January 2009 Pearls of Encouragement for CWMs
Welcome
Blog/Online Bible Study
CWM Coaching Tips
Article – A New Year’s Resolution
for 2009
Final Thoughts
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Welcome
Can you believe 2009 is here?
I hope you were able to have some down time
over the holidays. I’m amazed how many
women we have in our CWM community from all
over the world. If you are new to the CWM
community welcome. Make sure you visit www.christianworkingmom.com
and see past issues of the Pearls of Encouragement
email newsletters. Today, my children returned
to school and my husband and I to work. We
all wanted to stay home. Having down time
is great, but I guess we are all back to the
real world.
Blog/Online Bible Study
Come visit the CWM Blog and
spend time supporting and encouraging one
another. The CWM Blog can be found at http://christianworkingmoms.blogspot.com.
Share your New Year’s resolutions with
one another or let us know if you don’t
have a New Year’s resolution. The CWM
Online Bible Study can be found at:
http://cwmbiblestudy.blogspot.com.
I will let you know when a new lesson is posted.
CWM Coaching Tips
A great New Year’s resolution
is spending more time in memorizing and studying
God’s Word. So, get a late Christmas
present for yourself. Have a CWM Coaching
Tip with scripture emailed to you daily. To
find out more go to: http://www.kimberlychastain.com/cwmtips.htm.
Article – A New Year’s
Resolution for 2009
Have you had time to think of
New Year’s Resolutions or have you given
up in attempting to keep New Year’s
Resolutions? Have you thought about having
a spiritual New Year’s Resolution? Can
I encourage you to consider having a spiritual
New Year’s Resolution?
The most important thing we
can do is to get to know God more. Sit in
His presence and listen to him. Often our
prayer times can become a list of urgent prayer
requests and little time left to just enjoy
being with God. Women (and I would say men
as well) have had this problem for quite some
time.
Let’s look at two women
in the Bible, Mary and Martha who were getting
ready for a visit from Jesus. To revisit this
story, read Luke 10:38-42. Martha is running
around trying to get dinner ready for Jesus
and Mary is just sitting at Jesus’ feet.
Martha complains to Jesus that Mary should
be helping. Now, this is the part I want you
to hear – Jesus reply. “Martha,
Martha, you are anxious and troubled about
many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary
has chosen the good portion, which will not
be taken away from her.” Luke 10:41-42.
If we all want to be honest
we have Martha tendencies. We live in a Martha
world. We have our never ending to do list.
We have to get things done and we don’t
have time to sit down and be quiet. Yet, Jesus
said Mary chose the good portion and it would
not be taken from her. Jesus is telling us
we need to quit thinking all the stuff we
do is most important. Jesus is pointing out
the most important thing we can do (the good
portion) is building a relationship with him.
Spending time with Jesus and getting to know
him is more important than all the stuff we
do.
Now, I’m not saying we
can quit being Moms or workers, yet we often
keep ourselves busy with unnecessary tasks.
Do we take the time to be quiet before God
and just listen? Are we harried with Him as
well?
I love the last part of verse
42, “which will not be taken away from
her.” Time spent with God is never wasted.
No matter what happens to us, no matter what
happens to our bank accounts, etc. God will
always be there and our relationship with
him is to be cherished. If you think about
it almost everything in our life is temporal,
but our relationship with Christ is eternal.
How much time are we spending on eternal priorities?
So, may I encourage you in 2009
to get to know God better? Spend time being
quiet before Him and learning to listen to
Him. Study His word and get to know his character.
Resolve that you will be closer to God at
the end of 2009 than you were in 2008. You
won’t regret it and it can’t be
taken from you.
Final Thoughts
The sock fairy has visited my
dryer again. Lots of unmatched socks live
in my laundry basket. Who knows maybe they
came to visit your house?
Till next time,
Kimberly M. Chastain
