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“You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will call him Jesus.” Luke 1:31 NIV

Today is a day that children honor and remember their mothers. I was privileged to have had the mother that I did, to have aunts that are/were 2nd moms to me and to have a mother-in-law that is also a second mom to me. Happy Mother’s Day to Aunt Cathy, Aunt Sharon and My mother-in-law. Happy heavenly Mother’s Day to my Mom and Aunt Margie.

I have noticed that a great deal of the focus and attention of mother’s day is viewed through the eyes of the child as they honor or remember their mother but today I would like to look at mother’s day from the perspective of the mother. In Luke 1:31, Gabriel tells Mary that she is going to conceive a child, give birth to him and name him Jesus. I can not imagine the excitement that Mary was experiencing as she was hearing that she was going to be a mom. That she was going to be privileged to conceive, carry and give birth to another life. That she was going to care for this baby as he grew into a child and then an adult. This is what most women long for, being a mom.

Whether you give birth to a child, adopt a child or play an important role in a child’s life, the role of mother is important. I have been honored to be the mother to our son. Being a mom is not something I dreamed of as a teenager but once I was married for several years it became something I knew I was missing. Mother’s Day changed for me when I became Jakob’s mom. It was no longer only about me celebrating my mom and those women who have been important in my life, but now it was about celebrating being a mom as well. As Jakob’s mom, I have been able to help raise him, teach him things, care for him and most importantly love him.

I believe that this is one of the many things that moms share with Mary, the mother of Jesus, our Lord and Savior. As moms, we can learn from Mary about being a woman of faith and obedience to God. Mary had a long road ahead of her as mother of the Messiah. She accepted it and moved forward with faith that God would provide for her as she carried, gave birth and raised Jesus.

I pray that as moms or women who have been there for others in that important role, that we remain as faithful as Mary was as we continue to be the mother’s that God has called us to be.

Happy Mother’s Day

“When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up, the flames will not consume you.” Isaiah 43:2 NLT

I had not studied this verse until my friend Hope introduced me to it. In August of 2023, Hope was diagnosed with cancer. As she was a woman of faith, it was no surprise to watch her cling to scripture and God as she walked this path. She had told our friend Wendy and myself that she wanted to walk this path the “right” way, the way God had intended for her to walk it, leaning on Him.

She did that each day and one of the scriptures she clung to was this verse. Hope believed, as I do, that as believers and children of God, He is walking right beside us each step of every day. When we face difficulty, deep waters of grief, times when we are not sure how to go on, this verse reminds us of how much God loves us. He is there through it all.

The scripture says that we will not be consumed and in our human nature we sometimes believe that to mean that we will be saved from the difficult situation we are in, that what seems inevitable will not happen or that we will be healed. However, not drowning or being consumed looks different in God’s eyes. We are not always able to avoid the deep waters, the difficult times or the flames but we can remember that God is there to comfort us, to give us the strength we need sometimes to simply stand where we are and for us always to lean on.

Whether we learn from the difficult time and mature in our walk of faith while we are still here in earth or our mortal bodies fail and we emerge on the other side in Heaven, we have still made it through. That is what this verse said to Hope as it became evident that she was not going to be healed and remain here but be healed and join our Lord in Heaven. God was with her through the deep waters, she did not drown in the rivers of difficulty and she was not consumed by the fire.

As Hope walked each day of her battle with cancer, she was walking beside our Lord, leaning on Him and receiving His grace to face this battle. Now, Hope is walking with our Lord in Heaven and she is healed! I thank God for that.

“I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” Philipans 4:13 KJV

Where do you get your strength from?

I think of myself as a pretty strong person, both physically and mentally. However, my strength has nothing to do with me. I have lived through some scary times in my life, but my strength was not what got me through. As a child, I couldn’t tell you how my mother, brother and myself survived some of the things we did, but as an adult, I can tell you that it had nothing to do with our strength and everything to do with God’s strength. I believe that God walked with us through those events, protecting us each step of the way.

Many of the situations we all face in life are able to knock us off our feet when we take our eyes off of God. But when we remain focused on Him and allow Him to provide the strength we need in our times of weakness, then we are able to walk through tough and even scary situations.

As a child of God, I know that God is with me all the time. When I began being privileged enough to give the message during church, I was so nervous that I was certain I was either going to be sick or start crying. I made it through but not by my strength, it was God who brought me through. It has been 7 years now that I have been honored to be able to give the message at church at different times throughout the years and that anxiety has gone away. I believe that if I had not given those moments and so many other moments like that to God, that I would not be writing this blog right now. God can do amazing things through us if we are willing to be His vessel and lean on Him.

My prayer for each one who reads this is that each day you rely on God to bring you through the situations in your life knowing that He only wants the best for His children and He is always walking beside you.

Have a wonderful day.

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face towards you and give you peace. Numbers 6:24-26 NIV.

What a blessing. When I read these verses, I think of sitting with my mother as she lovingly looks at me. Our earthly parents are imperfect and yet they want what is best for us and as a child I loved seeing my mother look at me. Without even touching me, I knew she loved me.

While our earthly parents want what is best for us, our heavenly Father wants that even more. Where they have limited resources to help us, God has unlimited resources that can work for our good when we walk according to His will. God wants to bless us, He wants to keep us close to Him and He wants to give us His peace. We need to seek Him daily so we can receive all He has for us as our parent.

I pray, as you begin your day, that you draw near to our heavenly Father and let Him bless you and keep you, let Him shine His face upon you and be gracious to you, let Him turn towards you and give you His peace, the peace that defies understanding. Have a blessed day.

My name is Tina and I want to welcome you to my blog. I am excited to start posting devotions here. I hope someone is able to use what God is inspiring me to write and post.

A little about me….I have been married for over 30 years to my wonderful husband Bill and we have an adult son, Jakob. I have been born again since I was a child but didn’t always walk very closely with God. About 25 years ago that changed and I have been growing in my walk with God ever since. I am also privileged to be a lay leader in my church. I am not a preacher or claim to be, but I feel led to begin sharing God’s word on this platform.

So welcome to my blog “For His Honor.” I hope you return each day to read the scripture of the day and get refreshed as you grow in your walk with God.