How do you feel on a Monday morning? Do you struggle to get going after a more relaxing weekend? Do you find it hard to get your mind and body back into the routine of the working week?
For me, this Monday is particularly hard. We educate with a 4-day week currently. That may change somewhat when the children get older ant it takes longer to get all their work done. However, for just now, a 4-day week it is. Normally, we have a Monday off. If we have something we need to do later in the week, as a family, we switch things around and we have to do school on a MONDAY! Horror of horrors!!! For me, it adds an extra element of busyness. I don't have that extra day to recover from the weekend, and get jobs done, I have to be ready to hit the ground running on a Monday morning. I am not entirely sure how much of the rest of the world manages Monday mornings!!
When I got up this morning, my feet were metaphorically dragging on the ground. I even managed to hit snooze on the alarm, instead of off - my half asleep mind KNOWING that, allowed me to go back to sleep, instead of getting up when I should have. Starting even 10 minutes behind had me in a mental "blah" mode.
Thankfully, it wasn't late enough to stand in the way of having my quiet time. Whatever way your day starts, try and make even a few moments to read God's Word. It is there to encourage us and bless us, and making time for it will never be a disservice. God is so good, because He knew I would need a challenge to set me up for the week, and my daily readings brought me to the first 4 chapters of Exodus. There is SO much in there, and there were many things that struck me this morning.
It was the bravery and courage of 2 ladies - Shiprah and Puah - which struck me this morning. Not all the ladies of the Bible (nor the men) are mentioned by name, and so when they are, my ears prick up. These are the Hebrew midwives, who chose NOT to kill the male children who were born.
On a side note, the picture of Pharaoh and his attitude toward life, was a stark reminder of how many view life today - the massive ending of early life, in the womb, around the world - selective abortion of little girls, and gendercide upon the birth of many baby girls around the world. The fact is, millions of people, rather than just one dictator, are choosing death over life - it makes my heart sad beyond words.
However, Shiprah and Puah have a more positive message for us this morning. The phrase that struck me was this
The midwives' opinion of God mattered more to them than the opinions of man. They feared, respected or revered GOD, more than Pharaoh. Now, do not forget that Pharaoh was a mighty man, humanly speaking. He held the power of life and death, and he was, after all, placing a death sentence upon all the Hebrew boys. Could he not, too, do the same for all Hebrew midwives? You may have thought that THAT caused them to fear more than anything else. But, no. They had a God-given courage, which made them care more about GOD thought, than what MAN thought.
THAT is the message that challenged me this morning. Fearing and respecting God - looking for HIS approval above that of those around me.
There are so many challenges facing us, as women, on a day to day basis, where we have to choose whether to look for the "well done " of God, or of man. Most of the time, we have to make a choice - we can't have it every way. Whether it be our choice to stay at home and be a mother at all - our convictions about education - what we wear - what we choose to do in our free time as entertainment - who we allow our children to play with - choosing to obey God and be a submissive, Christ-honouring wife, rather than an independent, feminist one - choosing to fight to keep our marriage alive rather than giving up. The list of choices is endless, and those who would challenge our choice to obey God rather than men are many. The only one who we should fear and respect is GOD. Obeying God rather than men should be our daily echo in our mind. Every time we are faced with opposition, no matter where it comes from (and it can be as near to home as family and very close friends), we need to think "am I pleasing God or man?"
We should not do things in life for anything other than that "well done thou good and faithful servant", upon the conclusion of our lives, but do you see that God honoured the midwives for their commitment to God and His ways? He "dealt well with the midwives" - he gave them success. He also gave them somewhere to live. He provided for them and made them to prosper in their work. We certainly should not look for reward, but we ARE told that if we honour God, He will honour us. We need to keep our eyes on God, and His rewards, not on the world and its favour.
As I enter into another week, with all its challenges that will lie ahead (because we ALL know that there is no such thing as a week without them!!), I can go in the knowledge that fearing God, and honouring Him in my choices, is always the best way to go. The big choices, and the little, moment-by-moment, choices to do right and good (when children are squabbling and nothing seems to be going right...), all should rotate around pleasing God. If the Hebrew midwives could say "no" to Pharaoh and his demands, I can say "no" to the things that would tempt me to do wrong and fall away from honouring God.
Don't worry about the opinions of anyone else today - just respect and obey God, and He will show you favour in ways that matter more than the world and what *IT* thinks.
My prayer is that your week will be blessed as you honour God in your lives.
For me, this Monday is particularly hard. We educate with a 4-day week currently. That may change somewhat when the children get older ant it takes longer to get all their work done. However, for just now, a 4-day week it is. Normally, we have a Monday off. If we have something we need to do later in the week, as a family, we switch things around and we have to do school on a MONDAY! Horror of horrors!!! For me, it adds an extra element of busyness. I don't have that extra day to recover from the weekend, and get jobs done, I have to be ready to hit the ground running on a Monday morning. I am not entirely sure how much of the rest of the world manages Monday mornings!!
When I got up this morning, my feet were metaphorically dragging on the ground. I even managed to hit snooze on the alarm, instead of off - my half asleep mind KNOWING that, allowed me to go back to sleep, instead of getting up when I should have. Starting even 10 minutes behind had me in a mental "blah" mode.
Thankfully, it wasn't late enough to stand in the way of having my quiet time. Whatever way your day starts, try and make even a few moments to read God's Word. It is there to encourage us and bless us, and making time for it will never be a disservice. God is so good, because He knew I would need a challenge to set me up for the week, and my daily readings brought me to the first 4 chapters of Exodus. There is SO much in there, and there were many things that struck me this morning.
It was the bravery and courage of 2 ladies - Shiprah and Puah - which struck me this morning. Not all the ladies of the Bible (nor the men) are mentioned by name, and so when they are, my ears prick up. These are the Hebrew midwives, who chose NOT to kill the male children who were born.
On a side note, the picture of Pharaoh and his attitude toward life, was a stark reminder of how many view life today - the massive ending of early life, in the womb, around the world - selective abortion of little girls, and gendercide upon the birth of many baby girls around the world. The fact is, millions of people, rather than just one dictator, are choosing death over life - it makes my heart sad beyond words.
However, Shiprah and Puah have a more positive message for us this morning. The phrase that struck me was this
"but the midwives feared God"
The midwives' opinion of God mattered more to them than the opinions of man. They feared, respected or revered GOD, more than Pharaoh. Now, do not forget that Pharaoh was a mighty man, humanly speaking. He held the power of life and death, and he was, after all, placing a death sentence upon all the Hebrew boys. Could he not, too, do the same for all Hebrew midwives? You may have thought that THAT caused them to fear more than anything else. But, no. They had a God-given courage, which made them care more about GOD thought, than what MAN thought.
THAT is the message that challenged me this morning. Fearing and respecting God - looking for HIS approval above that of those around me.
There are so many challenges facing us, as women, on a day to day basis, where we have to choose whether to look for the "well done " of God, or of man. Most of the time, we have to make a choice - we can't have it every way. Whether it be our choice to stay at home and be a mother at all - our convictions about education - what we wear - what we choose to do in our free time as entertainment - who we allow our children to play with - choosing to obey God and be a submissive, Christ-honouring wife, rather than an independent, feminist one - choosing to fight to keep our marriage alive rather than giving up. The list of choices is endless, and those who would challenge our choice to obey God rather than men are many. The only one who we should fear and respect is GOD. Obeying God rather than men should be our daily echo in our mind. Every time we are faced with opposition, no matter where it comes from (and it can be as near to home as family and very close friends), we need to think "am I pleasing God or man?"
We should not do things in life for anything other than that "well done thou good and faithful servant", upon the conclusion of our lives, but do you see that God honoured the midwives for their commitment to God and His ways? He "dealt well with the midwives" - he gave them success. He also gave them somewhere to live. He provided for them and made them to prosper in their work. We certainly should not look for reward, but we ARE told that if we honour God, He will honour us. We need to keep our eyes on God, and His rewards, not on the world and its favour.
As I enter into another week, with all its challenges that will lie ahead (because we ALL know that there is no such thing as a week without them!!), I can go in the knowledge that fearing God, and honouring Him in my choices, is always the best way to go. The big choices, and the little, moment-by-moment, choices to do right and good (when children are squabbling and nothing seems to be going right...), all should rotate around pleasing God. If the Hebrew midwives could say "no" to Pharaoh and his demands, I can say "no" to the things that would tempt me to do wrong and fall away from honouring God.
Don't worry about the opinions of anyone else today - just respect and obey God, and He will show you favour in ways that matter more than the world and what *IT* thinks.
My prayer is that your week will be blessed as you honour God in your lives.
I feel sorry for many young mums now, and the pressures they are under - the pressure, especially, to go out to work (because, after all *everyone* does it, and ... you can't *possibly* live on one wage). The thing is - God doesn't promise us *ease*. But He does promise us blessing. Maybe the best inheritance we can leave our children is that they've seen us live a 'more difficult' (in worldly terms) life because we've chosen to honour God.
ReplyDeleteWhat a disservice we do to God *and* to our children if we 'give up' what we believe so we can be 'at ease in Zion'.
A x