1 John 3:18
“We must not love with word or speech, but with truth and action.”
___________________________
In today’s lesson, Priscilla talks about 3 roles a mother must take on if they are going to love their children well….
The Soul Shaper
The Intentional Encourager
The Discipline Dealer
Mama and dear friend…. I need you to understand right now that YOU are a soul shaper for your children.
It is so vitally important that we pray for our children. These prayers need to start forming in our spirit before we even have them and they must continue to grace our hearts and lips even after they leave our nest and have their own homes and children.
A Soul shaper must….
- beware that her prayers for her child are significant
- understand that once her child has received salvation, she is God’s primary tool to work alongside the Holy Spirit to see that the transforming process occurs effectively in her child’s soul.
- know that she cannot accomplish this without involving her church and relatives to assist in the effort.
- know along with her spouse that the main responsibility of this soul shaping is theirs.
- not allow anyone else to take her or her spouse’s place as the primary influencers in the child’s life
- help the child to become sensitive to God’s conviction
- teach the child how to recognize God’s way of directing them through their conscience
- continue to walk this out along with the Holy Spirit as the child grows and matures.
- continue to seek the Lord for guidance for how she can be used to guide her children in their adult lives.
Dear friends, I hope with all my heart that you see what an intentionally BOLD role you play as your child’s soul shaper! You cannot be lazy about it or turn a blind eye. You must intentionally, every single day make this deliberate choice to invite the Holy Spirit to help you in your actions and speech in order to mold your child’s soul. What an honor and privilege!!!
Please…. if you haven’t already been walking out this bold task, start today. Don’t look back but look straight ahead at what the Lord is asking of you on behalf of His children that He has entrusted you with on this earth. HE deserves no less and neither do they. You will not be perfect… I hope you know that and are okay with that. Being human, we are flawed…. but what is so important is that you believe with your whole heart that your parenting is KINGDOM BUSINESS!!!!
You also must come at this call from a proactive stance and not one of defense. Don’t wait until your child is in trouble to cover them in scripture… we must each live each day being creative and consistent in how we clothe our children in the Word of God. What does this look like?
- diligently and deliberately read the Bible to your kids
- post scripture throughout the house
- play worship music
- be in fellowship with other believers
- write scripture on the napkin in their lunch for school
- send them scriptures in txt messages and emails
- do devotional together as a family
- ___________________________. (you fill in the blank)
we all know that if WE as women and mothers love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, that we can only then be able to fill this role to its potential and be our best for our children. If you are not regularly in the Word and being fed spiritually…. make it happen today. If you’re not going to church regularly, start this weekend. Your children, wether unborn, non-biological or adult NEED you to! As Priscilla so eloquently puts it….
“A transformed child start with a transformed mom”
________________________
Let’s Pray:
Lord, we ask that you give us bold revelation into this area of our lives today. We don’t want to be the same, Father…. we yearn to be THIS deliberate for our children, who are your’s first. Renew our hearts, minds and spirits to be able to give each of them all we have everyday to work alongside the Holy Spirit in shaping their souls. Thank you for this provision, Lord, and we thank you in advance for all you will do. Amen <3
Your Assignment:
Please leave a comment below telling us how you can creatively live your Christian life openly before your children… in REAL LIFE…. be realistic here, friends and tell us what you are already doing or what you are going to do. If you don;t have children of your own, tell us how you can do this with other children in your life. If your kids are grown, how can you begin to think outside the box to do this? If your children are very young, how can you creatively do this now?
___________________
Don’t forget, on October 1st, we will begin our brand new Online Bible Study, right here, entitled “Winning Him Without Words” by Lynn Donovan and Dineen Miller. If you are in an unequally spiritual marriage, you won’t want to miss this study!! It is AMAZING!
To sign up for this study, please send an email to: Womens@GirlfriendsCoffeeHour.com and we will send you all the details you need to get started!
Don’t forget to stop by Craig’s blog to see what the guys are up to with The Resolution for Men.
www.adversusmundi.wordpress.com
Be sure to jump on over to our Facebook Group for the daily activity!! If you do not yet belong to this group, and would like to, send us an email at GirlfriendsCoffeeHour@gmail.com with FB GROUP in the subject line, and we’ll be glad to add you!
Be a Blessing today and everyday,
Megan 🙂
About Megan Smidt
My children are all grown and they were raised in a Christian home with Christian values. Their choices do/did not reflect this but we did the best we knew how. We are now devoting out lives to our single moms and helping them with their children. My husband and I have purposed to do whatever it takes to allow the grands to be children. We take them to their after school activities and we demonstrate our love of God around them. Their mothers are in a desert time of their lives. The children do not want to go to church with us but they see us go and they see us pray.
do not grow weary in doing good <3 Yo uare planting seeds and you know how important this is 🙂
i truly think that the most important aspect of living your Christian life openly before your children is to DO it! transparently, openly, without pride or reservations, acknowledging your struggles and fears, seeking forgiveness, offering forgiveness, stopping to pray for anything-and-everything, allowing your children to 'see' your relationship w/your Lord and the Almighty God.
and, yes, of course, this is done w/wisdom and deference to the children's age, of course. but without holding back anything that would lead them (at their age and stage of development) to the heart of God.
i did not do this when my daughter was young; honestly did not even know how. BUT, by God's grace, i learned this early on and still do it now. <3
amen <3
I wish I had done this completely as my children were growing up…since I was the one being the soul shaper there were times I am sure I did things wrong or even was so exhausted that at times I did nothing….but thankfully through the days and years I did instill these things one of my children serves Christ full time and the other one has a relationship with Christ but is still seeking a closer walk…so this is the one that I still need to help shape and I am doing so by praying with him, sending him scriptures while at college by text message, pleading with him to stay in church and not succumb to peer pressure to stay in bed or go other places….I want to see his walk become even stronger than mine so that when the time comes for him to marry he will be the leader of his family unlike what he grew up in…..
We tried to be the best soul shapers we could for our boys as they were growing up. Brian and I are not perfect but we tried to instill and show Christian values to them thought living it ourselves. Going to church was not an option in our house but a Blessing. We know that they know the Lord as their Lord and savior but my prayer for them always is that they would get back into serving him more faithfully not only for them but for their families as well. I want our grand children to be brought up surrounded by a loving church family who is there for them always. They do go to church but just not every Sunday and when God is the center of your life going to church is something that you "WANT" to do and not
"HAVE TO DO". Thanks so much for sharing your words of wisdom in your blog.