Joyce Williams - Quiet Moments for Moms: Scriptures, Meditations, and Prayers

Copyright 2008
By Joyce Williams and Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City

2014 eISBN 978-0-8341-3463-8

Printed in the
United States of America

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior written permission of the publisher. If you have received this publication from any source other than an online bookstore, youve received a pirated copy. Please contact us at the Nazarene Publishing House and notify us of the situation.

Cover Design: Darlene Filley
Interior Design: Sharon Page

All Scripture quotations not otherwise designated are from the Holy Bible, New International Version (NIV). Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Permission to quote from the following additional copyrighted versions of the Bible is acknowledged with appreciation:

The New American Standard Bible (NASB), copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995.

The Message (TM). Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Quiet moments for moms : scriptures, meditations, and prayers / compiled by Joyce Williams.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-8341-2355-7 (pbk.)
1. MothersPrayers and devotions. I. Williams, Joyce, 1944

BV4847.Q44 2008
242'.6431dc22

2007052807

CONTENTS

Susannah Wesley was once asked, With all of your children, which one do you love the most?

She replied, I love the one most who is away from home until he returns, the one who is sick until he is well, the one who is hurt until the hurt disappears, and the one who is lost until he is found.

Im a hands-on type mom. I have two kids left at home, and even though theyre in their later years of high school, Im at the school anytime I can be. I try to be very involved.

Several weeks ago I was decorating for the Music Department fundraiser. Every year we moms bake cheesecake and decorate so the kids can put on a musical show. A group of us were decorating in one area of the school while ball games and other activities were going on down the hall in the gym. We suddenly realized we were running low on decorations, so I volunteered to run to the store for more red and white streamers.

As I was walking across the parking lot and unlocking my car door, I heard a man in a truck nearby talking into his cell phone. No, he wasnt talkinghe was yelling, something like He made two points! Two [blankety-blank] points! If hes not going to apply himself and be aggressive and try a little bit, he may as well quit. I dont even know why I came today. He played a horrible game!

My heart just wilted. Some guy was swearing about his sons performanceprobably to his wife.

And then I thoughtif we could go back 14 years with this same dad, I wonder if we might have heard him yelling, Two steps! He took two steps! I was telling him to come to Daddy and he did it! He probably threw him up in the air and gave him a big hug. Who counted the times that little boy fell? Nobody. They just counted the times he succeeded.

When did this dad change from excitement when his kid tried to walk to nagging when he didnt perform perfectly? I thought, I would never be like that! I would never treat my kids like that. But as I drove to the store, I began thinking of all the times I nag the kids for not performing the way I want them to. How few times do I praise them for all the good things I see them doing? And I had to wonder when that happened for me. When did I change from encouraging them to do their best to being on their cases for not getting it just right?

Maybe Im a bit more likely to see my own sin and shortcomings since my jungle experience. Several years ago, my husband, Martin, and I were taken hostage by militant Muslims. We had left our three children with missionary coworkers at our home while we went to another island of the Philippines to work for a short time. We never returned home. After a year of captivity, Martin was killed. I was rescued and returned to the United States.

During that year, not a day went by that Martin and I didnt wonder about our children. We knew they had been sent back to the states and were receiving good care, but we missed them desperately. We wondered how they were doing emotionally. We prayed for them constantly and begged God to let us see them again.

I also relived all the times that I had been unkind to them, the times when I was impatient with them because they werent perfect, the times when I was just plain mean! I prayed for the chance to do a better job of mothering. How thankful Ive been that God has given me a second chance!

Probably the reason you picked up this book is that, like me, you want to be a better mom. You want to hear from others who have been there. Im confident that well find encouragement, instruction, ideas, and maybe a few warnings that we need to hear as we read. May God work in all our hearts so that well become the mothers He wants us to be.

Many who are first will be last, and the last first.

Mark 10:31

She was a very quiet, humble person. My mama avoided the spotlight like the plague, and you would never find her up front. As a matter of fact, she always sat near the back of the sanctuary.

Mama was unstintingly unselfish. She always made me and my sisters, Bobbi and Jane, her priority. I remember her taking us shopping. On rare occasions when Daddy had earned some extra money, she took us to one of the nicest stores in town. At great personal sacrifice she bought Jane and me, who were born 15 months apart, matching outfits. I dont remember her ever buying something for herself. That was Mama.

Mama and Daddy worked hard. It wasnt unusual for Daddy to work three jobs. Both of them had minimal educations, so survival was always a struggle. In the summer Daddy went to the farmers market late in the day to buy bushels of produce. Mama spent many days canning fruits and vegetables to get us through the winter. For years she provided daycare for children in our home. We came to consider some of them as little adopted sisters and brothers.

In my early years Mama did our laundry each Mondaywash dayin a wringer washing machine. I remember being fascinated by the different galvanized tubs she positioned around that aging relic. One was for cold water, another for hot water, and another for bleach water. It was quite a process.

Jane and I took advantage of her preoccupation with that all-day assignment to stir up any kind of mischief we could. Mama believed in corporal punishment, so we frequently felt the sting of switches from nearby trees. From all I hear and remember, we must have been little terrors. One day she locked us in a room and told us not to tear up jack, whatever that means. I was so ornery that I found a picture of Cousin Jack, and we tore it up! I wonder how child psychologists would analyze such behavior.

Mama was firm and really knew how to use a switch on two misbehaving little girls. But she was always kind and loving. She had a great sense of humor. I loved to hear her laugh, although she usually covered her mouth. She had lost several teeth, and due to her sacrificial nature, she delayed getting false teeth for years.