Missionary Mom Musings

"Part of the reward of work is stopping long enough to see what's been accomplished."~Lance Witt I love this quote from Lance Witt, in his book Replenish:Leading From A Healthy Soul . This book has been a great reminder for me to stop, rest and rejoice in all that God has done. I am very much a 'it all has to be done RIGHT NOW!' kind of person and as such, taking time to stop and smell the roses is not a natural response. It's my personality; I like to have things done in a timely manner and if I have a deadline coming up, I'll stay up late to get the newsletter done or the thank you notes written..... and many times, this is detrimental to my family and myself. I end up grouchy, snapping at my husband and kids, flying off the handle at the slightest thing because I have not taken the time to give myself the rest that I need. We are in the midst of planning our annual ministry trip to visit friends, family, supporters and churches, which means there ...

For those who know me, truer words were never spoken. I am quite possibly the most directionally challenged (did I just make up a new word?) person you will ever meet!  I don't do North, South, East and West. My language is 'turn left at the Wal-Mart' and 'look for the purple house on the corner'. And if I were a pilot, this would be my story, flying 3,728 miles IN THE WRONG DIRECTION !!  http://jalopnik.com/comically-bad-pilot-flies-3-728-miles-in-wrong-directio-1786325555 . Fortunately for me, I'm not the pilot in the family; that would be my amazing husband who is MUCH better with directions than I am :-) For example, I tried to give someone directions yesterday, and after I got off the phone, I told hubby that he should call back to make sure my directions were correct (which they weren't!). Thank goodness one of us in the family knows how to get places without getting lost....... did I mention that my GPS and I are best friends? Anyway, th...

After reflecting the last few days on the previous blog post and re-reading the quote from Thomas Keller, I must honestly confess one of my struggles that I believe is a HUGE contributor to my feeling tired and overwhelmed much of the time........ and it doesn't have anything to do with how many activities are planned in my week........ are you ready? I lack a consistent time in the Word and in prayer with my Heavenly Father.   It's something that I've struggled with since becoming a Mom... throughout high school and college, early on in marriage, I enjoyed a wonderful routine of time with God in the mornings, time praying and writing in my journal, time being quiet before Him and listening to His words. As a wife, a mother and a missionary, this is something that I am not proud of at all. I'm certainly not blaming my kids or my schedule..... I am the one who needs to make this a priority and I haven't been doing that. Imagine if I spent as much time with...

Well, summer is officially upon us. During the school year, I home school, we host a Bible Study Group in our home on Monday evening, the kids have AWANA on Tuesday evening, I attend a Ladies Bible Study Group every other Wednesday evening, our Princess has gymnastics on Thursday evening and our Buddy Boy has karate on Friday evening. Saturday is for grocery shopping, mowing the lawn, etc. and Sunday we go to church and spend the afternoon together as a family. Whew! That made me tired just typing it all out! As I sit here and see all of these wonderful activities that we get to participate in, I see friends, I see fun but I also see busyness. Summer isn't any different..... we have our annual homeschool convention, Family Conference, two weeks of swimming lessons, church camp, family camp, Vacation Bible School....... and then before we know it, it's time to begin our school year again and plan a ministry road trip to Texas for 3 weeks. And I wonder why I feel so tir...

I want to be successful...... as a daughter, wife, mother, friend, teacher, missionary. I often look for accolades from the world rather than God. The question is why? Why does this matter to me? I think it's partly human nature to desire success.... I always try to work hard to please people or impress people or to leave a good impression; that's part of my personality. But what does God want from me? Does He look at my success or my faithfulness? In the Bible, we read in Matthew 25 the story of a man who was leaving on a trip. He called his servants together and gave them different 'talents' or coinage and when he returned from the trip, he called the servants together again to give an account of what they had done with the talents that he had entrusted to them while he was away. To the one who been wise with the talents, the man said, "Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter in...

Our family enjoyed participating in a homeschool convention this weekend; it's a great time of refreshment for my husband and me (especially at the end of the school year) and our kids LOVE the children's program that is offered. It's always a blessing to know that the kids are well taken care of, allowing the two of us time to be refreshed, browse curriculum and spend some time together thinking (and praying) about the next school year. I was going to be ahead of the game this year, so I planned out all the curriculum that I wanted to use and looked in the Exhibit Hall for those vendors since they offer special pricing, discounts, free shipping, etc. at most conventions. We also had a great list of speakers to choose from, most (if not all) are/were homeschool parents and they offered a great deal of encouragement and insight as they have traveled this journey before us. We decided to attend one particular workshop on the first day, because we were intrigued by the t...

Yesterday, I took something over to a friend's house and she invited me to stay for a bit, after apologizing for the house being messy..... (have you seen MY house lately?!)  The kids played together and she sat down to nurse her baby. As we talked, I saw baskets of laundry sitting on her couch and since I was just sitting there talking to her, I pulled a basket of laundry over and started to fold the clothes. Rather than stopping me with a comment like "Oh, it's okay. You don't have to do that" (which is how I would have responded), she said, "Thank you so much for folding my laundry!" and continued the conversation.  I learned a great lesson in that moment; I need to be more like her. I have a very difficult time accepting help, especially when I NEED the help! It's a pride issue, one that I have found hard to overcome, one that I constantly need to bring before the Lord. I love to give, I love to do things for others...... but I need to be g...