A Titus 2 Sermon

World's View vs. God's View

Last night our pastor preached an excellent sermon on Titus 2. He shared a quote by John MacArthur similar to this.

“It is tragic that many young mothers are forced to hold outside jobs because their husbands have died, been imprisoned, or have left them and pay no child support, or because they have never been married and their own families are unable, or unwilling, to help. It is also tragic that many churches and Christian friends forsake their obligation to help young women who find themselves in such straits. And when the mother is away from home, younger children most often are cared for away from home. They need to be at home as much as possible and not be deprived of their mother’s companionship and instruction.

“…The point is not so much that a woman’s place is in the home as that her responsibility is for the home.”
John MacArthur

Our pastor also shared the following.

World's View vs. God's View
Source: Dr. Constable’s Expository (Bible Study) Notes

(If you’d like to hear the sermon, please let me know and I’ll send you the link.)

I’m so thankful that God has allowed me, one way or another, to be at home with my girls all these years I’ve been single. I believe it’s made a huge difference in our home and family. I’m so thankful for those who have come along beside me to help me fulfill my obligation to my daughters.

Do you know any mothers in tragic circumstances (like above) who need help to be home with their children?

A Special Breakfast

We have kept up with the case that has dominated the media for the last few weeks, but I’m finding it wearing on me and have had to step back from the coverage. It was good to listen to encouraging preaching on Christian radio instead of the news this morning as I made a special breakfast for a very special young lady. She requested French toast and bacon, and I added sliced strawberries and orange juice.

“‘It is I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them in my arms… and I BENT DOWN and fed them’ (Hosea 11:3-4). What a beautiful picture of our God, who in His mercy, bends down to feed us and comfort us. In the same way, mothers can reveal the heart of God. When a mother bends down to her baby or little ones to feed them and tend to their needs, she is being like God. What a privilege! Delight in it!”
–Nancy Campbell, Above Rubies

Listings 7/7/11

Listings:  Recommended Listing of Links
Finally Feeling at Home Again. . .
Susan, who formerly wrote at High Desert Home (If you haven’t read that blog, I urge you to stop by with a favorite beverage and really absorb Susan’s writings.), writes about embracing a home that is not permanent. It was an encouragement to me, because we lost the last 2 homes due to no fault of our own (one home was sold by our landlord), and sometimes I’m fearful of it happening again. Here are my favorite quotes that really touched my heart.

“I think I’ve subconsciously held off entirely embracing this little house as home, even though I like it so well, and even though I recognize it as a gift from the Lord, because I don’t know how long I’ll be able to stay here. Maybe I haven’t wanted to start setting down roots only to have to pull them up again.

“But suddenly, I don’t feel that way. Rather, I feel certain that the Lord gave this home to me—even if for only six months or a year—and if He has put me here, it is where I belong. This is where He wants me to live, so I shouldn’t hold back, gun-shy about another possible uprooting. If the Lord sees fit to move me somewhere else tomorrow, that’s His business, and, really, it’s only another chance to press hard into Him, to know Him better, and to trust Him more.

“So, I’m ready to settle into this place.”

Not a Morning Person? Rise With the Sun!
I enjoyed this second post by Susan about rising with the sun. I have been a night owl for years, but am trying to break that pattern. I know my days go better the earlier I rise, especially if I rise as the sun is just peaking over the woodlands.

Are You Washed in the Blood?
Michele at A Quiet Gracious Life shares a beautiful arrangement of the hymn, “Are You Washed in the Blood?”

Five Bible Verse Bookmarks Digital Download by Karla Dornacher
Karla Dornacher is one of my favorite modern artists. She is a Christian and offers much encouragement with her artwork.

YOUR Fireworks Shots!
I love looking at photos and was just amazed at the firework shots featured at Pioneer Woman Photography.

Free ebook: Best of Betty Crocker 2011 Summer cookbook
I love my hardback Betty Crocker cookbook and just know these recipes will be wonderful, too!

National Blueberry Month
July is National Blueberry Month! Blissfully Domestic has a lot of great info on the nutritional value of blueberries, how to freeze them, etc. I wash my blueberries, but do not flash freeze them before bagging them up. I never have a major problem with them sticking together.

If Leonardo DiCaprio Got Saved
I love the movie Titanic, so this post caught my eye. “God doesn’t gravitate toward the people that the world gravitates toward. He gravitates toward the weak, the lowly, the ordinary, and the unimpressive. He calls those whom the world ignores. If God primarily saved rich, powerful, and beautiful people, those people might have some reason to boast before God. But God saves unimpressive, weak people, so that there might not be any boasting in his presence. And when God saves these people and uses them to spread the gospel, it demonstrates the power of God, not the power of the people.”

Are You Holding The Art Of Homemaking Sacred?
This new-to-me blog has been very encouraging to me, especially the post “Are You Holding The Art Of Homemaking Sacred?” As a single mother, there is no one to come home to me at the end of the day to show appreciation to me, and that can get really discouraging. This post has helped me to endeavor harder in my role as mother and homemaker. Here are some favorite quotes (emphasis by the author).

“We should approach every task as a blessing to be received, never as a chore to get done.”

“In homemaking there is no such thing as ‘small work‘. We are to find the sacred in the everyday, strive to see the goodness or usefulness in ALL things, taking nothing for granted.

“The housewife makes the home, and the home makes the family. This is a tremendous responsibility that God has called the woman to do. A responsibility that we can NOT accomplish by ourselves, we MUST rely on God to see us through our journey. So never let the world make small of what being a homemaker is all about.”

Give Them What They Really Need
This post reminds mothers what is most important as we rear our children. “We mamas tend to major on the minors. At least that is what this mama has done. We strive to make sure our children are well educated and well rounded. We push them to potty train by two, write cursive by four, and read by five. We are deceived into thinking more is better. More life experiences, more lessons. We fret over having not done enough for our children. Did they learn what they needed to be successful adults? Whose definition of success are we living by anyway?”

Quotes for Mother’s Day

“Anything you do to prepare your children for the future is a way of saying ‘I love you.’ “
—Tim Kimmel

“Marriage and the up-bringing of children in the home require as well-trained a mind and as well-disciplined a character as any other occupation that might be considered a career.”
—Eleanor Roosevelt

“If you bungle raising your children, I don’t think whatever else you do matters very much.”
—Jackie Kennedy

“Nothing you do for children is ever wasted. They seem not to notice us, hovering, averting our eyes, and they seldom offer thanks, but what we do for them is never wasted.”
—Garrison Keillor

“Your work is most holy. You are fashioning the destinies of immortal souls. The powers folded up in the little ones that you hushed to sleep in your bosoms last night, are powers that shall exist forever. You are preparing them for their immortal destiny and influence. Be faithful. Take up your sacred burden reverently. Be sure that your life is sweet and clean.”
—JR Miller

“As children hear their parents praying for wisdom and direction, they learn that parents can’t fix everything. I believe God designed it this way. After all, if parents were perfect, children would never sense their need for God.”
—Paul Meter

“There never was a woman like her. She was gentle as a dove and brave as a lioness…The memory of my mother and her teachings were after all the only capital I had to start life with, and on that capital I have made my way.”
—Andrew Jackson

“He is not poor who has had a godly mother.”
—Abraham Lincoln

“To marry and have children is the ideal life for a woman. What career could ever be as fine? To give the world splendid men and women—isn’t that the noblest thing a woman could possibly do?”
—Jessie Willcox Smith

“Where ever you are dear mother, be there!”
—Nancy Campbell

“I learned more about Christianity from my mother than from all the theologians in England.”
—John Wesley

“To nourish children and raise them against the odds is, in any time, any place, more valuable than to fix bolts in cars or design nuclear weapons.”
—Marilyn French

“So here it is again mothers: embrace your mothering career with all your heart. Love it. Be there and enjoy it rather than dreaming of some other life. You are living the best life. You have the most powerful career. You are training children who will determine the destiny of the nation and the course of history. You couldn’t be doing anything more powerful or life-changing!”
—Nancy Campbell

“Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs . . . since the payment is pure love.”
—Mildred B. Vermont

“All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel Mother.”
—Abraham Lincoln

“Mother love is the fuel that enables a normal human being to do the impossible.”
—Marion C. Garretty

“We never know the love of the parent until we become parents ourselves.”
—Henry Ward Beecher

“You don’t really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around – and why his parents will always wave back.”
—William D. Tammeus

“If I had a single flower for every time I think about you, I could walk forever in my garden.”
—Claudia Ghandi

“The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.”
—Unknown

“The desolation and terror of, for the first time, realizing that the mother can lose you, or you her, and your own abysmal loneliness and helplessness without her.”
—By Francis Thompson

“Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother.”
—Oprah Winfrey

“Every beetle is a gazelle in the eyes of its mother.”
—A Moorish Proverb

“The best conversations with mothers always take place in silence, when only the heart speaks.”
—Carrie Latet

“A daughter is a mother’s gender partner, her closest ally in the family confederacy, an extension of herself. And mothers are their daughters’ role model, their biological and emotional road map, the arbiter of all their relationships.”
—Victoria Secunda

“Grown don’t mean nothing to a mother. A child is a child. They get bigger, older, but grown? What’s that suppose to mean? In my heart it don’t mean a thing.”
—Toni Morrison, Beloved

“A mother is one to whom you hurry when you are troubled.”
—Emily Dickinson

“A man’s work is from sun to sun, but a mother’s work is never done.”
—Unknown

“The sweetest sounds to mortals given
Are heard in Mother, Home, and Heaven.”
—William Goldsmith Brown

“A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.”
—Washington Irving

“A mother’s happiness is like a beacon, lighting up the future but reflected also on the past in the guise of fond memories.”
—Honoré de Balzac

“My mother is a poem I’ll never be able to write, though everything I write is a poem to my mother.”
—Sharon Doubiago

“A little girl, when asked where her home was, replied, ‘where mother is.’”
—Keith L. Brooks

“Youth fades; love droops; the leaves of friendship fall; A mother’s secret hope outlives them all.”
—Oliver Wendell Holmes

“Most of all the other beautiful things in life come by twos and threes, by dozens and hundreds. Plenty of roses, stars, sunsets, rainbows, brothers and sisters, aunts and cousins, comrades and friends – but only one mother in the whole world.”
—Kate Douglas Wiggin

“When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child.”
— Sophia Loren

“Motherhood is priced
Of God, at price no man may dare
To lessen or misunderstand.”
— Helen Hunt Jackson

“Motherhood has a very humanizing effect. Everything gets reduced to essentials.”
—Meryl Streep

“My mom is a never ending song in my heart of comfort, happiness, and being. I may sometimes forget the words but I always remember the tune.”
—Graycie Harmon

“The formative period for building character for eternity is in the nursery. The mother is queen of that realm and sways a scepter more potent than that of kings or priests.”
“Mother love is the fuel that enables a normal human being to do the impossible.”
—Marion C. Garretty

“Any mother could perform the jobs of several air traffic controllers with ease.”
—Lisa Alther

“That best academy, a mother’s knee.”
—James Russell Lowell

“A mother’s arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them.”
—Victor Hugo

“One good mother is worth a hundred schoolmasters.”
—George Herbert

“The tie which links mother and child is of such pure and immaculate strength as to be never violated.”
—Washington Irving

“I cannot forget my mother. She is my bridge. When I needed to get across, she steadied herself long enough for me to run across safely.”
—Renita Weems

“Mother – that was the bank where we deposited all our hurts and worries.”
—T. DeWitt Talmage

“The precursor of the mirror is the mother’s face.”
— D.W. Winnicott

“The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new.”
—Rajneesh

“I remember my mother’s prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.”
—Abraham Lincoln

“Some mothers are kissing mothers and some are scolding mothers, but it is love just the same, and most mothers kiss and scold together.”
—Pearl S. Buck

“Women’s Liberation is just a lot of foolishness. It’s the men who are discriminated against. They can’t bear children. And no one’s likely to do anything about that.”
—Golda Meir

“The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.”
—Honoré de Balzac

“He is a poor son whose sonship does not make him desire to serve all men’s mothers.”
—Harry Emerson Fosdick

“An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy.”
—A Spanish Proverb

“She never quite leaves her children at home, even when she doesn’t take them along.”
—Margaret Culkin Banning

“The influence exerted by the mother is great beyond the power of our minds to think or of our words to tell. The making of the child’s character is in the mother’s hands to a degree that is nothing short of startling.”
—S. D. Gordon

“[After twenty-seven years] of learning the truth of living sacrificially, I have found that embracing God’s call to motherhood once and for all has brought me great peace. Instead of seeing fusses and messes as irritations in my day, for instance, I am more likely to see them as opportunities to train my children to be peacemakers and to learn to be responsible for their own messes. Instead of resenting the interruptions in my schedule, I am more likely to accept them as divine appointments. More and more, I have learned to see my children through the eyes of God and to accept the stages of growth through which he has designed them to grow.”
—Sally Clarkson, The Mission of Motherhood

“I LOVE MOTHERHOOD! Every mother loves her children, but not every mother loves motherhood. This is the secret to entering into the joy of motherhood for which God created us. Motherhood is not something to run from as the liberalists advocate but to EMBRACE! Start off every day confessing out loud, I LOVE MOTHERHOOD. You will be amazed how this attitude will change your mothering and your whole household!”
—Nancy Campbell

“‘A mother had better be missed in the church, and at the public meetings—than be missed in her own household’ —J. R. Miller. I am reminded of of the words of the Shulamite in Song of Songs 1:6, ‘They made me the keeper of the vineyards; but my own vineyard have I not kept.’ Don’t let society, or even pressure from the church keep you from keeping your own vineyard.”
—Nancy Campbell

“What is a godly mother? A godly mother is one who loves the Lord her God with all her heart, soul, mind, and strength and then passionately, consistently, and unrelentingly teachers her child to do the same.”
—Elizabeth George, A Woman’s High Calling

“No one has more potential for godly influence on a child than that child’s God-fearing mother. We, therefore, are to take up the cause, answer God’s call, muster up our courage, and set out to be the best, most faithful teacher of God’s Word and God’s ways we can be to our precious children.”
—Elizabeth George, A Woman’s High Calling

“Oh, dear mother! Far from being an inferior or a secondary calling, our calling to be loving and godly mothers is indeed most high! No one else is called to love our children but us. And no one else can love our children like us. God calls you and me to love our God-given children.
—Elizabeth George, A Woman’s High Calling

“Leave your mark on the world by leaving behind a child who grows up to love and serve the Lord. . .who then also raises godly children to continue your godly legacy for generations to come.”
—Elizabeth George, A Woman’s High Calling

“A mother in her office holds the key of the soul; and she it is who stamps the coin of character and makes the being who would be a savage, but for her gentle cares, a Christian man! Then crown her queen of the world.”
—Unknown

Recommended Links 11/19/10

I haven’t put up a post with Recommended Links lately, so I have a lot of good things stored up. Here are some of them.

Social Media and Digital Discernment Bro. John MacArthur has written a convicting article on how social media is effecting us, and how a Christian should guard his/her time online.

A Time for Thanksgiving at Homeschool Heartbeat Listen to get ideas on how to in cooperate Thanksgiving into your schooling.

Colorado Foxes We just love pictures of animals, and love these little foxes. I can’t believe they get on top of houses!

Easy Peasy Pillow Making- RePurpose Crafting! Make easy pillows using placemats. Now why didn’t I think of that!?
Hat Tip: Money Saving Mom

Give Thanks Free Thanksgiving labels for gifts, place settings, etc.
Hat Tip: Money Saving Mom

Feminist Republican Sarah Palin Calls Supporters of Stay-at-Home Moms “Neanderthals” I was really disappointed to hear Sarah say this.

Reuse household items and save money 10 ways to give new purpose to old belongings

Time Management 101: Stop Trying to “Do It All” Be sure to read all of Crystal’s posts on time management.

How Do You Do It All? – Balancing Family and Home Business in the Real World Speaking of doing it all, I HIGHLY recommend the How Do You Do It All course by my friend, editor, author, business coach, and homeschool speaker, Mary Jo Tate. She is a single mother of 4 boys and works from home. She really knows what she’s talking about. She has been such a wonderful encourager to me!  This course is for anyone who needs to know how to manage their time better.  It is well worth your money!

What loneliness feels like Amy has put into words how I feel as a single mother. The ache is so very painful.

Facebook losing grip on Internet safety Their are many dangers for children on Facebook. If you have children, I would never let them use Facebook without you yourself being on there watching carefully and enacting all the privacy tools available. Even then, I would still be extremely careful what I post and allow the children to post.

Margin for Moms: An Interview with Carol Barnier “It’s okay to choose to say no to some activities, even some good activities, and just stay home.”

The Power of a Simple Gift Watch the joy on the children’s faces when they open their gifts from Operation Christmas Child. Be sure to grab a tissue!

Soldier’s heroic dog, brought from Afghanistan, mistakenly euthanized This is so very heartbreaking.:(

Recommended Listening: How God Overcomes Failure in Your Family

How God Overcomes Failure in Your Family

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss is doing a series this week called “How God Overcomes Failure in Your Family” with Bro. Voddie Baucham. You’ll not want to miss this! If you have never heard Bro. Voddie, you are in for a treat! Prepare to be convicted and encouraged by this great man of God who was raised in less than ideal circumstances. God is God over all our situations, and He can redeem each and every one of them!

Here’s what you need to know: I didn’t grow up with godly manhood in my life. I did not grow up with godly examples in my life.

I just came back from Los Angeles, and, in God’s providence, last weekend I had a conference in the LA area. I grew up in Los Angeles. I grew up in drug-invested, gang-invested, south central Los Angeles, California. I was raised by a single, teenage, Buddhist mother. I never heard the gospel until my freshman year in college. I grew up with my mother, so I didn’t have much connection with my father’s side of the family.

God’s bigger than the failures in your families. My wife Bridget and I, of the last two generations of both sides of our families, 25 marriages, 22 divorces. That’s our legacy.

Here’s what I want you to know: God is able, and He is sufficient.

Read the transcripts or listen to the series here: ROH Radio :: How God Overcomes Failure in Your Family (Voddie Baucham)

The Ideal Life for a Woman

To marry and have children is the ideal life for a woman. What career could ever be as fine? To give the world splendid men and women—isn’t that the noblest thing a woman could possibly do?
—Jessie Willcox Smith

A Wonderful Trust

“She took her worries if she had any about us, to God. She was that way. She had a wonderful trust that God could and would work anything out that she couldn’t manage. Mom was wonderful that way.”
—Rodney Graeme, A Girl to Come Home To by Grace Livingston Hill

Christmas Devotional for Mothers

Cardinal and Flowers
Cardinal whatnot given to me by my oldest for Christmas and flowers picked from the side yard.

I didn’t get to read this until after Christmas, but this devotional really comforted me. I printed it up and placed in my Bible to read often. Being a mother is very demanding and stressful at times—even more so when she is single—but motherhood is the most rewarding job in the world. Read God With Us, a Christmas devotional by Nancy Campbell from Above Rubies.

Note: You can receive the Above Rubies magazine delivered FREE to your home by visiting the Above Rubies website. It is wonderfully encouraging—I highly recommend it!

Balancing Homemaking with Home Business

Helping Mother by G. W. Brownlow, Courtesy of Lovely Whatevers Blog
Helping Mother by G. W. Brownlow, Courtesy of Lovely Whatevers Blog

“What really does work to increase the feeling of having a home and its comforts is housekeeping. Housekeeping creates cleanliness, order, regularity, beauty, the conditions for health and safety, and a good place to do and feel all the things you wish and need to do and feel in your home.

“Whether you live alone or with a spouse, parents, and ten children, it is your housekeeping that makes your home alive, that turns it into a small society in its own right, a vital place with its own ways and rhythms, the place where you can be more yourself than you can be anywhere else.”
—Cheryl Mendelson, Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House

I found the above quote at Morning Cuppas With Glenys. Glenys is a Titus 2 woman who truly understand the biblical calling of women to their families and homes. I always find encouragement, refreshment, and grounding when I visit her blog.

I have very frustrated lately with trying to balance homemaking and a home business. Even though I’m a single mother, I feel very strongly that my first obligation is to my girls and my home as a homemaker. A homemaker is just that—she makes a home for her family. She is not a maid or a slave to her family. But she serves her family with love and attends to their needs selflessly. She is there for whatever they need.

This year has been one of the worst years for our finances and for my business. Medical bills and the economic situation have taken a toll. When the recession began, I chuckled at folks who were upset that they couldn’t eat out or have the luxuries that they were accustomed to, because I’ve lived like this my whole life. It is nothing new to me! (Like my aunt says, we don’t have far to fall! :) ) I honestly didn’t think that the recession could touch us, because we were used to doing without what everyone else considered necessary. I also thought that a website designing business would still profit, since we are living in the technology age, and having a website is extremely important for businesses. But the requests did not come, even though my prices are much more moderate than other designers. There have been quite a few inquiries lately, but so many business owners are saying they don’t have the money right now. That is quite frightening to me!

I’ve had the temptation to pour hours into my business in an effort to provide for my family, but I got off balance. I was extremely unhappy, and my efforts did nothing. I’ve had to step back and go back to the beginning, to the Bible, to see what God says. God still says my priority is to be a keeper at home. God still says for me to trust in Him to provide. He still says “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33). I want to be like the Proverbs 31 lady who had a home business, but spent most of her time on her family and home. That’s where her focus was.

Because I also must work, I’ve developed a strategy to help me wear all my hats. I get extremely frustrated that I can’t be just a mom and homemaker. I’m afraid I’ve spun my wheels so many times over the years and didn’t accomplish as much as I needed to. I’ve had to find a way to allow me to mentally and peacefully handle everything. I find I have to focus on one thing at a time or I just go crazy. I conduct our homeschooling in the mornings, where all my attention is on the girls and their schooling. In the afternoons is time for my housework, rest, exercise, preparing supper, etc., while the girls complete any schoolwork they need to do on their own. If they need help, I give it, but if it’s an extended problem, it has to wait until the next morning. After supper is my business time, where I devote all my attention to my clients. Sometimes I get frustrated that I can’t just watch TV in the evenings like most people do, but I do work better in the evenings, and I’ve given myself permission to do it occasionally. I don’t usually attend events at night during the week. I am trying to have a specific cut off time to shower, relax, and read until bedtime, but sometimes I don’t get nothing but the shower.:)

I need a lot of motivation. To motivate me for homeschooling, I enjoy reading homeschooling websites. To motivate me for work, I like to read computer blogs and newsletters. After work, I like to read homemaking websites and blogs that help me resettle into my job as mother, and motivate me to get up the next day to tackle it all again.:) Cooking shows on the Food Network really help me get excited about cooking when I lose interest.

My daughters help me tremendously. They have a lot of chores to do each day. They are surprised when they hear of kids who don’t know how to work. (We find our days go better when chores are done before homeschooling starts.) I do not allow my girls to do everything here, because I don’t want them to resent me or the housework. I still feel the house is my responsibility. But since I have so much on me, I have determined the following are the most important for me to handle, while the girls fill in much of the rest: good, nutritious meals, quality homeschooling, and my website designing work. I do keep my own room and bathroom clean, and supervise the girls with all their chores. I organize things that need it, and help my 2 oldest keep the yards mowed during the growing season. I also spend a good bit of time preparing my coupons and grocery shopping weekly. The girls help me by cutting out the coupons. The girls do cook a lot, but I try not to ask them to do it unless I really need their help.

I must admit, I still flounder and fail, and stay exhausted. I really struggle getting everything done everyday. I’m still trying to keep everything balanced. Financially we are struggling hard, but it has been worse. If it was not for my sweetheart Tim and my father helping us with finances and needs, and multiple car repairs, I don’t know where we’d be! Hopefully, 2010 will be a much better year for everyone. I keep praying that God will allow His people to prosper in a special way as a testimony to the world, just as He allowed the Israelites to flourish even while captive in Egypt.