heartache

Our daughters have so much potential.

Sometimes when I look at them my heartaches with the potential that I see in them and how little they see in themselves.   This is a picture of a time when she was not having a good moment.  Why did I take a picture to remember this?  Because too often I feel this way as well.

Today at soccer I sat in the stands and shed a few tears as I watched my oldest practicing her drills.  As parents we try to do what we can to give opportunities to our children to try new things and develop different skills.  The footwork that soccer players are capable of blow my mind.  The skills that she has developed over the past two years is incredible.  I am so proud of her.  As I sat in the stands today all I could see is the vastness of everything that she can accomplish and all the possibilities her life holds.  My heart ached with excitement for her.

Then I thought that my understanding is only a portion of what God sees.  Not only for her but for me as well.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

                                 ~ Jeremiah 29:11

Each morning when I wake up I will choose to live for my potential, as I make this choice I know that my daughters are watching and I pray that they will make the same choice each day as well. 

Maybe you need to make that choice as well?  Don’t let a day pass you by that you are not choosing to live up to your never-ending potential!

 

I’m back!!!

Yes, my blog has been hijacked for the last little while as I helped my friend raise some funds to build a home for boys in Bolivia.

Now, I get my blog back and I have a list of posts that I can’t wait to share with you.  I think I was having post withdrawal or something.

Today I want to post something so special that happened at our fundraiser on Friday night.  I had a few friends donate beautiful works of art and these painting were adorning my home until the night of the auction. 

My daughters (ages 7 & 8) wanted to be able to contribute as well by painting their own picture.  So one day when the girls came home from school I had newspaper covering the kitchen table, 2 canvas’ laid out and paint ready to go.  They got right to work and made their masterpieces.  They were very proud of their artwork and were excited to have them auctioned off to raise money for Ken.

I added them to the Live Auction Program and their artwork was displayed for everyone in attendance.  On the program I had to write a value so of course I said “priceless”. 

Halfway through the auction it was their “work of art” turn.   I had been walking around and displaying the previous auction items as the auctioneer did her thing, I wasn’t sure how the audience would react to the girls paintings.  When I saw that their turn was up, I made an announcement that we were lucky enough to have the next artists in the audience that evening and that they would display their artwork.  The crowds reaction was very gracious and I am so thankful.  I had the girls come to the front to hold their paintings for all to see.

It was so exciting when the bidding started at $20!  Then the bids continued to go back and forth among several people until Daddy ended up winning the bid at $80!  The girls were so proud.

Something that we didn’t notice until that evening was that when you placed the pictures beside each other they had both made a sun in the corner and when you put them together it made a set!

It was an awesome moment; the girls had been seeing all the work that I was putting into the event and it was inspiring and encouraging for me to that they wanted to be a part of it as well.

Motherhood

“It’s not enough to love our children; we must love motherhood!  It is only when we embrace motherhood that we enter into the joy of it and begin to experience the fullness and anointing of motherhood that God intends us to walk in.”

~Nancy Campbell

To all the Mom's out there

Tonight I would like to ask all the Mom’s out there to take care of yourselves. Over the past year I have been dealing with weird health issues. I have learned how important it is to take care of yourself mentally, spiritually and physically.
Mentally- use your brain. Your body tells you what you need, you just need to listen. My body kept telling me that it was tired and needed a break and I told my body “Shut up, I’m too busy.” And now I am paying for that. What I would give to take back the last year and a half of my life and do things differently, but since that isn’t an option I have to change my entire lifestyle to mend the damage that I have done.

Spiritually- I don’t know about you but I know I feel all around better about myself and life in general when I am spending time in the Word. My husband understands this as well; sometimes when I am acting irrational my husband sends me to our room and tells me to read my Bible. And just because he is telling me to do it I feel like I need to rebel, but deep down I know that is exactly what I need and I comply and my day goes a whole lot better.

Physically- as Mom’s we tend to put ourselves at the bottom of the list. It took me months to go and see a Doctor when I knew that something wasn’t right. Our families need us and we are no good to them when we are falling apart. I am just coming to an understanding about vitamins and minerals and how our bodies need them. I have discovered that I was lacking in a lot of areas and now that I am taking my vitamins I feel so much better physically. And when I feel better physically I can use that energy to feel better mentally and connect better spiritually.

Ladies I am just coming to understand on a deeper level how important it is to our children that we are in a secure place. Especially our daughters. If we want what is best for our daughters -- get things together in your life. Our self-esteem and how we deal with circumstances have a direct effect on our daughters. I have been weak and in pain for months and that has definitely had a negative effect on my self-esteem. I have seen changes in my oldest daughter that I know are a result of my behaviour. So now I have to correct my own behaviour and support her as she has to deal with her own issues. And I talk to her about what I am going through and I apologized for my behaviour and she can now visually see that I am trying to make changes. Our daughters need to see that we are not super humans that we have made mistakes in the past and we make mistakes every day and we are continually growing and learning from our mistakes.

A little while ago I was driving to a speaking event and this awesome idea popped into my head. I would love to plan a Mother/Daughter Retreat weekend. I have sessions all planned out and everything. I arrived at the speaking event just before 6pm and then I realized that it didn’t start until 6:30 so I spent the time writing all my thoughts out about the weekend and different things I could plan.

Sometimes I wonder why God has burdened me with all these far out ideas. Why did I feel compelled to write a book? Why do I feel like I have two more books in me that need to be written? I know from mistakes that I have learned from and circumstances in my life that I am here for a purpose that just like Esther I was created for such a time as this. I was born to affect the lives of women of all ages at this time and place.

So right now take time to evaluate yourself Mentally, Spiritually and Physically-- how are you doing? Not one person reading this is doing find in all three categories. There is always room to grow and learn. What kind of role model are you being to your children? I know, pretty heavy questions, but we (as a society) need to be positive role models (light) to those around us. I am willing to take the steps to make it happen, are you?