Marvel in the Mundane of Motherhood

 As women, God has made us unique with particular skills, instincts, and tendencies.  Whether or not we have children of our own, we have these motherly instincts and qualities and they are good. And they teach us about who God is and they teach our kids about who God is. Many of these qualities may at first seem to be mundane and not important and can even easily become burdensome tasks-- a duty not a delight. Such as feedings every 3 hours, or a clingy baby that only wants mama, or keeping them creatively entertained, or what seems like constant correction. But in each of these there is marvelous truth to be seen if you know what to look for.

God’s character revealed through tasks

God created babies to begin their life with needing one source of nourishment—milk—and you are that source of that nourishment. Whether you breast-feed or formula-feed, the baby cannot feed himself. He is helpless without you. He cries out to you to let you know the pain he is in and there is only one thing that will satisfy! Only one thing that will be sufficient! It doesn’t matter that he just did it 2 hours previously. It doesn’t matter that it is 3 am. He tried the pacifier but it’s not the same! He needs you!  This task of mothering can seem unimportant and even bothersome. It’s easy to miss the bigger picture if you aren’t looking. Isn’t this exactly how we are? We are helpless babes that don’t know what we need but we know we are in pain and we cry out! We have tried to soothe ourselves with lesser things. They weren’t sufficient. But God is sufficient! He is all-sufficient! In Him we have no need or lack. And aren’t we glad He meets our needs every time we cry out. It doesn’t matter to Him if we just asked 2 hours ago for something.  It doesn’t matter to Him if its 3 am.  He is faithful.  Praise God, He doesn’t tire or begrudgingly help us. Instead He tells us that His grace is sufficient for our wearisome task. Isn’t it amazing that from life’s first cry mothers get to display God’s sufficiency. And the first thing the baby learns is that when he cries out, you will give him what he needs. Don’t forget to do the same when your joy for the midnight feeding is not there. And the mother and the babe now have a category that God is sufficient and a provider.

God’s character revealed through busy-ness

Just when you feel like you’ve got this feeding thing down, you blink and they are toddlers. They can run, and play, and build, and dig, and color, and are happy—as long as you are doing it all right there with them…over and over and over again! Your energy is low. Theirs is high. You are satisfied with one game of knock down the tower. They are satisfied with eleventy hundred games of knock down the tower. You like coloring on the paper placed right in front of you. They like coloring on the walls in the other room. You like to eat three meals a day they like to eat 12 meals a day…or maybe none at all. You like to eat bananas with your mouth. They like to eat bananas with their hair. It seems like you get nothing done. Like you are going from one mess to another following a little tornado around the house all. day. long. Is there ever a waking moment you are not with them? Maybe to use the bathroom? No. Even that is now a spectator event.  It’s almost as if you are ever-present in their life.  And while that may seem mundane to you, let’s stop and marvel at what’s really happening. Think of the security it gives to that tender heart and mind that may not be capable of understanding why he can’t pee on the carpet whenever he wants, but surely is capable of understanding something much greater-- that mommy is here, mommy is always here. Oh, wait…..who does that remind you of? Our faithful God is ever-present in our life and aren’t you glad He is? He too is always here cleaning up our messes, guiding us, teaching us. Again, I find it amazing that we as mothers display His character of faithful shepherd in our ordinary day of getting nothing done but cleaning up messes. And the mother and the toddler now have a category for faithfulness, teacher, shepherd, omni-presence and hopefully patience, gentleness, and joy as well.

God’s character revealed through repetition

Before you know it, they are old enough for school….and apparently old enough for sass! It seems that with the increase of age also comes the increase of testing boundaries that you were sure were clearly established--rules that were made for their protection. You take on the role of playing both judge and jury to important life-or-death arguments like whose turn it is to sit where for the 3-minute car ride to Walmart. And in your composed, gentle, and loving voice you declare the solid wisdom of, “YOU’LL SIT WHERE I TELL YOU TO SIT AND YOU’LL LIKE IT!” You also get to have interesting conversations about things you could never prepare for like “Why we don’t eat deodorant,” or “Why we don’t draw with permanent marker on our sister’s face.” What Bible verse applies to that? How do I relate the gospel to this? …the marker is like our sin?….umm…do unto others, so now your sister gets to draw on you?….children obey your parents always works, right?….I don’t know….just don’t do it because I said so! UGH! Why is disciplining so hard and so constant? Didn’t we just go through this yesterday? Yes, you did! And you will again tomorrow and the next day. Repetition is how we all learn, isn’t it? We don’t sing the ABC’s once to our child and expect them to know it. We sing it over and over and over again while we play and while we get dressed and while we walk and we don’t get upset when they try to sing it and they get mixed up or forget a letter. We gently correct them and encourage them to try again, don’t we? Why do we expect a different method and use a different form of correction when it comes to other matters much more important than our ABC’s? And yet no matter how many times your child will fail you in the day, and yet no matter how many times you will fail your child, there is love. Unconditional love. You wouldn’t trade her for anything in the world. Is there another way to understand this quality of God? Yes, we have a deep love for our husband, but it is often tainted with our sinful curse that puts conditions on our love for him. But our children….no matter what the day brought, no matter what sins they committed, we can’t help but love them, and they us! And the same is true for us as a child of God. No matter how we failed Him in our mothering, in our parenting, as a wife, He has a deep unconditional love for us. He wants what’s best for us and sets boundaries for us and is jealous for us to love Him alone. And He gently repeats over and over to us the way we should go.  And now the mother and the child have a category for God as master, protector, discipliner, and unconditional love.

  

God’s character revealed through perseverance

Then what seems like the next day, your teenager begins asking weird questions in a deep voice such as, “Can I take a nap?” or “Can I take a shower?” and you freak out a little and wonder how you fell into this time warp where your baby aged, but you didn’t and you realize its almost over. They are about to leave you …and they want to! When did that happen?! Why am I the clingy one now never wanting him to leave? I’m finally getting this mothering thing down and now they are all leaving me. But wait, isn’t that what it was all about? They want to leave because they are ready to leave, because you made them ready to leave. Every lesson, every discipline, every play time, every meal time was preparing them for a life on their own to go forth and do the same. Because of the security of growing up under the guidance of their mother they are ready. And just because they are gone, doesn’t mean your title of mother is gone. In fact, you may just get promoted to the title of grandmother! You will always be their mother and they will always be your child. It is an everlasting title. Just as God is everlasting and we will always be his child.

So do not grow weary in doing good, mothers! For in due season you will reap, if you do not give up! Do not give up, mother! Marvel in the mundane of motherhood. There is much to learn from it. It is a gift to you and to your children. Nothing is wasted in the hands of our Redeemer. And now the mother and the young adult have a category for God’s perseverance, and endurance, and security, and trust, and an everlasting loving Father.

Finding Joy in Motherhood - How God Used Discipline to Change My Heart

Recently I was asked to speak to a group of mothers on discipline. Below is my transcript from that event. As I say below, If you have struggled with finding joy in motherhood and parenting, weary with knowing how to discipline, listen to my journey and see if it can be an encouragement to you. 

Hi, my name is Heidi Cooper and I have been married for 18 years to my husband, Tony. We have three kids: Evan-who is 12, Addie-who is 8, and Isaiah-who is 5.  I always wanted to be a mom. My mom did an excellent job showing me the importance of motherhood. I went off to college with the intent of finding a good husband and then starting a family and staying home to be a mom.

Pre-motherhood is full of big dreams and great intentions, your kids are going to become great missionaries who save the lost people of Africa and you have weekly games constructed to prepare them for life in the bush (or whatever your dream may be). But even the best prepared mom quickly realizes a few short weeks into motherhood that the days are longer and harder than you anticipated. Soon those long days with the struggles of doubt of raising a newborn, gradually become seeds of impatience with a learning toddler who thinks everything belongs to her and should be available to her at all times, which grows into frustration towards a messy preschooler who resembles a small indoor tornado leaving a mile-wide path of destruction wherever he roams, and next thing you know, yelling empty threats is becoming a part of your daily schedule to your disobedient 9 year old who has developed a keen sense of knowing what and whose buttons to push at the perfect time.  You know theoretically that you are the one who is suppose be in charge around here so you hastily bark out something, anything to get their attention. 

Stop yelling at your brother!

Why can’t you remember something as simple as flushing the toilet?

Is it so hard to put the shoes 1 foot farther to the right so they are actually in the closet?

Do you know how hard I worked to get us ready for this vacation and all you can do is fight with your sister? Now get in the car, we are going to go have fun as a family!

You know what is spewing out of your mouth is wrong, but at the same time you do not even care because you feel the need to release your venom!

Does any of this sound familiar to you? Certainly not the description of the Proverbs 31 woman! Well, I have good news and I have bad news for you. The good news…you are not alone! Don’t believe everything you see on Pinterest and Facebook.  Not all mothering moments are instagram worthy!

The bad news… kids copy what they see modeled for them, so it’s probably your own fault. At least that’s what the Lord showed me. If you have struggled with finding joy in motherhood and parenting, weary with knowing how to discipline, listen to my journey and see if it can be an encouragement to you. 

Three years ago, God began to move our family in a new direction. He moved us from sending the kids to a private Christian school to homeschooling. This meant having them home, all day, all year, and being responsible for their entire education.  At the same time, we felt Him leading my husband to quit his full-time computer programming job and go to seminary full time. This added the challenge of no money and less dad time.

My shortcomings surfaced real quickly. And I was fairly certain we were going to all hate each other by Thanksgiving. You’ve heard the saying “Be sure your sin will find you out?” Well, you can also be sure your kids will be the ones to bring them out and point them out! And now with them home all day they had plenty of opportunity!  I knew this new season of life was going to be a time of sanctification for me. And God used the task of disciplining my kids as the main tool of reform.

Colossians 3:16 says,  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing  one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Well, the word of Christ was dwelling in me sometimes, and I was most certainly not singing psalms, hymns, or spiritual songs in my disciplining moments. I had the admonishment part down, except that it was not in wisdom or with thankfulness in my heart. It was with sarcasm and anger. God was revealing to me some sin in my life in regards to mothering. I was being selfish, discontent, impatient, angry. I was not using self-control, basically the opposite of all of the fruit of the spirit. What struck me hardest was realizing what example I was being to my kids, especially my daughter. Was the way I was parenting encouraging Addie to one day want to be a mom the way my mom did to me? Would she know that God created motherhood to be a joy and not a burden? I knew He had, but joy would not be the word I would have chosen to describe motherhood so far. Weary was more like what I was feeling.

God showed me that places where I would get frustrated are a good place to start changing. Why was I getting angry when the kids were disobedient? Why did my heart seek revenge in discipline? I realized my sin came from the attitude of "you have gone against MY rules and here's what I have to say about it!" when it should have been "you have gone against God's rules and let's see what He has to say about it." I had been deceived. I had misunderstood the repetition of daily pulling weeds of sin in my kid’s life as well as in my own life. I was seeing it as failure instead of basic Christian living-a means of grace to teach us to become Christ-like. Repetition is how we learn. It gives us another chance to improve. It helps us master what we are learning. Paul says in Philippians 4, “for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation.”  Paul learned contentment through repetition. God repeatedly put him in different situations so that he could master contentment. It didn’t mean failure. It meant sanctification. It meant learning to rely on Christ, because he continues in verse 13 with, ”I can do all this through Christ who gives me strength.“  

Sin like old habits die hard. I needed a plan. I wanted the Bible to guide my disciplining, but I needed a cheat sheet to know where to find the right scripture to help me when my patience was thin.  I also wanted an idea for a consequence that fit the crime as a prompt to guide my disciplinary action so I wouldn’t blurt out empty threats like “No more electronics for a month!” or “If I step on another Lego, I’m going to throw them all away!” Tony and I spent a weekend working this out and I came up with a discipline chart. I had it printed and it is posted in our kitchen. We spent several meal times going over it with the kids so we were all clear on what was expected, and what they could expect if they disobeyed.

The chart has 3 columns-Behavior, What God Says, and Consequences.

I came up with a list of the most common “offenses” such as Arguing/Causing Trouble, Abusing other’s property, foolish talk, etc... and then looked up several Bible verses for each sin. I printed out the full scripture of my favorite verse that I felt described best how God says we should act in each situation, and then listed several others as references that we could look up if we needed to add variety.

The third column is a list of consequences. This is mainly an idea listed of how I could handle the punishment. We quite often add or subtract from the listed consequence based on the situation and the child involved. Some of my children feel more sorrow from electronics time taken away than a spanking, and another child of mine will come and confess on her own her wrongdoing even though I would have never found out and a look of disappointment from me will cause tears of sorrow.

So, for example: Complaining/Whining-

Philippians 2:14-Do all things without grumbling or questioning.

Psalm 19:14-Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.

Ephesians 4:29

The consequence idea listed is additional work or do not receive what was whined for.

As we began implementing the chart I soon saw that as I would speak truth to my kids about being impatient, God would speak truth to me about my impatience. As I would read verses about laziness to my child, God would shine a light on my own laziness. I must say, when we are consistent with using our chart for times of discipline, mothering is more joyful. My admonishing was coming from wisdom, not anger. And it was also turning into a sweet time of teaching them about God. God was changing me and my kids. To take the time and think about how our actions were wrong and what God says about it in His Word and taking the time to give our kids the gospel and point them to Christ goes so much farther than "why can't you ever pick up your toys when I ask you to!" It has really helped to discipline my kids with the mindset of “I know that I am not worthy to be obeyed, I mess up just like you, but God is worthy to be obeyed and he has asked you as kids to obey your parents for it is right, and it will go well with you, so let’s look to God’s word and see what he has to say about …lying or arguing or whatever the situation may be.”

I had also been deceived by the hard work of mothering. I was tired of dealing with the same things every day. The fatigue and repetition of the mundane were perceived as discouragement and hard. But God showed me that the valley days of motherhood doesn’t mean I lost my way. The times that the work is hard is where the change takes place. Opportunities to bless may be most present when we don’t feel like it. Just like exercising, the results are seen when it gets hard. If you give up every time the running gets hard and you don’t feel like running, you will never grow as a runner and will never see results. I always thought the passage in Hebrews about running with endurance was for missionaries or pastors. It says, “let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,  looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross.” But it’s not just for missionaries; it is for moms too! Our mission field is our kids. We are the ones teaching them daily about the gospel.  It is hard to stop supper and go downstairs to correct wrong speech each time. It’s hard to function on 3hrs of sleep because you were up with a sick child. It’s hard to put down my crafts to play nail salon or help build a Lego helicopter. It’s hard to get out of your warm bed and stay up with a sleepless child. It’s hard to take the time to discipline with wisdom instead of yelling, “Everybody just stop it!” The days that the race set before us travels through a valley is where you learn to trust in Christ. But, what does it mean to trust in Christ? Christians say that all the time. Or,” just give it to Jesus.” That sounds great! I’d love to, but how do I give my whiny child to Jesus?  Believe me there are days I would LOVE to give my children to Jesus!

John Piper has helped me understand this concept with the acronym APTAT.

 A.P.T.A.T. stands for Admit, Pray, Trust, Act, and Thank.

Let’s set up a scenario and run it through APTAT.

It’s 5:00, that witching hour when everyone is hungry, you are trying to get supper going, and waiting for your husband to get home from work. Your 5 year old comes to you complaining that his brother kicked him! His brother responds with, “that’s because he was poking me while I was trying to play a game and was making me lose!”

So, I take a deep breath and quickly run through APTAT in my head.

A-Admit that you can’t do it. I tell God, I can’t do this right now. I am making supper and  I want to just yell at them, but I know that isn’t right.

P-Pray “God, help me! I need you!”

T-Trust a specific promise like, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” Or “My God shall supply all your needs.” Or” If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God and He will give it to you.” Yes, that one sounds good for this, because I don’t have a clue what to say! This is where letting the word of Christ dwell on you richly comes in handy. You will know what promises are available to you!

A-Act You act! You don’t want to take the time to discipline right now, but you slow down and do it knowing God will help you. So you gently ask the boys to come look at the chart with you and say, “Evan, was it right to kick your brother?”

And he says, “no, but he kept poking me even after I asked him to stop twice!”

” Isaiah, was it right of you to poke Evan?”

“NO, but he wouldn’t let me have a turn.”

So it sounds like you two are causing trouble and fighting. Let’s see what the Bible says about that.

We go over to the chart and read-Arguing/fighting/causing trouble

2 Timothy 2:24-25- And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness.

You guys are the Lord’s servants and he says that you are not to quarrel, but be kind. Were you being kind to each other? And it says you are to patiently endure evil, correcting with gentleness. Evan, did you endure your brother’s evil and correct his wrong behavior with gentleness?

“I asked him nice twice…”

“It doesn’t say correct with gentleness twice and then try kicking!”

“You guys are brothers. You are going to be brothers forever! Evan,  Is it more important to have a good score on a game or to treat your brother with love? Isaiah, is it more important to have your turn on the game or wait patiently for Evan to be done?

You two need to apologize to each other and your consequence for causing trouble is that you have both lost the rest of your electronics time for the day, and I want you together to come up with something to play in your room with each other until supper is ready.

T-Thank God. Thank him for faithfully helping you again! Thank him for helping your child understand where they were wrong and for giving them a repentant spirit. Thank him for helping you discipline rightly and giving you words to correct wrong behavior with and giving you the strength to endure another squabble.

This to me is what giving it to Jesus means.

God has promised to bless those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. He says they will be satisfied! So go to Him. Humble yourself. Ask for His help. He promises to satisfy you.

So mothers, Let us not grow weary in doing good; for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. There is hope! Our kids do copy what they see us do. So let’s start modeling kind words and forgiveness and repentance and self-control. Let them see you asking God for help. And one day you will begin to notice that those piles of shoes thrown about the entryway that used to lead to anger is now first stirring up thoughts of thankfulness in your heart to God because it means you live in a home full of children you love.

We will not be mothers of little children forever. They will grow. And move away. I want to know what it is to be content when I have plenty of children at home and when I have none. God is not training you for no reason. Practice. Practice. Practice. And then you will see that the Proverbs 31 woman won’t look so far off anymore.

She opens her mouth with wisdom,
    and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
²⁷ She looks well to the ways of her household
    and does not eat the bread of idleness.
²⁸ Her children rise up and call her blessed;
    her husband also, and he praises her:


If you think a Behavior Chart would be a useful tool to help you discipline your kids or grand kids consistently, they are available at https://www.etsy.com/listing/156526656/behavior-chart

I never wanted to homeschool!

I never wanted to home school. I didn't want to be one of those people. I had been hurt by them. They made me feel that I wasn't doing my best or the best for my kids if I didn't choose home schooling. That the perfect christian mother would be a home schooling mother. The last thing I wanted to do was be one of them. Besides, that would mean I would be home with all of the kids all day AND be responsible for their education. I would lose my mind! I am going to be more frustrated and yell more! We are going to get on each others nerves and grow to hate each other! Yeah. Not gonna happen! So when our current schooling situation required a change, we decided to look at our options. Since I was sure homeschooling wouldn't work for us, we decided to first go to a local meeting about a home school co op starting up in our area so we could make a fair, educated decision to remove it from our list of options.

HA!

Funny how God works, isn't it? Well the exact opposite of everything I thought would happen happened. The co op was amazing and it was clear after checking into the other schooling options in our area that we would be home schooling in the fall. I knew that this change was mainly for my character building. If I was to survive a full school year at home with three kids, I had some purging to do. God is so gracious and so gentle. I am now seeing that home schooling is exactly what I needed. He taught me to see joy in mothering instead of unending, thankless work which led to gentler words coming from me. He taught me contentment in mothering with what He has given me specifically for my kids and not in comparing to others which led to a peaceful attitude. He taught me to see the good in my kids and not just the bad, which led to loving them more like He loves us.  He taught me to identify what situations would trigger frustration in my heart so I could take steps to fight that and not yell. Instead of growing to hate each other, we have grown to love each other.

So here I am. One of them. But it is my story and the path God had for me. Your story may be different. With God's help, I hope I'm not one of 'those people' to you. Home schooling isn't the best option that everyone will someday eventually come around to. Homeschooling does not get you into heaven. Obeying God's path for you is the best option that someday everyone will eventually come around to! Believing that God is infinitely glorious and created us in His image, and that we have sinned against Him and payment for those sins is eternal death, and that He loves us so much that he sent His Son to pay that debt for us by dying on the cross and received God's wrath, and that after he died He rose again and conquered death forever! Believing that is what gets you into heaven. Praise God! And not how well I do or do not home school.

Thirty-Five

Last week I celebrated my 35th birthday. 35! -HA!- I still think I'm in college!
As I read my Bible that morning, I picked a verse to work on this year. I wanted to pick a verse that would be my overall theme for year 35. Something to chew on and push hard on. The Lord brought me to Psalm 37:4.

Delight yourself in the LORD,
and he will give you the desires of
your heart.

Some things I'm hoping to understand better:

Delight....what does delight mean? How do you delight? What does does true delight look like?

in the LORD....where is my delight right now? when it's not in the LORD, what is it in?

desires of my heart....what are my desires? are they holy? do my desires match the LORD's desires?

All over the Bible it talks about delight and joy in God-

Nehemiah 8:10-And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.

Psalm 16:11-You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy;

Hebrews 12:1-2-Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

How can I have that kind of joy? Right now my joy/delight is based on how my kids are behaving, or what kind of day I'm having, or if things are going the way I want them to go, or if my house is clean.

I pray the LORD will use this year to impress upon me truths from this verse.
He has already provided one learning tool through Tony. A few hours after I picked this verse, Tony surprised me with a book he bought for us to go through together. It is 'When I Don't Desire God-How to Fight for Joy' by John Piper.

On the back of the book it says that "if joy in God were merely the icing on the cake of Christian commitment, this book would be insignificant. But Piper argues that joy is so much more. Our being satisfied in God in necessary to show God's worthiness and to sustain sacrifices of love."

I think that's how I'm feeling right now, that my joy in God is the icing on cake that you experience once in a while, but I know it needs to be more than that. If the joy of the Lord is my strength, and I'm a wimp, then there should be a lot more joy in my daily life of mothering/parenting. I'm finding my satisfaction in unworthy objects.

I'd appreciate any insight you have. Please share with me what the LORD has taught you/is teaching you in this area.

What's Your Oxen?

Proverbs 14:4
Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox.

or

Where there are no kids, the house is clean, but priceless sanctifying lessons come from raising kids!

Why am I so quick to get annoyed by messy rooms, or lots of laundry, or repeated instructions, or countless interruptions?
My goal is misplaced when I think success or happiness comes if and when the house stays clean or I complete a task uninterrupted. Success is when I decide to handle the situations that arise throughout the day in a way pleasing to the Lord.
How's my tone of voice?
Am I using self-control?
Am I being patient?
What are my actions teaching my kids?
Am I being consistent?

Good parenting isn't learned in ideal conditions. Good parenting is learned in the interruptions. Don't waste the school of interruptions!

Lord, thank You for this proverb and for it's truth. Please bring it to mind when I start to think of my kids as a burden. Thank You for the many ways you use the relationship of kids and parents to show me how glorious You are! Your unconditional love. How to have child-like faith. How You discipline those You love. How You want what is best for us.

What's your oxen?

Paul's Prayers

And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

Colossians 1:9-12

I really love Paul's prayers to the believers in Colossae, and similar ones in Ephesians and Phillipians. There's just so much packed into them. You can tell by the tone that he genuinely cares for them and that he truly understands the message and power of Christ. He gets it.

So here's just some bullet points of what hits me in this prayer found in Colossians 1.

vs 9a- And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you...He didn't stop praying for them once they became Christians. They believed, and they are loving others, and are bearing fruit and growing and Paul still prays earnestly for them!

vs 9b-that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding...our actions and decisions are going to be based on what we are filled with. Am I filled with FOX News, impressing others, success at work, school, making money, me time, facebook, my kids, sports, etc? Or am I filled with words of truth from God in His Bible?

vs 10-so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him...The goal of being filled with the knowledge of His will is that we may live a life worthy of the Lord and to please Him.

vs 11a- May you be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might...That's a lot of power! The God who created the universe and was able to conquer death is offering to strengthen us. Paul's prayer to the Ephesians says, "that you may know...what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe." I think I know of His power, but I don't tap into into it nearly enough. I too often just use my own strength and don't ask Him to flex for me.

vs 11b- for all endurance and patience with joy...not just patience, but patience with joy! That's not going to happen when I rely on my own works or strength to do what the Lord has called me to do. When I am out of endurance and patience (with joy!), I need to run to God and be strengthened with His power, which is a lot!

Lord, Thank you for Paul and his heart for the early Christians and his example to me how to pray for others. But I really ask for this prayer for myself. May the eyes of my heart be enlightened, so that I may know the immeasurable greatness of Your power toward us who believe. And would you fill me with the knowledge of Your will, so that I would walk in a manner worthy of You, pleasing to You. And would you give me Your power to show love to others with endurance and patience with joy!