I heard the following story from a family counselor . . .
I met with the (Smith) family because four-year-old (Brittany) was having trouble getting along with the other children at her pre-school. As mom and dad took their seats, Brittany wandered the room picking up puppets and books.

After a few moments of chit-chat I asked, " So Brittany, who's in charge at home?"
She immediately pointed at dad . . . mom burst into laughter.
"Why is your mom laughing, Brittany?"
"Because mommy and daddy want to be the boss, but I'm really the boss."

It's human nature, isn't it?
We want to be in charge. Well, at least I do. I like to get my way and getting it now is better.
Wow, I'm thankful for God's patience! He is gently teaching me that life is much better when He's in charge.

And that's true in our homes too. When parents work as a team, talk with each other, pray, and make the best decisions for their family . . . well, living under one roof becomes more enjoyable.

I know many families in crisis. I'm guessing you do too.
So, I'm praying for families. And I'd love to have you join me.

♥ Thank you, Lord, for giving us the gift of family. Your design in giving us this place to learn, grow, and love is a gracious blessing.
Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. Colossians 3:14

♥ Father, forgive us for the way we have failed to fulfill Your plan for our family.
But if we confess our sins to him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 1 John 1:9

♥ Lord, we need You! Help our family make our relationship with You through Jesus a priority. May we pray, study Your Word, and worship together faithfully.
 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20

♥ Father, we need Your wisdom to guide our families and remain in Your will. Please help us.
Trust your work to the Lord, and your plans will work out well. Proverbs 16:3

♥ Lord, there are so many distractions fighting for our time. Help us to plan our schedules in a way that makes family time a priority.
Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it. Proverbs 22:6

♥ Father, we need Your help to wisely manage our family finances. Help us become excellent stewards of all we have.
Then Jesus said to them, “Be careful and guard against all kinds of greed. Life is not measured by how much one owns. Luke 12:15

♥ Father, help us forgive each other quickly . . . giving each other the same grace with which You cover us. Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight! Psalm 32:1

♥ Father, grant us the blessings of health and protection.

♥ Lord, by Your grace, help us learn to communicate well with each other that we might love each other well. 

♥ And finally, we add the personal needs and circumstances of those we love.
Friends our families are pulled in many directions . . . jobs, school, sports, arts, friends, entertainment, and technology.

​We need God's help. So, I'm praying and turning to His Word.
Because...
With His help, we can do this even when there are things working against us.
But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD. Joshua 24:15

Deb is a passionate blessing counter who loves to study the ways faith and life intersect. This year at Counting My Blessings, she's sharing The Relationship Project - How One Relationship Affects All Others. Deb lives in Missouri with her husband and furry child, Sadie now that all of their human children are grown and have little ones of their own. And yes, being a grandparent is the best She's hoping you will join her on Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter.

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First time camping with both our kids, and during the few hours that everyone was actually sleeping (other than myself, of course), I listened to a book where someone was sharing their testimony in the midst of terrible circumstances. I wept as I peered out my window to see the stars in their vastness, praising Jesus for truly being better than anything else.


Soon after my daughter starts screaming bloody murder. Why? WHO KNOWS!! She’s two, in a new environment, trying to sleep between her parents which she never does, camping – take your pick, because it truly doesn’t matter why. She was SCREAMING!! Not going to lie, I wasn’t this perfect mom that whole night and more than once wish there were Fall-Asleep-Right-Now pills that I could shove in both kids mouths. But there was a good moment where I squeezed my daughter praying, “Oh Jesus, I love this girl, but nothing is as great as You! You have created the stars in the sky, the beauty we witness around us…” and went on and on. How on earth was I worshipping Jesus while my tworager screamed my eardrums to a new deafness?? In those moments, I honestly couldn’t do anything else!


“For those who live according to the flesh think about the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, about the things of the Spirit. For the mind-set of the flesh is death, but the mind-set of the Spirit is life and peace.” Romans 8:5-6


In those moments in the car, I had given the Spirit control, and the Spirit set my mind in the place it needed to be. I love my kids! I love my husband! I love our little life in our cute blue house in our quaint town! But none of it – NOT A THING – compares to Jesus!!! My kids didn’t save me from eternal death. My husband didn’t die a ridiculously painful death out of pure love. My house and my community haven’t given me a new spirit to change my actions and words to be less selfless. None of them complete, none of them satisfy and none of them are my whole world. Jesus and Jesus alones satisfies, completes and renews me.


I constantly feel the pull of making motherhood ultimate in my life. I feel like if my kids are doing really great, it’s because of my tips, tricks and talents as a mom. When they are breaking down, it’s because I suck at being a parents or it’s someone or something else’s fault for getting them to that point. It’s so easy to point fingers at other causes or look down at other people at their parenting. It’s easy to stay home and get caught up in my own world – MY kids, MY housework, OUR routine.


As my dad likes to say about people, “We follow the path of least resistance.” Mom, what do you default to? Where do your comforts lie? What people, places, thoughts comfort you? Motherhood is a wonderful time of life that is filled with heartache and is can be conducted on the edge of insanity. But your role as a mom doesn’t define you. If you accepted Jesus’ free gift of forgiveness from your sins and Spirit to dwell in you, you are defined as child of the King of Kings!


So, precious Princess, what can you do today to draw closer to the King? Take time to ask Jesus what is taking your primary focus, and how He guide your thoughts toward Him today.

​Leah works with Master Plan Ministries at Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO. Other than watching college students' lives change, she enjoys getting her mind blown by God and His Word, watching sci fi, baking cupcakes, and spending time with her hunky husband.

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You cannot separate the message of adoption from the gospel. We were created to be in a perfect family relationship with God. He is our Father and we are his children. Sin however separated us from that loving relationship and we found ourselves orphans from the loving family relationship we were created for.
 
God, being the perfect Father he is, did not want us to remain orphans so he sent his one and only son so we might be able, by faith, to be reunited to him and once again be placed into the perfect family relationship we were created for through his own sacrifice on the cross.
 
In light of this message of adoption in the gospel it has deepened my understanding of God’s heart for adoption. God uses adoption as a picture of his adoption of us. He adopted us even when we were still in our sin. We didn’t need to be picture perfect for him to pick us out and adopt us. In the same way no child will be picture perfect. No they will likely come with behavioral issues, past abuse and neglect, attitudes, and they will not always thank you for adopting them.
 
Bottom line is that adoption is about shining the light of the gospel and should lead us to thankfulness for our savior adopting us. Adoption is not easy. Adoption comes with a lot of uncertainty. Currently my husband and I are in the process of applying for foster care adoption and a lot of uncertainty has come to my mind such as:
 
Will we get the approval to adopt?
What child will we be placed with?
What if I fail at being a mom?
What if something happens and the child gets taken away?
 
In all the uncertainly I am taken back to the gospel and I am thankful that Christ adopted me. He loved the whole world and died for the whole world even though many will chose to never believe in him. It was his great pleasure to do whatever it took, including suffering on the cross, to include us into his family forever.
 
Here is the message of adoption in the gospel:
“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.” – Galatians 4:4-7

​Hope McCleary graduated from Mesa State College with a degree in Mass Communications. After graduating she spent two years working in local news at KKCO 11 News in Grand Junction, Co. She decided to give up her career in the media to share the message of Christ full-time. She joined full-time staff with Master Plan Ministries the summer of 2012 and got married to Forrest McCleary in September of 2012. Through her own personal ups and downs in college Hope has a heart for college women understand their worth as God’s daughters, to see them grow in their faith, to grow in the unique gifts God has given them, and to stand firm in their faith even with the pressures of the world all around them. Hope’s interests include world and local missions, photography, singing, playing guitar and writing music, reading, meeting new people, coffee, and hiking. ​

​I remember before I had kids, I couldn’t understand why parents had a difficult time talking about anything other than their kids when their were people who obviously didn’t have kids to relate and join into the conversation. I understand now! HA! You see a life develop and change before your very eyes. You “go through the trenches” with these little people in all hours of the day and night. You like to use any time with other parents to feel understood in your every day life!

Could you imagine what Mary was like around other moms (if she was accepted by the other moms in town after her “scandalous birth”)? Moms lamenting about their sons and daughters throwing tantrums, rebelling against them – then Mary comes along with her perfect Messiah child. Did she have to discipline? Think about how sweet a child would be without their sin – and THAT is Who Mary and Joseph got to raise.

Lately I have been feeling like I just don’t know enough – I don’t read enough news, do enough research, look at all angles of the issues. I’m tempted to feel like a stupid oaf around everyone including Jesus. But as I was reflecting on this tonight I was hit with the “babyness” of Christ. Sweet, sinless, childlike Jesus. For being God – Who knows all and sees all – He didn’t choose to skip over childhood. He even encourage the children to come to Him in the midst of His full-time ministry. 

Jesus, Who took on the sin of the whole world, enjoyed the simplicity of children. Jesus, who was beaten and brutally killed for all MY wrong-doings, was a little baby that grew up into a man. I am so overwhelmed pondering all these things in my heart!! Could you imagine holding God’s sacrificial lamb as a tiny newborn? Looking at His facial features, marveling at His little nose, toes, and fingers… with no idea what His future would look like. 

Admittedly, there is a lot going on in our world today. People being hurt, abused and marginalized. Changes are happening and expected to come. The unknown is looming in front of us and many are panicking – saying and doing angry, hurtful and rash things without realizing what they are doing.
Instead of running towards the chaos in fear, take a moment with me.

Stop. Breath.

Remember the last newborn face you saw? Bring to mind all those cutes babies you see on your friend’s pages on Facebook. Look at your own children – think about the last sweet, tender moment you had with them one-on-one. 

Now think about Jesus being a baby. The only sinless child to exist in all of creation. Think about how cute His antics must have been, His precious smile, His undemanding attitude from day one. HE grew up so YOU could have eternal life. Wow… Marvel with me at the simplicity of Jesus

​Leah works with Master Plan Ministries at Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO. Other than watching college students' lives change, she enjoys getting her mind blown by God and His Word, watching sci fi, baking cupcakes, and spending time with her hunky husband. 

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It’s a hooded heroin, I try to discern appropriate, as my ten-year-old plays a new video game; sword glowing, balls of light burning, releasing power.
In a day where people call evil good and good evil, (Isaiah 5:20)…
​
It is vital we recognize parenting as our primary mission. The choices we make in training won’t just impact one moment, but future generations.
Still, the weight of peanut butter on white bread verses organic fruit and humus can eat at us. We can lie in bed awake, riddled with guilt, swallowed by the enemy’s tactic to derail us, until we are left waving a white flags of surrender even before our child enters Kindergarten.
Missional Parenting was never meant to be filled with condemnation. It is supposed to be beautiful, empowering, life giving to both the parent and their children.
Scripture offering us four Biblical models for Successful Missional Parenting:

1. Follow Jesus’ Open Arm (And Open Heart) Policy with Our Children – Jesus made it very clear how He felt about children. When others scolded or turned children away as unimportant, Jesus opened His armed and welcomed them, reciting, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” (Matt 19:14) Jesus had an open-arm policy with children, so shouldn’t we also? While the world pushes for autonomy and independence, Christ values child-like-ness and dependency on Him.
2. Continually Seek Jesus for Direction and Healing –

Do you remember the story about Jairus and his twelve-year old daughter? (Matt. 9:18-25) Jairus daughter was dying, and although Jairus had abundant wealth, it could not save his daughter. He knew where his help came from. Do we, as parents? Jairus humbled himself and came to Jesus with his worries for his daughter. To Jairus’ plea, Jesus responded, “Fear not, only believe”. Today, how many of us would find parenting easier, if we turned to Jesus in sickness or during problems, instead of our own worries?

1. Teach Our Children To Live For The Praises of God Alone – Praising things, or people in this world comes easily. But what about praising God? Teaching our children to fix their eyes on God in gratitude and praise is something that we must teach then, not something that will likely come naturally. I know, our own personal morning devotions have radically changed, since we started taking time to worship God in the mornings. Jesus said in Matthew 21:15-16, “Have you never read?” “From the mouths of children and infants, you Lord, have called forth praise.” Praise is a weapon, a necessary gift we can give our children that will one day get them through battles, training their minds to live victorious. Psalms 8:2 tells us, “Through the praises of children and infants, you have established strongholds against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avengers.”
2. See Your Children As God Sees Them – Children are a heritage from the Lord. (Psalms 127:3) Children are not commodities or burdens. When God gives us His eyes to see children for who they really are, everything changes. We no longer want to live for ourselves, but our desire change and we want to raise our kids in ways pleasing to Him.

 
We don’t have to lie in bed awake worrying if we are ineffective parents, labor over decisions or rating ourselves on some worldly scale of excellence.
Everything changes when we open our arms and heart to dialogue with our children, let God to come and lead us, teach our children to live for His praises, and seeing children as He sees them.
Treasured, loved, cherished, given to us as a special gift.
 

Though born, raised, and still living only miles from where she grew up, Jen's heart lies in the nations. Jen loves the beautiful tapestry found in the wide diversity of people, different cultures, and all nations.  Jen and her husband have been married twenty years, and have parented fifteen kids and counting; twelve foster, one adopted, and two bios.  Her multi-racial family reflects her passion for unity, desire for faith without walls, and missional mindset to share both the gospel and the power of redemption to a world desperately needing the hope found in Jesus Christ. Jen and her husband have led in a variety of ministries; including prayer, small groups, children's, and women’s.  Jen advocates for the orphan as a board member for the non-profit, A New Song; and loves doing missions work internationally, along with her family.  You can find Jen writing about faith, while challenging her readers at her blog, Rich Faith Rising, as well as at tweeting faith-filled messages @Jen_Avellaneda .  Jen is also on facebook.  ​
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While I’m writing this post, I’m 38 weeks pregnant with baby #2 (my kids will be about 16 months apart). For me its been interesting for me to see how people treat you when you’re pregnant – and even how differently people treat you between your first and your second (at least how I have been treated, since its different from person to person). The big one is how people think that since I did this whole pregnancy thing less than a year ago that I “have it down” or “I’m a pro”. This pregnancy was way different from my first and I feel like there were things I learned from my first that I’m not exactly sure how to resolve with the second (especially since they are a completely different human being – crazy)!

I digress from what I actually want to share (go figure). My reflective stage has helped me see what gifts I’ve been given the past couple years that have been the most beneficial. Upon reflection, the gifts that have been the biggest blessing have been the ones that helped me to continue to live out the Great Commission. I wasn’t sure what ministry would look like with a itty bitty to take care of, but this past school year has been the biggest blessing in ministry! I felt like I got the best out of both worlds – I got to pour time into my sweet girl at home AND into my sweet college girls!

If you know friends having babies and need some ideas, here are some ideas and ways to bless these dear sisters to be able to keep living out the Great Commission.

1. Give mom a gift to connect with God:

When my daughter was first born, I found I had a TON of time to spend in God’s Word but not a lot of brain power to focus. (Seriously, I felt like I popped out half my brain when I pushed Ruth out! And it took MONTHS to get normal functioning back.) So my quiet times were different, which wasn’t bad but it just needed to flow with where I was. I’ve heard of so many women dropping out time with God once they became moms – that’s the opposite of what moms need!! It’s hard work raising selfish human beings that can’t communicate very well! We need to rely and depend on the Lord more than ever. Think of ways to encourage these missional moms to stay in God’s Word.

Devotionals:   I HIGHLY recommend the studies we have in the Missional Women store! Not just because I write for MW, but because they are that good and perfect for this stage of life!! I started Journey Through Judges soon after my daughter was born (or before… its hard to remember), and it was the perfect length daily to go through that engaged my half-ravaged mom brain and challenged me where I was at to keep Christ on the throne.
Quiet Time Tools:   Try to think of things that help you as you connect with God daily. A cute journal, those nice black pens that help you write a little better, colorful highlighters or color pencils, that homey coffee mug (I am such a sucker for homey mugs – which my new favorite is the one from the MW conference) filled with that delicious blend of coffee from a local coffee shop… mmmmm… don’t you want a quiet time right now?
Connect with God time:  Help your missional mom to connect with God on a date without baby. Offer to babysit for an hour or so she can feel like she’s an individual. Get her a gift card to a coffee shop or bakery or diner – somewhere out to get a meal or treat alone so she can connect with Jesus

2. Give mom gifts to get out of the house: 
Especially if your mom friend has been in doing ministry already, trying to go back to what she was doing is going to be difficult or seemingly impossible. Heading into this past school year, I had to look at my schedule and my daughter’s schedule to see what would be realistic to do. I ended up being able to do more than I thought I could because I had a few good friends (and an AMAZING husband) that made it possible!
Babysit: We’re all busy, but if you think you can cart a baby in a car seat while you run errands or sit at someone else’s house while their kid naps then you could really be a huge help! Before I had Ruthie, I got to watch one of my best friend’s kids just once a week every other month. Something that seemed like it should have been impossible for my schedule ended up being a huge blessing not only for my friend but for me too! And then this past year my friend watched my girl once a week. I could go on and on about how much I loved this, but long story short invest and help!
Make a meal: This is not only amazing thing to do when a baby is first born (even though it was a lifesaver when Ruthie was first born – seriously, no brain to even think about food), but this could be a tremendous blessing later for moms trying to be involved in ministry and still be mom and wife to their families. I can’t tell you how one free meal has made the difference for me mentally and emotionally this past school year (really anytime, because cooking is not enjoyable to me like it used to be).
Gift Cards: Coffee shops, bakeries, restaurants, ice cream – something that gets her out to invite another gal to have a discipleship appointment! Sometimes its hard to find just the right time to meet up. I had to schedule hour long times in the morning before Malcolm left to campus to fit girls in, and often it was off campus so it would accommodate both me and the girl. It’s a financial help as well and an encouragement to keep getting out.


3. Give mom gifts to go out with her baby
I am a homebody, but man! Nothing can make you feel more trapped then sitting at home with a kid who wants you’re whole attention the whole time they are awake (which awake time come in increasing amounts the older they get – I miss the days of 4 to 5 hours of nap each day)!! The follow gifts are lists of things that made me feel like I had to capability to leave the house with confidence.
Anything nursing related: breast pump and it’s accessories, bottles, small bottle coolers (to keep breast milk cold while out of the house), nursing covers, nursing bras, nursing tank tops – these are not necessarily fun to buy for anyone BUT they do encourage mom to feel like she isn’t trapped at home like a cow in a stall.
-Diaper bag
-Wet bag (great if mom is using cloth diapers, but also super functional if stuff gets wet or dirty while out of the house.---Travel bassinet. I would have NEVER thought of this until I got to use one when Ruthie was tiny. It functions like a pack n play for itty bitty babies, but it is WAY smaller and lighter! It folded up to where I could carry it on a sling on my shoulder. It made me feel like I could easily leave the house, have Ruthie sleep when it was time to sleep wherever we were, and I could interact with humans! I loved it! 
-Infant carrier
-Car seat cover

We live in Atlanta. That's the deep south of the United States and although we have four distinct seasons, the cold ones are pretty short and the heat comes back quickly. Sometimes, as Atlantans like to complain about, the cold and hot days are hard to predict and might flip flop back and forth for a few weeks. So, one day you walk out the door in a sweater and winter coat only to be sweating by noon. Other days you wake up and put on sandals because you remember the gorgeous temperatures of the day before. Alas, before you make it to your car, you've run back into the house to put on boots.

Such was last week. I knew we needed some outdoor play because it was supposed to snow the next day (which is quite a big deal in these here parts). As we ran around outside, we saw a field absolutely filled with daffodils! The kids were heartbroken that it was going to snow on the flowers and were sure they would all die. So, they picked them instead!

We took home two huge two-handed bouquets and spent several minutes arranging them in mason jars when we got home. Then, someone said, "Wouldn't it be fun to surprise our neighbors with these flowers?" One of them responded, "Yeah! We could leave the flowers on their doorstep, knock on the door and then run away!" So, instead of placing the flowers around our house, we bundled up enough mini bouquets for all the folks in our apartment building and secretly delivered them.

My kids were so excited you would have thought they were delivering 100 dollar bills! It was more fun to deliver the daffodils than to keep them and admire them in our own home. 

When I saw where there little hearts were headed, I wanted to make it count. Before we walked out the door to deliver our secret bouquets, we prayed for the people that would receive them. We asked that they would see God the Creator in each flower. We asked that it would be a reminder of an Easter memory from their childhood. We prayed that even if the daffodils didn't say "Jesus Loves You", that the Holy Spirit would speak to them anyway and plant a seed or bring up a memory so they would know that truth.

It was a simple prayer and a simple activity done by normal kids. My kids aren't super-missionaries in their own land. They aren't exceptionally compassionate. They are normal kids who love getting the latest toy, watching more TV than they should and pouring over toy catalogs.

What they don't know is that same week I had been praying that my children would be compassionate. I had just read Uncommon Kids: 12 Biblical Traits You Need to Raise Selfless Kids by Sami Cone earlier that month and with it came a little monthly calendar with a prayer prompt on it. This month's prayer trait was Compassion: World. So, every time I saw that calendar while I did the dishes I'd pray, "God, make my children compassionate to the world around them. Help them see the world as you do." Or maybe it wasn't even that eloquent, "Lord, help 'em be compassionate." was probably more like it.

God answered my quick prayers in a simple yet obvious way. I don't know why I'm always surprised when God answers my prayers! It was a reminder for me to rely on prayer. If I want to see growth in my children, if I want to help these American kids have missional eyes, it's not so much about making them give and serve. I can ask God to move on their hearts. When God moves on their hearts to give and serve and love, it's a double lesson because they are practicing how to listen and respond to the voice of the Lord!


Family Activity: Write COMPASSION on a sticky note and put it somewhere you will see it every day. When you do see it, pray for your children to have compassion on the people in their world. When God answers your prayer, encourage your kids--remind them they heard the voice of the Lord!

We had moved away from our big ministry job because of a bad situation. It was hurtful and when we crawled back to our hometown with our tails between our legs, we were sad. We moved into an old, very-used house in January. It was cold, dark and brown. The trees were bare, the bushes looked like skeletons and every bit of it seem to reflect our life at that moment. What happened to God's will for us? What happened to our future? 

For months, I snuggled inside with my then one-year old and hid from life and wondered what our future held--if if held anything at all. Then spring began peeking it's head around the corner. Suddenly we had rows of azaleas in our front yard--baby pink, hot pink and white all mixed together and thick and full surrounding a giant dogwood tree. But it wasn't just any dogwood tree--it was two smaller trees that had grown together, one pink and one white. Now that these trees were old and mature, it filled our yard with pink and white blossoms like an umbrella.

My daughter was a toddler but we played in those gorgeous azalea bushes and laid in the grass to look at our dogwood tree. We called it "the most beautiful tree in the world" and anyone who passed the house would have agreed. That old fashioned, dismal house with it's cold brown yard was transformed in springtime and there was nowhere else more beautiful in the world as far as I was concerned.

The surprise of those blooms was a gift to me. It was a gentle whisper from my Heavenly Father who said, "It may seem dead now. Your future may seem gone. But my power is made perfect in those places. I make all things new. I am the resurrection and the life." And soon, my heart began to mend, my future as a mom became fulfilling and clear. My life in a new town and in a new direction, unplanned though it was became the best and most perfect part of God's plan for me.
Martin Luther said, “God has written the promise of new life not just in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime.” (paraphrased, Sally Lloyd Jones) and when spring rolls around, I see each new bud, each bright green leaf and every robin in the tree as a promise of new life. It's why we celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday. If we didn't talk about the death of Jesus, his crucifixion and burial, how would we know the miracle of his life? If we didn't mourn on Good Friday, how would Sunday morning be a celebration?

As parents, sometimes we unwittingly skip past the hard parts of the Easter story because...well, they are hard. Who wants to talk to a kid about whips and nails when they can focus on bunnies and eggs and flowers? However, I think it's important to lead our children through winter before they experience the complete and overwhelming joy of spring. 
It's not as hard as it seems to talk about Jesus' death. Even Mark, in his account of Jesus' death doesn't give a lot of details, "It was nine in the morning when they crucified him." (15:25) We can use the broken bread to talk about Jesus' death, the poured out perfume of Mary's to explain the preparation for burial, the purple robe to show Jesus' accusers, but with all of it pointing to that beautiful morning when the tomb was no longer a scary place for dead people but the place of the greatest miracle of all!

If you're shivering away during the cold winter right now, point your heart and the heart of your children to the sacrifice Jesus made for us. When you long for daffodils and azaleas, let your heart long for Jesus' resurrection. And when spring blooms all around you, rejoice in His new life!

Family activity: Join us for Sense of the Resurrection--an immersive, sensory-filled 12 activity devotional that leads families in memories and in setting up memorials to experience the death and life of Jesus this Easter. Use code MISSIONALWOMEN to get 20% off this ebook written by Missional Women blogger, Amanda White.

Amanda White is a stay-at-home mom of two who blogs at ohAmanda.com and is the author of Truth in the Tinsel: An Advent Experience for Little Hands. In her former life, Amanda was a Children’s Pastor — overseeing, organizing and developing ministry for kids in nursery through middle school, but now that she is a mom, her “skills” are used up on her kids!

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I started reading Hind's Feet on High Places with my daughter. It's the children's version and the illustrations are very 1993 (and even then might have been a little weird)! Pictures notwithstanding, we are already liking the book. It's a modern classic but in case you've never heard of it, a girl named Much Afraid lives in the Valley of Humiliation in the Village of Much-Trembling with her Fearful relatives.

She works for the Good Shepherd and after a conversation with him blurts out that she wishes she could live where he does--on the High Places! The Good Shepherd tells her he's been waiting for her to ask him about moving there. He then gives her a plan and even two companions to help her on her journey. She is frightened that her Fearful family (specifically her cousin Craven Fear) will stop her from leaving.

The Good Shepherd tells her that in the High Places, "perfect love gets rid of fear". She needs to make her way there so she can finally be free of the fear surrounding her.

As we are surrounded by red hearts and candy kisses in February, it's easy to feel romantic or sweet on the people around us--to think we know what true love is. What's not as easy is shaking off real fear as we navigate our lives. How does "real love" get rid of fear?

When I was a little girl, I remember being afraid for my brother's safety. I wondered how he would make it out of our house it caught on fire. Or if someone would kidnap him while he was walking home from a friend's house. I even worried he'd want to be an astronaut one day and get lost from his ship! (I have a vivid imagination, y'all.)
It seems that love is what motivated me. I loved my brother. I feared for his safety. That's love, right? Well, maybe.

You remember the definition of love, right? It's in 1 John 4:7-21
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God... This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins... God is love...

God is love. God gave His son. Love comes from God.
When I feared for my brother it's because as a little girl I didn't understand God's love for me...and for my brother. I didn't rest in His great love--love great enough to give His Son for the whole world. Now, that doesn't mean nothing bad ever happens. It just means, I don't have to worry. I don't have to be fearful. I don't have to be Much Afraid. I can rest in the Shepherd's great love and live with him in the High Places.

Habakuk 3:19 reads,
"The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights."

God's love for us makes us strong. Strong enough to fight fear. Strong enough to dance and prance across the fears and worries of life. He will enable us to tread on the heights and live in the high places with Him instead of the fearful valleys below.

Family Time: Play "the floor is lava" and jump from cushion to cushion, chair to chair to get across your living room or other large room. See who can get across safely. Read Habakuk 3:19 and Psalm 18:33 and talk about how God will enable us to leap across problems in our lives with the graceful feet of a deer! Allow each family member to share a fear or problem they need God's help with or a person they need strength to love.

Amanda White is a stay-at-home mom of two who blogs at ohAmanda.com and is the author of Truth in the Tinsel: An Advent Experience for Little Hands. In her former life, Amanda was a Children’s Pastor — overseeing, organizing and developing ministry for kids in nursery through middle school, but now that she is a mom, her “skills” are used up on her kids!