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A Mother Defined

by Saint In Training
Original Imaged by: Yogendra Joshi

Original Imaged by: Yogendra Joshi

Mother – as defined by my mother’s words and actions:

A Mother is the first to introduce you to God and encourages you to build your relationship with him continually.

She stands over you as you say your nightly prayers and corrects your words when you get them wrong (always with a gentle smile).

She teaches you to read from the children’s bible and tells you stories from it for bedtime pleasure, enduring your constant questions with forbearance and grace.

She hopes for the day you will grow and mature but dreads it too for she knows the pitfalls and trials that awaits you.

A Mother is someone who tells you you’re loved and means it. She firmly believes and will have you to believe that you are special and beautiful and oh so smart!

She hurts when you hurt. She cries with you, wipes your tears and then admonishes you to pull yourself together, to get up and go on.

She prays for you in the midnight hour after a full day of work and tending to your needs before she tends to her own.

She will stand between you and all harm even risking her life if she has to and she will do it without hesitation.

She sacrifices her time for your time, her money for your needs and her strength to strengthen you.

She laughs at your silly jokes. Pats your shoulder just because and smiles in delight when you come into her presence.

She forgives readily even when your childish behavior causes her pain. She doesn’t hold it against you.

She rebukes you when you’re wrong. Teaches you right from early on and leads by example whilst never taking the place of God.

She encourages your natural and spiritual growth. She never doubts your abilities and believes you can do anything (all things through Christ Jesus)!

She stays up late taking care of you when you’re sick. Her mind rests on you and your well-being when you grow up and leave the nest.

You are always on a Mother’s heart just as you’re always in the heart of the Father.

She reminds you of your blessings when you complain and wags her finger at you when you don’t give thanks.

As a Mother grows older she learns that it’s okay to lean on your shoulders too (but not without making sure she’s not ‘too much of a bother’).

God has been very good to me in giving me to you and He rewards me daily with your presence. You are my best friend (after God of course ;-) ) and I cannot imagine being in a world that does not have you in it. Your life is a gift to me – this tiny post is mine to you.

A true Mother loves God first and passes on that love to her children – thus they will rise up and call her blessed. I am blessed to have a true Mother and I take this day to say – Happy Mother’s Day Mom. I love you so very much.

Cast Down but not Destroyed

by Saint In Training
Original Image by: Joel Olives

Original Image by: Joel Olives

Satan does not wait for anyone to come to him, he goes searching. Like a lion on the prowl he searches for lives to destroy; minds to confuse; bodies to afflict with sickness and disease; families to tear apart and finances to dry up. He does this to the children of God in hopes that we will first curse God, and then die.

Sometimes we feel as though we will be overcome. We are surrounded on every side; struck down by the problems we face and threatened with hopelessness. But, we are not without hope. Our hope is in Christ. Our strength is in Him. God sees our tears and He knows our heartaches and our fears.

God is the God of Compassion. He cares for us and he wants us to bring him our worries, our anxieties and troubles. He wants us to leave them in his capable hands. He wants us to trust Him!

2 Corinthians 1:3-11 (NIV)

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.

It leads one to wonder as to the whys of God’s seeming unwillingness to deliver us speedily from our trials. Paul addresses this with eloquence:

If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

Does God allow us to be tormented for the sake of others? The answer is ‘yes’ but it is not as simple as it seems. You see, it’s through our sufferings that we not only receive God’s glory but He is glorified among men. When we endure without giving way to the enemy, our fellow sufferers who are our brothers and sisters in Christ receive comfort and encouragement in their own fight of faith. Further, sinners who watch us, some who are in hopes of our failing, will see the salvation of our faith which is Christ Jesus. Even if our tribulation seems to be unto death, Paul preaches, it is so that we will trust in God and not in ourselves (nor in man).

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.

But here is the hope and the promise!

He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.

Paul reiterates this reason and hope in 2 Corinthians 4:15-17 (NIV):

For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man [our Spirit] is renewed day by day.  For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory…

During our days of lack when we’ve drawn our belts so tight we can’t get air enough to breath and we’ve received all the assistance man has to offer but still are in need – we must endure and trust God.

When the doctors shake their heads in despair and their reports offer us no hope of recovery, beloved we must endure and trust God.

When our children, siblings or spouse refuse to turn to the Savior we love and adore; when they linger in the filth of sin and shame, we must endure and trust God.

It is in God we find hope. It is in the Master of the universe that our peace resides. It is in the bottomless well of Living Water where our thirst can be quenched. Though the fiery arrows of the enemy fly overhead and threaten to engulf the world around us in flames – we must endure and trust God.

Beloved of God, my brothers and sisters in Christ, stand firm on the rock of your salvation. Stand! Do not give ground. Do not give up. If you have to crawl, clawing your way inch by inch to the mountain’s peek, screaming and crying all the way – don’t you dare give up! For, “after you have suffered a little while,” your suffering will end. (2 Peter 1:10 NIV) It is ‘after’, that God will heal. It is ‘after’, that God will loose the chains from the captives. It is only after that the flood gates of prosperity will be opened.

But before we can see the ‘after’ – we must endure.

It hurts. It’s painful. God knows the chaos and confusion that assails our minds. Cling to Him! Dig in the deeper beloved. Imprint yourself in the Ark of Safety and hang on for dear life because if you don’t, “…to whom shall we go?”

It is God who has the words of eternal life. He is our hope in this life and He loves us. He hears our prayers and despite what the enemy may say God has answered every one of them. We just have to wait for the answer to be made manifest.

Trust Him. Rely on Him. Turn to Him and He will not fail you. Hold on! For the Lord says:

“I know your afflictions and your poverty—yet you are rich! I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death.”   Revelation 2:9-11 (NIV)

Beloved I don’t like to suffer. I’ve been running from suffering all my saved life. But, I am not alone anymore; I have the Holy Spirit within: He says it’s time to stop running. I have the Hope of Glory residing on the inside of me and where I falter He will stand! So I say to my Lord, the God of my Salvation, my Hope of Glory…So be it.

I pray that you are encouraged and that the Holy Spirit will enable you to do the same. If you have not yet received the free gift of the Holy Spirit, pray to receive Him and that God grants you mercy until you do. He who is able to keep us faultless will cover you with His mercy and grace until that blessed time.

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For additional encouragement read:

2 Peter 1:7-11

1 Peter 5:7-9

The Suffering Saint – a poem

A Pit full of Purpose – a poem

 

The Night Christmas was born (A Christmas Poem)

by Saint In Training

Public Domain via Wiki-Commons

“T’was the night before Christmas when all thro’ the house,”
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.”

This is the way Clement C. Moore’s poem reads;
It tells of St. Nick’s adventures on Christmas Eve.
Yet it was not Santa Claus who saved my soul,
Nor is it to St. Nick to whom my life is owed.

But it is to Jesus Christ, the Soon-Coming King
That I owe my life – my everything.
Let me share a different story with you,
It’s filled with adventure and presents too.

The hero is a child that was born to a virgin
Not a grander tale could be writ not even by Spurgeon!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On the night that Christmas was born, all through the land,
Herod’s foot soldiers hurried in bands.
They searched for a boy child whose birth was foretold:
“He’s to be heralded by angels,” said the prophets of old.

It all began with Mary who was but a humble girl:
A virtuous virgin called out from the world.
An angel did visit and impart to her the news,
“God has chosen you to bless and to be used!”

Astonished, but believing, she accepted the call,
Thus on her one day the Holy Spirit did fall.
She was left with an anointing and gifted his seed
One that would grow and fulfill the Father’s decree.

To save the world with his death and endure its shame:
Immanuel, God with us, was his chosen name.
Joseph, a righteous man, did not know what to do;
He was betrothed to the virgin and would not have her misused.

An angel came to visit him in a vision, in a dream,
“Divorce is not the answer! Things are not as they seem.
Your betrothed is pure; she is wholly undefiled.
God chose her to be blessed; in Him you can rely.”

Joseph heeded the angel and by the Spirit he was led
To take Mary unto him and so, they were wed.
Time passed, as it does, and a Roman census was called,
“People of Jerusalem must be counted, one and all!”

So to Bethlehem Judea Joseph and Mary went
Only to find there were no rooms to be let.
The couple was left no choice but to stay in a barn;
They slept with the animals in the inn-keepers yard.

It was on this night Mary went into travail
Bringing forth the child that all men would hail:
As Savior, as King – God’s gift to the world.
In a manger he was placed and God’s plans unfurled.

Instructed to flee on that very same night,
Joseph arose quickly taking his family in flight
Toward Egypt, a distant and foreign land -
Far away from Herod’s murderous bands!

In Ramah, Rachel was heard crying, weeping – forlorn
For all the two year old males and babes newly born,
Were slaughtered down to the very last one.
The story of the Christ had truly begun.

Herod finally died and the family returned
To Bethlehem Judea where little Jesus learned
All that a Hebrew child should come to know.
In faith and power he waxed strong and did grow.

For thirty-three years Jesus dwelt among men:
Preaching, baptizing and exhorting man to repent.
His purpose was to save the dying and lost;
To reconcile the world unto him at all cost.

His life was only part of the Father’s gift to us.
By his stripes and his pain; by the blood that he lost;
By his death he made it possible for us to be born again.
It was in exchange for his life that we were freed from sin!

This season when you’re sitting around a roaring fire,
Telling your little ones stories to inspire
Set aside ‘The Night before Christmas’ in favor of this:
‘The Night Christmas was born’ and all will be blessed.

© Rebecca C. Wilcox 2012
All Rights Reserved