Seeking God in Transition

This week I have been seeking God for His plan during this new transition as a mom. I will still be involved in my girls lives but it will be different. As women we go through many different seasons (transitions) in life. We may be a daughter, a wife, a new mother, a mom of toddlers, tweens or teenagers. We may have kids in college, married children, we may be in a carreer or changing and walking into a new carreer. We may be caring for our parents as well as our bodies can change in so many ways with each season.

For me, my new season is early 40's, a stay at home mom facing a transition physically (harder to exercise), emotionally (hormones a little crazy), mentally (having to write everything down & then remember where I put my list) & spiritually (craving my daily quiet time). I found myself this week struggling with my own sense of value. I chose to stay home with my girls, homeschool them for 10 years, help them transition from homeschool to private school to now public school and this fall college but now I/we as mothers can feel that sense of purpose slipping through our fingers or fading from our lives. I have no regrets for the investment that I have made in my daughter's lives and I wouldn't trade the time spent together, the memories made or the relationship we have. But I found myself pouring over God's Word for affirmation, confirmation, love, acceptance & a new direction that He would have for me as one of His daughters.

I felt like a young girl searching through her daddy's Word, His very love letter to me, to find a hidden treasure that I could hold close to my heart and breathe in His love felling confident & secure. I was so richly blessed when His Word came alive and ministerd to me, personally, this week........I want to share it with you to hopefully breathe hope into someones life as His Word did for me.

I began on the 23rd with my daily reading of a Psalm & a Proverb:

Proverbs 23:12 -"Commit yourself to instruction; listen carefully to words of knowledge."
(NIV) "Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge."

Proverbs 23:18-19 - "There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be
cut off. Listen, my son/daughter, and be wise, and keep your heart
on the right path."
(NLT) vs.19- "My child, listen and be wise: Keep your heart on the right course."
(NKJV) "For surely there is a hereafter, And your hope will not be cut off. Hear,
my son, and be wise; And guide your heart in the way."

As I read I prayed, Lord help me to apply my heart to instruction, open my ears to your words of knowledge. Thank you, Father, that your Word tells me that "there is surely a future hope for me & that my hope will not be cut off." Help me to keep my heart on the right path.

Then I continued reading in Psalm 34....the whole Psalm is amazing but here are a few verses to check out.
(NLT) vs.1-10 - "I will praise the Lord at all times. I will constantly speak his praises. I will boast only in the Lord; let all who are helpless take heart. Come, let us tell of the Lord’s greatness; let us exalt his name together. I prayed to the Lord, and he answered me. He freed me from all my fears. Those who look to him for help will be radiant with joy; no shadow of shame will darken their faces. In my desperation I prayed, and the Lord listened; he saved me from all my troubles. For the angel of the Lord is a guard; he surrounds and defends all who fear him. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him! Fear the Lord, you his godly people, for those who fear him will have all they need. Even strong young lions sometimes go hungry, but those who trust in the Lord will lack no good thing."

These verses were life for me...."I sought the Lord and He heard me, He answered me and delivered me from all my fears." In The Message it says - "God met me more than half-way, He freed me from my anxious fears."

I loved vs. 5 - "Those who look to Him are radiant...their faces are never covered in shame." And in The Message it says - "never hide your feelings from Him."

I wrote this in my journal - Thank you, Lord, for Your Word - I have nothing to be ashamed of in choosing to invest in my daughter's lives. Thank you for the time with them, help me to continue to invest my life into theirs & other women that you bring across my path. Shape me & mold me so that my face is radient & never covered in shame.

Vs. 8 -"Taste & see that the Lord is good, blessed is the woman who takes refuge in Him."

Vs. 10 - "Those who seek the Lord will lack no good thing." and in The Message - "God-seekers are full of God." I want to be full of You and not full of myself, to find complete satisfaction & value in You and You alone.

And then in Hebrews 3:1-6 from The Message - "So, my dear Christian friends, companions in following this call to the heights, take a good hard look at Jesus. He's the centerpiece of everything we believe, faithful in everything God gave him to do. Moses was also faithful, but Jesus gets far more honor. A builder is more valuable than a building any day. Every house has a builder, but the Builder behind them all is God. Moses did a good job in God's house, but it was all servant work, getting things ready for what was to come. Christ as Son is in charge of the house."

That's it, my reminder that Jesus is the Centerpiece of everything I believe.....He is the reason I live & move & breathe. He is the builder of my home, my life, my family and He is the builder of every transition I go through in this life - I just need to keep my eyes focused on Him. He has always been there for me through every season of womanhood and He gently reminded me this week that He, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." - Hebrews 13:8. He will be here in this new transition/season of my life as well and he will give me a new direction & focus.

Psalm 127:1 - "Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain."