Mother of Seven + 2

"Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you."  Ephesians 4:32 One of the first verses I memorized as a child was Ephesians 4:32.  I remember my dad telling me how he often had to quote the same verse when he fought with his brother.  Following the family tradition, my children all knew this verse as the "B verse" in our alphabet memory verses.  A fight would break out, and I was ask them to quote the "B verse."  When the fighting didn't stop, they earned the privilege of writing it on paper ten times. One particular child wrote Ephesians 4:32 so many times that at the age of 6, he proudly proclaimed to his grandparents that he could spell the word "compassionate."  Yes.  Yes, he could.  He had much practice.  Being kind was hard for this child, but I often found it much harder as a parent to teach the second portion of this verse. We had many a "face off."  Two angry chil

This lesson was a challenge for me.  I didn't know how to go about writing it.  During my morning walk a couple mornings, I prayed for God to give me guidance.  Often times something will come to mind while I am in prayer, but nothing did.  I continued to wrestle with this lesson even as I sat down to write it.  Then it came to me how appropriate it was that I was struggling with this topic.  Forgiveness is something we struggle with.  It doesn't come easy.  It feels like a battle of tug-of-war. Photo from www.freedigitalphotos.net "And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you."   Eph. 4:32 KJV This is one of the first Bible verses I remember memorizing.  My sister called me "dumb or stupid," and I was reminded of Ephesians 4:32.  My brother broke my china teapot, and I was reminded of Ephesians 4:32.  My best friend played with someone besides me one day and left me

The Connection between Prayer and our Hearts. David was called a man after God's own heart. Many of the Psalms are a record of the prayers and praises of David. He spent much time communicating with God. In order to have hearts modeled after God's, we need to follow David's example of communicating with the one who made us. After all only God can mold our hearts to look like his.  Prayer is essential in an undivided heart. In Psalm 86 we find one of David's prayers. “ Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.” Psalm 86:11 What kind of heart did David ask God for? Make a list of things that can divide our hearts. Photo from www.freedigitalphotos.net What indicates to us where our hearts are? Mt. 6:19-21 “For where your ______________________ is, there your _______________________ will be also.” Looking back at our list of things that divide our hear

 “ Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.” Psalm 86:11 Photo from www.freedigitalphotos.net When we marry someone, we want their full heart. We want their devotion. We don't want to share it with someone or something else. When Les and I were first married, we didn't have a computer. I worked for a full year babysitting to save enough money to buy our first computer. When we at last bought it, my husband was quiet enamored with it. He spent hours learning it. He would stay up late arranging his files, setting up the desktop, and researching information. I started to get jealous. I lay in bed night after night by myself. I threatened to buy a wig for the computer monitor and name it Fanny. He didn't think that was too funny. Why was I so upset? I felt like something was interfering with his devotion to me. The newness of the computer did wear off eventually and we laugh about those days now,

Before moving on to lessons about the kind of heart God wants us to have, I'd like to spend some time discussing what an improper guard around our heart would look like. Troy came to our home when he was 7 years old.  He had been badly hurt.  In the past 2 1/2 years he had been in 5 foster homes and had been abused in ways that to this day break my heart.  The one thing he was determined  NOT to do was to love us or to allow us to love him.  The first year was challenging.  He was guarding his heart from ever being hurt again. Troy would get angry and yell at me with tears, "Just call foster care and have them come get me!"  I'd tell him that parents don't do that.  We are given children, and we love them through the hard.  "I don't want you to love me," he would scream.  Over and over we went through this.  Finally one day I took the phone and set it in front of him.  I said, "Troy, if you are that miserable here, you may call the foster ca