res·o·lu·tion: n. 1. The state or quality of being resolute; firm determination. 2. A resolving to do something. 3. A course of action determined or decided on. Here it is! The last day and a half of 2013. Time to cram in everything on your 2013 Bucket List! Time to berate yourself for "failing"...again...at upholding your resolutions from last year. Time to take inventory of everything lacking in your life and make an all-inclusive list to change in 2014. Time to give yourself the annual pep talk about how next year will be different. Time to promise yourself that NEXT YEAR you'll: *Eat less *Exercise more *Worry less *Pray more *Clean less *Clean more *Curse less *Praise More *Spend Less *Save more... And on and on... Is this how you spend December 31 every year? Hear me when I {Mandy} say that I am not ANTI-Resolution making. In fact, I think we all should be resolved and resolute. I don't like when I hear people say resolutions are "stupid" and a "waste of time." Because are they really? Is it possible that we either 1) set our expectations too high and/or 2) lack willpower and then fail our own expectations? And when that happens, isn't it much easier to say "Making resolutions is stupid. It's unrealistic"? Instead of taking an honest inventory of who we are (or need to be) in God's image and set out prayerfully for Him to transform us? I actually love the idea of setting resolutions at the New Year. I love the idea of a fresh start and clean slate that a brand new 52 weeks provides. Sure, resolutions can be set any time of the year, but I like the newness of a new year. If you are wanting to take an honest look inside and set some realistic expectations..."resolutions"... for yourself for 2014, GO FOR IT! But there is a better way than just a laundry list of areas you want to do "more" or "less" or "better" in. Start with asking God what He wants you to focus on. Maybe it's one area of your life. Maybe it's 20. The point is, whatever it is that He wants us to focus on is what should be most important to us. Maybe I'm 30lbs over weight and I know I need to take better care of my body because it's the Temple of the Holy Spirit and I want to live longer and set a good example for my children... But...maybe God would rather I focus first on the unforgiveness in my heart. Or the humility I'm lacking. And then...and only then...when I choose to follow God's order for things will I be able to see success. The lasting, eternal kind. Jeremiah 29:11, MSG (one of my very favorite verses) says : "I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for." God has a plan for us. And we know by looking at everything else that He has created that He is a God who works with precision, forethought, and order. He has a blueprint for our lives. So, I am learning that I want to consult with Him to know my next step so that I am in sync with what it is He wants for me. Isaiah 55:8, MSG says: "'I don’t think the way you think. The way you work isn’t the way I work.' God’s Decree." Psalm 37:1-3, MSG: "Don't bother your head with braggarts or wish you could succeed like the wicked. In no time they'll shrivel like grass clippings and wilt like cut flowers in the sun." Psalm 37:4, NIV: "Take delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." I think I need to tattoo on my forehead (or at least write on an index card and tape to my mirror) that when I consult God first (the One who has the Master Blueprint) I have a far greater chance of success. Not only because it's in line with His Will, but because He will give me what I need to get through...wisdom, strength, motivation, and--most importantly--guidance. So this year, join me in setting realistic expectations and consulting the One who knows every hair on our heads and had every day of our lives planned out before even one came to be (Psalm 139:16). Make this the year that you release yourself from your own (or someone else's) unrealistic expectations and look to the One who can and will fulfill you. Be resolute in being a Deliberate Woman: Deliberate (adj): carefully weighed or considered; studied; intentional. And most importantly, lavish God's grace on yourself and others so that when we fail, we know we can get back up again, ask for forgiveness, and press forward. Here's to 2014! We cannot wait to get to know you better throughout the coming year! I, Annice, have been feeling many convictions during this Christmas Season. My biggest conviction has a lot to do with being more deliberate about what I do, say, feel, etc. One thing is to be a more deliberate Deliberate Woman! This ministry has been amazing so far and I can only see the Lord taking us to greater heights and reaching out to more and more women. I have gotten feedback from a few women who have been greatly impacted by our blog posts and devotionals. For me, that is all a testament to our Savior and for all he has done in our lives. I also want to be a more deliberate Daughter of the One True King! My relationship with the Lord has taken a back-burner most days. Being a Stay-at-Home Mom, Homeschooling Mom, Dual Direct Sales Independent Consultant, Wife, Mother, and Daughter makes me busy all day long. Often times I am too “busy” for my Father in Heaven and His Son.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good life! Dear Heavenly Father, Be with all of the ladies who read our blog and their families this Christmas and upcoming New Year. Help us all to be more deliberate in our daily walk and with all those around us. Cause us to be the salt in the world and to live our lives pleasing to you. We love you and thank you for all your many blessings! Amen Who would have thought a year would fly by so quickly?? If you are new to Deliberate Women: Click HERE to meet us! These past 12 months have been so exciting watching our team grow and reaching out to all of you. Whoever would have thought that when we set out to speak boldly about our faith and build a community of women who love Jesus in order to encourage other women...we would be the ones encouraged? You have all been a blessing to us! We are so excited to see how God is using us--all wives and moms with hearts to love the Lord and to share that love with others--and what He is doing with this ministry. With every comment on the blog, every "Like" on Facebook, every "Repin" on Pinterest, and every "Follow" on Twitter, we get more excited and encouraged in our own walks with God. We pray that you are also encouraged and uplifted! So....to celebrate 1 year of blogging together, we are offering a giveaway for a Women's Devotional Bible. What better way to celebrate our anniversary than to give one of our beautiful readers a Bible?! And just to sweeten the pot...we are also offering the 1000 Gifts Gratitude Book & Journal compliments of Martha of Mary & Martha. Mary&Martha is a DaySpring Hallmark company that is all about loving Jesus and on sharing that love with others. The book One Thousand Gifts was written by Ann Voskamp to inspire us to “dare to live fully right where you are” and to express gratitude for the blessings we have received. Their exclusive journal written by Ann as a companion to the book is filled with Scripture, inspirational images and conversation starters so you can make and keep track of the memories your family makes together. Pockets are built in to many pages for keeping precious notes, photos, and other keepsakes. We are confident that you will all want to check out the other beautiful products online. Here is Martha's contact information! Martha Holley-Jones Mary & Martha- Independent Consultant Meaningful Entertaining...Made Simple www.mymaryandmartha.com/mholleyjones 724 553 2711 We are SO EXCITED to celebrate 1 year of sharing God's Word with all of you by offering you a fabulous way to dig into His Word even deeper! xoxo In Christ, The ladies of Deliberate Women: Alayna, Annice, Ginny, Lindsey & Mandy. *Contest ends December 28, 2013 at 12:00 A.M. Christmas makes me (Alayna) weepy. It's not the stress of gift buying or the craziness of family parties and plans with friends. It's not the over commercialization of the holiday or even the seeming cultural push to remove any connection between Christmas and Christ. It's not remembering loved ones who aren't with us this Christmas, which certainly can elicit tears. And it's not worrying about sending Christmas cards out on time, which should make me cry. None of these things really make me weepy, not in the way that one small Jewish family from Nazareth does. I grew up hearing the Christmas story. Joseph with Mary on a donkey headed to Bethlehem, and finding nowhere to stay, they ended up in a stable. Then the Christ child comes, the sky is full of an angel chorus, and shepherds and wise men with gifts show up. I have heard it a thousand times, and maybe you have too. Heck, one year I even performed a monologue as a pregnant Mary for my church. But when I became a mom, especially the second time around, what had become ordinary was new again. I connected with the Christmas story in a whole new way. Now I can't tell the Christmas story without choking up, tears, or ample pauses to keep from crying. It makes me weepy. When Isaiah was born, I was on heavy medication and out of it for days due to pregnancy complications. But when Annika arrived, I was awake and able to experience the beauty of her birth. To hear her first wail was an overwhelming, tearful moment for me. With that experience, I could feel the Christmas story... I could imagine the quiet night in a stable in the Middle East when Mary gave birth to her firstborn son, and heard Jesus fill his lungs and cry. The Christmas story now had a layer of emotion for me. New mom emotions of an overwhelming love you have never felt before. Combine that with the Easter story from a mom's perspective, and I was a mess. A newborn baby Jesus wrapped up in swaddling clothes with Mary, the new mom, looking on with her heart overflowing with love - that scene played over in my mind makes a mess of me at Christmas time. Especially when I hear certain Christmas carols, I break down. "O Holy Night" isn't just a regular old Christmas song anymore. It's a beautiful worshipful retelling of the most glorious night the world has ever seen. Even now my eyes are full of tears. Just read these amazing lyrics, and let them soak into your soul. O Holy Night! The stars are brightly shining, It is the night of the dear Savior's birth. Long lay the world in sin and error pining. Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth. A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices, For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn. Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices! O night divine, the night when Christ was born; O night, O Holy Night , O night divine! O night, O Holy Night , O night divine! Can you imagine it? Can you place yourself there with Mary and Joseph? Can you hear Jesus making sweet newborn noises? Be a fly on the wall, cause you know it was a barn and there was probably plenty, to see, feel, smell and experience the night of our dear Savior's birth. It wasn't the most clean or picturesque moment. There were no doctors, no standards of cleanliness, no cameras to record the moment, no Facebook or Instagram to tell all your friends in a flash about this amazing moment. It must have been so quiet. So calm. And yet all the world was on edge waiting for this moment, for this life to come and change the rest of eternity. It was the beginning of a cosmic revolution, the boundless God of the universe reaching into time and space, placing His Son in the arms of a teenage girl, as a tiny, helpless baby. For you and for me. Wow. Can you imagine it? Can you place yourself in the Christmas story? Can you feel the love in Mary's heart? Can you imagine her thoughts and emotion? Can you imagine the thoughts and mind of God, watching His plan unfold? It's overwhelming to think about what Mary must have experienced. It's even more amazing to imagine what God was thinking. The truth is that in that moment, he saw you and me. He was filled with mercy and grace - for us. Can you see the grace and love of God - for you - through the birth of his Son? For God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son... - John 3:16a But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. Galatians 4:4 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. - 1 John 4:10 Now will you let yourself be changed by it this Christmas season when you hear and experience the story of Jesus' birth? I (Lindsey) have been listening to KLOVE a lot lately. There have been some really great new songs out that talk all about how we are serving Christ with the day to day. We are serving him every time we serve another in love, His love. The other day, while on the way to work a woman called in and asked the hosts of the KLOVE morning show is it really true, is it biblical, that everything we do in the name of Jesus is just as important as bringing someone to Christ? In their answer they brought into the conversation the verses 1 Corinthians 13: 1-3 “If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.” Their point, that anything done in love is important, and anything done without love is meaningless. That understanding was such a revelation to this woman, and quite honestly it is probably quite the revelation to most Christians. We get so caught up in soul saving, that we often forget that God is the one who can change hearts, all we can do is to serve others with His love. Today a dear friend posted a verse that I did not recall reading though I’m sure I have hundreds of times. The books of Timothy are two of my favorites in the bible so I am sure that I’ve seen it. Maybe it was just a matter of timing. God has been placing this in my life in different ways lately, and now I was ready to really comprehend this verse. 1 Timothy 5:8 “Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” How many times do I look at serving the family under my own roof, who are some of the people that I love most, as a chore, or something less important than serving the church, or the community, or a stranger. All of those things are very important as well, but they are no more important than serving our families. Not only serving them though, serving them with Christ’s love. The thousands of meals I serve to my family every year are worthless if they aren’t served with love. The countless lessons that I teach my children are meaningless without love. The sacrificial way in which I provide for my family’s needs while putting my own on the back burn it means nothing without love. I have gained nothing, and my family has gained nothing if I have not served them with the love of Christ. We are called not only to serve, but to serve with love. We are called to not just serve other more important people with more visible and praise worthy jobs, we are called to serve the family under our own roof. We are called to serve, in love, the people who often don’t even think twice about what we do for them and if we choose not to 1 Timothy tells us that we are worse than an unbeliever. Talk about a humility check. God wants us to lovingly do the tasks that no one notices, that no one sees. He wants us to serve the people who don’t say thank you most of the time. God wants us to serve even if we will never get a pat on the back, or a thank you and he wants us to do it with a pleasant and loving Godly spirit. I don’t know about you, but I don’t often get the pleasant and loving spirit down. My family isn’t neglected, but I often desire the compliments and praise that come from doing for those outside my family. I often have a bad attitude when I don’t get the help I feel I deserve, and very often I act in unloving manner towards the people that I love. Today I feel convicted, that I must learn to serve my family with love even when its not convenient, even when small children seem ungrateful or exceptionally destructive. Even when my husband isn’t serving me in a loving way. Even when I would get more praise from other areas of service. I have been called to serve my family in love and its time I start taking that job just as seriously as all the other ones I have. Father God, give a spirit of love and service towards my family. Help me to see them not as a burden or another chore, instead help me to see them as you do. Let me realize that they are a beautiful mission field. A way to reach the world with your love by sending them out of my home always filled to the brim with it. Lord let me love them fully, completely, fully, ever single day of my life. In your precious name Jesus, Amen. |
This space is reserved for Founder Mandy's perspectives and viewpoints of Scripture. Man is fallible, but God is not. It's strongly encouraged that you study the Scripture for yourself and allow the Holy Spirit to guide you in your understanding.
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