what He wants to say unless you make time to listen. If you have little kids or a busy schedule this may seem challenging. Take some time to assess your day and maybe instead of listening to the radio in the car listen to the audio version of your Bible app or take a few minutes while your kids are napping to sit quietly before the Lord and just listen.

5. Are you willing to yield?

James 3:17 says, “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.” This one always gets me. I often get tunnel vision whenever I set myself on a goal. My goal is the only thing I can think about all day all the time until I am able to achieve it. This is good, but it can also be not-so-good, because Isaiah 55:8 says that God’s ways go above and beyond what we could ever think or imagine. Sometimes God needs us to surrender our plans to Him in order to give us that future and a hope He talks about in Jeremiah 29:11. We should always be willing to yield ourselves to God’s way, because His way is the best way.

Written by Jo Rogers. Used with permission.

Preferring Infertility: How We Worship the Queen of Heaven

If you have more than two children, likely someone has asked you one of the more embarrassing and awkward questions: “Don’t you know what causes those?”

At times I’ve wanted to answer, “No. Would you be willing to explain it to me?” But the truth is, as a mother of five living children and one that died in my womb, I do know what causes those little humans to exist. Just like I know what caused the person who asks such a question to exist. God does.

Often it isn’t the children themselves that bother onlookers, but the impracticality of having so many that gets under their skin. They want to know if the kids share rooms, what the grocery bill is like, how we plan to manage college, and most importantly, why we would subject ourselves to so much work.

Queen of Heaven

The people of Judah were just as practical and pragmatic concerning children as people of today, but in an opposite, though just as idolatrous, way. The book of Jeremiah has some terrifying words for them. Jeremiah, God’s chosen prophet, warns them over and over of their evil ways, but they are undisturbed. They defy his warnings,

“As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not listen to you. But we will do everything that we have vowed, make offerings to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we did, both we and our fathers, our kings and our officials, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, and prospered, and saw no disaster.” (Jeremiah 44:16–17)

The queen of heaven — that nonexistent goddess of fertility and love on whom God’s people had set their hearts — was requiring offerings. What did she desire aside from their complete devotion? Drink offerings and fancy cakes with her face on them. The Lord called such idolatry and sacrifices an abomination (Jeremiah 44:4).

Elective Infertility

“What must God think of a society that has made child sacrifice normal for the sake of elective infertility?”

Picturing the women of Judah foolishly and sinfully baking cakes for their female fertility idol (Jeremiah 44:19) ought to stir our hearts and have us wondering where the finger should be pointed. If sacrifices of drinks and cakes to a false goddess of fertility kindled the Lord’s anger to the point that he forbade Jeremiah to pray for the people (Jeremiah 7:16), then what must God think of a society that has made child sacrifice normal for the sake of elective infertility?

What must he think of a society that goes to such great lengths to do away with children, only to go great lengths to acquire other children when the time is right?

Many worship the false queen of heaven in her cloak of personal autonomy. The people of Judah were manipulating this false fertility queen to obtain offspring, to prosper, and for love. Today, we manipulate a similar queen, the queen of elective infertility, in order to prosper, and for love, and to wipe out offspring. Should we be surprised that so many prayers go unanswered while babies are torn apart or rinsed down the sink or acquired for selfish motives?

We’ve rejected the God who opens and closes the womb in favor of a goddess who shreds it.

When False Gods Work

What may hit closer to home in Jeremiah’s warnings is the sin of pragmatism. It’s a sin that is as common as leaves in the fall or snow at a Minnesota Christmas. Why won’t they listen to Jeremiah? Why do they continue to worship the queen of heaven? Simple. The idol worship is working for them.

Why won’t we forsake greed? Simple. It gets us what we want. Why won’t we say no to porn? Simple. The porn is working out fine and the marriage is no worse for the wear at the moment. Why are we content to ignore our Bibles for a week or a month? Easy. Nothing bad happened the last time we did it. Why do we lie and cut corners at work? Because we’ve been doing it for ages and we still got the year-end bonus and maintain a two-car garage. Why aren’t we bothered by baby killing? Easy. It doesn’t immediately impact our lives.

We are an immediate-cause-and-effect people, desiring practical, expedient solutions to feed our selfishness. We can’t conceive that what is working out so great now could eventually lead to things working out horribly later. And that is a great sin indeed, when we serve an eternally holy God redeeming a forever people who are to be like him.

Men Applauding Murder

As long as we’re dwelling on hard, uncomfortable facts, we should notice that the women of Judah were the initiators of this idol worship. But they didn’t act alone. The men looked on approvingly.

The women said, “When we made offerings to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, was it without our husbands’ approval that we made cakes for her bearing her image and poured out drink offerings to her?” (Jeremiah 44:19)

The men commended the women in their folly and treachery, just as many men today commend the women who make it their life’s work to keep abortion “safe and legal” — a euphemism for “deadly and against God’s holy law.” And, perhaps less disgusting to us, there are Christian men who commend the pragmatism of doing what works over doing what God’s word says should be done.

“We’ve rejected the God who opens and closes the womb in favor of a goddess who shreds it.”

The irony is that in worshiping the queen of heaven, the men of Judah are actually doing wrong by their wives. They had the authority and opportunity to steer them in a different direction, but they approved of the evil instead. It’s a lot easier to let your wife wander down the road of sin if everything seems to be working out okay, than to step in and take responsibility. Allegiance to God that outweighs allegiance to a wife would cost something: time, energy, and approval.

Bow to the King of Heaven

Thankfully, Jeremiah himself offers the solution to this tangle of sin and treachery and abomination. The antidote to healing the wound lightly (Jeremiah 6:14), which just means healing it superficially, is found in Jeremiah 6:16:

Thus says the Lord: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.”

Jeremiah reminded the people that obeying God and his law was good for them. It was meant to give them rest. Yet, this isn’t good news for a people who have no heart to obey. What do we do when we can’t seem to walk in the way? What do we do when we see the ancient paths, but they look unappealing to us — too costly and very impractical?

We throw ourselves on the mercy of Jesus who is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). We remember that he kept every bit of the law on our behalf, declaring us righteous, and now teaches us to obey as he did. We remember that we only find our life when we lose it — that Christ turns pragmatism on its head. His is the most ancient path, for “he is before all things” (Colossians 1:17). Only in Jesus is there rest for our souls (Matthew 11:29).

And we can draw encouragement from Judah, God’s wayward people. God took them through some dark days. There were dire consequences for their sin (see the book of Lamentations). But in the end, he preserved a remnant. In the end, this disobedient, treacherous people were the very people from whom our Savior would come. That’s a word of hope to anyone who is now bowing the knee to the queen of heaven, whether by conviction or pragmatism.

Originally written by Abigail Dodds for Desiring God. Used with permission.

What Moulds Us

"It is not the thing on which we spend the most time that moulds us, but the thing that exerts the greatest power. Five minutes with God and His Word is worth more than all the rest of the day."

- Oswald Chambers

Printable Daily Cleaning Schedule for Busy Moms

As a busy, homeschooling mom of three boys, I know first-hand how challenging it can be to keep your house clean. Life gets crazy on a regular basis around here! If I didn’t have an easy-to-use daily cleaning schedule, I’d be even more of a hot mess than I usually am.

So today, I’m sharing my printable Daily Cleaning Schedule with you, so you can get on a simple cleaning schedule too!

With this cleaning schedule, you’ll be able to stay on top of all those recurring tasks, like laundry and dishes AND find time for the deep cleaning tasks that you keep putting off.

No more slaving away all weekend just to get ready for the week ahead. No more wishing you could find a free Saturday to finally organize your pantry.

I’ve realized that as long as I have a good cleaning schedule that utilizes a looping routine, I don’t have to work as hard to keep my house clean AND I don’t feel stressed trying to find huge blocks of time to get everything done.

Here are a few of my personal tips to make this cleaning schedule work its tail off for you!

Zone Cleaning

My older boys are finally able to handle some cleaning on their own (can I get an amen??) and little brother (who’s 3) is getting the hang of it too.

For the older ones, I typically assign them one room (aka zone) of the house to clean up during our 10-minute tidy-up (more on that below).

By giving them a zone to clean up, we avoid the whole, “That’s not my shoe,” “I didn’t play with that,” “There’s so much stuff I’m frozen like a deer in headlights” scenario that used to play out in our playroom every time my kids heard the words “time to clean up.”

This way, they know they’re responsible for everything in their zone, no matter who it belongs to AND they can finish quickly without getting overwhelmed by the idea of cleaning the whole house.

This works well with younger kids too – I actually highly recommend it as a training method if you ever want your toddlers to start picking up their own toys. They just need more supervision and step-by-step instructions. But you’re already doing that all day long, right?

10-Minute Tidy-Up

When do I use this awesome zone cleaning method? During our daily 10-minute tidy-up. I was sick and tired of picking up every room in the house after my kids had all gone to bed, but couldn’t think of another way to get the house clean and KEEP it that way.

Until I figured out the 10-minute tidy-up.

The other day, I actually got my boys out of bed and told them in no uncertain terms that we would NEVER be going to bed with a messy house again.

But how to enforce this awesome mom rule? Enter the 10-minute tidy-up. Typically I set our good old-fashioned egg timer (because it has the added benefit of making that little ticking sound) for 10 minutes. You can also use your phone, the oven timer, anything really.

Then I give the boys their zones, do the whole “ready, set, go!” and before I know it, they’re rushing to get their space clean and tidy before time runs out.

They actually love the racing element of this method (most kids do), so it doesn’t feel so much like work to them. And I get my house cleaned up in just a few minutes a day.

My tip: I reward my kids with coveted iPad time if they can get the job done before the timer rings. Trust me, this works like gangbusters. Give it a try in your house for extra motivation.

Don’t be afraid to employ this cleaning schedule throughout the day if your kids are messy or have a habit of leaving things out when they move on to a new activity.

Morning and Evening Routines

There’s nothing like starting and ending your day with a calm, clean home. But how do you get it that way without feeling stressed all the time?

The key is to add routines to your daily cleaning schedule.

I’ve learned that routines make everything a thousand times easier. Instead of trying to think about all the things I need to do before bed, I simply rely on my evening routine to work through them quickly.

I’ve included my own morning and evening routines in this checklist, but feel free to modify it on the blank version to meet your own needs.

My tip: Listen to a favorite Spotify channel or podcast while you work through your routine. You may even find yourself craving that daily cleanup time.

Ready to get your home clean and make your life a whole lot easier?

Originally written and published by Melissa Fitzhugh. Used with permission.