Hope and Healing for Moms

Saturday, December 30, 2017 O Holy Night. O Night Divine. This morning, I am sitting here meditating on the Lord and I just can’t get this song out of my head. This Christmas, my grandmother who took a very intimate role in raising me as a child, reached out to me for a special piece of custom art work. I recently began to share my scripture-based brush lettering artwork with family and friends. Last year, Grandpa underwent open heart surgery. He is in his late nineties, and has always been full of life and vigor. Grandma has always been an amazing caretaker for him, making sure he has a healthy and balanced diet and educating herself and by proxy our entire family on natural herbal supplements for every need. Their relationship has been an inspiration for me over the years. While this is a second marriage, they have lived a devout and God-honoring life for the past 47 years. Grandma has the most devoted heart for Grandpa I have ever seen. Two years ago, at Christmas, Grandpa ...

Friday, December 29, 2017 Good morning! This morning, when my husband greeted me (with coffee, I might add. This alone would have been enough reason to marry him!!), he shared that he had read that this time between Christmas and New Year is like the twilight of the year. I love that image. We are calm, relaxed, awaiting the change of the day (year), and a little blissfully disoriented. This year, we have been afforded the luxury of almost two full weeks of vacation with the whole family, a first for us. The time of connecting, the opportunity to rest (and heal) and enjoy each other and beloved family, is a treasure that we cherish far beyond extravagant vacations. In this twilight season, I pray that each of us will find a deeper level of connection with the Lord, with our family, and with those around us. May this gently closing season of Christmas and the New Year leave us with a sense of laying to rest the struggles of the past and a dawning of hope for the future. God ble...

Thursday, December 28, 2017 Good morning! Welcome to prayer this 28 th day of December, 2017. The year is drawing to a close, and I am getting excited for the year to come! While I don’t participate in New Year’s resolutions, I definitely have plans and goals that I will be praying over this year. The most important goals I have are the ones that make me more like Jesus. I pray for a new level of patience, kindness, mercy and wisdom from the Lord this year.  If you would like to share your goals or what you would like the Lord to do in you this year, feel free to send me a message or post in the comments. God bless you as we pray for our children today! Prayer: Thanksgiving: Lord, I give You honor this day! This is the day that You have made. I will rejoice and be glad in it! I enter into Your presence with thanksgiving and into Your courts with praise. I give thanks to You, Lord, and bless Your name. You are good and Your mercy is everlasting. Your Truth is e...

Wednesday, December 27, 2017 Good morning! Welcome to prayer today! I pray and trust your Christmas was sweet, and that you have been able to draw closer together as a family during this season. It is so good to be here praying together with all of you today! For the final few days of December, I’ll continue with a simple prayer. Starting in January, I’ll resume the study of Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster. We are just about half way through. It is definitely a deep study, and while at times that sort of study can feel daunting, I pray that we will as followers of Christ become enlarged in our hearts as we learn the disciplines of our faith. I pray also that we will be more fully equipped to disciple our children as we continue to be discipled ourselves! As a reminder, if you would like a copy of the book to read yourself, it is available at most bookstores, on Amazon (including Kindle), and at many public libraries. I’ll post a link to the Amazon book in the comme...

Sunday, December 24, 2017 ‘Tis the morning before Christmas, and all through this house The silence is lovely as I sit quiet as a mouse As every morning, sipping coffee and preparing to share From the heart of our Father, and a guided parent’s prayer! Merry Christmas Eve to each of you! I am blessed and excited to share our prayer today. God bless you each as we pray together for our children! Prayer: Thanksgiving: Good morning, sweet Father in heaven! How good it is to walk into Your Presence, how good to share in Your beautiful creation. I thank You for Your great love for me and for my family. I thank You for Your provision. I thank You for the health we enjoy. I thank You for clean air and water, and I thank You for shelter. I thank You for sending Your Son Jesus, and for Your great Plan of Salvation that was prepared for us before the foundations of the earth. I thank You for faith, and for sending Your Holy Spirit that we might commune with You and ...

Saturday, December 23, 2017 Good morning to you! I pray this finds you joyful and ready for the Christmas celebrations that for many of us have already begun. I pray that you will be able to slow down and enjoy this time. God bless you today as we pray for our children! Prayer: Thanksgiving: Good morning, Father, I thank You that this day is Yours and the world and all that are in it. I praise You for this beautiful day. I thank You that Your mercies are new every morning.  Your love reaches to the heavens. Your faithfulness stretches to the sky. I honor You, I worship You, and I love You. Confession: I lift my heart to You today. I ask for Your healing and Your cleansing today, Lord. I thank You that each day I can come to You and be healed afresh. (Take time to allow the Lord to examine your heart, ask Him to show you where you need healing, confession, and forgiveness.) Supplication: I lift my needs to You today and thank You that You have my good...

Friday, December 22, 2017 Good morning, friends! Three days until Christmas! It is wonderful to gather together with you today to bring our children to the Lord. When we started more than a year ago, some of us were in despair that we would ever see changes for our children, but through prayer and with time, we have seen the needle moving. However, perhaps you are one today who is in despair. Welcome, sweet brother or sister in Christ! We will go with you into the Throneroom of Grace today, and it is my prayer that one year from now, God will show you His great love for you and the desire He has to transform your child by His love and by His power. We all need parenting techniques, strategies, and advice. I firmly believe, however, that prayer should come first, and that true change and transformation happen only at the heart level. God bless us all today as we pray! Prayer: Thanksgiving: Great and loving Father, I thank You today for Your love, Your mercy, Your co...

Good morning! My sincere apologies for having to miss the rest of the Advent devotional I began. I am grateful to be on the mend from a serious illness. Thank each of you who prayed for me. Wednesday, December 20, 2017 Can it possibly be December 20th already? Five days before Christmas? The Advent calendar we share as a family in our evening devotional time is emptying, and the space under the tree is filling up. The tree graces our foyer, and Christmas music is being sung and enjoyed by each of us. During this time, it is such a blessing to pause and share our faith with our still-small children, prayerful that this wonder-filled season will evoke in them the joy that it stirs up in us. May your homes and hearts also be filled with the wonder of Christ’s coming this Christmas! God bless you today as we pray. Prayer: Thanksgiving: Jesus, we love You. Father, we thank You for Your Great Plan of salvation. We thank You for the humble yet awe-inspiring beginning of Your redem...

Sunday, December 10, 2017 Advent Week Two! Peace Day 8: God’s Covenant of Peace With Us Scripture: Isaiah 54 The Eternal Covenant of Peace 1 “Sing, O barren one, who did not bear;     break forth into singing and cry aloud,     you who have not been in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more     than the children of her who is married,” says the Lord. 2  “Enlarge the place of your tent,     and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your cords     and strengthen your stakes. 3  For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left,     and your offspring will possess the nations     and will people the desolate cities. 4  “Fear not, for you will not be ashamed;     be not confounded, for yo...

Good morning! It is so good to be with you today as we pray for our children this Advent season. God bless each and every one of you! I am praying for you and for your home! Saturday, December 9, 2017 Advent Week One! Hope! Day 7: Hope In Believing Scripture: Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 1 Thessalonians 5:24 He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. Romans 8:24-25 ….so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 1 Peter 1:7-8 I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of ...

Friday, December 8, 2017 Advent Week One! Hope! Day 6: Hope Springs Eternal Scripture: 1 Peter 1:3-9 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 2 Timothy 4:8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me...

Thursday, December 7, 2017 Advent Week One! Hope! Day 5: Hope Anchors Scripture: Hebrews 6:17-20 17  So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath,  18  so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.  19  We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain,  20  where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Devotional: Hope anchors us! This truth continually brings up the yearning and gratitude of my early days as a returning believer in my late 20s. For me and many like me, my young adulthood was largely rudderless and drift...

Wednesday, December 6, 2017 Advent Week One! Hope! Day 3: Hope in Waiting on God Scripture: Psalm 39:7 But for you, O Lord, do I wait; it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer. Psalm 130:5-6 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning. Psalm 119:81 My soul longs for your salvation; I hope in your word. Luke 2:25-32 25  And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name  was  Simeon, and this man  was  just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.  26  And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.  27  So he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the Child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the law,  28  he took Him up...