Worthy Words

The mom in me has been struggling a little with her words.  They have been too sharpe, too many, too demanding, too negative and evan accompanied with 'a look.'  All to say last night I was putting my girls to bed with a terrible headache and failed to meet my little girls fears with love.

I didn't take care to imagine the monster awaiting my absence in the closet.  OR bother to defend the noises creeping in through the windows from the street.  She was scared and i was like "get over it."
I told her the typical mommy rushed response, 'there are no monster in the closet and there is no one outside so go to bed, goodnight." I proceeded to close the door as I mumbled something about checking on her later so as to drown out other words being said. There. Job done.

I laid my throbbing head down and heard myself ask "now what about what just happened are you proud to pass on as a legacy..?" I frowned wondering if I needed to listen to this voice but before I could decide my nervous system took charge.  I was up and retracing my steps when I agreeingly told the voice inside my head that I could indeed give 5 min.

When I bent low beside her bed I saw her glimmering chocolate eyes.  I stroked her face hoping my fingers were telling a story my lips could not.  I gave her 5 min and I tiptoed back out.

I like this memory not because of what I've just told but because of what later was provided....

I woke early the next morning and continued to reading through proverbs.  When I arrived at vs. 20-21... "My son, pay attention to what I say; listen closely to my words.  Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart."  I began recalling all the times in Proverbs we see the father command the son to listen.  Listen, listen, listen.  The over occurrence of the word listen caused me to question if my words have been worthy enough to listen to.  Let alone to keep within a heart.

I read over and over and over this particular verse until I heard my Father whisper... 'today have worthy words.'

I cannot change the past but I can move forward in what my father provides for me. And today it was ....have worthy words.


I love being a mom and  I'm sure you do too.  But we can all use a little encouragement.  So today I encourage you to use worthy words!


Extra study... Pr 12:18; there is a key word 'wise' used in this verse.  To unlock its meaning see verse Pr 10:19

Extra note... Moms study the book of Proverbs!!!

Upholding Righteousness

Living overseas in any type of culture is difficult.   It’s difficult because it feels like it contaminates your culture.  It challenges your way of doing things. 

What is culture?

Culture is how a people group feel it is normal to act.

Our culture seeps out of us in our language, table manners, parenting, marriages, friendships, driving, housing, bureaucracy, spending… I could go on.  There are quite a few obvious cultural differences but there are 1,000 more unobvious differences as well and to be honest the ones that are unobvious are the hardest to wrestle with.  Every single country, continent and people group have their own culture.  When we start mixing this it can become very frustrating and also very scary.

A few days ago I found myself frustrated by my kids and their new “attitudes” since moving here to Portugal.  The language here is harsh and loud and it seems sometimes like its seeping into them.  For example, a simple question to pass the salt sounds like your demanding and demeaning. Where the 
American in me wants to say “sorry but if you don’t mind 

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