Mom + Kid Devotions - Psalm 119

I’m not sure if it’s the extra time at home that everyone seems to have or what but people have been asking me for ideas to study the Bible with their kids. As I searched through the free resources some blogs and websites are offering, I noticed they were either/or: they were for kids or they were for moms.

Of course, you can always do a children’s devotion with your kids and learn from it and you can modify and simplify what you read for your kids. But I wondered if it wouldn’t be helpful to have one passage for mom and kids to read/study, some questions to think about and answer, and of course an activity!!

I started putting this simple study together on Psalm 119. The goal is not to overwhelm but to help you read and think about God’s Word together. Here’s some things to keep in mind:

• Break it into different days. This devotional isn’t designed to do in one day. Try one of these approaches: 1) read the entire Psalm one day, review and ask questions the next, do the activity while you review the key verse the third day, etc. Or 2) since Psalm 119 is already divided into sections of eight verses each, read one section and answer the questions each day. For smaller children, that breaks it into easier chunks to read and think about.

• For older kids, have them write out the answers to the questions listed under “For Mom.” You could also encourage them to think about/write down how the verses apply to them, what it teaches about God and his character, questions they have.

• Have kids who can read take turns reading the verses aloud.

• When you do the activity, talk about why it’s important to put God’s Word in our hearts opposed to other things. Remind them that the Bible is profitable for ANY circumstance we find ourselves in.

Below you’ll find the link to a 2-page PDF you can print off for free. I started reading Psalm 119 with my kids today and asking these questions. By keeping it simple, my prayer is that it’s easy for you to use and adapt to your family without being overwhelming or “just one more thing.”

Please let me know in the comments or over on my Instagram account if you find this helpful and would like more Bible studies like this to print and use with your kids. Stay healthy and stay home!

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash.

Your Work is Not in Vain

No matter what we’ve been called to in this life, no matter how much we love it or enjoy the ministry we have to others, there will be times when we wonder why. Why is it like this? Why am I trying? Or maybe we question the whats: What difference do I make? What does it matter if I pour myself into this thing I’ve been given? Another word for this could be discouragement.

I’m ashamed to admit I get discouraged easily. It’s something I’ve struggled with for a long time and something I’m continually working on. I’ve seen my share of times when I made an extra effort, spent time I didn’t have, waded deep with someone into hard things and it didn’t turn out how I thought. My efforts went unnoticed and unappreciated. The person I had spent hours helping went off and did the opposite of my counsel, basically walking away from me. And I thought, “Why did I try? What did all that accomplish?”

It’s easy in our finite, limited view of life to see what’s right in front of us and completely miss what might come. The immediate attracts our attention and gets noticed. But sowing seeds for the long haul? Why? We often don’t see the benefit.

A few weeks ago it was unseasonably warm where we live and I sent my two oldest kids outside for the afternoon. I soon heard them rushing inside, the flow of water in the sink, then the slam of a door as they headed out again. This happened about three times before I wandered outside to see what was going on. With pure excitement, my son informed me they had found seeds from some kind of tree, planted them, and were now diligently pouring water by the cupful onto the ground. That night he asked if he could check on his seeds the next day.

“Do you think my seedling will be above the ground tomorrow?” he asked.

I gently reminded him it takes awhile before we see a plant blooming. And that it was still a little early for anything to start sprouting outside. A few days later, a layer of snow confirmed my warning to not get his hopes up.

We might smile — as the wise, older adults we are — but our short sightedness in life is perfectly parallel to his five year old expectations. We stop praying for something because we don’t see an answer. We get discouraged when our situation is less than ideal. We give up on people that disappoint us. We decide to not put in effort when we don’t see a payoff.

But a verse that keeps coming up in conversations, readings, and posts is Romans 12:12 —

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

Here we have three things that Christians are told to practice: joy, patience, and consistency. And all of these take time! We rejoice because we have hope for the future in Christ. Patience is not something that develops overnight and especially when we want to give in, we need to wait for how the Lord will work. Finally, we are called to pray (I Thess. 5:17) and we need to approach everything with the attitude that God will answer — in His time and way. Our responsibility is to be consistent in asking Him to work.

It’s easy to believe that if we don’t see results for our work immediately we don’t need to keep trying. But just as it takes time for seeds in the garden to mature, we must continue on with what we have been called to do. It might get discouraging, the process might be hard, but we are not alone in our efforts. God gives the strength and ability for everything we do and everything we do is for Him.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash.

Five Tips to Start Consistent Bible Reading

We are a society of how tos. In our independence and drive to do more things, we are forever looking for the best way to do something, the new thing to try, the easiest way to get a job accomplished. You don't have to look far on Pinterest or YouTube to see we are obsessed with DIY.

This mentality has run over into our spiritual lives as well. For better or worse, we look at what others are doing and try to emulate their style of devotional life. Is there benefit to that? Yes, in moderation. At some point, we have to stop looking at what everyone else is doing and just start doing something ourselves! We will not know what helps us until we try it out.

The tips I'm going to share are not new with me or anything lofty and profound. These are things that have helped me and guided me on a track of consistency. There is nothing magical about these five things or nothing wrong with adding to this list. It is merely a tool to get you started on your way.

1. Know when you are reading. Having a consistent time is key to accomplishing your devotions. If you have the attitude of "I'll do it when I have time today," it'll be easier to slip through the cracks. Stuff happens, things come up, schedules change. If you aren't purposefully setting aside time, that time will be filled by other things. As a mom with young kids, I know it's difficult to always plan on the same schedule. It's also difficult to find long stretches of uninterrupted time.  If you struggle to get away from distractions for long amounts of time, try breaking up your devotional time throughout the day. Plan to pray when you get up, read a chapter during lunch, etc. It'll keep you from getting discouraged that you only have five minutes at a time free and it will help to keep the Word fresh in your mind all day.

2. Know what you are reading. Have a plan for where in the Bible you will be reading each day. There are multiple plans available for you to choose from. If you sit down, randomly open your Bible, read a chapter, and call it good you will not grow spiritually and you will quickly get frustrated. The Bible needs to be taken as a whole, not as a series of disjointed verses.

3. Know where you are reading. I struggled with this for many years before finding the solution I use now. It might not be as important for some people but I need a consistent place to keep my Bible, pens, notebook, etc. I can also easily remove distractions from this one place so when I sit down, I know it's with the goal of studying the Bible. If you don't have a set place you can consistently read, I would recommend keeping all your Bible study tools in a basket or tray, something easy to move from place to place so you don't have to gather everything each time you read your Bible.

4. Know your goal. Because we are a people obsessed with deadlines and goals, it's helpful to know where we're going and what we plan to accomplish. Are you reading the New Testament in a year? Do you want to understand the attributes of God better? Are you focusing on reading two chapters a day? Without this kind of focus we can quickly and easily get lost and discouraged. At the beginning of the year, I like to choose a keyword or phrase that guides my Bible memory and focus for the year. It's not the only thing I read about but it helps to pinpoint an area I need to dwell on. I also choose a plan to read through the Bible in a year so I can mark off what I've read and see what I'm reading next.

5. Know your limitations. This might seem like a strange point to end on but we are usually so focused on what we want to get done we rarely stop to consider if it's even possible for us. We all have different strengths and talents and so we need different things. We have different energy levels and obstacles. Seasons of life change. So we need to step back, consider the life we have, and set realistic goals so we don't overwhelm ourselves and grow discouraged. If you aren't a morning person, don't set your alarm for a 5am wake up to read your Bible. If you have young children, don't plan to read your Bible when they are most needy (right before a meal, nap, etc). Don't set yourself up for failure by trying to incorporate every Bible tool and study idea at once. Try something, if it doesn't work try something else. You don't need to follow someone else's template to have a successful Bible time. Realize what works for you and what doesn't and don't get discouraged if your devotions look different than your friends.

What's the main takeaway I want you to get? The biggest part of having a successful Bible study time daily is to just do it. Don't get so caught up in having the right tools, the right ambiance, the right way of doing it that you never actually do it. Get some ideas, pray for guidance, and dig in!

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

My Two Selves

I’m somewhat of a dichotomy. I’m fairly optimistic in my views, I look for the best in people instead of assuming the worst, and I try to keep discouragements to a minimum by reciting that “this will pass” and “I’ll be better for it.”

But I’m also a worst case scenario assumer. If my husband is late coming home, my mind thinks he must be in an accident. When my kids play, I imagine all the ways they could hurt themselves if this, that, or whatever happened. I clearly have issues.

One thing I’ve noticed about these seemingly opposite personalities is that the worst case scenario me is much more stressed, unhappy, selfish, and tired than the optimistic me. And that makes perfect sense if we stop and think about it.

Recently, when my mind started to dwell on the what ifs and unknowns of life, I took a moment to stop and think why those thoughts were consuming me when I had no basis for them. The cold hard truth was that in the moment, my trust was in something other than the Lord.

I was looking to control the situation or the people involved instead of having an attitude of surrender toward him.

If this sounds like too easy of a solution to a real life problem, let’s dig a little. We know God spoke of trust throughout the Bible and several Bible events record for us what happens when people choose to trust in someone other than themselves. But we also have familiar verses like “Casting all your care on him, for he cares for you.” (I Peter 5:7) and “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not to your own understandings.” (Proverbs 3:5)

In both of these verses we see that we are responsible to choose how we respond (cast, trust). That is the starting point. We are to stop dwelling on our problems and give them to God. If we aren't consumed with all the what ifs of life, it's much easier to not let them control us.

The next step is to focus on what we know to be true. God is love. God is all knowing. God is all powerful. When we remember Who is ultimately in control we see that we have no reason to let anxiety rule over us. We might be helpless but God….

Unfortunately I still struggle with these differing personalities. I remind myself daily of God’s goodness and might as I seek to keep the worse case scenario me at bay. Memorizing Bible verses is a great place to begin. By filling our minds with his words, we grow less dependent on our own faulty control and lean harder on God's faithful guidance.

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When Waiting Stretches On

Waiting is something no one can avoid. No  matter who you are or how you plan, things don't always happen on our timetable. Even with all the conveniences of a 21st century world, our schedules and desires are still based on periods of waiting.

In some ways, our expectation of sudden gratification has made the periods of waiting more difficult. I've seen this in small measure with my children. We don't watch regular TV at our house and we don't subscribe to cable or satellite. When we watch something, it is from a streaming service or a DVD. I hadn't thought much about it until the Olympics were on last February.

My children had heard people talk about all the events and how it was fun to watch. One day at breakfast, my daughter asked if she could watch the ice skating. I replied we didn't have anything that evening so we should be able to watch it. She looked slightly annoyed and said, I meant watch it now. And so began a conversation about live TV events and our need to wait for them to broadcast.

That evening, after a whole day of waiting for ice skating to come on, we had to watch a variety of other sports first and a conversation on waiting continued. Once the long awaited ice skating started, there was more waiting in the form of commercials, another new concept for my kids. Those two weeks taught my kids much about waiting and patience.

While it was humorous to see their response to all that waiting, it made me realize what a change society has gone through in my generation. When we don't even need to wait for our TV shows to come on, instant gratification is daily at our door. Online shopping has made it so we don't have to wait until we have time to drive across town and look for a certain item. Fast shipping means we don't have to wait weeks for our purchase to arrive (there are exceptions to this but for the most part we don't have to wait over a week). Phones mean we don't have to wait to see someone to ask a question. Cell phones give us the ability to contact people away from their homes - we don't have to wait until they're off work.

The list could go on but we are now a society where waiting for everyday things is an inconvenience. But still we must wait to grow up, wait to hear about a job, wait for weddings and babies, wait for seasons to change. We never outgrow the waiting periods. And while time seems to move faster as we grow older, the waiting stays the same. It seems longest in times of trials and uncertainties. We wait for the answer and often the waiting stretches far longer than we want it to.

But waiting isn't a bad thing. Throughout the Psalms we read it is good to wait on the Lord (27:14; 31:24; 37:34; 130:5) and other passages mention waiting on the Lord's salvation (Lam. 3:26). With our limited, finite minds we can't see the end result of our waiting or know how long the waiting will last. We can't plan or control every aspect of our lives. No matter how we try, waiting is necessary in life.

But it's in the waiting that we come to fully trust and rely on God. When we don't wait for him to work or fulfill his promises, we are essentially telling him we don't trust him to work things out on our timetable or in our way. Abraham famously jumped ahead of God when he listened to Sarah and took Hagar to produce the son God had promised. But that's not what God had planned. God worked a miracle - allowing 90 year old Sarah to have a son.

A positive example is David. He waited years for God to fulfill his promise to make David king, even going so far as to refuse to kill Saul when he had the chance. Maybe that's why so many Psalms mention waiting; David knew first hand the difficulty of waiting but also the benefits of trusting God to work it out.

No matter what we are waiting for in our life we have the reassurance that God knows what is happening and how long the answer will take. And we can rest in his timing and his way.

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Grace. Hope. Everyday.

If you’ve seen my author Facebook page or my profile on Twitter, you might notice that the banner simply reads, “Grace. Hope. Everyday”.

One of the things I’ve learned from different author friends is the importance of a tag line. This is a few words that ‘sums up’ what you write or why you write. Besides giving readers a quick idea of what to expect from the author, it also serves to keep the author on track with his or her message.

Coming up with a tag line is more difficult than you’d think! I wrote dozens of ideas down and then filtered my current writing and stack of possible future stories through each option, looking for the perfect tag line to ‘brand’ my writing with.

Even though I write a variety of genres - I have contemporary novels, a devotional book, and a Christian living book all sitting on my hard drive - when I sat and thought about the main focus, they all came down to two words: Grace and Hope. Really, the more I thought about my writing, the more I realized the reason I write everything I do is because of grace and to give hope. And the more I looked at the world around me, I understood why these two words are so important to me.

Without God’s grace, I have nothing. And it’s this same grace that He has extended to everyone through the death of Christ on the cross. If the Creator of the universe can forgive and be gracious to me, how much more should I seek to show grace to others?

Without the hope of an eternity with God, everything I did on earth would be pointless. When life hurts, disappoints, and discourages me, I have hope for the future. Not a bland, pie in the sky hope but a promised hope from the All Knowing God Who knew me before I was born.

When people read anything I write - a post, a blog, a book (someday!) - I want them to walk away encouraged in the God we serve. I want them to see His grace can extend to the lowest of sinners. I want them to know hope for tomorrow is possible in Him. And since we are daily learning, growing, walking this Christian life, I wanted to remind readers, these aren’t one time words. We don’t get grace once. We don’t feel hope once. It’s a daily process of seeking Him, leaning on Him, and asking Him to help us. To give us Grace. Hope. Everyday.

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The Comparison Trap

It's so easy to look at others and dream of having what they do. The grass is greener is a well known saying because it resonates with people so well. Even if we have a perfectly good house, family, whatever we need, it's so tempting to look at what others are doing with those same things and wish we could-

decorate our house farm style

go on amazing vacations

cook gourmet every night

afford those clothes

have time to devote to a hobby

You see, the world is full of what ifs and why not me. Especially with the arrival of social media, we see into each other's lives more and more. At least the life people want us to see. Behind those beautiful filters and perfectly staged photos, the main struggle in their life is the same thing you face: sin. There's no such thing as the perfect life this side of heaven. And Satan knows if he keeps us busy searching for the great missing part of our life, we'll also miss out on the joys God has given us where we are. If we constantly search for happiness by comparing our lot in life with what we see from others, we'll overlook what God has called us to do where we are and with what he has given.

Comparing ourselves with others doesn't just lead to a lack of gratitude in our lives. It keeps us from serving God.

Galatians 1:10 is a verse I continually remind myself of.

For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. 

When we fall into the habit of comparing our life with those around us and desiring what they have instead of what God has given us, we are essentially being man pleasers. If we were completely honest, most of what we would do different in our lives is driven by a selfish motivation. We want to look good. We want to be known as talented. We want people to ask us for advice...fill in the blank.

Instead of comparing ourselves to others, we need to strive to serve God where we are and rejoice at what we have been given.

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The Lie of Limitations

Have you ever felt limited in what you can do? These reasons could be from the season you are in, what you feel your strengths are, your abilities, maybe your physical location.

I have a notebook of things I would love to do with others. Fun friend activities, lunch dates, field trips with my kids, gifts to make. But I’m limited. I’m a stay at home homeschooling mom and pastor’s wife. I have limited financial resources to spend on crafts and decor and gifts. I have limited energy and some days, I need to use all my energy on less than glamorous tasks{read laundry and cleaning bathrooms}.

What I’ve discovered in life is that everyone has limits. And they usually are not the same. But limits shouldn’t limit us. Confused? I’ll explain.

For a long time, I viewed my limits on a strictly selfish level. An “I can’t do what I want to minister to that person so I guess I can’t do anything” kind of selfish attitude. I also just looked at how I would want someone to minister to me. “I enjoy getting handwritten notes so that’s the only way I can show others I care”. Again, not a bad idea but self centered.

When we view our limits in these terms, it’s no wonder we get discouraged and give up on ministry in any way. Instead, we should ask God to show us how to serve in spite of our limits. If you can’t afford a babysitter once a week to go out to lunch with friends, maybe have your friends into your home instead of going out. If you don’t have time to send handwritten notes in the mail, shoot a text to let your friend know you are praying for her. If you don’t have time to prepare a meal for a new mom, grab a pizza and a bag of premade salad to drop off.

Sometimes serving others involves creativity and stepping out of our comfort zone. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t value or enjoyment in finding those limitations and reaching over them. We read in I Corinthians 12:4-20 that we are all part of the same body in Christ but we do not all serve the same function. The text asks us to think of a literal body. We are not made up of just ears with no ability to speak. We must perform different functions for the Christian body to work and love in unity.

How does that play out in matters of service? We are not expected or encouraged to do exactly what someone else is doing. God gave us specific talents and interests to use for Him. We do Him and the Christians around us a disservice when we limit ourselves to only serving how we think service should look. Sometimes serving another means listening and offering biblical counsel. Others might approach that same friend and meet a more physical need like providing a meal or babysitting. They all meet a need, just in different ways. I know of several ladies who use their love of shopping to bless others and give needed items to our church and families.

As we strive to help others, remember to avoid limiting your ability to serve based on what you observe others doing. Be creative! Look for ways to use your talents and interests to serve and be a blessing to others.

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