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Securing the family fortress

Proverbs 14:26 Whoever fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for their children, it will be their refuge.

The family that fears God builds a safe fortress where their children will find shelter.

A fortress is a strong place of security that can weather harsh storms and offer protection.

Your home is more than the block, wood, and drywall. The physical protection on the outside is just the shell of the building you call home. You can spend enormous amounts of money to make the outside of your home to appear strong and majestic. But what really matters is the inside, the heart of the home where you grow and teach your children.

Our children will face storms of their own. They’ll witness our trials as they grow older but as they mature and venture into the world, they will experience times of uncertainty and pain.

If we have not built a fortress at home that has shown our children the truth of who God is, to fear and love Him, our children will not find refuge with us, they’ll find it somewhere else.

Many teens find refuge in drugs, alcohol, and prematurely romantic relationships.

Storms will rise in your child’s life, and when they do, where will they seek refuge?

Will they know to find shelter with you, within the walls of your home that has been built upon Gods Word, its commands and promises?

Or will they choose to find comfort in the world that teaches them there is no other way to soothe and handle hardships in life without physical dependencies?

Mom, Dad, where do you run when violent storms rage in your life, your career, marriage, relationships? What example have you set before your children?

Is your family fortress so weak that you don’t even seek refuge in Christ?

It is never too late to begin building the fortress of security in your home so your children will have a strong place to go for renewal, protection, refreshment, and encouragement.

Dependence on Christ is the only defense that gives us victory in this life. God is the shelter in the storm and our refuge is only found in Him. There is no stronger fortress or safe place than Christ. If you do not build the fortress of your home around Him, your children will find refuge elsewhere. Choose to save your children now, while there is still time. It is your responsibility, your calling from God to minister faith, to teach His Word diligently, and to physically show Gods love to your children.

 

 

 

 

Once we decide to put God first~

Get up early for prayer and Bible study ~

When we decide to not allow negativity to have priority in our thoughts~

That’s when life actually begins to turn around for us.

Just like our decisions to take away bottles from crying babies, switching baby beds to big boy beds, the day we decide it is time to conquer the potty training battle we’ve been putting off…one final, solid decision changed everything. If you have ever woken up determined to fight a toddler for his beloved binky, nookie, bookie, whatever weirdo name you’ve called it, I know we, as God-fearing, God-loving women, can face the other giants in our life and decide it is time to change.

Just like the decisions you’ve made to fall for your man, saying yes to the dress, saying yes to inviting and trusting Jesus with your heart, life as you knew it shifted into a different gear, took drastic sharp turns and rapidly your life was changed and rearranged for eternity.

You slowly get used to the negativity, daily doses of discouragement, but one day you woke up just a little stronger and you said THIS IS ENOUGH. You make a decision and things start to change. As women we can take negativity for awhile, we can put ourselves down for so many months, we can allow others to talk down to us for a little while but one day, one of those moments too many and we snap. Something breaks and we demand the madness to halt.

We are strong women. We are doers, not takers, we are get the job done or die doing the job kind of women, but push a girl to the edge and one day, out of the blue when no one, not even you see it coming, you stomp your foot and say NO. Thank God for this amazingly complex and mysterious instinct. God has made us soft, beautiful, kind, caring, and nurturing. We are unique Eve’s standing next to Adam’s. We are blessed and called precious by God. But along with those special unique gifts, God has placed the gift of a lioness. She lies resting, compliant, sleeping on most days but when pushed to her limits, discouraged or knocked down, the lioness begins to stand, steadies her legs of muscle and she roars loudly, “Enough.” There is a lioness in each of our souls that one day we have to surrender and allow to speak. She is strong, protective and determined.

Ladies hear me loud and clear. If you are in a time of your life where you feel silenced, last on everyone’s list, underestimated, undervalued, continually used, frowned and looked down upon-the butt-end of every joke, stuck in a time of discouragement and doubt, it is time you steady your legs and decide today that you have had enough.

Decisions to stand instead of sit and lie are found streaming from Gods Word. Noah decided to obey God even when the command of building an ark sounded absurd, Moses stood on shaky legs when he decided to put one foot in front of the other to walk into the city to demand Pharaoh to release Gods chosen. Joshua, Deborah, Esther, Daniel, Nehemiah, Paul, Peter, Jesus…and many, many more made decisions that changed their lives and the course of history for all of eternity. If these Bible greats could swallow their pride, laziness, doubt, and fear in the midst of violent times to obey their God, to wake up mad enough to fight, SO CAN YOU. God values you as much as He valued king David. You are loved with the same love and compassion. If you could take just a few moments of reverence and quiet with God you can hear His still small voice of encouragement saying, ‘Come on my sweet girl, you can do it, rise up, choose Me, choose My strength and not your own.’ He is fighting for you, He will be your source of strength, He is waiting for you.

In God’s Word we find; rest, trust, quiet, silence, peace. But when we search the words lazy (slothfulness), giving up…it always equals starvation and death. Let’s refuse to choose the flesh that tempts us to remain asleep, lazy and negative. Today let’s choose the Spirit, for this is where we find strength and trust, for this is ultimately where we find life and our healing begins.

It is a choice:

To sleep longer than necessary

To eat that second helping

To allow your child to be disobedient

To not put prayer as first place in your day

To not study and search Gods word

To disrespect your husband

To allow people to hurt you with words or otherwise

Get mad enough to make a decision today. Stay mad enough to make better choices every day. Choosing to do what is right will lead to life but choosing the flesh, which is incredibly weak, will ultimately lead us to death.

Romans 7:15-20: “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate to do, I do (15). For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do-this I keep on doing (19).”

Romans 8:5 (NIV) “Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.”

I love this version of Romans 8:5 as well: (ICB) “Those who live following their sinful selves think only about things that their sinful selves want. But those who live following the Spirit are thinking about the things that the Spirit wants them to do.”

Romans 8:6 “The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.”

Romans 8:7-8 “The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.”

Matthew 26:41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Galatians 5:16 “But I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”

Proverbs 13:4 (ESV) “The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.”

Romans 12:11 “Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in Spirit, serve the Lord.”

 

 

My first response to tackling anything in life is to bolt. I get a new ministry idea…I go full speed. I see a mess in the kitchen…go full speed cleaning wildly, madly, running from room to room…might as well right?

I instinctively want to rush through every single factor of life…to get past whatever task, struggle or hardship I’m presently facing.

I do laundry fiercely, wash/rinse/dry dishes so quickly that I miss smudges and crack glasses into cabinets. I clean my closets with speed, timing myself to beat my last record. Yet if you were to peek inside you would see a haphazard mess, not one sign of organization.

I sweep and mop our floors so intensely that I’ve broken 3 swiffer wet mops. I’ve also put so much tension on my right hand and forearm while cleaning that I was crippled by carpal tunnel, had surgery but two years later I was diagnosed with tendinitis.

Needless to say, I clean with intensity.

I get my children involved in the cleaning madness so that my time can be even more efficient, yelling, barking out orders like a drill sergeant as my girls and boys scurry to assist their wildly frantic mother.

All mundane tasks that grate my nerves are set to a test, a battle against the clock to beat yesterday’s record speed.

All things annoying, unwanted, difficult, painful, trips the default setting in my mind, sounds an alarm that screams “blast through this, beat the clock and GO!”

Unlike the dishes, laundry, scrubbing the floor, we cannot outrun real-life struggles and problems in hopes to overcome the pain and speed up Gods process and beat His clock.

I think of Elijah (1 Kings 18-19) as he ran with velocity after calling fire from heaven to consume the god of Baal on Mount Carmel.  Even though this amazing man of God just witnessed God’s miraculous provision, He ran for 100+ miles from doubt and fear. It was in the desert, by the brook, dependent upon nothing but God and birds for sustenance that he overcomes the battle, resumed strength and endured.

Not all of us have such a quiet place with birds to rest and wait on God. As a mom to two rambunctious toddlers, there are many days I crave that kind of quiet. Send me to the brook to depend upon birds for lunch Oh Lord! JK that would be awful.

As Tony and I set out to save two adorable children from living a life in foster care, we have learned many things, but waiting on the Lord has been at the top of Gods curriculum. As we waited three long agonizing years for our final adoption hearing, Tony and I were finally blessed to leave the courthouse with two sweet boys to call our very own. Although our lesson plan of patience is far from being complete (quite impossible with two wildly energetic boys) we have withstood the test of endurance.

Now that we are on the other side of the adoption process, I can see God’s hand of control since the day He asked us to rescue the sweet boys. Like Elijah, we have seen God’s miraculous provision. He carried us through the three grueling years of hardship (financial, physical, spiritual, emotional). It was undeniable that He held us close as we endured the change in our family dynamic, walked through many court hearings, doctor appointments and days and days of tears (from little ones and mama). But the last remaining test of endurance was the excruciatingly painful silence in waiting.

I know if our adoption process had flown through warp speed like I  wished, I would not have seen God clearly or heard His voice of comforting peace as loudly in those many days spent so broken and dependent upon Him.

The waiting feels eternal. We feel the moment of finality and completeness will never come. But in such moments we cannot lose hope. We know God does not leave His children without completing His will. I am comforted and encouraged by the Apostle Paul in Philippians 1:6, “Being confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ.” God does not begin something that He will not complete.

Today as I instinctively want to remain so busy that I refuse to think on the many things I am waiting to take place in life, I am choosing to take a deep breath, to lean hard against God and listen for His provision by the brook. For I know that it is in this place of surrender that He provides my nourishment and peace.