Checking in on the 30 Days Challenge

We are at the half way mark of our 30 Days Challenge.

How has your time with the Lord been?  

It is not easy when we first start out.  We may find our thoughts wandering off to our daily to-do list or the kids' needs.  We may find ourselves dozing off in the midst of bible reading or praying...  Or we may find ourselves just reading without understanding... or just going through the routine to get it out of the way to ease our guilty conscience.  

It may be a struggle... some of us took years before we managed to have a consistent time with the Lord.... So don't give up after a few days or weeks.  

Like a baby learning to walk, we take our first faltering steps... we will stumble and fall... and like a baby, we pick ourselves up and try again and try again.  With practice, the baby's legs get stronger, the feet surer and the steps more confident...  and slowly we will be running with the Lord and you will find the time with the Lord getting sweeter and sweeter each day. 

So don't give up.  Hang in there!  :)

His Burden is Light

The One Year Book of Praying Through the Bible by Cheri Fuller

Below is a sample devotional taken from The One Year Book of Praying Through the Bible by Cheri Fuller.

January 16: His Burden is Light

Then Jesus said, “Come to me, 

all you who are weary and carry
heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 

Take my yoke upon you.
Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle,
and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke fits perfectly, and the burden I give you is light.
Matthew 11:28-30

What heavy burden is weighing you down and causing a heaviness and weariness in your spirit? Is it the needs to take care of an elderly parent? a seemingly impossible deadline at work? juggling overwhelming responsibilities of a job plus parenting a houseful of kids? the burden of chronic illness? A difficult relationship with someone you love? financial struggles?

Whatever your “heavy burden,” Jesus invites you, just as he did to the crowds he was teaching. Come to me. Give me the heavy load you’re carrying. And in exchange, I will give you rest.

Whenever I read these verses from Matthew, I breathe a sigh of relief. Jesus knows the challenges and deadlines we face and the weariness of mind or body we feel. He understands the stress, tasks, and responsibilities that are weighing us down. As we lay all that concerns us before him, his purpose replaces our agenda, and his lightness and rest replace our burden.

Lord, thank you for your offer to carry my burdens for me. I give them all to you and I gladly receive your rest! I place myself under your yoke to learn from you. Teach me your wisdom that is humble and pure, and help me to walk in the ways you set before me. Thank you for your mercy and love that invite me to live my life resting and trusting in you!

When he says to your disturbed, distracted, restless soul or mind, “Come unto Me,” He is saying, come out of the strife and doubt and struggle of what is at the moment where you stand, into that which was and is and is to be—the eternal, the essential, the absolute. Phillips Brooks (1835-1893)

***********

If you are unsure which devotional to get, can we recommend you the above?

It is a wonderful and inspiring devotional.  The daily devotional truly encourages and strengthens! :)  Many ladies who have used this devotional book during their quiet time have found it to be a great blessing.We find God speaking to us through these daily Bible passages and devotionals.  And somehow, the day's devotional is just so app for our day's situation or challenges we are facing.  God knows our needs and speak to us through the different readings of the day.

For more information, please go look up Cheri's website at www.cherifuller.com  She also has a column specially for mothers and has also recently launched a new devotional book "The One Year Women's Friendship Devotional which is also a blessing to many.  

Don't take our word for it.  Go check it out for yourself :)

A Blessed and Fruitful Chinese New Year

A Happy and Blessed Chinese New Year to you and family.

May this time of family reunion be a time of bonding.

May it also brings reconciliation and healing.

May it be a time of joyous celebration.

May we all shine brightly for Jesus and

bring the good news and cheer to all we meet.

Heart2Heart Mothers' Fellowship

30th Jan Meeting - A Mom's Priority

We will meet next Friday 30th Jan, 2009 with the first installment of PREPARING OUR CHILDREN FOR THEIR FUTURE.

This session's topic will be A Mom's Priority.  What's a mom's priority?  To give our children the best of everything that we can offer? The best education, the best holidays, the latest game consoles or gadgets?

Often times, we feel pressured to give our kids the right "package" of experiences to help them get a head start in life.  

We arrange our lives around our children with a myriad of activities - sports/games practices, performances, music lessons, dance classes, gatherings etc.....  We feel that our kids will lose out if we do not do such for our kids.

So many sports to choose from, so many musical instruments to pick up....  so much to do.... but so so little time...

So what are we to do about it?  What is your priority?

Come join us on 30th January as we joined Andy Stanley via DVD and learn from him what our priority should be.  Experience? Or Relationship?

Topic : A Mom's Priority : Experience vs Relationship

Date  : Friday, 30th January 2009

Time  : 9.00-11.30 am

Place  :   BRMC Conference Rooms 1 & 2

Heart2Heart Mothers' Fellowship

Inspiring Moms, Building Homes

Meeting Dates

Heart2Heart Mothers' Fellowsihip will meet on the following Fridays :

30th Jan  

A Mom's Priority

(Preparing Our Children for the Future I)

What's a Mom's Priority? 

To give our child the best of experiences 

and everything in life?

Or it is more than that....?

13th Feb  

Prayer is A Way of.....

We are on a journey,

traveling with God through life.

How are we relating to Him?

What does our prayer life/prayers tell of us?

27th Feb  

Our Child's Relationship with God

(Preparing Our Children for the Future II)

Am I Nurturing a healthy perspective that

will help my child weather the storms of life?

13th Mar 

Seasons in Our Lives

Is a woman's life just one long season of motherhood?

What are the seasons in a woman's life?

27th Mar

God's Diet Plan

Guest Speaker : Mrs Malar Solomon

How are we nourishing our souls?

Is it even important to do so?

How can God's word be real & applicable

to our lives as moms?

How do we appropriate God's word for our lives?

Time  9.00-11.30am

Place BRMC Conference Rooms 1 & 2

Keep these Fridays free and join us for a time of learning and growing, prayer and fellowship!

All moms are welcome :)

Heart2Heart Mothers' Fellowship

Inspiring Mothers, Building Homes

Family & Children Devotionals

Visit us at our new blog : Hearts of Moms Blog :)

Just as you are starting out on the 30 Days Challenge, why not encourage your children to join you too. It can be a very enriching experience for both of you. It can be a time of learning, bonding and growing together.

There is much benefit to getting our children started on a daily quiet time with the Lord and cultivating and instilling this habit early in their lives.

The values he learnt through these times will stay with him/her through his/her adulthood. "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Prov 22:6

It will strengthens his/her inner life and he/she can be like a tree planted by the waters and know that Jesus is in the boat with them all the time - in fine weather or in a storm.

This devotional time is also a time where we can model to our children what it means to spend time with the Lord, how to read His word, how to hear Him speak to us, how to apply God's word in our lives, how to pray and trust Him to answer our prayers.

It is really quite exciting to see God answering our kid's prayers and at work in their lives.It is such joy to see their little faces light when God answers their prayers. Their faith grow. And so does ours.

When my son was younger, I took time to have devotions with him each night before he went to bed. It was a very precious time. (How I wished I had done the same with my 2 older kids.)

I'd learnt much as we read the bible stories together and prayed together. God taught me much through the simple faith of a little child - by the questions he asked, the answers he gave and even the prayers he prayed. The simple faith of a child. I was really blessed as I listened to him pray and that also gave me an insight into his heart and thoughts.

I also noticed that my son is more obedient, better behaved and more receptive to correction when he spends time reading God's word and praying.

Cultivating this habit of a devotional life is not only good for us but for our children as well.

Below are some Family and Children Devotional Materials you can use.

1. The One Year Bible for Children (Tyndale) [Ages 4-9] {My son loved this book}

2. The One Year Book of Did You Know Devotions by Nancy Hill {He learnt about the world and God's word at the same time}

3. The One Year Devotions for Boys (Tyndale)

4. The One Year Devotions for Girls (Tyndale)

5. The One Year Book of Family Devotions, Vol 1

6. Step into the Bible : 100 Bible Stories for Family by Ruth Graham

Above is just a sampling of the many books available.

Check them out at the bookstores. They will be able to recommend you one that suits your child or family :)

Devotional Materials

A good "how-to" reference to help you understand and show you how to have a meaningful devotional life (quiet time) with the Lord is "A Place of Quiet Rest : Finding Intimacy with God Through A Daily Devotional Life" by Nancy Leigh DeMoss.

You may also want to listen to Nancy Leigh DeMoss' radio broadcast at Revive Our Hearts http://www.reviveourhearts.com/radio/roh/today.php?pid=10104 / Purity and Direction or download the podcast onto your iPod or mp3 player and you can listen to it any time, anyhwere :)

Some good devotional materials you can use :

1. Our Daily Bread (RBC)

2. The One Year Book of Praying through the Bible by Cheri Fuller

3. Streams in the Desert by LB Cowman

4. Women of the Bible: A One Year Devotional Study of  Women in the Scripture by Ann Spangler

5. Just like Jesus Devotional by Max Lucado

6. Praying God's Word Day by Day by Beth Moore

These are available are SKS Books Warehouse, Baptist Bookstore, Campus Crusade Media.

30 Day Challenge

Will you join us in taking up this 30 Day Challenge to spend time with the LORD in His Word and in prayer?

At the end of our last session, we gave this challenge to the moms present at the meeting.  And we don't want  you to miss this opportunity and challenge.

We had given this challenge at the start of 2008, and quite a few ladies took it up and committed themselves to spending time with the Lord.  For those who persevered and stayed on with it, the rewards have been sweet and tremendous.

For some of us who might not have done so or might have stumbled along the way, don't give up.  Just like that little baby learning how to walk, we will stumble and fall along the way.  And strength comes from picking ourselves up and trying again.

So this is the Challenge : Commit yourself to spend some time alone with the Lord everyday, in His Word and in prayer, prioritizing your relationship with Him!

By God's grace, we can keep this commitment - even if it is just a 5-10 minutes a day.  It is a good start.

And as you continue in your time with the Lord, you will find that this 30 days go by too quickly and you will not want to miss your time with the Lord even after this 30 days.

Will you join us in taking up this challenge?

(Coming up next ... Some good devotional materials)

Satisfying Our Thirst

We had our first Heart2Heart session on Friday and we watched and listened to Nancy Leigh DeMoss share with us from the John 4 on the Samaritan Woman at the well.

Here are some of the takeaways from this DVD:

1. Like the Samaritan woman at the well, all of us are THIRSTY.

2. We are thirsty on 3 levels : i) Physical Thirst

    ii) Emotional Thirst 

 - such as loneliness, rejection, 

   hurt, broken 

     iii) Spiritual Thirst 

  - the inner most thirst 

    of our spirit

3. We have all tried to satisfy our thirst in all the wrong places. (Jer 2:13)

     - we have looked to people, to our husband, our children to cover up our loneliess  

     - we may have depended on our husband to meet our expectations, to make

        us happy

     - some of us may have buried ourselves in our careers to show to others 

that we can achieve

     - yet some may busy ourselves keeping house, looking after the family to 

keep away the hurts and mask the pain

      and the list is endless

4. But God has given us a way out.

    - God wants to meet our needs and deepest longings.

    - The Lord Himself is the WATER that truly satisfies.

Question is ....  How do I get my thirst satisfied?

Nancy Leigh DeMoss encourages us to take a deep look within us and admit that we are thirsty. 

Unless we get get desperately thirsty, we will not go after the water that will satisfy once and for all.  

Unless we get desperately thirsty, we will just be contented to take the substitute that satisfies us only temporarily.

So, we need to reflect and search our hearts and identify the empty wells within our souls that we have been trying to fill up with temporary comfort, such as eating to forget our misery or shopping to make us feel good or any of the other replacements stated above.

We must recognise the utter futility of seeking to fulfill our thirst in anything or anyone other than our Lord Jesus Himself.

The speaker also reminded us that disappointment and loneliness and loss are a BLESSING, for they force us to look heavenward - to Jesus to meet our needs (Psalm 142:4-5)

Will you come to Jesus to drink? (John 7:37-38, Isa 55:1-2, Rev 22:17)

Our Lord is waiting.  

  

Heads Up : Heart2Heart Meets Friday 16th Jan 2009

An early heads up for you :

Heart2Heart Mothers' Fellowship starts our 1st meeting for 2009 on Friday, January 16th.

We pray that by then, all our kids will be nicely settled into their schools and new environments and routines.  We also pray that, for this year 2009, you will be able to make Heart2Heart Mothers' Fellowship part of your fortnightly Friday morning routine.

For most of us, as we start each new year, our hope and prayer is probably that life be less hurried and we be less stressed out, and more rested and relaxed this new year.

But the reality of it all is that, even before 1st January is over, we are already caught up with the mad rush, new challenges, higher expectations/targets, deadlines, meeting the needs of our families and loved ones, work etc etc...

And barely into the next day, we are already thinking ahead to the weekend and checking out when is the next public holiday.

And so, life continues to be this way with the rest of the year : with more rushing, and more doing....  And as time goes by, we begin to feel more tired and anxious, frustrated and disappointed, or neglected and unappreciated, or drained and empty...  (I am so guilty of this!)

So the question is : How can we carry on in our journey as moms with new energy and strength, new enthusiasm and optimism? Where do we get all that?  What about our needs? Who will meet our needs?  What are these needs?

Come join us on 16th January 2009, Friday and learn from Nancy Leigh DeMoss via DVD.  Let her help us identify some of these needs we have and allow her to lead us to THE WELL that will continually refresh and fill us up!

Nancy Leigh DeMoss is a wonderful Bible teacher who breaks God's truth into such understandable and applicable bites for our lives as a woman, a child of God, a wife and mother and a friend.

This session may be the turning point our lives for some of us.  It will also probably set the tone of this year for many of us!  So DON'T MISS IT!

Topic      : DRINK IT UP! OBEY YOUR THIRST!

Speaker  : Nancy Leigh DeMoss (via DVD)

Date        : Friday, 16th January 2009

Time       : 9.00-11.30 am

Loaction : BRMC Conference Rooms 1 & 2

Keep 16th Jan free.  We are looking forward to meeting you again :)

Come and be blessed!

Bring your friends and be refreshed!

For more details, you can contact us at cheerymom@gmail.com 

God Bless.

Heart2Heart Mothers' Fellowship

Inspiring Moms, Building Homes

Heart2Heart Mothers' Fellowship is open to all moms of all stages - new moms, young moms, older moms and grandmas too.  If you are a mom, you are most welcome to join us.

A Blog for Heart2Heart Mothers' Fellowship

I finally did it!! 

 After a few forgotten accounts and passwords :)  

Hopefully,  by God's grace and strength, we can continue to maintain this blog for all of us moms. All for the glory of God!

Till the next post... 

A Blessed and Happy New Year to all our Moms.  

Our New Year prayer and blessings for you and your family is from Numbers 6:24-26 : 

The Lord Bless you and keep you. 

The Lord make His face shine upon you; and be gracious to you.  

The Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.