This week I have been quick to encourage my daughter as she serves our family by helping me cook and prepare meals.  She ALWAYS wants to pull a chair up to the stove and help me.  Two nights ago, she insisted on making us our salads. I knew this passage was coming up in our bible study, so I encouraged her using the word “serving” and telling her God had given her a special heart to serve others.  I lifted up some prayers asking God to continue to stir her heart to serve others through the love of Christ.  And I will continue to allow her to help me serve.

EVEN THOUGH IT IS MESSY!  EVEN THOUGH IT TAKES A LOT MORE TIME!

Why?

Because I see the radiant fulfillment and joy on her face when she hands her daddy his salad, with half the juice from the green olive jar mixed in with his salad dressing.

Because this is how God builds and encourages his church.  We were ALL given a special gift that makes all the parts of his body work together in perfect harmony.

Because God knows the plans he has for my daughter.  And you can be sure, he will not let this gift go to waste.  I don’t know how, or where, or when she will be serving others in the future, but He knows.

Here are 3 truths to encourage you to continue partnering with God to cultivate the gifts He has given them:

1) God has a plan for your child. (Jeremiah 29:11)

2) God has gifted your child to bring glory to Him and know Him through these plans. (Romans 12:6-8)

3)  You are a vessel to let God’s Spirit pour encouragement of these gifts to be cultivated and to point them to hold Jesus’s hand and let Jesus walk them step by step into these plans for good, for a future, and for a hope!

I enjoyed going through the passage in Romans 12 and reflecting on which of these gifts I see emerging in my children.  I hope you do too!

6 In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. 7 If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. 8 If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.

So we will keep praying, bringing the decisions that we make for them to the ONE who knows what their future holds.  I pray we all do this and trust the ONE who knows their future.

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New Year Bible Challenge

I’ll be honest, I get sidetracked in life, how about you, friend? A few years ago, I was tired of spinning on a hamster wheel, feeling like I was making no progress in areas of my life. I prayed and God told me that this was not the way He desired for me to live. He showed me through His word that I AM His daughter, and that there is a better way. A refocused, narrower way.

We can ask God to make our vision clearer for our lives, more effective to know Him better and see Him more clearly right where we are. To have more peace and fulfillment in our relationship with Him, our marriages, our mothering, and our homes. He will flood those areas of our lives with new clarity and breath and life and beauty when we ask Him and meditate on His Word towards those areas in our lives.

His Word brings beauty to the most mundane parts of our lives! By the end of January, if you join us, you will be folding laundry, or reading to your children, or having a conversation with a friend, realizing you are standing on Holy Ground with Jesus, doing exactly what He created you to do, communing with Him and doing good work for His glory, right where He has placed you!

Join us here at Refocused Bible Study to REFOCUS through His Word! It started New Year’s Eve, but jump in anytime!

You can buy the study here: Buy Refocused Bible Study

OR

Download the study for FREE and sign up for 21 emails to walk you through the study HERE!

Praying for you!

Amy