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Watch Fox and Friends at 7:20 a.m. tomorrow morning, Tuesday, May 19 to see Toby talk about all that is happening!

The author, Jane Evans, says, “So, Mom, don’t ever think you don’t have what it takes. Don’t be tempted to give up. Your children have seeds of greatness placed within them, planted by God before the foundations of the world were laid. He chose you to water nurture, and bring them to light…it’s your mandate from God. If ever there was a reason to be confident as a parent it is this: God knows you’ve got what it takes! So don’t allow the challenges of parenthood to undermine your confidence.”

I stand with confidence in the face of the enemy, knowing full well that God has given me the tools and resources to raise the precious cargo He has entrusted into my care. So stand firm, sisters…on the days you feel weary and challenged, know that you have a heavenly mandate, and YOU’VE GOT WHAT IT TAKES!!

Jamie Mullins is a wife, mom of two, runner, wanna-be chef, and recovering shopaholic who LOVES people.  Jamie is the Volunteer Coordinator at the Denton Campus and is amazed that God chooses to use a broken woman like her.

When my little girl gets in trouble for coloring on the table time and time again, there comes a point when I just have to stop leaving her alone with a marker, or take it away all together, and thus, the punishment.  But how do I get her to not want to color on the table in the first place? That is the real question.  This is something that haunts me on a regular basis because eventually, coloring on the table turns into telling the truth, or being nice to her brother.  Then that phases into all of the challenges that come with school, middle school, and high school and before I know it, her not wanting to color on the table has turned into her not wanting to settle for a loser, or her not wanting to go to a “sleepover” with ulterior motives, or her not wanting to compromise her beliefs.  How in the world can I get her to say “yes” to the things that I want for her? The things that I know that she is supposed to do. You know … help people, be nice, tell the truth, do what is right, LOVE GOD.  I can’t help but see a correlation between the things I want for her and the things that God calls us to.  The things that I desire for her are the same things that God desires for me, so how can I get her to want to do the things that I myself struggle with “wanting” to do?

I can tell you this…Hopefully she will know what is right because she will see her daddy live a life where he does the things that he says instead of just saying them.  I know that I have to be the example.  How else will she know?

Caleb Kuykendall is on staff at Cross Timbers and he loves hanging out with his wife and two kids.

Almost two years later, my worst nightmare became reality for a friend of mine. There are things that I wish I didn’t even know could happen. Things that take a long time to heal and things for which heaven itself may be the only balm. The pain of seeing a family suffer in the cruelest way was too much for me to bear. I no longer believed God was good or even that He was at all. I sunk my claws deep into the idol of my child and turned my arrogant back on Him.

I went through the church motions for a couple of years because I knew them well and it was easier than admitting my anger.  One day during worship I reached my end.  All around hands flung wildly in the air while the crowd sang heartily “Blessed be Your Name, on the road marked with suffering…”.  I couldn’t choke out the words.  I wanted to put my hands over my ears because it hurt so bad to hear it.

“You give and take away, my heart will choose to say, Blessed be Your Name.”  How could anyone sing that?  There was a time when those words might have flown from my mouth with fervor.  My pride would not let me sing it now.

I had something too precious to lose.

I cried.  I was mad, but also I was tired of trying to be Him. Without Him I was dead, more scared and lonely than ever.  I didn’t want this for my kids.  The one thing I was hiding from was the one thing I knew my boys needed more than safety, more than happiness, more than life.

More than me.

I wanted them to know God. My God. My God that redeems anything.

Finding my way back is taking more trust, more grace, and more humility than I ever wanted to give. Before, my faith was unwittingly based on an expectation of security.  Now I know nothing is certain.  I guess I’m just finally OK with that.

I don’t want to say “yes” to Him “only if…”  I want to say “yes” to Him “even if…”

So God, here I am.

Andi is a freelance writer and the mother of two young sons. When she is not clipping coupons, she chronicles life with little boys on her blog “Tales From the Running Mama” at www.tobyncharlie.blogspot.com.

“Look mommy! James! They can hold James like this!” He grips James the red engine while making a squinchy, growly face. James falls loose, Toby cries again and I want to run out of the room to my bed and throw my covers over my face.

But I don’t. “OK,” I say, “You can stay in your pajamas.”  I regret this when we take the pajamas off to pee pee and put them back on again in our usual slow way that makes my bones cringe in frustration.

“I need THAT mommy, get me THAT.” He runs to his closet and points at his blue piggy bank. I hand it to him before pulling baby Charlie from his room and plopping him in the bouncy seat with a bottle propped on a wad of blankets.    Toby follows me everywhere clanging the piggy bank with each step.

In my bathroom I try to get ready. I let him loll around on the floor while I blow dry my hair and he finds all the treasures a mom’s bathroom proposes. An eyelash curler, a contact case lid, my wedding ring. “Oops, you can’t play with that,” I say as he tries to stuff it into the slot of the piggy bank.

“Whyyyyy?” He whines dolefully while playing with it anyway.

“Don’t you know that it is MOTHER’S DAY and Charlie’s Baby Dedication Day and I just want to look NICE at church with my hair NOT in a ponytail for ONCE.  And even though it may prevent anyone there from recognizing me altogether, I just don’t care today, because it is MOTHER’S DAY and I want to enjoy living it, because I am your MOTHER.”

He blinks at me with total incomprehension and tries to hold the contact case lid in the clamp of the eyelash curler.  Charlie rallies and drops his bottle over the edge of the bouncy seat with a yelp of glee.

I feel like I am somehow missing the magic of this day, and that probably all other mothers are lying in bed with a tray of pancakes festively served beside a long stem rose and steaming cup of coffee, opening construction paper cards with I Heart Mom scrawled in red crayon.

We make it unceremoniously to service just in time to march Charlie up on stage along with nine other babies for his important spiritual debut. We smile when they call his name and we kiss him and squeeze him and promise in front of the congregation to raise him to know the Lord. I look at his little bean of a body in my arms and hope that I really can do it. That my pouting over Mother’s Day and my impatience with his brother and my just imperfectness will not be all he sees in me. I hope he sees something deeper: the thousand-foot well that is my heart exploding with wild hope for him.

We sing together, our little family lined up in a row, and I feel a surge of peace when I realize I would never be enough. That even though I love my boys with an aching, relentless energy, I am NOT everything they need. If I was lovelier and every note sung from my mouth was rich and pure like buttery syrup dripping from a spoon, I still couldn’t capture the beauty of God for them. If I was stronger, and I said “no” when I should, and didn’t cry when things went wrong, I still couldn’t show the strength of God for them.

I am just their mother, someone to point the way, not be the way.

Suddenly, I don’t think myself capable of any more joy than I am bursting with today, singing “Beautiful One” loud and free in my own croaking boisterousness with my family at my side on my Mother’s Day.

This morning, if I wrote about happiness it would have been pancakes and compliance, daintily ideal and sickly perfect. In this moment, happiness is feeble and weak and wonderfully satisfying.

God help me trust them to You, my most sacred treasures.

Andi is a freelance writer and the mother of two young sons. When she is not clipping coupons, she chronicles life with little boys on her blog “Tales From the Running Mama” at www.tobyncharlie.blogspot.com.

I am not referring to black and white issues of avoiding sin or doing good.  I’m talking about when God gently prods us to do or say something that makes no sense to us or seems totally irrelevant.  I first react with questions or rationalizations, rather than simply answering, “Yes God.”

But, I am always reminded, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Is 55:9 NIV)  Our eyes should not be on the size of the task He is asking, but on the size of the God who asks it.  Who are we to question whether or not to obey?  Anything less than immediate obedience stifles His Spirit in our lives.  Simply agreeing that His prompting is a good idea or adding His idea to our “to do” list does not classify our lives as Spirit-led.

In short, God is teaching me to:
•    Listen and not doubt:
“Be still and know that I am God.”  (Ps 46:10)
•    Obey immediately:
“Here’s how we can be sure that we know God in the right way: Keep his commandments.” (1 Jn 2:3 The Message)
“Do not hold back the work of the Holy Spirit.” (I Thes 5:19 NCV)

Ask the One who is faithful, “In what am I not obeying?”  His answer, along with the strength to accomplish it, will come if we listen.

Teri Jones is a wife, mom and part-time homeschooler who loves hiking, scuba diving, rock climbing and rafting.  Teri is the Volunteer Coordinator at the Keller Campus and thanks God for setting her free to really live.

Every time the Gospels mention that Jesus was moved with deep emotions, it led Him to do something. The Good Samaritan was praised precisely because he acted.  The priest and the Levite, paragons of Jewish virtue, flunked the test because they didn’t do anything.  “Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the man who fell in with the robbers?”  The answer came, “The one who treated him with compassion.”  Jesus said to them, “Then go and do the same.”

If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?  Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.  I John 3:17-18
Dave Lewis is on the Pastoral Care team at the Keller Campus. He blogs daily at The Gentle Healer.

Another scripture that has new meaning for me is Ephesians 6:4. It says, “Fathers (and mothers), do not exasperate your children; instead bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.”. Reading this with a new set of eyes shows me again, that as long as I am seeking MY WAY, I’m not being the parent God has called me to be. Instead, I must run towards the Lord with my kids and train them in what is good and true through my actions. This is definitely still a struggle for me, but it is a battle with my flesh that I am happy to fight! I am SO thankful for the wisdom of a godly woman who has been down the path ahead of me and is willing to share her heart to help me grow!

Jamie Mullins is a wife, mom of two, runner, wanna-be chef, and recovering shopaholic who LOVES people.  Jamie is the Volunteer Coordinator at the Denton Campus and is amazed that God chooses to use a broken woman like her.

Sometimes I wonder what Shadrach, Mescach and Abednego were feeling when they said answered the king. Did any part of them think “this is crazy.” Did Shadrach nudge Meschach while mumbling, “here we go!” as the king’s men approached? I wonder what friends of theirs chickened out and bowed down? Are there names missing from this story because of fear?

The way it goes down in the Bible, I see no hesitation in them. There was nothing in them that paused or hesitated. For them, it wasn’t a question.

I can’t help but think it’s because they made up their minds long before that day. It’s a lot easier to say “no” to things when you know what you’re saying “yes” to. Without that core conviction of “yes,” saying “no” is based far more on emotions.

What are you saying “no” to?