Place it before God.

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

 Romans 12:1-2 MSG

Came across this verse and I loved it so much. It's so true isn't it? Friends I encourage you just as myself to walk in this. Just imagine the change that would take place in our life if we just placed everything we did before God. If we included Him in everything. I bet you 100% that we'd sure praise more and worry less. 

I encourage you today my sisters to place it before God.  your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. 

What are your thoughts on this verse??  

She will overcome.

A teething baby and feisty toddler who is figuring things out (sometimes the hard way) is what has been going on around here lately. It has been exhausting and probably the most challenging thing I have faced in motherhood thus far. My Liya is such a wonderful baby. Those instagram pictures are honestly no lie. But when she's teething she's miserable and just wants to be held 24/7 and even then she's fussy, biting, pulling, choking me, and clawing mama.. (I need to get this girl a "Caution" shirt. And Like Liya my Evelynne is wonderful. On the independent and feistier end however, I love them and I'm so proud of them. But like most toddlers she's come to a place in her life where she's trying to figure things out. Like "I wonder how loud I can scream until Mama gives me my way" and "I wonder what would happen if I don't listen?"
And because Liya is slowly getting mobile and awfully curious about Evelynne's toys Evelynne has become quite territorial. Oh, and did I mention that both Liya and Evelynne have been giving me nightly calls every few hours.. I think they take turns. ;)

Where I'm going at is there has been much caffeine, timeouts, pajama days, hugs, kisses and the feeling of a failure.

Last week it really hit me as Evelynne was seriously throwing the tantrum of all tantrums.. I thought "If I was a good mom, would my daughter really be acting like this?" I just couldn't get it out of my head the thought that I was doing something wrong and I was failing my daughter and causing her to act in such a manner..

And now, I do understand that those are all lies from the devil and if you've been struggling with that too. I want to remind you that you are a wonderful mom and God gave you this child for a reason and no way would He set you up for failure. He's got bigger and brighter plans for you.

Truth is. We're not perfect parents and we won't have perfect kids who are tantrum free. But we can praise our perfect Father who has already supplied the strength and tools we need to overcome.

I totally recommend that Holy Spirit should be every moms bestie. He is not just awesome but seriously, He has everything we need to survive and beyond. So, to brighten your week I thought I'd share a few scriptures that have kept me going that that the Holy Spirit has used to get me out of survival mode and transform into Over comer  mode.

Fear not for I am with you. Be not dismayed for I AM your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you and I will uphold you with My Righteous Right Hand. -Isaiah 41:10

This one is one of my life verses and it still applies to me today. Knowing that God is with me and He's daily strengthening me, willing to help me and uphold me with His Hand is just incredible. Just a reminder that I can do all things through Him because He's with me. Which brings me to our next verse.

"I can do ALL things through CHRIST who strengthens me. - Phil 4:13
Those tantrums, the teething, the disobedience and the correcting.. We can do it as hard as it is.. I added the "correcting" because I have such a hard time disciplining. I think it really does hurt me more than it does her. But because I love her I do it. I love her enough to make sure she knows that it is not okay to behave like that..But with God I can do all things.

"There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." -Romans 8-1
Because I'm the first to admit that I don't have it all together. I make plenty of mistakes, and I even lose it sometimes. Which is why this is a perfect reminder for me to seek forgiveness and move on guilt free.

"In Christ are hidden treasures of knowledge and wisdom."-  COLOSSIANS 2:3

That wisdom and knowledge is in Christ and if I keep seeking Him He will show me everything I need to know about raising my children after His heart. Perhaps He'll even show me how to get Evie to eat her greens with a smile on her face. :)

"Come to Me all who are weary and heavy burdened and I will give you rest"- Matthew 11:28-30

This is certainly a verse I try to quote every time I'm tired or weary or just done.. He's got us!
"But thanks be to God! He gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." -1 Corinthians 15:57

Praise God that we have the victory!

Mommy Moments

Welcome to Mommy Moments! We hope you all had a week filled with wonderful memories!  I have enjoyed getting to know all the new mamas linking up and sharing their lives with us! I can't wait to hear more from you all again this week! 

Motherhood has its seriousness and frustration as well as its laughs. That's why we are here. Life is much easier when traveled with companions! So mamas, let's join together in the spirit of motherhood and share our moments together. We want to hear the happy, sad, tough, terrible, hilarious moments that make being a mother the best job in the world!

The top viewed link this week belongs to Happy Mama Tales and her post "10 ways you can be a better mom today". It warms my heart knowing that this was the top viewed link here at Mommy Moments because that means we all want to be better moms. Isn't that the truth! Thank you Britni for your heartfelt words of encouragement and challenge to moms! Together we are better :)

The Life Of Faith

Our Family Grace

A  Beautiful Ministry

Daily Momtivity

Now, link up your post!

Post can include anything related to mommy-hood, children, homemaking, pregnancy etc. If you aren't a mom yet, feel free to link up your preparation for motherhood, your journey as you try to conceive, or even a post that would be encouraging to the other moms in the party!

Then, explore some of the other posts in the link-up and say hello to some new blog friends! 

Please, pretty please, we'd love it if you would tweet or share the link up on Facebook so we can all make even more friends!

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We would also love it if you could add the Mommy Moments button to your post or blog so everyone knows where you are linking up! If you are not able to copy/paste the code on your page, please e-mail one of us and we would be happy to send you the code!

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P.S. We will be having a new guest host every week! Want to be a guest host of the Mommy Moments Blog Hop? Send Faith a message at farmprincess14{at}gmail{dot}com. We would love to have you!

Colossians 3:17 
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

An InLinkz Link-up

My goals for June.

I'm a dreamer.. And I have many "Will dos" locked up in my noggin and would love to turn them into
"did dos" So, I decided I was going to master a dream or a few dreams once a month and document them here on the blog! Plus, I read that if you write down your goals monthly and give yourself a deadline than your most likely to complete it. I'll let you know how it goes. ;)

1. Get moving. I've been feeling convicted on being more healthier such as making better food choices and exercising. I've  been drinking lemon water every morning and so far I've been feeling so much more refreshed. Lemon water really is amazing.

2. Get more organized and fully unpacked. The stuff that has no places have been haunting meeeee!!!

3. Launch my new business/ministry. More to come on that one soooooon.

4. Blog 4 times a week. I've honestly thought about shutting this space down however, something inside won't let me. I know God has awesome plans for this blog and I'll just continue to be His pen.

5. Start a youtube channel

4. Blog 4 days a week.

What are your June goals??

Why I will not teach my daughters to love their body,

I've struggled with body image. My body image. When  I was a teenager I heard those voices in my head. Those voices telling me how fat I was and that my only hope was to starve my body and take weight loss pills. I gave into the lie that I wasn't enough, I'd never be beautiful until I was skinny(ier) and I wanted to make myself skinnier so I did what I could  to do that so I skipped meals, drank weight loss shakes, and took weight loss pills and doing so could have killed me because I wasn't fat and I didn't need to lose any weight and the fact I was putting all those harmful things into my body I'm so blessed that I'm healthy today.

 After having my first daughter Evelynne I lost a bunch of weight due to breastfeeding and everyone thought I was too skinny leaving me insecure there, too! I was at the point where all together  I was just insecure with how I looked. I didn't like how I looked then but I didn't want to gain weight either. Either way I felt under pressure because so many people had an idea of how much I should and shouldn't weigh. According to Hollywood I should be as skinny as possible and to everyone else I needed a little meat on my bones and one thing I've learned after being on both sides is that as long as my identity and happiness and security is in my weight and looks I will never be satisfied and I will never be happy. So, I stopped choosing my body and instead I chose Jesus who thinks I'm fearfully and wonderfully made.

I would not encourage my daughters or you to love your body and make that your reason to love and find worth in yourself because darling, your physical body will just disappoint you and here's why.

Say, you do work hard, eat right and finally you're dream body comes along. You have abs,and a great everything else and everything's great.. for a while. You're body will change whether you want it to or not. Maybe you'll have kids and if you do you might get stretch marks and truth is pregnancy just does so many things to your body that makes it different. It's so extremely worth it but you're body will never be the same again. And it's not a bad thing and certainly not something you should be ashamed of. 

And even if you don't have kids, you can't stop the process of growing old, getting wrinkles, and sometimes gaining or loosing weight isn't an option.. 

Our physical body isn't consistent and in my experience if what you see in the mirror defines your happiness and where you place your joy and identity than you will never be filled  because you will never feel beautiful in your own eyes because you will always see flaws and that zit on your face or pouch on your stomach will steal your chance to be happy with your body and that's not a good thing! This is why I believe loving your body is dangerous and will not be teaching my girls to love their body but instead I'll teach them something even better!

I'll teach them to love themselves. The person God created them to be and their identity in Him. I'll teach them to not focus on the physical but instead focus on their inner worth. Who they are and who they're becoming and who they want to be and leave the physical on the back burner.. Now, I'm not saying that I'm not going to tell my girls that they're beautiful. Of course I will! But that will not be my main focus and I don't want it to be theirs either! 

The Bible says "Charm is deceptive and beauty is vain but a woman who fears the Lord will be praised" -Proverbs 31:30. 

Even the Bible talks about physical beauty and how focusing on that is harmful and yet, that's what this world is about.  in other translation it speaks of beauty as something that does not last, it fades and that it's fleeting.

Definitely something that should not be our main focus despite what the media says. I've found and experienced that the only thing that body image obsession gets  you is unhappiness, insecurity and never feeling enough and not just brings harm to you emotionally but physically as well. 

My prayer for my girls and all women as well is that we can look in the mirror saying "I look amazing and I am amazing!" not because we are at our goal weight, we're flawless and we have abs but instead I want us to see ourselves that way because of Jesus! He made us beautiful, His love for us never ends and the beauty He placed in us is flawless and it never fails! Lets focus on His beauty today friends and for goodness sake stop focusing on the fact that Princess Kate looked so perfect coming home from the hospital after giving birth and how we wish we looked that good.. Am I really still hearing about that? 

Much love!

She will not become weary.

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the time we will reap a harvest  if we do no give up. -Galatians 6:9


My oldest is two and we've been going through some challenges. Challenges that would either break me or make and honestly, a majority of the time I feel like it's breaking me. You'll find me most nights after bed time clinging to coffee comfort and watching a funny movie because I just needed a laugh and sometimes I don't even watch it but instead I just daze.. Sound familiar? I don't usually like telling people what we're going through due to the fact they often say "Oh, she must be going through the terrible twos!" And I feel like I'm left defending my daughter because I really do hate that term.. It's a challenging stage no doubt however, if you look at what she's going through as a toddler still trying to discover and figure things out it could still be an exciting stage. Despite the tantrums, the will and the attitude I do love this stage as Evelynne is starting to explore and learn so much more.

Are you struggling with a challenging task with you and your child? No matter the what or reason I just want to encourage you today to keep going and to never give up with consistency, time and choosing joy in all the craziness that's going on in this season. For in the proper time you will see breakthrough in your child and all those good seeds you are constantly sowing into right now will soon reap a harvest.

Don't give up Mama, don't grow weary, keep seeking Jesus and His love, mercy and strength and do not give up!

The very short time you are struggling with your kid now does not even compare to the amazing breakthrough you will see in them later. So keep your head up, be consistent, stand your ground and get ready to see the harvest.

A refreshing, quick online devotional for Moms that you can look forward to every Monday morning to start your week of to a great start! If you have any questions, comments, or would like to guest post you can email me at Heather.Abeautifulministry@gmail.com