motherhood Archives - Page 5 of 12

The Lord Knows Those Who Take Refuge in Him {No Matter What Monday}

November 14, 2016 by Marissa 1 Comment

It was the moment every performer dreads. My daughter sat at the grand piano in front of a hushed crowd, staring at her hands on the keys. There was no music in front of her, and her brain refused to bail out her stymied fingers. She was stuck, halfway through her piece. After a long pause and a couple of false starts, she finished the piece and took her bow. But in her mind, it was a disaster. A catastrophe. The Most Embarrassing Moment Ever in her short 7 years of life.

Can you guess what she did next? She ran to me. She climbed into my lap, buried her face in my chest, and cried. She didn’t run to her brothers, who were seated in the front row with the other performers. She didn’t run to the strangers in the audience seated right behind them. She didn’t even run to her piano teacher, whom she adores.

She ran to the one who knows her best.

Where do you run for comfort or refuge when life hurts? If I’m honest, I often run to a friend, to Facebook, or to a bag of popcorn. I forget the One who knows me in a way no one else does. My Heavenly Father knows my troubles and invites me to find refuge in Him.

Nahum 1:7: The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him.

This verse gives us three reasons to run to the Lord with our troubles. 1) The Lord is good. It’s simple, but profound. He is unfailingly good. He will not disappoint us. 2) The Lord is a stronghold. He is a sure and steadfast anchor we can cling to in our struggles. 3) The Lord knows us. He knows our struggles. He knows our needs. He knows our past, present, and future. He knows.

No matter what we face this week, the Lord knows those who take refuge in Him.

Breaking Free from the Superwoman Trap

June 1, 2016 by Marissa Leave a Comment

I sat in my counselor’s office with silent tears sliding down my face, feeling flattened by the pressures of life. The expectations placed on me by myself and others were more than I could bear. My counselor handed me a blank sheet of paper and a cup full of markers.

“Draw it,” she said.

I’m no artist, but I tried my best. I drew a stick figure lying at the bottom of the page, with harsh arrows pointing down at the distraught figure. (That is, the stick figure who would have looked distraught if I had known how to draw that.)

The arrows represented the pressure I felt to be:

an attentive mom who gets all the mom stuff right;
a loving wife who gets all the wife stuff right;
a wise and compassionate friend who makes everyone happy;
a perfect homemaker who serves nutritious, savory meals from her spotless kitchen;
a healthy, thin woman who looks effortlessly put-together, but not in a snobbish or intimidating way;
all while juggling a million responsibilities with ease.

The impossible standards of those arrows were a heavy weight on my shoulders, reminding me of my daily shortcomings. I felt trapped, laid out on the floor, just like the defeated, joyless stick figure in my drawing.

Then my counselor asked me to draw how it could feel better.

Can you relate? If so, click here to continue reading with me over on (in)courage today . . .

God Will Renew our Strength {No Matter What Monday}

April 25, 2016 by Marissa Leave a Comment

It’s one of those times of the year. The end of the school year ranks high on my list of busy times of year, right up there with Christmas and back-to-school. I feel like there’s a runaway train barreling down the tracks toward the last day of school, and I’m hanging onto the back for dear life. I’ve got two hands gripping the back of the train and both feet flying up in the air behind me, just hoping we can make it to the end of the track without some unknown danger around the corner knocking me loose from this roaring engine.

In other words, I’m overwhelmed and exhausted. Anyone else?

Maybe you’ve got little ones who wear you out each day by 8:30 a.m. and you wonder how soon is too soon to start texting your husband to ask when he’ll be home.

Maybe you’re caring for an aging parent or pouring yourself out all day into a demanding job, and then heading home to face another long list of responsibilities.

Maybe your exhaustion stems from an ongoing struggle to parent a challenging child, cope with illness, or grieve a loss.

On weary days, I love this promise from Isaiah 40:30-31: “Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”

Isaiah gets me. He knows we all have those tired days – even the young ones get worn out, he says.

But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. The Lord’s strength is a sufficient, sustaining, satisfying strength. Rather than holding on for dear life, I can fly through these challenges like as soaring eagle because I’m sustained by the Lord.

No matter what we face this week, the Lord can be trusted to renew our strength as we rest in Him.

When a Melted Heart Meets the Gospel

January 15, 2016 by Marissa Leave a Comment

Have you ever watched as God worked in a loved one’s heart right before your eyes? As a mom, I have the honor of seeing the Lord at work in my children’s lives, usually gradually and more slowly than I would choose. But last week, I witnessed God’s handiwork unfold in a matter of minutes.

As I was busy making dinner, I handed down a small behavioral correction to my 6-year-old daughter. A few minutes later, I overheard her confess to the dog that she thought she might go to hell because of the mistake. I left the barbeque pork chops, called her to me, and pulled her onto my lap at the kitchen table. Then I asked, “How good do you think you need to be to go to heaven?”

She shrugged.

“Do you have to be really good? Just a little good? More good than bad?”

More shrugging.

“Darling, did you know that God says we have to be perfect to go to heaven?”

Disbelief crept onto her face, and she asked in a small voice: “Perfect?”

“Yes,” I answered, “God is holy. He cannot be in the presence of sin. We must be sinless and perfect to be with Him in heaven.”

It was not the first time I have spoken these words to her. We’ve talked about the gospel truths of our sinfulness and need for Christ over and over again. Most of the time, she seems uninterested, and I’ve been asking God to soften her heart.

He must’ve not just softened it, but completely melted it. Because this time, upon hearing that God demands perfection, my sweet daughter started weeping.

Tears streamed down her face and the sound of her wailing brought her brothers from opposite ends of the house to see what was wrong. I shooed them away and tried to soothe her.

“There’s more, Sarah Kate, there’s more,” I said, as I held her and rubbed her back.

Because God’s demand for perfection isn’t the end of the gospel story.

When she was quiet, I continued. I explained how Jesus lived a perfect life for her. He died for her, taking the punishment for her sin. He’s given her His record of perfection. If she is in Christ, when God looks at her, He doesn’t see her sin – He sees Christ’s perfection.

Once again, her eyes filled with tears. But these quiet tears were accompanied by a smile. The truth of the gospel moved her from hopelessness and despair to quiet rest. It is so sweet to trust in Jesus.

She gets it. She gets it. I pray that she will be filled every day with an awareness of Christ’s work on her behalf. And yet, I know that she will struggle. She will feel the weight of the world’s demands, of the expectations of others, of her own desire for perfection. She will be distracted by busyness, by worry, and by materialism.

I know this because I’m living it. And my prayer for her is my prayer for myself: that we will live each day in the freedom of the gospel, knowing that God’s demands have been met perfectly by our Savior.

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