Brave Mommas

Happy Monday Morning, Glorious Dots!Spent a heart happy weekend being inspired and encouraged in Jesus with my extended faith family at First Baptist Church Bentonville, Arkansas.  This will be part one of a two part post about the weekend.  Today I want to share my heart about the beautiful Mom weekend they had, tomorrow I will post about the outstanding youth movement they have started.They have some SERIOUS radiant daughters of God doing the work to live gloriously from the inside out.  The preciousness of those dear hearts’ faith in a Mighty God is knit so deep into my soul.  This weekend Maegan Kufahl, an AMAZING woman of God, beloved friend and youth pastor’s wife at FBC B’Ville, orchestrated an incredible Mom weekend to inspire mommas to raise their babies as warriors for Jesus.  The speakers where anointed by the Holy Spirit as teachers for the weekend.  There were counselors that gave Truth-filled insight on educating your children about sex, one of my favorite mom/daughter relationships {Jordan Street & Janet Pate} shared testimony of how they have persistently pursued Jesus in their relationship through thick & thin, tender-hearted and powerful video testimonies from amazing mommas and then Maegan shared a powerful, passionate and empowering word about the importance of being engaged in the battle – PROACTIVELY – for the lives of our little ones.  And that exceeds the boundary lines of age.  Whether you have babies in your home right now, they are in college, or they are married and out of the house, or  you now have the double joy of loving grandbabies too….they are all your little ones and your pursuit of their hearts being bent towards Jesus should NEVER stop!  She did a tremendous job of helping us shake off the dust and get off the sidelines and in the fight for our kids.  It was honest, heart-felt and exposed the depth of difficulty we face in this generation to pursue Christ.  Our babies are in a battle and we can either sit back allowing life to beat ‘em up and let them figure it out for themselves or we can be the mommas, the parents, the grandparents that love them to Jesus with ALL our might, energies, everything within us.  A couple of scriptures that kept stirring in my soul as I listened have continued to move around in my heart as I have gotten home from the weekend.“Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.  Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth.” Psalm 127:3-4“Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the night watches!  Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord!  Lift your hands to him for the lives of your children, who faint for hunger at the head of every street.” Lamentations 2:19Mommas, our babies need us.  They are hungry for what we know and understand and have felt in Jesus.  No matter what age they are, they need us to never give up on them in prayer and Jesus pursuit.  I had the humbling opportunity to finish off their Mom weekend by leaving them with a message about what type of arrows we are raising.  On my twitter bio and in the dedication to my book “A Glorious Becoming” I mention my sharp arrows.  Some have wondered, and asked, what that even means.  My sharp arrows are my kids.Saturday morning, as the weekend closed, I shared a story that Toby had shared with me.  Toby decided at the end of the regular season this year to invite his position players over to the house and have a special offering specifically to the seniors.  He decided to gift them each with an arrow attached to a card with a single word that he felt described them as an athlete and as a person to remember as they are shot out into the world.  And since we have decided to include our children in anything we do as a coaching family he knew that Cade would be there and Toby felt it would be an important rite of passage for Cade as a growing little man to receive his own arrow and “word”.  It was a very tender moment between father and son when Toby presented Cade with his arrow in front of all those big football players.  I have no doubt it was a moment forever etched in Cade’s mind and life.  It was a defining moment.Cade has carried that arrow everywhere, he loves it.  Matter of fact he asked Toby if they could start hunting and when they did Cade had decided that he wanted to use HIS arrow to shoot with.  Toby was so proud and completely saw his heart; however he had to explain to Cade that the arrow he had, although too sharp to mess around with, was merely a practice arrow.  That if they used that arrow they wouldn’t kill a thing.  It wouldn’t penetrate anything.  They would have to get real arrows, sharp as razor blades to go hunting with.  Toby explained to Cade that the real arrows would actually have the potential to shoot all the way through a deer.  That to produce the right result in hunting, which would be actually score a buck, means they have to use razor sharp arrows.This is it for us as mommas, ladies.  What kind of arrows are we raising?  Are we merely raising practice arrows that go to church on Sunday and Wednesday?  Are we raising babies that attend church activities just because we make them or it’s included in our morally correct life routine?  Are we raising practice arrows that look sharp to most people, but if they actually had to use their spiritual heart they couldn’t kill sin even if they tried…..or are we brave enough to raise razor sharp arrows that penetrate right through sin in every capacity.Because what our children are facing, even as young as preschool, is no joke.  The devil is ruthless and the ONLY thing that will raise our babies to be sharp enough to overcome the opposition to them developing God centered relationships, God honoring purity, and a desire for a fully obedient passionate love relationship with Jesus….is in fact Jesus and the Word of God. “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12Mommas, whether you want to hear it or not our children are facing the harshness of the world earlier and earlier.  Ladies, the devil isn’t avoiding them because they are children.  If anything he is trying to get their ears and hearts sooner and sooner.  Whatever you are shielding your children from the world, the devil, is not being so kind.  God’s perfect love drives out fear, this isn’t about provoking fear in our hearts as mommas.  It is the exact opposite; my desire is to provoke you to be proactive.  To be the weird momma that never deviates from the “Jesus line”.  The time to engage in the battle is RIGHT NOW!  Stop raising practice arrows, start raising REAL arrows.  Arrows that you become so confident in Jesus with that YOU are the one that prays to God, “This one God, pick up THIS ARROW because I know when you shoot it out of the bow it will be SO razor sharp it will be shot deep into the heart of the enemy.  I’m even willing to shoot it out myself.”  Don’t ignore the signs; be intentional today to inject Jesus, His Word and His Hope to your babies.  They are capable of receiving it.  Don’t get discouraged, keep watering them with Jesus.  Spending your energies out for Jesus might leave you tired, but I promise you won’t be tired for nothing.  You don’t have to be a scholar; you just have to share the Hope & Grace that is setting YOU free every day.  Remember the Samaritan woman at the well saved others simply by telling HER testimony, then called those in the city to come to see for themselves the power of this Jesus, then after they heard her REAL heart as her story REALLY was and saw for themselves the power of the REAL Jesus that saved her…..they believed.  If it is REAL for you it will be REAL for your babies.“Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me all that I ever did.’  So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days.  And many more believed because of his word.  They said to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.” John 4:39-42Praying for all the mommas that are making the brave choice to raise razor sharp Jesus arrows.  As Maegan said this weekend, “Brave mommas raise brave babies.  Scared mommas raise scared babies.”“I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.  Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed.  The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.” Psalm 34:4-5&7