Who are you listening to?

Well it’s Thursday and with the writing challenge on Instagram and my little foray into the commitment to do a weekly Facebook Live…I am feeling a tad overexposed and vulnerable. 

So it is fitting that I find myself needing to get ready to go and sit on a panel for the MOPS group at our church this morning for the first time ever. 

I was honored to be asked a few weeks ago if I would do this and to be honest, it was sort of uplifting to the soul to think someone, somewhere in our church thought I might have something to add to any kind of panel…

but this morning I am full of doubts and insecurities because I have no idea what sitting on a MOPS panel means…I don’t know what the expectations are and what the topics will be and if I will even remember what it was like to navigate those preschool years with our own three. 

I fear I will apply the wisdom gained from thirty plus years of mothering and gloss over the reality of the inadequacies I felt as every phase of our children’s lives brought new strategies and lessons and joys and heartaches. 

And the three very different personalities in our children meant a brand new playing field…every single time…

My empty nest friends and I sometimes talk about how we remember some parts of those years and others are graciously erased by time. 

We also look at the culture our children are raising children and realize God put us in that phase in a very different world setting and while we still know how to lay down the law regarding sneaking snacks from the pantry or sass-talking…we have no foundation for issues facing young parents today. 

And as I try to figure out how to transition my attire from the summer clothes I sweated in yesterday when it was literally 90 degrees…to layers to get me through the cold front that is sweeping over the midwest…I feel like perhaps the sweet leaders of this ministry were scraping the bottom of the barrel when they asked me and I hope and pray I can come through for them. 

This week I had several exchanges on Marco Polo with two women who do what I do through writing, speaking and podcasting. 

We talked about how there is a voice in the back of our minds who is constantly reminding us why we probably have no business encouraging others, speaking hope and life, sharing teachings and insight because….look at the messier parts of our own stories and well…we need to just quiet down and realize who and what we are. 

Only guess what. 

We know who and what we are. 

We are women who love Jesus and know the difference He has made in our lives. 

We know what we are capable of without Him and we know that with Him we can do abundantly more than we could even think or dream or imagine. 

We know we are His and that He stands for us and intercedes for us. 

We know that we are sinners saved by grace and thus saints. 

We know our identity is found in our relationship with Him and we are not defined by either our failures or our successes. 

And we will silence the voice of the enemy of God and we will follow the voice of our Leader. 

And sometimes we will stumble…and sometimes we will put our foot in our mouth…and sometimes we will get it wrong and sometimes we will get it right…but all the time…is His time.

Who are you listening to?

What is God calling you to do that the devil is trying to say you have been disqualified to do?

God can do anything, you know – far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.

Ephesians 3:20 The Message by Eugene Peterson

Meditate on THAT voice today <3