Each day as parents, we use three things to operate. There are three God-given body parts sum up our action and service to our families and communities:
our heads,
our hearts,
and our hands.
How interesting to reflect on these three gifts of life as the tools to serve the souls who've been entrusted to our care.
How much further interesting to read Mary DeMuth's latest book, Everything- What You Give and What You Gain to Become More Like Jesus, and soak up the truth that these same three tools are the pivotal categories God uses to mold us further into the shape of His Son.
Everything is divided into three sections: what we think (our heads), who we are (our hearts), and how we live (our hands). I found myself pondering over many statements I found in this book -statements that needed to be personally assessed through pouring over the material and allowing the Holy Spirit to do His work. These statements challenged my parenting skills and goals as they directly reflect the love of our Heavenly Father and His plan for our lives. Below you will find just a few examples.
4 Statements To Foster Spiritual Growth (from the book, Everything by Mary DeMuth)
1. "We want to live a life where we crave the things of God, hunger for righteousness, and worry more about what God thinks of our reputations than what others think."
As a momma, this statement caused me to reflect on my daily cravings (a little peace and quiet, a bite of chocolate…), the constant physical care needed by my children, and my worries over what others might think of my parenting skills. Through this comparative reflection, I better understood my Heavenly Father's desires for me.
2. "When we chase after God and His pursuits, He strangely and beautifully shows us our worth."
Whether you work from home, work outside the home, or work inside the home, a person's value is not a result of the success or failure of their work or their ministry. True value flows from who we are in Christ; this we can discover only by following Him in pure obedience.
3. "God calls us to shed the vow of protecting our hearts."
As parents, we instinctively protect our children, we instinctively protect our homes and it seems we just as instinctively protect our hearts. I've heard it said that having a child means your heart will be walking around outside your body for the rest of your life. Imagine how many hearts our Heavenly Father has walking around the earth. Only seven billion or so! Yet God is calling us to stop protecting our hearts and instead open them up to Him…and the rest of His children, as well as the entire world.
4. "Our growth comes from relinquishing our friends and family into His capable arms and fighting the urge to control others."
One of the biggest challenges of parenting? Allowing our children to grow up and make their own decisions. Oh how this statement convicted my soul to hold back on the "mothering" when the timing is right and give my babies to God as He has so graciously given them to me.
Perhaps by now you've grasped just how much this book has influenced me to desire to be more than a better mom- the book has influenced me to be more like Christ, which is exactly how we become better moms.
Today The Better Mom has the privilege of offering a giveaway of one copy of Everything, which releases this Tuesday, Oct. 16th! To enter to win, follow the Rafflecopter instructions below.
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