“Reaching forward to those things which are ahead…” Philippians 3:13

As Paul states in Philippians 3:13, purpose is paramount! I know I can’t do anything, including getting out of bed on time(!), without having a sense of God’s purpose for my life. Knowing my purpose— knowing that I am here to give my life in service to God and His people—is a driving motivator that keeps me keeping on in this race toward Christ-likeness called life.

I personally discovered God’s purpose for me—His call on my life—in a very special way when a woman handed me a small, flat package wrapped in muted pastels. The card read, “Thank you for your class on prayer,” and the package contained a leather-bound, silver-edged book that soon broadened my prayer life.

Unfortunately that tiny prayer volume is now out of print, but here’s what changed my life and polished up my purpose. Four questions were posed about our identity in Christ. Puzzled, I paused long enough to scratch my head and then went on. But the questions haunted me until one day I reluctantly tackled the questions—

Who am I?
Where did I come from?
Why am I here?
Where am I going?

The beautiful little book changed my prayers and my prayer life. But, dear friend, answering these four questions changed my life! Before I answered them, I was greatly influenced by other people’s ideas about what I should do with my life and what my Christian faith should look like.

As “movement” follower and a “program” participant, I allowed other people to determine my purpose. But, praise God, these four questions helped me recognize the pur­pose of my life and gave me life goals to focus on. Today I know…

Who I am—I am a Christian woman, wife, mother, and grandmother;
Where I came from—I was “in [Christ] before the foundation of the world” (Ephe­sians 1:4);
Why I am here—I am here to give my life in service to God, my family, and His people;
Where I am going—by God’s amazing grace and love, I am going to heaven!

Please take a few minutes to answer these four ques­tions for yourself. Your answers won’t be identical to mine. But they will help you grasp God’s great purpose for your life. They will give you a sense of direction as you set your goals and plan your activities.

You may be awed like I was by the realization that God has a specific purpose for you. For me, that realization has given me a better sense of mission (I am definitely more focused as a result of glimpsing God’s purpose for my life), a clearer understanding of my job assignment (I am to spend myself and be spent in service to Christ and His people), and an urgency as I go about my tasks (knowing that my time on earth is limited, I am frightfully aware of time wasted and time passing). I want to use my time and energy to achieve God’s purposes and, along the way, find rest and refreshment in Him. After all, it is He who ulti­mately makes things happen for the kingdom. I am just thankful that He has chosen to use me in the process!

A Prayer to Pray:
Lord, present to me a vision for what I am accomplishing as your child and servant. Pare away the unnecessary pursuits so that I can discern what is most important in Your eyes.

For more encouragement in answering these questions for yourself, read Loving God with All Your Mind.

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28

Do you ever have what I call doubtful days—days when the dull routine of duty weighs you down? Or days when the curve balls of surprise, disappointment, and tragedy leave you feeling like you’re striking out?

I remember when my life had no purpose. As an average woman with an average marriage, two average preschool daughters, and an average house, I shook my fist at the kitchen ceiling one average and desperate day and cried, “There has to be more to life than this!” My lack of purpose caused me to wonder, to doubt, and to rage.

But, praise God, He used my search for pur­pose to help me recognize that I needed Jesus Christ! I became a Christian several months later. And suddenly I saw the purpose of everything in my life because I saw that God had a purpose for me!

Knowing that God has a purpose for my life and for my salvation brings me great joy and hope. You see, now that I know there is a use and a reason for my life… and days… and minutes, I also know I can no longer live my life according to my own desires, plans, dreams, or whims. I am to live totally for God’s purposes. Therefore, I am not to make decisions based on pleasing people. No, I must please God! You see, I exist to serve Him and His people according to the gifts He has given me and in the situations where He places me.

One evening while looking at pictures of English garden mazes in a coffee-table book at a friend’s home I thought, “Why, this is the way life is!” These intriguing puzzles, created by six- or seven-foot hedges, were used initially to provide people with some entertaining exercise after their meals. Similarly, we follow along the maze of life, randomly making turns and choosing our paths.

Then we come to know Christ as our Lord and Savior. From that point on, we have purpose—to serve God. We’re still traversing the maze of life, but now we have direction. God keeps us moving forward as we pray and dedicate our lives to serving Him, becoming more Christ like, and spreading the Gospel.

While we’re in the maze, we never know who or what we’ll encounter. Why, we don’t even know exactly where we’re going! But we do know that we are to keep moving. And as we continue on according to God’s will and His leading, He fulfills His purpose for us. God doesn’t ask us to understand the twists and turns, the why’s and the how’s of life. He asks only that we trust that He is working His pur­pose in us as we live out our purpose of serving Him.

And now we’re right back to the incredible promise of Romans 8:28! We know God has a purpose for us. That’s yet another sparkling reason why we can have joy and hope in Him each day…no matter what happens in that day. And knowing that God has a purpose for us makes every day significant.

A Prayer to Pray:
Jesus, lead me through this maze of life. I want to leap with faith. Jump with Your joy. And with every surprise, twist, and turn I want to believe in Your supernatural guidance.

For more encouragement for finding your purpose, read Loving God with All Your Mind.

The promise of Romans 8:28 serves as a lens through which you (and I) can have a godly perspective on your life, from birth to death:

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

Because of the words in this scripture, you can know that your good God is working the miracle of using the bad—everything, from the most minor of incidents to the greatest of tragedies—for good. Counting on the fact that the end of all things will be good gives us hope. It also helps us to be faith oriented—not feeling oriented—about our present pain.

Feel­ings distort our vision. And today’s obstacles often prevent a hopeful and faith-filled view of the end. But by responding to God’s love, by loving Him with all your mind and trusting in Him, you will be blessed with hope in His promise that He works in everything to bring about what is good.

But, the words “to those who love God” are important because the promise of Romans 8:28 is not for everybody. It can be claimed only by those who love God. How do we show God our love for Him? Christ answered this question in just seven words: “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). Another ver­sion of the Bible succinctly says, “If you love me, obey me.”

It’s obvious that our love for God is measured by our obedience. So take a few minutes—now and regularly—to look at your life and evaluate how closely you are fol­lowing God. When I do this, I take a pen and paper and run a check of the elements of my entire life. I ask myself, “Is there anything wrong in my relationship with God?” and I write down my answer.

I then ask the same question regarding my husband, my children, my parents, my in-laws, my siblings, my home, my spiritual and personal growth, my areas of service to the Lord, and my relation­ships with other people. I write down whatever comes to my mind and then have a time of prayer. I spend time asking God’s forgiveness for where I have been disobe­dient, unloving, or unfaithful. As 1 John 1:9 tells us, when­ever we confess our sins, our good God “is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrigh­teousness.”

A Challenge for Today:
You might want to take some time each day to mentally examine the priority areas of your life. Evaluate your relationship with God and with your family members, how things are at home, your spiritual growth, the challenges you face as you serve God, the demands of the workplace, and your involvement with people. Look for areas where you have not obeyed God and His Word. Then purpose to give God greater devotion and obedience… to love Him.

For more encouragement for you soul, read Loving God with All Your Mind.

Anything and everything can be seen as an inconve­nience if you want it to be. You can justify and ratio­nalize all day long about why you don’t have time for people. There will always be reasons, and some of them good ones, why others shouldn’t expect your time and assistance.

But be careful not to put up bar­riers between you and those you might be able to help. Be flexible. Who knows? Maybe your Plan A might become God’s better Plan B as you help some­one with a need. To become more like Jesus, pur­pose and pray to be approachable, available, and gracious like He was… and still is to you today and every day.

Find further study of God’s priorities for women in my book, A Woman’s Guide to Making Right Choices.

Paul knew the importance of strategic prayer in his own life and the lives of other. And he knew what to pray for. His prayers focused on spiritual issues. He knew that if those he was praying for were spiritu­ally mature, they could handle anything. We, however, sometimes have it backward. We pray about physical matters, not realizing that the real battles are fought in the spiritual realm, not the physical. That’s why Paul stated that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood” (Ephesians 6:12). That’s also why Paul urged believers to take up the full spiritual armor of God (verse 13).

How can your prayers impact the lives of others? First, realize you may be the only one praying for a specific person. If this is the case, then your prayers to God for that individual become extremely important.

Also realize that your impact is limited only by the length of your prayer list. Just think about how many people are drawn into the plan of God as you include them in your prayers. Your life can touch and impact countless other lives when you pray. You can do what Paul did, according to Colossians 1:9-12:

• Ask God to help others know what He wants them to do with their lives (verse 9).
• Ask God to give others a desire for a deeper spiritual un­derstanding (verse 9)
• Ask God to help others live life in a way that pleases Him (verse 10).
• Ask God to help others understand their spiritual gifts and exhibit the fruit of ministry (verse 10). Ask God to give others strength to endure life’s trials (verse 11).
• Ask God to give others patience when dealing with trying people (verse 11).
• Ask God to fill others with joyful thanks as they live for Him (verse 12).

Elsewhere in the New Testament we see other ways Paul prayed for people and had an influence on them:

• He prayed for their purity (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24).
• He prayed for righteous living that would produce fruit that would glorify God (Philippians 1:11).
• He prayed that they would experience the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:18-19). He prayed that they would be united in spirit with one an­other (Romans 15:5).

When we pray for others, we should ask God to help them grow spiritually mature. Without spiritual maturity, people will crumble at the first signs of adversity. As we just noted, Paul prayed for maturity for his friends at Colossae (1:9-12).

As we pray for the maturity of others, as Paul did, we should also pray for our own strength and power. What does Paul say this power will enable us to do? It’s not the kind of power that enables you to do exceptional feats of strength. Its spiritual power that enables you to have “great endurance and patience… joyfully giving thanks to the Fa­ther” (verse 11). Your influence can’t help but be felt if you have…

• the endurance to cope with difficult circumstances.
• the patience to live and function around difficult people.
• the joy to respond to all forms of trials with thankfulness.

Wow—now that’s spiritual maturity!

Question to Consider:
Do you pray more often for the physical and circumstantial comforts of others (and yourself!) or for the spiritual growth and maturity that God desires?

For more insight into navigating the choices before you as a man, read my book, The Man Who Makes a Difference.

Moms ask me regularly if such-and-such age is too soon to begin telling little ones about Jesus. And my answer (as you know by now!) is always the same—it’s never too early to start. In fact, may your children never remember a day when you didn’t talk to them about Jesus, your Best Friend and Savior!

Consider, too, these survey results reported by Elizabeth Eliot in her book, The Shaping of a Christian Family: “People are much more likely to accept Christ as their Savior when they are young. Absorption of biblical information and principles typically peaks during the preteen years… Habits related to the practice of one’s faith develop when one is young and change surprisingly little over time.”

Your goal, then, as a Christian mom is to teach and teach and teach your children about Jesus. To share and share and share with them about Him! To talk and talk and talk about the Savior. English preacher and evangelist C.H. Spurgeon rhymed it this way:

Ere a child has reached to seven
Teach him all the way to heaven;
Better still the work will thrive
If he learns before he’s five.

Is your child older than five? Or seven? Or the preteens? Don’t despair! Instead check your heart (and emotions!) and do the following:

Remember—salvation is God’s job, His work in your older child’s heart.

Pray—fervently for your older son or daughter and faithfully to “God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:3-4). And pray for him or her until you die. Aim the arrows of your prayers for any wayward or lagging children heavenward until your last dying breath. It’s never too late to pray! And it’s never too late for the miracle of salvation!

Talk—to your teens and young adults about Christ. Point the issues in their lives back to Jesus—His teachings, His life, His wisdom, and His ability to help…and to save. Even if they say, “Oh, mom, there you go again!” go right ahead and talk about Jesus. They act like they couldn’t care less but, believe me, it’s going in! And they are having to process it. I ask you, if they are not going to hear it from you, the one who lives with them and loves them most, then who? You, dear faithful mom, are the one closest to any of your children who desperately need to hear and know about Jesus.

I’ve shared before in one of my books about Augustine, cited to be one of the greatest of the Church Fathers. For 33 years Augustine scorned the Christian teaching and prayers of his mother, Monica. And yet Monica never gave up. She preached. She prayed. She pursued… until one day, at age 33, Augustine cried out in agony to God, “How long? Remember not the sins of my youth!” When he told his mom he had at last embraced the Savior, Monica said, “Now I can die in peace.” Her son’s salvation was the only thing on earth she had desired. Monica died five days later, and her son went on from having been a prodigal to becoming a pillar in the church.

Never give up!

A Prayer to Pray:
God, I thank You for my life, my family, my children, and my faith. When I find myself focusing on my difficulties, may I lift up my hope to Your light and let it cover me in Your radiance.

For more encouragement for a mother’s soul, read my book A Mom After God’s Own Heart.

Are you a mom after God’s own heart, ready and desirous to be used by God in your children’s lives? Then ask God to help you faithfully pass on your faith and trust in God from generation to generation so your little ones might be boys and girls and young men and women after God’s own heart. Make it the regular prayer of your heart.

Everyone also loves the incredible tales of Daniel and his three friends—Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego (see Daniel 1–3). These young men—the best of the best—were carried away as captives to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar. There they were selected for careful training for the king’s service. I say “the best of the best” because to be prepared for royal governmental service these youths had to be handsome, physically perfect, mentally sharp, and socially poised and polished (Daniel 1:4). But did you know that many scholars believe that when the book of Daniel opens, these four friends are teenagers, likely between the ages of 14 and 17?

And who were the parents of Daniel and his friends? No one knows for sure. But here’s what we do know. This band of four captives was “of the children of Israel” (verse 3): They were descendants of the patriarch Jacob (also known as Israel). They were also “of the king’s descendants” (verse 3). In other words, they were of the family of David. And they were “children of Judah” (verse 6), the most noble tribe of Israel.

But whoever their parents were, the actions and choices these young men made shout out a loud testimony and build a strong case that their parental training was extremely strong and godly. In their teen years, when so many youths are tempted to question or turn away from their upbringing, these adolescents did the opposite. In fact, they were willing to make ­God-honoring decisions and stand up for their faith… even if it meant death.

Now, imagine your child at age 14 to 17, being separated from you and having to make such hard choices. What do you think your teen would choose? Or if your child is younger, what do you hope and pray he or she would choose?

Are you getting it, dear mom? (I know I am!) As moms after God’s own heart, we must teach, train, and counsel our children every chance we get. God’s truth must be imparted. And we need to pray, pray, pray for God to write our faithful teaching of His Word on the tablet of our children’s hearts (Proverbs 3:3). For who knows—like Daniel and Company— great choices will arise for our beloved children.

A Question to Consider:
Have you genuinely considered and thanked your parents (and especially your mom this weekend) for the sacrifices and love poured into your life? If you childhood was not ideal, who can you thank this weekend for encouraging your spiritual walk?

No matter what your stage of parenting our books for children of all ages will help you guide them into becoming young men and women after God’s own heart:

• A Little Girl After God’s Own Heart, A Girl After God’s Own Heart, and A Young Woman After God’s Own Heart books and accompanying devotionals by Elizabeth George.
• A Little Boy After God’s Own Heart, A Boy After God’s Own Heart, and A Young Man After God’s Own Heart by Jim George.

When my two girls were young, I read and saved this anonymous poem and a poignant reminder to me as a mom…

A Piece of Plastic Clay

I took a piece of plastic clay
And idly fashioned it one day,
And as my fingers pressed it still,
It moved and yielded to my will.

I came again when days were passed;
The bit of clay was hard at last,
The form I gave it still it bore,
But I could change that form no more.

I took a piece of living clay
And touched it gently day by day,
And molded with my power and art
A young child’s soft and yielding heart.

I came again when years were gone;
It was a mind I looked upon;
That early impress still he wore,
And I could change that form no more.

Nothing—and no one—is more near and dear to my heart than my family. And if you’re a mother, I’m sure you feel the same way. But you and I must be careful of T-I-M-E. Time is subtle. It appears to be passing slowly—too slowly for our impatient ways.

As young moms we stand at the front end of family life, a life over­flowing with bottles, diapers, and a draining lack of sleep. This phase of parenting seems to drag on… only to dully transition into a new one filled with spilled food, potty training, discipline, and a house that is never clutter-free.

If we’re not careful, we can wish and while these days away—these very few precious, God-given days available for forming the soft, yielding hearts of our children. We can so easily get caught up in trying to hurry our children’s lives along, to get past these seemingly unimportant and some­times bothersome days.

Our days can easily become filled with simply allowing time to pass by while we fail to take seriously the brief window of opportunity we have to teach and train our children. Before we know it, their soft and yielding hearts harden into a mind and a character that is set for life.

Far from being inferior or secondary in nature, our calling to be loving and godly mothers is indeed most high. No one else is called to love our children but us. And no one else can love our children like us.

I see God’s high calling as being fivefold. If you have children, you are to…

• Love them and make loving them your highest pursuit.
• Look to the Word of God for His guidelines for being a lov­ing Christian mother. Look at the modeling of older Christian women as they express Christ-like love to their children.
• Look to the older Christian women to teach you the how-­to’s of such love. Learn from such women.

Then by God’s grace you just might

• Leave your mark on the world by leaving behind a child who grows up to love and serve the Lord—who then also raises godly children to continue your godly legacy for gen­erations to come.

A Prayer to Pray:
Father, give me eyes that see beyond the daily grind, and straight to the spiritual needs of my children. I want to raise them to know Your promises so that they hold a reverent, pure love for You all of their days.

For more insight into godly parenting you might find these books helpful:
A Mom After God’s Own Heart and Raising a Daughter After God’s Own Heart by Elizabeth George.

My girls are 13 months apart, which means that during their at-home years, I often felt like I had twins! So I had to really be on my toes because there would be little-or-no catching of the mistakes I made on the first child so they weren’t repeated on the second one. What I was—or wasn’t—doing to love and raise my children was being done to both of them at the same time.

So early on I realized the importance of getting God’s powerful Word into my heart each day. I tasted the power­ful effect it had on my parenting and on the atmosphere in our home. And the same is true for you. What happens to us moms when we don’t take time to nurture our hearts? Here’s my list. I found myself…

…running on empty. And when we’re spiritually running on empty, our hearts are hol­low and numb. Without spiritual refueling, our parenting is empty. All becomes dull and devoid of spiritual energy, purpose, motivation, and accomplishment in both parent and child.

…heartless. If we are heartless, our parenting becomes heartless and rote. We unconsciously put ourselves and our child-raising on autopilot.

…worldly. If we are preoccupied with the things of this world and enamored by earthly pursuits and rewards, our parenting will be worldly. We won’t be following God’s criteria and God’s ways. We’ll be walking and parenting in the ways of the world. The things of this world will creep into our homes and into our children’s hearts.

This is all serious stuff… all brought about because the goodness of God’s Word is not regularly refreshing and reminding us of Christ’s better ways. God’s solution? Pick up the Bible and read it. When we do, God touches and transforms our hearts into those of moms after His heart.

Dear Mom, are you hearing God’s message?

Before we can even get to mothering and training our dear precious children, we need to take care of business with God. We need to take care of our own hearts. We need to take time to nurture our hearts. You see, we are to love the Lord. And we are to love and obey His Word. His Word is to reside in our hearts. It really is all about us as moms and our hearts.

Spend some time each day reading the Bible. Share its life-giving truth with your children. It requires the sacrifice of time and energy, but the years you have with your children fly by so quickly. Psalm 119:11 says, “Your word I have hidden in my heart.”

And what will happen (by God’s grace) if our hearts are dedicated to God? What will happen if our hearts are filled with love for the Lord and with His instruction? We will be godly mothers. And then…and only then…can we successfully teach God’s Word to our children.

Complete devotion to the Lord must first be in the heart of the mother—in your heart and my heart. And then our godly training of our children and our diligent teaching of God’s Word will follow.

Your time in God’s Word is time He’ll use to make you a mom after His own heart. It’s time well invested!

A Prayer to Pray:
 Lord, help me choose You and Your Word as my source of strength and refreshment each day. I want to deepen my understanding of Your love and Your will so that I become a mother who invests in her faith and family with everything she has and is.

The encouragement for today is an excerpt from my book, A Mom After God’s Own Heart. There is so much more to consider in this vital role. Please consider a copy for yourself or someone you love as you continue on the adventure of raising children after God’s own heart.

No matter what you do each day… or in life… doing things God’s way is a matter of the heart. Whether it’s deciding how to spend your money or your time, how you treat people, how you dress, or how you do your work, your choices reveal your heart. And the same is true when it comes to how you raise your children—no matter what their ages.

The heart is the chief organ of physical life. It’s obvious to everyone that the heart occupies the most important place in the human system. But the heart, as used in the Bible, also stands for our entire mental and moral activity, including the emotions, the ability to reason, and the will. According to Vine’s Expository Dictionary of the Old and New Testament the heart is also used figuratively for “the hidden springs of the personal life.”

That’s why God warns and instructs us to “keep [our] heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23). So what does this have to do with being a mom? First, we need to know how important our child’s heart is. As moms, our job assignment from God is to raise children after God’s own heart—children who seek to follow God and hopefully experience salvation through Jesus Christ.

But where does all of this mothering, committing, praying, dedicating, dealing with, and disciplining begin? It starts in your heart, dear mom! We need to also recognize how important our heart is for we cannot give what we do not possess.

Following-through on God’s plan for us is all about our hearts. It’s all about fulfilling God’s instructions to us. He wants us to focus on giving our heart, soul, mind, strength, and time to influencing and shaping the hearts of our children toward God and His purposes.

Doing things God’s way is always a matter of the heart. That includes choosing to focus your heart on raising your children God’s way and praying with each breath that they will develop hearts after God. Dear mom, no matter what your situation at home is—whether your children believe in Jesus Christ or not, whether they are young or older, whether their dad is a Christian or not (whether there is a dad or not!), whether you are new in the faith or know a lot, whether years of ignorance or neglect of God’s Word have gone by up to this point—do your best. From this second on, give your best efforts.

And since you want your children to love God and follow Him, set the focus of your heart on God and let them see you love Him and follow Him. Just be a mom after God’s own heart. He’ll help you take care of everything else that goes with parenting.

A Prayer to Pray:
Lord, give me a sense of purpose and priority as I teach my children what matters most. Help me show what it means to build a life of faith and love for Jesus.

Find more encouragement for your heart in my book, A Woman Who Reflects the Heart of Jesus.