{"id":10333,"date":"2013-03-11T00:01:12","date_gmt":"2013-03-11T04:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=10333"},"modified":"2013-03-10T22:12:34","modified_gmt":"2013-03-11T02:12:34","slug":"mothers-daughters-sisters-the-long-road-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2013\/03\/11\/mothers-daughters-sisters-the-long-road-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Captivating: Chapter 10 – “Mothers, Daughters, Sisters” – “The Long Road Home” (pp 168-173)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Adam named his wife Eve, <\/b><\/p>\n

because she would become the mother of all the living.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0GENESIS 3:20\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

\"If<\/a><\/p>\n

When I think about the woman that I have become, I give all the credit to my mother.\u00a0 I may not have been the perfect daughter, but I did my best to be who she wanted me to be.<\/p>\n

Just like Stasi Eldredge, I went through different phases while growing up. \u00a0I, too, did things I am not proud of; and I, too, gave my mother grief during my college years and my early twenties.\u00a0 When I was at home, I made sure I was doing everything as I was told but all the while hiding the things I was<\/strong> doing.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t into drugs, but I portrayed myself as someone who wasn\u2019t dating or going to parties.\u00a0 However, no matter how hard you try to hide, things come out in the end and, in my case, they did. My mother was disappointed and threatened to have me withdrawn from college.\u00a0 For a while I lived up to her expectations until I started working and began to live with my aunt.\u00a0 Well, my aunt made sure she reported everything I did—if I came late from work, my mother knew about it; if I had a date on Saturday afternoon or if I didn\u2019t go to church on Sunday morning, my mother would ask me why on Monday morning.<\/p>\n

My relationship with my mother was restrained during this time, and it made me hide who I was from her.\u00a0 I longed to be a good daughter…but I couldn\u2019t be since all she heard were the bad things that I did.\u00a0 My mum would say that \u201cI needed Jesus.\u201d\u00a0 All the \u201cbad\u201d I was doing was because I didn\u2019t know Jesus.\u00a0 Well, like a daughter who wanted to be in the best books with her mother, I received Jesus at a major crusade that took place.\u00a0 I stopped pretending that I loved the Catholic Church and started going to a Pentecostal church.\u00a0 I broke up with my boyfriend at that time because he didn\u2019t share my new faith.\u00a0 My weekends were spent at church or at home if there wasn\u2019t a church program.\u00a0 I became someone who my mum and aunt were proud of.\u00a0 The reporting slowly stopped and life was good.<\/p>\n

I wish I could end here and say that things were like that over the years.\u00a0 Unfortunately it wasn’t.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t always the good girl and this wasn\u2019t the last time I would hide or make wrong decisions in life and disappoint my mother.\u00a0 However, despite my shortcomings, my mother was there to correct me and show the correct path.\u00a0 My mistakes did not stop my mum from loving me.\u00a0 She was there with me through the heartbreak and pain that I suffered in my relationships.\u00a0 She always rushed to be by my side when I needed her the most.<\/p>\n

\u201cGirls’ hearts flourish in homes where they are seen and invited to become ever more themselves. Parents who enjoy their daughters are giving them and the world a great gift. Mothers in particular have the opportunity to offer encouragement to their daughters by inviting them into their feminine world and by treasuring their daughters’ unique beauty\u201d\u00a0<\/b>– Stasi Eldredge.<\/p>\n

Looking back at my life now, I cherish the life that my parents gave me and my siblings.\u00a0 We were given opportunities to excel in everything that we did.\u00a0 My parents encouraged us to dream big and rejoiced with us when we did well in school and never failed to show us how much they loved and cared for us.<\/p>\n

My mother went to be with the Lord last year after she lost her battle with diabetes.\u00a0 She left behind a legacy of love, strength, and care.\u00a0 She was always full of advice. \u00a0She was not someone who would embarrass you when you did something wrong;she would call you aside, listen to your side of the story, and tell you what you did wrong and<\/em> what doing the right thing looked like.\u00a0 My mother lived by example.\u00a0 If she wanted something done, she would be the first to do it.\u00a0 She was someone who would be the first and last to leave a room, making sure everything was fine.\u00a0 I pray that I\u00a0 become half the person that she was.<\/p>\n

I know that some of you cannot say such things about your relationship with your mother because of the pain she may have caused you; but at the end of the day, a mother and daughter\u2019s relationship is the most of important of all.\u00a0 It\u2019s the relationship that helps us when we grow up and become mothers ourselves.<\/p>\n

My prayer is that no matter what went on in the past or if it may still be happening right now, we would look to the Lord to help us restore the relationship with our mothers.\u00a0 My mother said I needed Jesus—and she was right.\u00a0 Our faith in the Lord is what cemented our relationship.\u00a0 Every time we discussed issues regarding faith, all our differences would melt away.\u00a0 When we talked about Jesus, we were not mother and daughter but we were both children of the most High God, we were both daughters.<\/strong>\u00a0 I enjoyed hearing my mother say \u201cI am praying for you\u201d because I knew that she meant it.<\/p>\n

Be Blessed<\/p>\n

Jackie<\/p>\n

LET\u2019S PRAY:<\/b><\/p>\n

Lord, I thank You for the precious gift that You gave to me—my mother. \u00a0 I thank You for the life that I had with her, and what she meant to me and my family.\u00a0 I pray for my fellow sisters whose relationships with their mothers are not great right now, that You will restore it.\u00a0 May they cherish one another and learn from one another.\u00a0 May their relationships be Christ-like and forgiving.\u00a0 In Jesus’ Name, Amen.<\/p>\n

YOUR ASSIGNMENT:<\/b><\/p>\n

How is the relationship with your mother or daughter?\u00a0 If you were given an opportunity to write about her, what would you say?\u00a0 Please take time today and tell her how much she means to you.<\/p>\n

\u00a0**********<\/p>\n

\"GWS\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Our next Women’s Online Bible\/Book study begins March 24th!<\/h3>\n

We hope you will join us.<\/h3>\n

Click on the picture above to sign up today!<\/h3>\n

**********<\/p>\n

If you would like to send Jackie a private email in regards to this blog post, you may email her at:\u00a0 Jackie@GirlfriendsCoffeeHour.com<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living. \u00a0GENESIS 3:20\u00a0 When I think about the woman that I have become, I give all the credit to my mother.\u00a0 I may not have been the perfect daughter, but I did my best to be who she wanted me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":9918,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20],"tags":[1417,181,1251,284,1418,2017,425,1985,544,554,569,1986,698],"class_list":["post-10333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-singles","tag-adam","tag-captivating","tag-captivatingunveiling-the-mystery-of-a-womans-soul","tag-daughter","tag-eve","tag-genesis-320","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-girls-with-swords","tag-jackie-chingawale","tag-jesus","tag-john-and-stasi-eldredge","tag-lisa-bevere","tag-mother","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/GWS.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-2GF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10333"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10338,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10333\/revisions\/10338"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}