Author: theministrymama

Spiritual Remedies for Family Bitterness

Spiritual Remedies for Family Bitterness (click here to read article)

Bitterness is a spiritual problem that can effect your relationship not only with your spouse but with the other members of your family. Over at YoungWifesGuide.com my article is about Biblical remedies from Ephesians 4 on how to cure family bitterness.

Spiritual Remedies for Family Bitterness

This article reveals six dangers of family bitterness and Biblical solutions on how to make the right decision to resolve family conflict and avoid the common problem of unforgiveness and unresolved issues. While we cannot control what other people in our families do, we can control ourselves with God’s help. God is so good to allow us to have solutions from His Word on every day topics like this one.

I appreciate the opportunity, as always, to be a monthly contributor to YoungWifesGuide! Thank you to Jami Balmet for making it a great website and place for Christian women to learn from each other.

A Letter to New Parents

God placed this letter on my heart as I was writing my husband’s cousin as they awaited the special arrival of their first boy. I always like to write letters of encouragement or advice for weddings and new babies. I like to include Biblical advice to look to God in every aspect of marriage and parenting.

It is so easy to get distracted as new parents, but our goal as parents should always be to raise our children for the Lord and have them around His Word enough so they can accept Him as their Saviour as early as God first starts speaking to their hearts. It is not wrong to simply remind parents of this responsibility.

I would encourage you as ministry wives to include a special God-centered note with your baby gifts, it may make a world of difference!

Dear New Parents,

We want to cheer right along with you at the wonderful event you are about to experience: Parenthood and the birth of a new life! Wow, isn’t God good? It is a rush of emotion seeing your little one for the first time and knowing the awesome responsibility that lies before you to raise and prepare them for adulthood and life.

I wanted to take a few moments and encourage you to never forget to raise your child(ren) for the Lord. When we look at the world around us and all of the changes taking places it can be such a scary thing to wonder what type of world your child will be living in by the time they reach the teenage years and beyond.

Raise them to love the Lord and hold His Word close to their heart. If you want your child(ren) to know Jesus as their Saviour then surround them with church, true examples of Christian living, a godly marriage, and a home that has an atmosphere of heaven. Train and discipline them using Bible principles and look at how God lovingly deals with His children.

One of the greatest gifts we, as parents, will ever know, is the joy of when your children accept Christ as their Saviour, because not only will they be family here on earth, but for eternity. And when they get saved, God becomes their Heavenly Father, and He fills in the gaps of parenting that you cannot always fill.

I hope you will allow God to guide you, listen when He leads you do things you wouldn’t normally do, and change the things you should not do. In parenting God shows you your need for Him as well as the blessings He provides in your life. Don’t be afraid to ask Him for help and pray every moment you need assistance, especially in the early part of their life when you are so tired and they are so needy.

You have so much joy ahead of you! Walk with God each step of the way, for He will never leave you or forsake you.

With much love,

The Ministry Mama

3 Basic Blessings of Being a Faithful Nursery Worker

3 Basic Blessings - Nursery 2

I like to write devotions for nursery workers to encourage them in their character to be faithful, responsible, and on time but this month I really wanted to focus on the blessings of serving in the nursery long-term. Here is the basic devotion that I wrote, with a few details adapted to share with you online… this assumes that you already work in the nursery, so please forgive me if you are not one that is involved for whatever reason. We all have our purposes within the body of Christ and even physical limitations, so please do not misunderstand when it may seem I am lumping everyone into one group.

 
Two women come to my mind when I think of faithful nursery workers. One of the things my family always said about my great-grandmother’s service in her church is that she worked in the nursery for years as her primary ministry, so I equate her with faithful nursery work. Then, a lady named Irene.  She is a sweet lady that is a friend to some in our church, although she attends another church, she worked faithfully in her nursery for over 25 years. 25 years!? That seems like a long time to work with babies, doesn’t it? Well, perhaps… but there are some basic blessings that go along with faithful nursery work, that I’m sure that my great-grandmother and Mrs. Irene would testify to if we could interview them.

 
1. The Blessing of Servitude. The basic service of the nursery is to provide a place for parents to leave their children in the care of responsible nursery workers so that they can go and listen to the preaching and teaching of God’s Word. Each time that an unsaved parent hears the gospel without the distraction of their child(ren) then that is because of a nursery worker! Your service to those parents, saved or unsaved, can help build homes for the glory of God and for the good of eternity.

 
2. The Blessing of Influence. Babies are new little impressionable creatures that are taking in massive amounts of information on a daily basis and growing physically and mentally. At church, when we create the loving environment that makes them feel safe and we meet their needs and talk to them about how much God loves them, then we begin to influence their future. Faithful nursery workers get to see children on a regular basis grow from newborns to infants to walking, talking, and eventually toddlers that graduate out of the nursery. Then those children go to the next class and learn more about Jesus, then they go to the next class and learn more about the Bible, and perhaps they keep growing in the Lord and eventually get saved.

Never underestimate the power of good influence you bring to a child’s life when it surrounds church and the Bible and a good nursery environment.

3. The Blessing of Friendship. Faithful nursery workers see the fruit of faithfulness by the relationships they build with other nursery workers and with the parents of the children they minister to. Friendship has often been the result of two women being scheduled to work in the nursery together when they did not know each other very well beforehand. While, talking is not the main focus of nursery work, it does open many doors for women to talk to each other about their families and interests. It also creates a new understanding for the families in the church. When you get to interact with someone’s child(ren) then you understand more about their family and can talk to them about their child(ren) and know how to help or pray for them. Friendships built around faithful nursery work may become long-lasting friendships.

 
At times God creates a ministry in the heart of some women to serve in the church nursery as the Sunday School teacher, a consistent full-time position. But for most of us, we have a monthly schedule of working a few times a month. I hope as you serve you see the blessings of faithfulness and the long-term benefits of being involved not only in the ministry of the nursery but being a long-term member of your church. The work of a nursery worker is not a little thing, it is a beneficial work for the Lord that brings with it these three wonderful blessings. I pray that you would be a faithful nursery worker as long as you can so that you can make an eternal difference in the lives of children and parents alike.

Note: Feel free to use this outline if you have a nursery award banquet or luncheon, or even put it on the back of your nursery schedule. Just please give me credit and do not publish or copy in any other format online or elsewhere without permission.