I can never over praise God.

He is worthy of all of our praise.  If I fail to praise Him I shudder to think of how He will lack in the praise He deserves.  No wonder the rocks would cry out and the trees clap their hands.  For they know what I am just discovering.  He deserves my every breath to be full of praise and thanksgiving.  Even for His grace in times that what fills my mouth is groaning and questioning… He deserves praise.   I long to do my part and glorify Him above all else.

Lord, let my life be so filled up with praise for you that I overflow and spill out, that I make up for other lack of praise.  For you are so worthy.

Want to join me in praising today? Won’t you tell us something good God has done in your life and glorify Him for all here to see?

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It’s not too late to join in if you haven’t yet.  If you don’t have the book you can get it here online or here in paperback.  It is such an incredible book full of godly wisdom about women’s relationships.  If you have been reading along but haven’t joined in the conversation yet, we really do want to hear from you!

I’m excited about the healing that God is going to do in our hearts concerning our relationships with women. I know He’s already been working in me and it’s been amazing!

See you over at Kristi’s!

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You may know what I’m talking about – the secret hidden places inside of you that just reek of filth.  They are the places that get brushed up against and you cry out in instant defense, hoping to cover them.  When someone encounters them you grasp for covers to hide them, sometimes not even realizing what you are doing.  Sometimes it looks like a reoccurring fight with your spouse.  Sometimes it’s the place you get to in a friendship that you just cannot seem to go past.  Sometimes it’s that thing that your kids do that sets you off.

I’ve been dealing with some of these things.  They were tucked away in places deep inside that I hadn’t yet discovered.  They were there and would leap out in moments but I didn’t even realize what was happening.  They were too well hidden and had all kinds of excuses for the behavior they caused.

This is until I invited God to dig deeper into my mess.  I came to a place of trusting Him with my hurts and my mess.  I’ve only known Him to be gentle and loving, so I knew He would only expose wounds and lies with the greatest care.

He started showing me the ugliness of what I was unknowingly hiding – ugly, rotting places inside my heart.  He gave them a name: insecurity.  Yes, all of these festering wounds were surrounding insecurity.

When my husband would lovingly correct me and I pushed back in defensiveness: insecurity.  When my kids wouldn’t listen to me and I just all out lost it with them: insecurity.  When the unlovely were begging to be loved and I. just. couldn’t. find it in me to love: insecurity.

You see, along the way in life we have opportunities to see our circumstances how God sees them. But often times we don’t ask Him.  Instead we hear and believe lies that tell us who we are and how we should see things.  These lies are the knife that cuts the wound that insecurity infects.

But, can I share with you that Jesus, sweet Jesus, wants in to those deep places.  He wants to cover us as we rest in His truth.  He wants to be our source of security.  When we are secure in Him there is nothing that can happen to us that can cause us to lack security.

The wounds happen as we grow and fail and the enemy of our soul points out our weakness and tells us to hide.  “Did God really say that…”

He would love you no matter what?

He would cover you?

His strength is made perfect in your weakness?

He fights for you?

If He is for you who can be against you?

You are an overcomer?

The righteous fall 7 times and rise again?

Go hide your shame. Suck it up: insecurity.  Run scared.

And yet Christ willingly endured the cross, disregarding it’s shame because he was ever secure in His Father (Hebrews 12:2).

When the shame rises tell it who your Daddy is.  Tell it the truth. That you are a new creation and that you are not the sum of your weaknesses but you are made new and righteous.  Let Him heal those wounds and allow you to acknowledge the places you lack security and ask Him to show you how secure you are in Him.  Let Him do the dirty work that only He can do.

As you read this today did you identify with what I shared?  Do you see insecurity hiding in your heart?  Spend time asking God to meet you where you are and heal those places with His truth.  Exchange what He tells you for the lies that have lived in the deep dark places.  You will become new and your security will only come from your all powerful God.

I love you friends and I’m in this with you,

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Have you been enjoying the study so far?  We are so glad you have joined us!

Today we are discussing chapter 2 over at Arabah Joy’s site.  You will love her and her heart! Come on over and let us know your thoughts on Chapter 2.

Love,

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Dear Moms,

I hope that you know that you are special. You may tend to focus on the ways that you fail and see yourself through critical eyes. But you need to know that you truly are a gift.

You are powerful and there is so much hope tucked away in your heart for the future of our world.  Within you swells life in hidden places and it spills out all over everything that you touch.

You are strong and beautiful.  Yes the days are long and sometimes they wear on you but you embrace this calling with kisses to boo boos, singing the same song over and over, cleaning up spilled milk, correcting a sassy tongue, teaching manners, late night counseling sessions with teens and early morning prayer for children of any age.

For all of the ways you have ever felt like a bad mom the truth is that you really are a good mom. God said it was so from the moment He created you.  He made you a woman, with the capacity to be a mother and said “It is good.”  Anything less is a lie.

You are called to greatness! The only limitations on your calling are the ones you believe in.  So dare to live a life believing in who God created you to be.  Allow Him to get you there.

And for any moment you have suffered, He also suffered.  He sees you and knows you.  He knows your losses, knows your weaknesses, and He still loves you perfectly and He believes in you.  He believes in YOU!

Dare this Mother’s Day to see yourself through His eyes.  Look in His eyes and see your reflection staring back at you – good, cleansed, pure, worthy of love.

I really hope you know how special you are!

Have a Happy Mother’s Day friends! I hope you have a wonderful weekend full of loveliness and grace!

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I can only write posts like “Momma, You are Called to Greatness” because I’ve been the desperate mom who felt tired and overwhelmed.  In fact, I still often struggle with feeling like this.

I think the important thing is what we do when we feel overwhelmed.

Overwhelmed

It’s a depressing sounding word isn’t it?

It reeks of things left undone, weightiness and being all encompassed by pressures.

But here is when it isn’t a depressing word: When all that overwhelms you is lying at the feet of Jesus.

This is what I have been a student of lately.

I feel the tightness in my chest of the overwhelming.  I hear the thoughts that I am overwhelmed and I begin to repeat them but then I stop.  That doesn’t sound like Truth.  It sounds like a lie.

The Holy Spirit always sounds like Love.  He IS love.  Even His conviction is covered in love.  He doesn’t come to tell you that you are overwhelmed because you should only ever be overwhelmed with Him.

So I take the depressing word and lay it at the feet of Jesus.  And do you know what He does with overwhelmed?

He leaves me undone, takes off all heaviness and encompasses me with love.

He leads me to discover the greatness He has placed inside of me and gives me the power to rise up and overcome.

Overcome

Sounds like an encouraging word doesn’t it?

This is the kind of word that the Holy Spirit will speak to us.

It’s a word seeped in hope, it challenges me to rise up and encompasses me with power.

Perhaps we all need to do some laying down of overwhelmed?  What thoughts can you take captive right now to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5)?  If you have been feeling overwhelmed would you share with us what the truth is in opposition to that lie?  Let’s encourage one another in love to surrender to the truth.

 photo source

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Today I am challenging us to wake up to greatness in the midst of our mothering.  I would love for you to meet me over at Allume to read more and join in the conversation.  Momma, you are called to greatness!

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We are so glad you are joining us again this week! We loved hearing your hearts last week as you left comments and joined the conversation.  If you missed last week’s introduction to our Women at War online book study we would still love to have you join right in and sign up!  We are studying chapter 1 this week.  If you haven’t already, go read the chapter (if you need the book you can find it at Amazon, iBooks, or Barnes & Noble) and come back and let’s dive in:

Friends,

I entitled this first chapter It’s a War because for so long I did not know I was in a fight. I was asleep to the reality of the battle raging around me for my identity. I knew something wasn’t quite right, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

The battle for my health sort of ripped the veil from my eyes. As I began to wage war for my life, I saw so many parallels to the battle for our femininity. As I considered the possibility of my death, it became urgent that I communicate to my children and to the women I could reach, the power of love. As I shared what I was learning, it became clear that women instinctively knew that they were at odds with one another, but no one was talking about it.

I want us to talk about it.

Let’s pray that each of are fully awakened to the truth and to the power of love to overcome every hateful blow from our enemy.

Jan

“Women have been fighting to be who they are for centuries, especially when they find themselves in situations and circumstances that leave them feeling stripped of their femininity.”

I have never had to suffer through the news or ravages of a disease such as cancer.  But I could relate to Jan’s having had received devastating news that not only threatened her life but was painful to who she was as a female.  For me it was having a placenta that was not functioning properly and resulted in the premature birth of my son at 25 weeks.  He lived 6 short hours before he died.  One of the ways I was defined as a woman – as mother – was threatened, questioned, even if only by me.

I wonder if you saw yourself at all in Jan’s story as I did?  Have you walked through painful circumstances that attempted to define your womanhood for you?

I love that Jan shared her story of Jesus meeting with her in her desperate and weak moments, even when she was angry.  His words to her are words that breathe life into us all when we hear them – “I AM.”  He is for us, with us, our provider, healer, friend…

The post Women at War Online Book Study: Chapter 1 appeared first on The Beautiful Deep.

I can hear my heart beat in my ears.  I feel the rapid beating and the arrhythmia feels like my heart has stopped for a moment while I am desperately willing it to beat.  My breath feels short, as if I cannot quite catch it fully.  The effects of these symptoms cause me to fear.

No one seems to know what’s happening to me in the moment. Kids are still calling my name loudly. Little ones are pulling at me for a snack. My phone buzzes with questions for me to answer.

I am used to this by now.  It’s happened a lot over the past 2 years.  I reexamine what I’ve been eating, not eating and did I get enough sleep last night?  The answers to these questions often leave me feeling defeated.

So, I pray, desperate for answers and fully aware that I have the ear of a healing God, I pray. I press in and go deep.  I’m tired of this.  It’s gone on for too long.

And me always trying to fix me – changing my diet and wondering about my hormones and asking simple prayers for wisdom.  This time I get a promise.  It’s time for healing.   But at a cost.

I prepare to see a new doctor – one who has a good reputation for dealing with these things and I prepare to see her and I prepare my heart.  I know this doctor is part of God’s plan of healing for me. He speaks this to me as I breathe in deep in effort to get my heart to stop pounding once again.

“I want you to do whatever she tells you to do.”

I hear this and say “Yes Lord.”  What could she possibly ask me to do that would be more difficult than what I’ve already been through?  Yes Lord, but you see how I’ve already suffered.  You know I’ve already given up so much and none of it seems to work.

And this doctor speaks with knowing.  She tells me my symptoms rather than asking them because she’s seen this before and knows it well.  “We’ll take care of this,” she says with confidence.

“All you have to do is go off dairy, stay off gluten, quit eating red meat, completely avoid caffeine, take these supplements and …”

Really? Is that ALL?  I wondered if anyone could actually do all of that and how incredibly unrealistic it was and thought about all I have already given up.  No gluten for years, no sugar, no pasta, rice, potatoes or corn.  And doesn’t the Bible talk about a land flowing with milk & honey?! I should be able to have milk!  What would I do without milk?

“I want you to do whatever she tells you to do.”

I wonder if this time it’s more about obedience than what I am actually doing? Or maybe I just need to learn to submit?

I stop my inward kicking and screaming and make a decision in that moment.  “I will obey you Lord. I will submit myself to you and to the one you have called to help aid me in my healing. “

And a miracle has been happening in me.

Not once since that day have I struggled to breathe normal breaths.  Not once have I felt crazy for having panic attack symptoms when there was absolutely nothing to panic about.  I’ve felt my arrhythmia all of 3 times in the past month compared to at least once a day for the previous month.

I think about all I was sacrificing in effort to be healed.  To obey is better.

It doesn’t make sense.  I don’t understand it all.  It’s incredibly hard to eat this way. But God is healing me.  And He started from the inside out.

I wonder what other ways I need to hear from Him and obey? How about you?  Is there something that you know you need to obey even though it doesn’t make sense and it is difficult to do?  Perhaps He wants to do something from your obedience that He cannot do with your sacrifices alone.

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Friends,

My name is Jan. I am a wife, mom, daughter, friend, pastor and cancer survivor. I’m sure you could give a similar list of roles and responsibilities. All of these names are precious to me and help shape my life, but who I am at my core is a woman.

Women are uniquely fashioned by God with a divine destiny and a powerful purpose. I haven’t always known this to be true. There was a time when I thought women were my enemy. I wrote Women at War to help girls just like me take a journey from isolation to friendship; from wound to healing; from war to peace.

Whether you already know the joy and power of healthy female relationships or you are still in the midst of finding your way – there is room for you, your experiences and your perspective in this on-line book study.

So let’s talk about it. I’ll share my experience and I hope you will share yours too. Together, we can start a revolution of love.

Your friend,
Jan

Here we are – women joined together because there is something inside of us that hears about a book, an idea, that Women are at War and we know this is true.  We bear the scars of relationships past and we know that the war has been raging and some of us are barely alive behind walls built thick to keep the enemy out. The enemy is us – our own gender.  We’ve been the victim and have dealt our own blows with hurtful words, cold shoulders and plain old meanness.

But we, you and I, are here because we’ve heard the sounds of the trumpet in the distance.  It’s calling us to a new tactic.  It’s a call to seek God for healing, be filled with truth and spread the contagion of love – radical love – love that is determined to fight for and spread unity.  It’s a call to a new war. A war where we know who the real enemy is and we unite together to fight against him and not one another.  Are you ready?

If you haven’t yet, go read the introduction to Women at War and come back here and let’s dig in:

Some of the questions that came to mind while reading the Introduction were:

Question 1: What attributes do I associate with the word woman?  When I think about the words Jan used in the introduction to describe the word woman, can I see those things in myself and in other women?

“Then the word woman can be defined by such words as wise, influential, beautiful, dynamic, purposeful, visionary, authentic, graceful, dignified, merciful, compassionate, life giving.”

Question 2: How do I see myself and my own womanhood?  Negatively? Positively?

Question 3: In what ways does the culture we live cause me to mistrust women?

“The culture we live in confirms their fears by constantly promoting the attitude that women are competitive, slanderous and malicious. We embrace these lies and end up despising our own gender.”

Question 4:  Am I ready to take a hard look at the wounds I have, surrender them to God and let Him heal my misconceptions and redefine the word woman for me?

“How wonderful would it be if we could change the way women view themselves and one another and, as a result, change the way we are perceived by the world?”

We want to hear from you!  Would you introduce yourself?  Click on “leave a comment” above and tell us where your from and what you do.  What are your thoughts on the questions above?  What are you most hoping to get out of reading the book and studying it together with other women?  Let’s chat in the comments just like we were sitting around a cozy room with big comfy couches together.  Let’s get to know one another and share our hearts. Feel free to ask Jan questions about the introduction (we’ll dive into the other chapters in the following weeks so let’s stay on the introduction for now).

Meet us back here again next week for Discussion of Chapter 1.  Be sure to read the chapter this week, answer the questions and the end and be ready to share what God is doing in your heart.  If you haven’t yet signed up to get email notifications about the study you can do so here.

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