Mom Time

We had 4 new faces at Mom Time last night! It was great hanging out and spending time getting to know one another a little better!

Our discussion time centered around the diverse roles that we as women have. Not only are we wives and mothers, but we're also daughters, sisters, students, girlfriends, neighbors, lay ministers, career women, and etc...

We wear so many different hats and have so many different things pulling for our time, attention and affection. How do we balance it all?

At times, being so many things to so many different people can be very overwhelming. We
obviously can’t do everything. At some point or another something has to give.

What I am discovering more and more is that different seasons of our journey require different priorities, therefore we must be in tune with the season that we're in. Knowing this will help give us a little more direction and focus and will help us to know what things to say yes to and what things we need to say no to.

Secondly, once we identify those roles that take priority, we must draw near to God to find out how He would have us fulfill the current roles he has placed before us. What is he trying to teach us through this season of our journey? Is motherhood teaching you how to be more patient, selfless, etc...? Or maybe you're learning about forgiveness, kindness and how to better serve others through a strained relationship with your sibling, boss, or your own mother. This was the focus of our discussion last night that led to some great discussion!

Looking at Scripture: Exodus 2:1-10 and Hebrews 11:23

Moses' mother had a very difficult and challenging role before her when she was faced with the sudden news that Pharoah had issued a law declaring that all male infants should be killed.
Think about your children right now…can you imagine the horror of this news? What would you do? How would you respond?

She was not only a mother, but she was a wife, a citizen, nurse maid, and etc.. As a mother, how could she hand her baby over to be slaughtered? However, as a citizen, she would be breaking the law, risking her own life as well as the life of her other children and family members if she did not obey the decree.

In her heart, she knew she needed to trust God. Scripture tells us that she took her baby and wrapped him up in a papyrus basket and placed him in the Nile River. She instructed Miriam, Moses sister to follow the basket keeping watch over Moses in hopes that Pharaoh’s daughter would discover him. Wow! What an act of faith!

I can't imagine having only those two choices before me; either handing my baby over to be slaughtered or sending him out to float in a basket along the river. Neither one of these choices sounds very appealing to me!! What a difficult and challenging role Moses' Mother faced.

Though our circumstances may be different from Jochabed, we too have some challenging roles that God has placed before us.

Discussion Questions:

1. Think about one of the most difficult roles you have or have had. It could be as a mother, a caregiver, as a boss, a student, etc…Share how you navigated or are currently navigating your way through this tough assignment?

God equipped Jochebed with the strength and faith she needed and as a result, her faithfulness in her role opened up the door for God to raise up a great leader that would lead the Israelites out of bondage. Through her faithfulness and obedience, God used her to accomplish His purposes.

2. What do you think God may be accomplishing in your life through this challenging role you identified? Where do you need his insight and guidance?

As you identify what roles take priority given the current season you are in, draw near to the Lord and discover all that God desires to do in and through you during this time. Whether you are a stay at home mom, a career woman, sister, daughter, etc...God has uniquely positoned you.

Like Jochebed, He too can use you to accomplish his kingdom purposes. Whatever your role, whatever the challenge, let each tough role bring you closer to God, as you learn to rely on his power and faithfulness to fulfill his purpose for your life!

Mom Time: New Year, New Beginnings

A New Year, New Beginnings!! I love this time of year! It's a time for reflection, renewal, goal setting, action planning and fresh starts!!

Scripture is full of new beginnings! In fact, when we first give our hearts to Christ, we are given a new beginning! The bible says the old self is put to death and the new has come! We have a fresh start, we are a new creation with a new beginning in Christ!

As we continue to live for Christ, submitting ourselves to His authority he begins to change us...molding us more and more into his image. We are constantly transforming! Scripture says that we serve a God whose mercies are new every morning! Thank goodness that God is in the business of giving us do-overs! (And not just at the beginning of a new year, but any time, any day!

I love how the bible highlights this by allowing us to see real people who were given new beginnings, do-overs! Paul, once being a man that persecuted and killed Christians, had a powerful encounter wtih God on the road to Damascus. God called him out and gave him a new name, a new identity, a new vision. He had a new beginning and was used as God's instrument to advance his kingdom. His conversion is a powerful and vivid example of transformation and growth...of a new beginning!

As we reflected on this during our discussion time at Mom Time last Friday, we had the opportunity to share some areas in our lives that we would like to see new beginnings in, areas that we needed transformation in. This could be personally, professionally, spiritually, in our marriage and or family. It was great to articulate these things and process them out loud together! We ended with a time of prayer submitting ourselves to each of these areas before the Lord.

MomTime: Giving and Receiving Appreciation

We had a great time at MomTime last night! It was an Italian themed night followed by a sweet Tiramisu pie...yummy!

Dessert Discussion:
A sweet little boy surprised his grandmother one morning and brought her a cup of coffee. He made it himself and was so proud. He anxiously waited to hear the verdict on the quality of the coffee. As she forced down the last sip she noticed three of those little green army guys in the bottom of the cup.
She asked, "Honey, why would three little green army guys be in the bottom of my cup?" Her grandson replied, "You know grandma it's like on TV, "The best part of waking up is soldiers in your cup!"

We all have similar stories from our children and it was neat to hear everyone share their unique experiences. Some were funny and lighthearted and even slightly embarrassing! But the stories left us all with a smile on our face!

Let’s face it motherhood is a tough job. At many times it can be thankless, overwhelming, challenging, and it is certainly not esteemed by our world. This can often leave us feeling very discouraged.

“Nothing else so inspires and heartens people as words of appreciation. You and I may soon forget the words of encouragement and appreciation that we utter now, but the person to whom we have spoken them may treasure them and repeat them
to themselves over a lifetime.” - Dale Carnegie

1 Thessalonians 5:11 says – “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.”

Last night we got to put that into practice!

Group Discussion:
Our group discussion was centered on giving and receiving appreciation. We did a great exercise together in which we actually practiced the act of both giving and receiving encouragement.

Each person was given an index card with the name of every person in attendance. We all took the time to identify one personality trait or characteristic about EACH person that has stood out to us. Then we backed it up with evidence that supported how we have seen that characteristic or quality displayed. One at a time, each person was encouraged by every other person in the group.

Not only can it take intentionality to encourage others, but it can also be difficult to be the person on the receiving end. Ever wonder why that is? I can recall a few times when I have told someone that I was blessed by his or her message or was really moved by a song that was sung. Instead of responding with a simple “Thank You” for the encouraging words, they say something like, "praise the Lord."

At times this has caused me to feel a little awkward, as if my words of encouragement were actually rejected instead of received. Sometimes it’s hard for us to be on that receiving end of encouragement.

So last night, the person who was receiving encouragement simply had to respond with a simple "thank you.”

For example: Person giving the encouragement might say something like this: "Sue you are a person of great strength. It takes courage to share your faith and yet you are able to do so without fear of rejection. This greatly encourages me to step out in faith and take more risks!" Receiver says: Thank You

After everyone had an opportunity to give and receive appreciation, we discussed the following questions:

1. What is the value in showing sincere appreciation?

2. Applying this in our life, what is one specific area where you can offer encouragement to your husband? How about your children?

Just practicing the act of giving and receiving made for a very refreshing evening. Let's face it; we all need (and at times hunger for) encouragement! In addition, we had a great thought-provoking discussion that allowed us the opportunity to identify one specific area that we could encourage our husband/children and how we would actually go about implementing that!!

Thanks for such a great evening ladies!

If you’d like to be a part of our next MomTime group, feel free to shoot me an email – mbarosh@gmail.com.

Modeling Clay and Intentional Parenting

We had a great time at Mom Time last night! It is so refreshing to get together with other women just for some Mom Time--our time without the kiddos! It has been a great avenue to connect with other women, encourage one another, sharpen one another, laugh together, and share a great meal!

Last night was a Spanish Tapas theme night...it was delicious!! Following dinner, we had a great discussion from an excerpt in Lisa Welchel's book called "Speaking Mom-ese." Since "good fruit" produced in our children's lives doesn't just happen over night, we challenged each other on how we can be more intentional in parenting our children in the ways of the Lord. Together, we realized that this "good fruit" is the result of years and years of intentional instruction, training and modeling

What is an area in your parenting that you would like to be more intentional in modeling before your children?

Based on this question we got a little creative! We each made a playdoh molding of an object that represents an area that we would like to be more intentional in modeling for our children. For Example….

• A Shield--being more intentional in shielding our children from bad influences i.e. certain friends, t.v., and etc.
• A Cross--being more intentional in memorizing scripture and praying with our children
• A Clock—being more intentional in spending enough quality time with our children (non household related i.e. grocery shopping, cleaning house, and etc...)

The old expression more is caught than taught is so true.

Teaching our children biblical principles, scriptures, bible stories, songs, etc... is great but do they actually see us putting into practice what we’re preaching?

• Do they see us actively serving our neighbors and family?
• We can insist that they speak to us with respect, but are we treating our husbands with respect?
• We can buy our children a new bible, but if we want them to develop an intimate relationship with Christ, then they need to see us spending quality time with God other than corporate worship on Sunday morning.

As we reflected upon these things, during our discussion time we had the opportunity to share the object we molded out of our playdoh and the area of parenting it represented. The playdoh creations the girls came up with were so neat including....

• prayer hands--modeling prayer and scripture memory for our children
• a child's feet on top of her mother's feet---safeguarding our children from walking in harmful paths that we once walked in
• the world--being perceptive to the world in need around them (not just in Sugarland)
• the bible---reading God's word more and intentionaly seeking opportunities to share in that time with our children

It was a great oppotunity to verbalize these things and get us thinking about how we can be more intentional in our parenting. It was a refreshing and encouraging time as we shared our hearts and challenged one another!

Thank you Lord for the gift of friendship...other women/mothers whom we can lean on, grow from and encourage one another in the many different seasons we walk through as moms!