- May is for Mamas -

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Resources from this episode:

The Work & Play Weekly Checklist (Free Download!)
The Work & Play Mastermind!
The Legacy Photo System (code MAMAS for $50 off this month)

Show Notes:

Welcome to another episode of May is for Mamas, and this is Mother's Day Week! We are approaching Mother's Day and I had the thought, I want to create a podcast episode that is a gift to any mom who is listening. And oftentimes for Mother's Day, we wanna get a massage or we wanna get away, or we want a new bag, or we wanna be served breakfast in bed. And all of these things are good and of of course, of course we want most of all those homemade cards from our kids that is the best. And just the acknowledgement of all the work and love that we pour into our families and all of that is so good and right and wonderful to want and receive those things.

But sometimes, sometimes more than anything, I just want some words of life spoken over me. I need a fresh wind of the Holy Spirit to empower my steps. I want to to hear scripture and words that can speak to me in the dark moments that hold me together when I feel like I'm falling apart. The words that give me patience when I lose my temper, the words that give me wisdom when I need it most.

And so today I am gonna be sharing my favorite scripture verses for mamas. And of course there are endless scriptures that I could share. There are so many more that I could pull from, but these are some of my personal favorites that I just want to read over you and share with you today.

Also, I wanted to let you know as another Mother's Day gift, I'm giving you $50 towards the Legacy Photo System. If you want to take advantage of that, just use the code MAMAS when you check out.

Lastly, I wanted to let you know that there are still a few spots available for my mastermind group, which is kicking off in June. If you are interested to learn more about that and apply, head to nancyray.com/mastermind. Applications close May 17th so make sure you go and apply before then!

For the full episode, hit play above or read through below.

So I'm gonna start by sharing my favorite verses with you, and then I'm gonna pray for you. And then I'm gonna remind you of a name of God that we need to cling to as moms. Happy Mother's Day, friend. I hope this week is sweet for you. I hope you know how valuable you are. I also hope that you pull this episode out again on a random Tuesday in December when you are facing new challenges and you're not being celebrated as much and it's busy and it's crazy. And I just wanna remind you that this episode is available for you whenever you need it, if you need to come back to these scriptures because God's strength and his word and his presence is available to you every day of the year.

Let me just say I need it every day of the year. So let me start with these scriptures and a lot of them apply to different seasons of life as moms. I just wanna share them with you today and then I'm gonna pray over you.

So one of my favorite verses that I quoted over and over again when I was pregnant and nursing is Proverbs 14:30 which says, “A tranquil heart is life to the body.” Another version says, “A calm and peaceful and tranquil heart is life and health to the body.” And I remember so vividly taking a deep breath and saying that over and over again. I remember going on runs early in my pregnancies and I would just say over again, a tranquil heart is life to the body. And I would just speak life to this womb, speak life to this baby over and over again. It would just remind me to calm down my heart and my mind because of course there are nerves and worries that come with being pregnant. You just want everything to be okay with your baby. You want everything to be okay with the pregnancy. And this verse was something that I could anchor myself to. A tranquil heart is life to the body.

Now, when I was sleep deprived and I couldn't sleep, I actually struggled a lot with insomnia in pregnancy and even in the newborn days, people would say ‘sleep when the baby sleeps,’ and I always had a really, really hard time falling asleep. And then it would be time to feed the baby again. And so I was in some major sleep deprivation. At one point I was hallucinating. It just got really, really bad and I felt like I would never be able to sleep again, and that can leave you feeling almost at the end of yourself like, I can't, like how am I supposed to live and mother and function and be a person when you can't sleep?

It's a very, very hard place to be. And I remember just speaking these words over and over again and they brought a lot of peace to me. It Psalm 4:8 and it says, “I will lie down and sleep in peace for you alone. Oh Lord, make me dwell in safety.” And I remember my late grandfather was a doctor and my mom always shared this. This was my mom's dad. And he would always say, if you can't sleep, it's okay. Your body will go to sleep when you really need the sleep, it will, just trust your body. And that always brought me a lot of peace, too. And I would just quote the scripture, I will lie down and sleep in peace for you alone. Oh Lord, make me dwell in safety.

Okay, so if you are in a season where you have a lot of little ones and you feel overwhelmed, I'm raising my hand because this is for me too. Isaiah 40:11 says, “He tends his flock like a shepherd. He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart. He gently leads those that have young.”

And that last phrase is such a beautiful reminder that he leads us, but he leads us gently. He knows exactly what we have on our plates every day. He knows how overwhelming it can be some days and he gently leads us. And I love the picture of him as a shepherd. He's leading the way. It's not always up to us to lead the way or find the way he's leading us, and we just need to follow him. And just knowing that his leadership is gentle, especially to those of us who have little ones.

Okay, when you feel far from God, I actually have this written down on a little note card posted by my mirror right now in my bathroom. And it's simply James 4:8, which is a promise. “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.” That's it. When you feel far from him. And there have been times in motherhood that I just feel really distant from God because I feel like I can't have dedicated time with him. Or I feel like it's been so long since I've really shared what's going on in my heart with God, or even had time to dream or think or eat or do anything. There've been times where it just feels like God, are we, are we good? Are you there? But He is. And I just love this simple promise that says, just draw near to him and he will draw near to you and that's it. And I think even if you just pray and say, God, I wanna draw near to you. I am choosing to draw near to you today. Know that he's gonna show up and draw close right back to you because it's a promise. It's in his Word.

When you need wisdom about school decisions or work decisions or childcare decisions or health decisions or any decisions in life, motherhood is full of decisions. I love the verse, Colossians 2:3. It says, “In him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” In him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And we can have knowledge which is learning books, tools, facts, just learning about the created world, learning about everything around us. But wisdom is that knowledge applied. And a lot of times we need wisdom for our children, specifically for ourselves specifically because our children are all different. We are different, and we're all together in a family. So it's hard to discern what is the best step for each person in the family, and then how do we also move together through life as a family unit? And I just wanna remind you of this, this truth and this promise that in Jesus are hidden all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. If we come to Him, He can reveal those things to us. And also just want to remind you of the promise in James that when we ask for wisdom, he always gives it. He never runs out of wisdom. He will always give us wisdom when we ask.

Now, this is a great verse, if you're stressed out about how messy your house is, because we all, that's us all the time as moms. Just, the house is always messy, but I love this verse. It says, “Without oxen, a stable stays clean.” So yeah, your house would be so clean if it didn't have kids in it, the stable would be so clean if it didn't have oxen in it. But what's the purpose of a stable? To have animals in it. What's the purpose of a home? To have people in it. So I just want to encourage you that yes, this is gonna be hard, it's gonna be messy, it's gonna be overwhelming right now, deep breath. Right now, my playroom, the amount of toys and clutter is, it really is overwhelming. I'm just gonna be honest that the, the clothing situation for four children and myself and my husband, but I don't really deal with his clothes, he deals with his own. But it's just like, it's up to me to kind of manage myself and all of the kids' clothes, right? It's overwhelming to deal with all of it. There's stuff everywhere all the time. I feel like I'm constantly cleaning, but I have to tell myself one day I know I'm gonna miss it. One day my house will be clean again because the kids are gonna be gone from it. Without oxen, a stable stays clean. Without kids, the house stays clean. But here it is, the purpose of this house in our home is to raise these beautiful children. And with that comes a mess. So it's gonna be worth it. It is.

Okay. And I love this verse, too. Now, this is for the mamas out there who might be a little bit older who might be thinking, oh my goodness, my kids are older or maybe they're even out of the house. And I love, I love this verse Psalm 71:18, and it says, “Even when I'm old and gray, do not forsake me, my God, till I declare your power to the next generation. Your mighty acts to all who are to come.” And so as we get older, we can look towards the end of our life when we're old and gray and look ahead and say, even when I'm old and gray, and listen, I'm not trying to call you moms out there who have older kids, old and gray. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying this is, this is us as we're moving through life, as we're aging, as all of us are, we are asking God for fresh power, fresh anointing and committing to a lifelong commitment to him and to displaying his power and his goodness to the next generation.

Even when I'm old and gray, even to the end of my days, do not forsake me, my God, until till I declare your power to the next generation. Your mighty acts to all who are to come. I love the verses in the Bible that talk about proclaiming his goodness and faithfulness from generation to generation. And we get to play a part in that. As moms, we get to play a part in that as moms and as grandmothers and as aunts and as godmothers and whatever role we have to the younger kids in our lives, we get to declare his power to the next generation. And we will do that all the days of our lives. So I love that verse because it's a picture of us doing that again and again and again. Not just for when our kids are little, but as they grow up, too and as we have grandchildren and continue to just declare God's goodness and faithfulness to each generation.

Okay, this is my last verse. It is Colossians 3:12-15. And it is just a practical everyday verse for moms because this speaks right to my situation every single day. It says, “Therefore, as God's chosen ones, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience bearing with one another and forgiving one another. If anyone has a grievance against one another, just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also are to forgive. Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. And let the peace of Christ to which you are also called in one body rule your hearts and be thankful.”

Okay, this verse, it could be a whole sermon, it could be a whole podcast episode unto its own. There there is so much packed into this. Listen, I think we all just maybe should commit to memorizing this this month of May because we need it. As moms, we need this. This is, this is some good stuff—put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience. All of those things are things I desire to have as a mother. And I love how it says to put them on. It's like they might not come naturally, but we can choose to like pick them up and put them on like a jacket or like a shirt. Like today I am putting on kindness. Today I am putting on gentleness. And we can take that on with the power of the Holy Spirit and walk that out. And then of course, it talks about forgiving one another. If there's ever a place that forgiveness is needed, it's in the family. We're just a bunch of people hurting each other's feelings all the time. If we have a grievance against one another, just as the Lord forgives you, you also forgive. And so just asking the Lord to help us to, to receive his forgiveness and also just to re, to dole out that forgiveness every day, every day. And it says, above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.

I know I have a picture of my family. I want my family to stay close throughout decades through, I mean through the rest of our lives. I really, one of my deepest longings and greatest prayers for my family is that my children would stay close. That Will and I would stay close, that we would have such a strong family through all of our days. And I love that because it says, put on love, that's the perfect bond of unity. And then finally, let the peace of Christ to which you are also called in one body rule your hearts and be thankful. Let the peace of Christ rule your hearts and be thankful. Just count all the ways that we can be thankful. There are so many reasons we can be thankful as moms.

So I just encourage you today, just take one of those verses, embrace it, memorize it, write it on a note card, whatever verse you need for your motherhood today, I, I just pray a blessing over you that this week of Mother's Day you would take that scripture, take these words of life and claim it and, and know that God is with you. He's with you, and He will never leave you. And you are doing a beautiful job as you keep your eyes on Jesus for your confidence and your strength, because that is absolutely where we have to get it every single day. As moms, we have to get our confidence and our strength from the Lord as we mother and raise our kids. So Lord, I pray a blessing over the mom who is listening right now. I pray that she would know you are with her, that your presence is so real in her life, that you are real and you are with her in the walls of her home. You are with her as she is driving the car, doing errands, doing school pickup and drop-offs and extracurricular activities that you're with her as she is chopping the onions and stirring the macaroni and cheese that you are with her as she's tucking each loved one into bed at night.

God, I thank you that your Holy Spirit is so powerful and that your gentleness and patience and love is strong and powerful in a mother. That our arms are like extensions of you as we hold our babies, that we get to share your love and your gentleness, your provision, your strength, your healing. We get to hold them when they're sick. We get to comfort them when they're hurt. We get to love on them and welcome them home every day. God, I pray that you would just anoint our hands for the good work that you would have us do as moms, and that you would strengthen us by your word today, by your Holy Spirit, and that we would continue to walk in gentleness and patience and forgiveness.

Help us to keep our eyes on you and help us to point our children to you, our husbands to you as we proclaim your goodness and your power from generation to generation. In Jesus name, amen. Happy Mother's Day. I'm gonna close with these words that I actually wrote for my church. The media team at church reached out and asked if I would just write something for the moms and that they would put a video to it for Mother's Day a couple years ago.

And so this is what I wrote, and I wanted to share it with you today—

To the mother who has woken up for the third time in a night, to check a fever, to calm tears, and to pull herself out of a sleepy fog yet again.
To the mother begging God to protect and direct her kids while they grow, learn, and often fall time and time again.
To the mother who has cleaned goldfish out of her car for the thousandth time, who has wiped down the highchair three times every day for three years straight, who has placed bandaids on bloody knees and wiped away countless tears who has stayed up all night in the emergency room to the mother, fixing breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner, yet again.
To the mother, staying up extra late, helping to finish a project or talk through friendship problems or hear about a first crush, or watch her teenager drive the car for the first time and pray like crazy.
To the mother who has suffered a season of waiting, longing, or indescribable loss and grief, carrying her family and child through a diagnosis or holding the hope of heaven near her heart every day.
To the mother caring for her own mother or father as they age and their bodies grow weary.
To the mother trying to care for herself in the midst of caring for so many.
You are strong. You are a rock. You are a warrior. You are doing kingdom work. You bring healing, favor, anointing, grace and love. Elroy is the Hebrew name for God. That means the God who sees. While motherhood is unseen, Holy work, God sees you. He sees you every day, every moment. And today I see you and I acknowledge you.
To every mama listening to this, thank you and I honor you. Happy Mother's Day.

Well, I barely got through it, but thank you for listening to this episode of Work & Play with Nancy Ray.

I love this quote by Gilda Rattner. She said,