Encouragement

Psalm 75:1

We thank you, O God! We give thanks because you are near. People everywhere tell of your wonderful deeds. 

Another mother at church told me that I looked skinny on Sunday. She asked if I had lost weight. I had had a rough week and that made my day. It also reminded me how easy it is to encourage people. It is equally easy to tear them down with our words.

I encourage you to encourage someone else today. You never know when they might especially need to hear an encouraging word. We all love compliments and need to hear we are doing a good job (being a mother, being a wife, serving in the church, etc.). Be grateful. Thank some one for something. Write an encouraging note. Say something sweet. God will bless it. What an example to the world of the members of the church loving each other. 

1 Thes. 3:11-18

"Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. 

Be at peace among yourselves. 

And we urge you, brothers, 

admonish the idle, 

encourage the fainthearted, 

help the weak, 

be patient with them all. 

See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."

Wow. Encourage. Respect. Esteem. Help. Be patient with. Seek to do good. Rejoice. Pray. Give thanks. Often those are not my first reaction to people or situations at church (or anywhere...but especially at church). But I want them to be. Will you pray with me for patience and love for the people around you? 

As a note, I actually haven't lost much of my Warren baby weight. Which made the compliment even sweeter to my ears. Being a mom is beautiful. A mom with her child or children is one of the most beautiful scenes. A shirt covered with drool, snot, or spit up is a badge of honor. Wear it proudly. I do miss dressing up in work clothes some days, but those thoughts are few. They come after I have been snotted and spit on several times in a row. :) But being my kids mom is the best job in the world.  

And honestly, for the first few months the baby is born, I don't worry about losing weight. My body needs time to heal. It took 9 months to lose all the weight I gained with Martin. That is my goal again. Nine months on, nine months off. 16 pounds to go, in six months, averages out to about 3 pounds a month. That seems doable. :) 

Here is a quote from an article on desiring God, that I really appreciate:

"Live the gospel in the things that no one sees. Sacrifice for your children in places that only they will know about. Put their value ahead of yours. Grow them up in the clean air of gospel living. Your testimony to the gospel in the little details of your life is more valuable to them than you can imagine. If you tell them the gospel, but live to yourself, they will never believe it. Give your life for theirs every day, joyfully. Lay down pettiness. Lay down fussiness. Lay down resentment about the dishes, about the laundry, about how no one knows how hard you work.

Stop clinging to yourself and cling to the cross. There is more joy and more life and more laughter on the other side of death than you can possibly carry alone."

http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/motherhood-is-a-calling-and-where-your-children-rank

They also have a book called Mom Enough that I want to read. Has another read this yet? It came out late last year. I keep forgetting to download it.