Shyanne had a quick clinic visit today for a dressing change and labs. Everything went well with the exception of one lumen is not giving blood return so well will have to have that addressed next week when we return for admission.
She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her. –Proverbs 3:15
I am writing this for my beautiful daughters but it really could be directed to all of the women out there, young and old.
First and foremost, I want you to know how much I love you! I have loved you since before I even met you. I don’t want you to ever doubt that in any way. As your mother it is my responsibility to protect you and look out for you. Please don’t ever think that I am trying to be critical or trying to discourage you. I only want the best for you and if I say something about a guy you are interested in I am only being honest because I have learned some traits to look for and some traits to avoid. In the end I will be there for you no matter what and I want you to know that.
I want you to know how wonderful you are. Everything about you is perfect and I don’t want you to ever feel like it isn’t. How do I know that? Because God was your creator and He makes no mistakes. He has lovingly created you and He only wants the best for you because before you were my child you belonged, and still belong, to Him.
I know life is hard and especially when it come to the romance department it can be really tough. I want you to remember that you deserve the best in whoever your partner is. I want you to set your standards high because you don’t need to settle. You should never settle because God has someone in mind for you and that someone will not only meet those standards you set but he will exceed those standards. How do I know that? Because God has a plan for each of us. He loves us and truly only wants the best for us. He can do the impossible.
You deserve to be loved, but not just loved like the general idea of love, you deserve to be cherished. You deserve someone who is loyal and honest. You deserve someone who longs to be with you just as much as you long to be with them. You deserve someone who will look after your heart as they look after their own. If you will take your requests to God He will supply. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but according to His timing which is always right on time.
So for now I want you to take things slow. Learn to be patient and trust in the Lord. Develop your relationship with God because His love is the only perfect love. When you have a close relationship with God everything else will start to fall into place.
Use this time wisely. Ask God to help you and to show you the areas that need improvement. He is molding you and training you into the person He wants you to be. When we don’t give Him control then it makes this process so much more difficult.
Don’t just pray for yourself but pray for this future partner. You may not know him right now, you may live in different zip codes, or you may know him and not even think of him as ‘the one’. God knows who He is. Ask God to work in His life as He is working in your life. When you both are ready God will reveal him to you.
Don’t chase guys or waste time on guys who refuse to meet your standards because when God puts His plan into motion the right guy is gonna find you! I promise! I joked before that the guy for me would have to be driving the UPS or FedEx truck as I never went anywhere for anyone to find me. I was wrong. God put me where I needed to be and He will do the same for you.
Don’t let these guys tell you that your standards are too high! Don’t let them make excuses! Your standards are your standards and they have no right to judge them. This is just a sign that they are not the one for you. When you find the one God intends for you then you will be just what He was looking for, just as He will be just what you have been looking for.
Don’t settle because you think that you will be able to change them! That kind of change can only come from above. It is possible that the guy you like right now may be the guy God has chosen for you but it may be that God is not finished with him yet. God is working on the perfect man for you.
I may not be a relationship expert but I have made my fair share of mistakes when it comes to not waiting on God. I don’t want you to make those mistakes and deal with the heartache that goes along with them. Every heartbreak will leave a scar and will make it that much harder for you to love someone in the future.
I have faith that there is someone out there who is waiting for you. He has made his list and he knows what he is waiting for. You are worth the wait!
Daughters, you are beautiful, smart, funny, and wonderful. Anyone that thinks otherwise or puts you down is not someone you need to be with. Please remember that you are a daughter of the king and He wants what is best for you. If you trust in Him He will provide you with so much more than your heart can imagine.
I am praying for each of my children and their future/current spouses. Times are especially hard right now and it will be so much harder for our children to remain pure and to keep their focus on God.
Lord, I ask you today to watch over these young women. Show them how beautifully and wonderfully made they are. Lord, guard their hearts and keep them pure. Be with them as they wait on you and help them to develop the character traits that they will need for their roles as wives and mothers in the future.
Please watch over their future partners and protect them. Keep them pure, guard their hearts, and help them to keep their focus on You, Lord. Help these young men to develop the character traits that they will need to be the husbands and fathers they will need to be in the future.
Thank you for you mercy and grace on all of us. Amen!
Below are some links that young women and their parents can check out:
Having the Right Perspective When Praying for a Future Husband
Praying for Your Future Husband: Preparing Your Heart for His
How to use the Bible to Pray For Your Future (or Current) Spouse
6 Prayers For Finding A Godly Spouse
12 Ways to Pray for Your
Child’s Future Mate
Five Prayers for Your Daughter
Prayer for my daughter who seeks a relationship.
A prayer for my daughter to find a godly husband.
** Featured image is from Mr. Amari Soul on Facebook.
I’m sure all of us, at one time, or another have thought about how nice it would be to live secluded away from others for a time. I have thought about it more than once in the past little bit. I have come to realize that this would be selfish and a bit self centered. It would not be at all what God has called us to do.
Sometimes it is because we have been hurt by those around us. Other times the weight of the world just seems too heavy to bear any longer. There could be a million reasons why we would want to withdraw and hold back our feelings but that is not what God wants us to do.
He has called us to love one another. Time and time again it is mentioned in the Bible about loving others. It has been explained and modeled by Jesus himself. He does not want us to withdraw or to withhold love from others. No matter what we are going through we should always show compassion towards others. No matter what they have done to us we still need to love them just as He has done for us.
We are all, each and every one of us, sinners that have or can be saved by grace. There is not one of us that could be held blameless. We are not to judge the sins of another because we have our own sins that could be judged. We need to be a constant source of encouragement to them. Yes, we have our bad days but that is when our lights can shine the brightest.
Each of us, to some degree, have a yearning to be accepted. We want to feel like we belong to something or that we really matter to someone. This may be a little selfish or self focused but it is natural for us to feel this way. We want to be loved and respected by those around us. We want to have a close relationship with others. Sometimes though past experiences can make us afraid to love or to accept love.
The sermon at church today touched on so many of these points. I have been studying a lot of the same verses the past couple of weeks. It gave me a new understanding and perspective to see this from. How can we show a Christ like love towards others?
Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body. Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
— Hebrews 13:1-6King James Version (KJV)
We can do it through our hospitality. By welcoming others into our lives and showing them kindness. We can help them to feel accepted, welcomed, and loved. We can do it by showing empathy for others. We can do this in person or through prayer. There are so many others that are in worse situations than we could ever imagine and need our prayers on a daily basis.
Of course, we should show this love towards our families. We should show love towards our spouses and our children. By modeling this love in our families we can be a role model to others and to our children.
We can do this also by having the proper outlook on life and towards those we meet. We don’t know what others are going through or have been through. For this reason we are not to judge them but to accept them. We are not to look down on them but to see them as equals. We are to help them without the thought of what they could do for us. We are to show them unconditional love.
We each need to renew our commitments to God and ask Him to help us show brotherly love towards everyone we meet. When we experience God’s love to the fullest it will overflow and spill out onto those around us. His love will be the driving force behind your desire to show love to others.
Don’t be afraid to love others. I know sometimes it is hard to forgive others for things they have done or to look past things that have happened. If you can overlook those things and let God’s love shine through you and through your actions you will be bringing honor and glory to our Lord.
I’m sitting here writing this before 7pm and I am exhausted. This past week has seemed like an eternity. The kids have been super hyper, family tensions have exploded, and life has just been down right crazy. There have been many times this past week that, even in the midst of all the chaos, I have felt so lonely.
That’s how life goes though. We have to have the bad to know what the good is. We need the craziness to keep us on our toes. It all works together to mold us and shape us into who we need to be.
There have been some really good moments and some funny ones too. Today DS3 asked me for a piece of ‘turned over cake’ aka Pineapple Upside-Down Cake. He was so happy to get a piece after dinner. It’s amazing how the simplest things can bring a smile to a child’s face.
Then there was this little couple at the grocery store today. They were older, reminded me a bit of my mom-mom and pop-pop, but they were so cute. I wanted to snap a picture but I didn’t want them to think I was completely off my rocker so I didn’t. I was happy to see them but also a little sad.
Sometimes I wonder if I’ll ever have that. That’s what I signed up for, not once or twice, but three times now. Three times it hasn’t worked out. It seems that every time I see a little glimpse of that it slips away from me and feels like it was just a figment of my imagination.
That’s when the Devil slips in and tries to tell me that I’m not good enough or that I’ll never be enough for anyone. He reminds me of my past failures and he points out my kids. He tells me that noone would ever be crazy enough to sign up for all of this.
Well, he is WRONG! I know he is. How do I know? Because God has said that I am His daughter and He is the KING! If it is God’s best for me then I will have it. So, I will try my best to be content where I am right now. Even though where I am right now is not where I thought I was a week or so ago. It is so hard to keep the faith sometimes but I will trust in His promises.
Even when times are hard God is there. We may not see Him or feel Him but He is there. When it seems like the dead of winter is upon us, He is with us. He is working on us, pruning us, shaping us, molding us for the plans He has for us. We may not see the fruits of our labors right now but we will see them in the future. He is so good!
Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls;
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.
The Lord God is my strength, and He will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.
— Habakkuk 3: 17-19
This season of the year brings out a lot of different emotions for everyone. You may be waiting in anticipation for Christmas to get here. You may be excited to see your family and maybe a little anxious to see what gifts are waiting for you under the tree. It may be full of despair if you didn’t have the extra money to buy gifts for your loved ones. You may be feeling hopeless or distraught.
Please don’t beat yourself up over things you can’t control. This season is meant to bring us feelings of peace, joy, and love. To fully experience this you must let go of your feelings of guilt. There is not any ‘perfect’ Christmas, ‘perfect’ gift, or ‘perfect’ person at least since that very first Christmas.
Before we can truly experience the full joy and peace of the season we need to love ourselves. There are a million things that can make us feel unloved or unworthy.
Do you feel like you aren’t enough? You just can’t quite get everything pulled together to pull off the perfect holiday celebration. Maybe you don’t have the trendiest clothes? If only you had nicer clothes then you would feel better about yourself. Maybe your hair is in desperate need of a cut or color? If only you had the money to do your hair you would feel prettier. Maybe your friends or family have deserted you? If only you were a better person they wouldn’t have left you feeling so unloved and rejected.
These could all be reasons to feel down in the dumps. But let me tell you something… they are all lies. Lies that are fed to us by the one who is out only to seek and devour, to destroy us. Satan wants us to believe that we are rejects and that we are unworthy of being loved.
God sent his only begotten son to show us His love. God loves you, He loves me, and He loves everyone around us. He wants us to fully experience His love for us. We can’t do that if we refuse to accept it or let go of our guilt or misconceptions that we have.
I want you to know that God loves you unconditionally. He loves you whether you are overweight or underweight. He loves you whether you have an addiction to alcohol, drugs, or anything else. He loves you if you drive a Mercedes or a bucket of rust. He loves you even when it seems that noone else does. He loves you whether you bite your nails to the quick or have the latest manicure.
I want you to know that you can feel at peace this holiday season. You can experience a joy so full that it overflows to those around you. You can experience a love like you’ve never known. Just take it to God and ask Him to help you with your feelings of inadequacies, unworthiness, or whatever it is that you may be feeling. He can and will take your burdens away and He will show you how to let your light shine in the darkest of days.
Merry Christmas!
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