? I love you very much!?
Since they learned to speak, our children have been catechized with the following question almost every night before falling asleep: “Daddy and Mommy love you, but who loves you more than anyone else?This question is answered with a resounding “Jesus!” For all the voices of the environment.
- The Psalmist pleads with the Lord for this kind of love: “Show us.
- Lord.
- Thy mercy.
- And grant us your salvation” (Ps 85:7).
Jesus announces that this is the answer to the cry of the Psalmist’s heart: “No one has more love than this: to give someone his own life for his friends?”(Jn 15:13). Paul describes Jesus’ sacrificed love in Romans 5:78: “Hardly anyone would die for the righteous; For good, someone can be encouraged to die. But does God prove his love for us for the fact that Christ died for us when we are still sinners?A few verses earlier, in Romans 5. 5, we learned the comforting ministry of the Holy Ghost, which spreads God’s love in our hearts.
In fact, the Lord’s unwavering love is better than life (Psalm 63:3) because his love gives us his life. Thanks to your love, we can love him because he loved us first?(1Jn 4. 19).
Is it love? The love of Christ which forces Christian mothers to love their children. Christ’s love in her heart is what overflows when a mother speaks kindly to her children, even when they do not respond with kindness. The love of Christ that resonates, in her soul is what makes a mother offer her grace to her children, who can hear a bag of fries opening up on the other side of the house, but they cannot hear certain words said in her presence, such as:?Clean Up You, Room?. Christ’s love dominates us as we constantly speak to our children of the gospel words of hope; Christ’s love convinces mothers not to live for themselves, but to live for Jesus, who died and rose for them (2C 5. 15).
A mother who has faith in Jesus Christ loves for the hope that has been kept in heaven (Colossus 1:45). We know this is true because the Bible says it’s true. Personally, another reason why I know this is true is that my own mother loved me in a sacrificed and unconditional way because of her faith in Christ. Faith in future grace was, without a doubt, what held my mother’s heart in the nightmare of my teenage years. I was a goal scorer; she loved me sincerely. I entered into the counsel of the wicked; he loved me enough to tell me he was lost. I walked the way of sinners; she loved me enough to tell me about Jesus’ forgiveness. No mother’s nightmare valley is so dark that Jesus cannot carry his burdens to the end.
Hope for the future through God’s grace through Christ Jesus is what holds a mother’s heart firm when everything she feels falls apart in millions of pieces. We know that because of the Great Love of the Lord, we are not consumed and his mercies are infinite (Lm 3:22). Even Jeremiah, who saw the desolation of his beloved city, placed his hope in the Lord God Himself and not in his situation. He recognized that God’s mercies are renewed every morning (Lm 3:23). And it is this faith in God’s future grace that allowed Jeremiah to say, “My part is the Lord, my soul says; therefore, I will wait on it. (Lm 3:24). Don’t you love how the scriptures make your heart break with the unsonable wonders of glory and at the same time in safety?Imagine, the Lord is his part, aren’t you convinced?Just look at what the Father has done with his only begotten Son (who volunteered in his place), so that Jesus can make you his treasure and you can make it yours.
I am tempted to bet everything I have on changing behavior, crossing my fingers, and expecting the best, but the salvation of mothers and their children is of the Lord, we must all place our trust in the Son, clinging to his cross, and we must rejoice in the hope of God’s glory.
Is it the sacrificial love of a Spirit-endowed mother that allows her to voluntarily complicate herself? your life for the sake of your children. Just think of the extraordinary challenges you have faced in your own life, in your mother’s life, and in the lives of other mothers you know. In particular, the many adoptive mothers I know have made their lives happy and willingly difficult to love their children sacrificially. Love like Christ’s finds place, willingly and joyfully, in difficulties, to look out for the interests of others. If we receive encouragement, comfort, affection, and compassion from Christ and are grafted onto Him by His Spirit, then we must be overflowing with the same encouragement, comfort, affection, and compassion that comes from unity. with Christ (Phil 2,2). When we serve our families, we are careful not to serve them in a way that increases our ego; in humility, we regard others as superior to ourselves (Philippians 2: 3). When it comes to raising our children, isn’t it too humiliating a task when we have this mindset? the mindset of Jesus Christ, the humble servant.
Think about how the Lord Jesus Christ, willingly and joyfully, made your life difficult to share with us. Although he survived in the form of God, he did not judge usurpation equal to God; on the contrary, he stripped himself, taking the form of a servant, becoming like men; and, recognized as a human figure, humbled himself, becoming obedient until death and death on the cross?(Fp 2. 68). As if it were not humiliating enough for the Creator to become An Incarnate God, this innocent author of life has become even more humiliated, letting himself be crucified as a criminal.
It is true that our children need to hear this gospel that gives life all the time, and mothers must also hear it.
I remember how my attachment to me first, this became apparent to my whole family on a warm morning in the desert, Dave’s arm surgeries resulted in periods of very intense recovery and persistent physical pain, sometimes I couldn’t bathe alone, dress or eat. I had to put my youngest children next to my husband to feed them all at the same time!
On a particularly difficult morning, everyone asked for Mom’s help and attention, there were two diapers to change, no one had separated her clothes that day and my husband needed my help to open the shower and sink in the bathroom. The kids, Dave still had the humor to joke: “Well done, kids!Which one of us who screams louder will get Mom’s help getting dressed first?I didn’t laugh. I couldn’t do it.
For some reason, the bitterness I felt for my situation was so deep that it took root, I was angry, and I think I was angry for a long time, I had forgotten that God is not apathetic to my situation. He had ceased to see life as a battle for joy amid sadness in a fallen world. At the time, I just wanted everyone to leave me alone. I said aloud with my teeth clenched, “Will you leave me alone, please?”The children ignored me and continued to moan. My husband left the bathroom in silence without finishing his morning routine.
Why was he so empty of love for others?Why was my attitude so hostile towards the people I loved most?In my prayerful reflections on this incident, the Lord gracefully revealed to me that I had a deep desire to meet my needs before meeting the needs of others. The almost incessant work, in fact, had been fueled by attempts to resurrect myself with my own strength and control everything around me. I was mentally minded that if I could do it one more day, then I could go back to sleep and no one would bother me. Until the next morning (maybe). I had the idea that if I found the perfect work table, the house would be tidy. I thought if I could find the best tips for parents, the kids would feed on the autopilot. And, of course, I thought that if my husband’s disability finally disappeared, we could all get on with our lives. I had forgotten the Lord and this kind of amnesia can cast a deep shadow on the soul.
To love as Jesus loved is to die to oneself a thousand dead a day, there are times when we are not motivated by the love of Christ and frustrated with our children not because they are breaking God’s law, but because they are breaking ours. . We can overestimated small false attitudes and unnecessary disputes with our children. We can neglect the physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being of our children. We can reflect on our lives a thousand times a day (and night) and still resist putting them at the service of others.
We can even serve others very well, but we whisper all the time that our children and our husband do not applaud enough to congratulate our efforts.
Jesus’ humility redefines our worldly ideas about what it means to serve others. He gave us a new commandment: “I give you a new commandment: love one another; as I loved them, that they love each other too?( Jn 13:34). We need to be redeemed and perfected by God’s grace. We must submit to the Savior who can break our bondage to serve and worship us. When a mother trusts in Christ’s atoning death by faith, she sees death. of his sin in the death of Christ. Now, then, there is no more condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Why did the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus deliver you from the law of sin and death?(Romans 8:12).
The mother whose sin was buried with Christ in her death was resurrected in her resurrection and is now a slave to justice (Romans 6. 18). Do you have a new song to sing?A song about redeeming love.
One of my missionary heroes is David Livingstone, a man who has spent most of his life persevering in extraordinary difficulties for the cause of the gospel in Africa. I usually remember his example of perseverance and faith when I’m on stages like “I think it could be worse. “But that’s not why Livingstone encourages me so much. A strong faith is not forged considering that my earthly situation is more pleasant than someone else’s. “Could it always be worse? my fragile heart, the only hope in God’s enduring fidelity is unwavering assurance, my heart is strengthened when I consider that we have the same heavenly Father, we are saved by Jesus himself, we are inhabited by the same Holy Spirit, and we rejoice in the same gospel. If God has supported this holy man, then He can also support me.
So what does this story of a missionary in Africa have to do with motherhood and sacrifice?Livingstone gave a speech at the University of Cambridge that shaped my thinking about motherhood. It did not specifically refer to motherhood; He spoke of having an eternal perspective and his role as a missionary. When I read your words, I can’t help but think about how the same principles work in my life as a mother, whose hope is in the gospel. Livingstone said:
For my part, I have never stopped gloating that God has appointed me to this office. Do people talk about the sacrifice I made as I spent much of my life in Africa, a glorious fate after here?What a vision and such a thought! It’s not a sacrifice at all. But yes, a privilege. When we abandon the common comforts and charities of this life, the anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger we finally go through can cause us to stop or weaken our minds and our souls sink; But it’s just a moment. All of this is nothing compared to the glory that is revealed in us and for us. I’ve never made a sacrifice.
It is true that mothers sacrifice for their children in a thousand different ways every day, but we must define and evaluate these things with an eternal perspective, like Livingstone, we must ask ourselves: is this service for my son the one that brings its own reward? in her well-being, in the awareness of service to God, in the peace of the spirit and in the bright hope of a glorious destiny, a sacrifice? In other words, when a mother triumphs for the Gospel, her bright hope in Jesus It overshadows any earthly gains she might have had by choosing to do a different service than displaying Jesus’ sacrificial love for her son.
Thus, when we consider the call, work and sacrifices of motherhood through this vision, with emotion in our hearts, we can say that we have never made a sacrifice.
Intimacy with Christ for busy mothers. Being a mother is hard work and it seems that the list of things to do is getting longer, making it difficult to experience true joy in God. In this encouraging book for busy mothers, Gloria Furman will help you align your vision of motherhood with what the Bible teaches. By showing you how to find a dynamic relationship with God, even when it is still necessary to wash dirty laundry, this book will help you appreciate Christ more deeply.
In 2017, the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation will be celebrated. One of the main priorities of the movement was “Solus Christus”, a term that reformers used to reaffirm that “only in Christ” we find our salvation, our identity and our reason. to live. Reformer Martin Luther reminds us that “believing in Christ means dressing in him, living in union with him,” and the Apostle Paul tells us that “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are found in Christ”.
It is therefore with great joy that the Ministry of Faith invites women from all over Brazil to participate in the 2nd Faithful Conference for Women, which will take place from 18 to 20 August 2017, at the Majestic Hotel, in the Village of Lindia, SP. .