Happy Monday to you all! After a scorcher of a weekend filled with two wonderful Christ-honoring weddings, I'm hopeful the heat will settle down just as I expect my life to. There's been so much goodness happening in the lives of various women in our church, that it's almost too much for a human being to absorb at one time!
Hopefully you all received the note I sent out yesterday informing you that because of the broken projectors at church, and our dependence on them to play DVDs for our exercise classes and Bible studies, Holy Sweat has been cancelled until further notice. I hate to do that to us, as we've been extremely consistent all summer. But, what's a leader to do?
That also necessitates a change in venue for both Bible studies. So, Common Grounds will meet at my house for our final lesson of the summer on Wednesday at 6:30 PM. We decided to have a little celebration on reaching the end of our study, so some people volunteered to bring little treats to share that evening. Come enjoy snacks, great discussion, and digging into the practicality of God's word.
Thursday Perk will also meet at my house on Thursday morning at 9:30. We women of the morning also like to eat, so I'll fix a breakfast casserole and some of the other ladies are bringing additional food. We'll have plenty, so don't feel like you have to bring something.
SUMMER SIZZLE is this Sunday at the park in Gaston. Somehow, I've misplaced (okay, lost) the signup sheet of who was bringing 2 dozen cupcakes (or cookies.) So, I'm counting on all of you to have a better memory than mine, and if you signed up, be sure to follow through. Amy Rusaw will be the team leader for our booth. I still have some blank times in our schedule to fill in with helpers, so PLEASE let me know if you can give a half-hour of your time at some point. Just bring your cupcakes with you to church there in the park at 9:30 Sunday.
Our final event of the summer is our Mom and Kids Beach Day on Thursday, August 30 at Rockaway Beach, just above Garabaldi. We'll meet there at noon and spend the afternoon there. It's a beautiful beach that is safe for the kids. Bring their sand toys, all your food, water, sunscreen, etc. It will be a great way to end a wonderful summer together.
Oh, I want to tell you about a wonderful new thing that is starting for women in our area. It's called Yamhill County Christian Women's Fellowship. This is an opportunity for women from various churches to get together over lunch and hear a speaker. Their inaugural meeting is Wednesday, Sept. 12, and their first speaker is ME! I'm really honored to be asked to kick this thing off, but man, would I ever love to have a bunch of my peeps out in the audience cheering me on! (Well, not literally. Leave your pom-poms at home, but you get what I mean!) It will be a no-host lunch at Jake's Deli (by Linfield College) in McMinnville, beginning at noon. You can come a little earlier to place your food order. So put it on you calendar now!
Remember Women of Faith, October 5th and 6th at the Rose Garden. Tickets are $91, and you can sign up for a boxed lunch for an additional $10. Splitting a motel room adds more cost, but also a lot more fun! Contact me to say you're coming!
And now I'll leave you with this encouraging letter to all you moms out there:
Dear Stay-at-Home Mom
Posted by Jim_Daly Aug 8, 2012
You’ll never convince me that anybody works harder than a mother. Parenting is a joy-filled experience, of course, but it also requires a tremendous amount of effort. The legendary writer, John Steinbeck, once put it quite succinctly. “It takes courage,” he wrote, “to raise children.”
On the lighter side, the comedian Bill Cosby has always been deft at reminding us to not take ourselves too seriously. “No matter how calmly you try to referee,” he once said, “parenting will eventually produce bizarre behavior, and I'm not talking about the kids. Their behavior is always normal.”
With that as a backdrop, I want to share with you an incredibly perceptive letter that’s addressed to all stay-at-home moms. Circumstances might not permit you to be in that category, but I hope you’ll read along all the same. It was penned by a gentleman named Trevin Wax. He’s the managing editor of the Gospel Project as part of LifeWay Christian Resources.
When you’re done reading, I hope you’ll let me know how it struck you.
**
Dear Stay-at-Home Mom,You are a gift of God to your husband and your kids.
But you don’t always feel that way, do you?
There’s a low-level feeling of guilt that creeps into your heart from time to time. Sometimes it bubbles over into tears, usually on lonely, difficult days.
You scan blogs and read books about being a good mom. You find some helpful tidbits here and there, often from women who are grandmothers now. Women you can learn from but who seem to have forgotten the struggle. They seem to have it all together.
In your heart, you want to be the kind of mom who trains up kids to make a difference for the kingdom. You know it’s an honor to be entrusted with these kids. You know you’ve only got one shot. You want to be the mom who teaches them the Bible, models how to pray, and trains them up in the fear of the Lord.
But most of the time you feel like you’re barely holding it all together.
Your house cleaning can’t keep up with your kids’ mess-making.
The kids embarrass you by acting up right when your guests arrive.
Your husband doesn’t get just how worn out you are by the end of the day.
You come to the end of your patience. You lose your temper. Then you feel worse.
The last thing you consider yourself to be is a “good mom.” And you think to yourself, It’ll be a miracle if my kids turn out okay.
And – surprisingly – that’s right where God wants to meet you. The place where you admit your powerlessness and your need for Him.
It’s only by God’s grace that any kid grows up to be a force for the kingdom.
You see, there are no perfect kids and no perfect mothers. No matter what you read in blogs, see in magazines, and learn in books. There are sinful kids and sinful moms and dads.
And the only thing greater than both is the grace of God. The God who says “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” The God who loves to forgive, to transform, and empower.
God loves you – not because you are a good mother but just because you are His precious child.
God loves you – not because you’ve mastered all the skills of parenting but because He has.
It’s divine grace that will transform your parenting – not guilt.
It’s grace that will keep you going and serving and scrubbing when you’re exhausted and worn out.
It’s grace that will conquer your feelings of inadequacy and remind you of God’s love for you in Christ.
It’s grace that goes for the heart of your kids, not just their behavior.
God has demonstrated the fullness of His love for you through the cross of His Son, even while you were still a sinner.
He has promised you His presence.
He has spoken His approval over you in Christ.
He is the perfect Father who delights in you as a daughter.
Find in Him your Treasure and Joy. Be to others what He is to you.
So walk in freedom. Let Him hold you together when everything seems to be falling apart.
Bask in His unfailing love for you. And rest in His promise of power.
Have a great week, ladies! (And no, I don't know why this blog ended up with different types of letters. For some reason, the first two paragraphs showed up in italics, and try as I might, I can't get them to leave!)
Sherrie Ashcraft, Women's Ministry Director
sherrieashcraft@yahoo.com 971-285-6699
It’s easy to focus on the “don’ts” in our parenting. We invest a lot of time in disciplining our children for their misbehavior, for their bad attitudes, their sinful words, their disobedient and unloving actions.
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