After a recent church service, I walked up on a conversation that really provided some food for thought. The discussion was about advice from women in the Bible. A gentleman asked me if I could name any instances in the scripture where a woman gave good advice. I have to admit, I drew a blank. But this gentleman already had the answer, and I was pretty impressed with his insight, although there was a slight undertone of a joke about being surprised that a woman had given good advice. So the commentary that follows is based on two verses that he shared with me, and I hope you will find this advice as inspiring as I do.

The first piece of advice comes from a women whose name we aren't given. She is commonly referred to as "the woman at the well". After an encounter with Jesus where she recognizes him as the Christ, the bible says this woman made her way into the city and then said to the men, "Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?" (John 4:29) This woman's advice sounds simple, yet the heart of her message is the most important of directives in all of human experience: Meet Jesus.

Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." (John 14:6) Without a real, personal encounter with Christ, one cannot know or understand truth, experience authentic joy or peace, or have any assurance of heaven. When the knowledge of the power of a relationship with Jesus was revealed to the woman that met Him at the well, she couldn't keep that revelation to herself. She had to share Him with others. If you haven't taken the woman's advice to meet Him, please take a moment now to consider her words.

For those of us that have met the Christ, we should follow the woman's example and use our energies to make His name famous. Our lives should make others want to meet Him. The joy that we carry should speak for itself, saying, "Come, see! Come, see! Come, see!" And we should always be ready to tell others how we came to know the Christ, and what He has done for us. (But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. 1 Peter 3:5)

The second piece of good advice comes from a much more popular biblical figure- Mary, the mother of Jesus. I had never stopped to reflect on Mary's words to the servants at the wedding in Cana. Just before the Lord performed His first earthly miracle by turning the water into wine, his mother said to the servants, "Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it." (John 2:5) What more can I add? Straightforward. Simple. Life-changing. In obedience to the Lord, all the questions of life are resolved. Of course, we have to search the Word to know His commandments, but Proverbs 3:6 says, "In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." Whatever He says to do, we should do it.

The servants that filled the water pots and drew from them to serve the governor of the feast witnessed a surprising miracle! We can likewise see miraculous things in our lives, when we are obedient to what Jesus says to do in His Word.

​I'm so glad the words of these two wise women of history were presented to me for further reflection.  May we all take their advice to heart.

​This summer, my children and I have been working on scripture memorization.  For us, that means taking a verse per week and saying it together every day so by the end of the week we have it memorized.  We've been focusing on the book of Psalms, and I'd like to share with you the verses I've selected for us to learn. 
​
​I think Psalms is especially great for verse memorization.  The psalms are passionate and inspiring.  They teach us about worship and about the character of God, and the lyrical nature of Psalms makes many verses relatively easy to memorize.  

​Some verses may take more than one week for kids to memorize.  That's okay!  Sometimes you may want to learn two in the same week.  Just be consistent with reciting the verse daily- maybe at the dinner table- but, learn them at whatever pace is best for everyone in your family.

Something I've found interesting is that verses I thought were difficult were memorized easily by my kids, while some of the shorter verses were a little more challenging for them.  Also, it has been easier for us all to remember the verse based on the week we learned it, rather than the actual verse number.  So, I plan to go back and work on making sure the chapter and verse are memorized as well.

Challenge one another to come up with a melody for some of the verses.  Many of the verses have already been set to music and are well-known songs (links to a couple are included below).  You may choose to offer a small incentive for memorization or use a wall chart to show kids their progress.
 
​Obviously, you could search Psalms and pick out many, many wonderful verses for your family to learn together, but perhaps this list will make it easy for you to get started.  (The verses below are KJV except two which are noted.)  After our verses from Psalms are learned, I hope to choose another book of the bible from which to memorize.  How do you encourage scripture memorization in your family?  Please share your ideas in the Comments section!

My heart is bursting right now.  I just talked to my ten-year-old daughter for the first time in four days, and she's finally on her way home from camp!  I am so excited to see her, and hug her, and hold on tightly for the rest of the weekend!

This post is a little more personal in nature than other recent articles I've written.  I want to share that this has been one of the most challenging weeks I can remember.  As a full-time working mother who has always wished she could be a stay-at-home mother, I have been reveling in the opportunity I have this summer to take several weeks off just to spend with my kids.  It has been glorious!  We have laughed, and played (and fought and cried), and have been so busy seeing and doing fun things for most of the month- then one of my three left me for almost a whole week!

​My family is involved in a group called American Heritage Girls (I tell people it's like Girl Scouts, but Christ-focused).  It is a remarkable organization.  I serve as the troop Shepherd (kind of like a chaplain), Elizabeth is in the "Explorer" unit, and Sarah is a "Tenderheart".  We've gone on family camp-outs with the group, and Alex has taken the girls on many of troop outings during the last two years of our involvement.  We love American Heritage Girls.  But when Elizabeth wanted to go to an AHG summer camp five hours away, my faith was tested in a big way!

​You have to understand, I have not gone without seeing this child for more than a day in ten years!  Other than a few one-night stays with grandparents, the only times I've not slept under the same roof as her was when I was in the hospital having her sister and brother.  But I knew this experience would be good for her, and she was so excited to go.  To be honest, the only reason I could let her go was because her dad took a week off from work to go volunteer at camp.  (Thank you, Lord, for a wonderful daddy for my children.)  He took four girls from our troop (including our girl) and drove from Lewisville, NC to Crawfordville, GA on Monday, and they are returning on a Saturday.

Campers are not supposed to call home, I suppose for a few reasons.  Logistically, it would be impossible for that many girls to have access to phones.  I think they also feel it makes homesickness worse instead of better.  Plus, camp is supposed to be a place to escape the hold technology has on us.  Still, I balked at the restriction.  It doesn't feel natural for a mother not to speak to her ten-year-old child for that long!  (We bent the rules a little, and I did get to speak to her for about 60 seconds on Tuesday.  And, of course, my husband sent me text message updates and pictures every day, plus I could talk to him on the phone in the evening.)

​But, what a lesson God had for me this week!  There were a few lessons actually.  I could talk all day about learning to have faith that He will take care of my children.  But the biggest lesson was something I thought I already knew: Thou shalt have no other gods before me (Exodus 20:3).

Another one of the moms from our troop and I got together this week and discussed it.  We are guilty of worshipping our children.  It is a difficult thing for me to distinguish between the love and devotion of a mother and idol worship, but I have to admit that I probably cross that line sometimes.

Deuteronomy 4:24 says, "For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God."  God's rightful place is at the center of our lives.  He belongs at the top of our priority list.  The thought of being without my daughter for a week almost made it hard to breath!  But do I feel that kind of devotion for the Lord?  I  definitely believe He created a mother's heart to long for her children, but I need to be very careful that I am not placing them above Him in my life.

​I can't say that I've learned any special secrets for avoiding elevating my children to idol status, but I think just recognizing I do it is an important step.  As with any sin, all we have to do is ask forgiveness and ask Him to help us overcome it.

​I am so thankful that when we walk with the Lord, He helps us to grow and puts circumstances in our life that draw us closer to Him.  There were times while Elizabeth was gone that I thought, "Why on earth did I let her go?"  and "Why did I agree to this?"  The answer is simple.  It was a God thing.  He helps us grow.  He teaches us the lessons we need to learn when we seek Him.  This week was so beneficial for my child.  And as much as it hurt, it was beneficial for me, too.  I pray I will succeed in not having any other gods before Him, including my children.