Did you know that God's plan for you is to FLOURISH? And where does He want you to flourish? In your home. Psalm 128:3-4 (TLB): “Your wife will be like fruitful vine, FLOURISHING within your home. And look at all those children! There they sit around your table as vigorous and healthy as young olive trees. That is the Lord’s reward for those who fear Him.”
Perhaps you feel like a WILTING plant. You feel "half dead"! Or maybe, like some plants, you are barely SURVIVING. You get through each day, but only just!
God has more for you, dear mother. He wants you to flourish and bloom.
I believe we come into the flourishing mode when we embrace our mothering role with all our heart. We know that we are in God's perfect will. No matter what the hardships and challenges, we face them with joy. We are not dreaming of some day when we will be through these mothering days. Instead, we live every moment to the full. Every moment is an abounding moment because Christ lives in us and His life is not wilting, but full of life and power (John 10:10).
Embrace your powerful calling of motherhood and make every moment a God moment. Think of yourself as a flourishing plant--abounding, blooming, blossoming, enlarging, expanding, flowering, growing luxuriantly, increasing, and thriving (Isaiah 54:2-3)! This is God's plan for you.
God bless you today,
Nancy Campbell
Jesus came to glorify God on this earth (John 17:4). Although Jesus is no longer on earth in bodily form, He still has the same passion to glorify His Father on the earth. But now He wants to do it, not only in Jerusalem and Israel where He came in person, but throughout the whole earth. Now He wants to do it through YOU.
What is your disposition toward your husband? I was struck by another phrase in Way's translation of Titus 2:4 which exhorts wives "to be amiable and submissive to their own husbands." To be amiable makes for a happy and loving atmosphere.
I love the Arthur S. Way's translation of Titus 2:3-5 where it tells the older women their responsibilities: "They should be teachers of virtue, qualified to school in self-control the young women, to teach them to love their husbands and their children, to be discreet and chaste, to recognize that their sphere is home, to be amiable and submissive to their own husbands, so that no slander may assail the Word of God."
A friend shared with me an incident that happened at a ladies meeting. A mother arrived with a new baby and everyone was oohing and aahing over the baby. A mother of three was also delighting in the baby when she suddenly pushed away from the baby and said, "I must resist! I must resist!"
My friend, Heather Bryant shared this with me:
Mother, you are the light of your home and the light of the nation.
Recently I talked to a young man who is attending college. He shared how his professors advocate delaying marriage and childbearing until they establish themselves and their career. This is how all young people are educated today. Girls are urged to make sure they get settled in a career so that they will have a means of support "in case their marriage fails."
I was reading again in Daniel 3 the familiar story of how Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow to the golden image. They were the only ones who refused to bow. It is amazing that everyone else in Babylon had become a victim and slave to do what they were told. They were indoctrinated and brainwashed that this was the right thing to do. It says that "all the people, the nations, and the languages fell down and worshipped the golden image" (v
Do you feel as though you have too much work to do today? When can you get time to rest? Can I encourage you with the words of Jesus? He said: "My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work" (John 4:34). Jesus also said: "I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work" (John 9:4). Read also John 5:17, 36; 6:27, 38; and 17:4.
At our Family Devotions this morning we read how Daniel was praying and confessing his sin and the sin of the people of Israel before the LORD God. It then tells us that at the time of the evening offering the Angel Gabriel came and "touched" him and began to speak with him (Daniel 9:20, 21).
Dear mother, You are in the most important career in the nation!
I was happy and sad to read all the comments to my post below, DOUBLE BLESSING. Sad because so many shared that they also received the same comment about having a baby or twins of "Double trouble." But I was also so happy to read how all these wonderful mothers rejected this comment and shared how their twins have been such a double blessing in their lives.
When talking to a friend recently she shared with me that she was delighted to meet a mother with 13 month old twins at the grocery store.
I read this morning in Deuteronomy 32:4 that "God is the Rock, his work is perfect." God's creation is glorious and perfect. The way He created male and female is perfect. Each one of us are awesomely, wonderfully, intricately, and marvelously created (Psalm 139:14, 15).
I read a beautiful Scripture this morning. In Psalm 68:9 (NET) David speaks about God's inheritance and He says: "When they are tired, you sustain them, for you live among them."
The Supreme court will not give a final decision regarding same sex marriage until about June. In the meantime, let's keep praying.
I love Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, "A Psalm of Life." One of the lines says: "Footprints 
Today, the Supreme Court begins debating the redefining of marriage in America. The God-ordained, God-divined, and God-planned institution of marriage between one man and one woman is on trial. Will same-sex marriage be regarded as the law of the land?
What is the most world-changing thing you can do as a family? Of course you know. It is to pray. And yet why do we put aside the most important family appointment of our day to the bottom of the list? It's because the enemy knows the power of prayer. It defeats his plans and moves the mighty hand of God against him. He will keep you from praying. He will even use good things to fill your day so you won't have time to pray.