Grace for My Home | Christian Women, Growing in Faith, Spirit-Led, Hearing from God, Sowing Truth

It Takes Courage to Be a Christian Mama

• Season 2 • Episode 78

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Audrey McCracken:

Hello friends, welcome back to Grace for my Home. I am so thankful to be back here with you guys again this week. My husband and I have just arrived back home from a conference. We went to a North Carolina a ministry conference, and it was very encouraging, and that's one of the reasons that we went. We went to be encouraged, but also to hear what is the Lord saying, what is the Lord doing right now, at this time, and I do believe that he spoke to both me and my husband and helped us to get a clearer picture, or at least to start seeing a clearer picture, of where is our place right now in what God is doing on the earth, because he's doing so much.

Audrey McCracken:

It's really easy right now with everything that's going on. We're in a campaign year and so much is being thrown at us all the time from the media and from the enemy. We have an enemy, an enemy of our soul, who does not want us to have faith, does not want us to be encouraged, wants us to be discouraged, and so it's so important at this time to gather together with people who love Jesus, people who love God, people who want the best for us and who God has put in our lives, to fellowship with, to be close to. You know, we were not created to live alone. God put us in families for a reason because he knows that we need each other. He made us that way. He made us to need other people. And you know, even we're born into a family, helpless and cannot feed ourselves. We are dependent on other people and then as we grow, we become more mature and more independent. But then we are also, and always will be, interdependent on each other, because we are made for communities and a lot of times, the enemy of our soul, who does not, who hates us because we're in the image of God, he wants to separate us and put us by ourselves and make us suspicious of other people and or hurt us so that we don't want to be either. But we don't want to be around other people and we separate ourselves. And guys, I have been in that place and it is not a fun place. So just going and being around other people who love Jesus, who want the best for us, who want to see us walk with God in a real way, in a whole way, was just so refreshing, so needed, and I just encourage you, this is not what I came to talk with you about today, but I do think it's important to mention find your tribe, find a group of people who want good things for you, who believe with you for God's plan for your life, who is not afraid to tell you hard truth if you need it, but will also enjoy life with you, laugh with you, encourage you, because there is just not enough encouragement.

Audrey McCracken:

I was listening to a podcast this week and the gentleman said something that really stuck with me. He said there's never too much encouragement. Encouragement is just so needed. Today, in the body of Christ, everybody needs encouragement and that's why I started this podcast to encourage moms. Because I can encourage everybody, I guess.

Audrey McCracken:

But I am a mom and I have been in the trenches with my children and I understand that we face unique challenges. There's something about becoming a mom that does something to a woman. It causes us to see outside of ourselves in a very real way, and a lot of times we want more for our children than we even want for ourselves. We are constantly in a battle in our minds over doing the right things. Did I say the right thing? Am I doing the right things? Am I doing enough for the right things. We need people. We need other moms who have walked the walk before us to come along beside us and say you can do this. And so, whatever stage you're in, I'm here to encourage you and tell you you can do this and you can do it well, because you don't do it alone. You've got me. Hopefully you are finding others and planning yourself around, other people who love you and will encourage you, and you always have Jesus and the Holy Spirit. He is the comforter. Jesus said I don't leave you as orphans. I will send my Holy Spirit to you, and he has and the Holy Spirit. He knows all things and still loves us anyway. Isn't that good news? But what I wanted to share with you today is something that I picked up from this conference this past week.

Audrey McCracken:

One of the words that kept coming back over and over through the three days that we were there was the word courage and how, going into the next season, the next phase, we need courage. You know, courage is when we do the right thing, even when we're afraid. That's courage, and that's why I think encouragement is so important, because to encourage someone is to give them courage, is to infuse them with courage. It's like when you are discouraged and you just think I can't do this anymore, I'm not doing this right, I'm never going to get it, and somebody comes along and says, yes, you are, you are going to get it. God is going to make sure that you get it. He's there to help you. You don't have to do this on your own, and it's like a shot in the arm of courage. And so we are so needing encouragement, because to walk this life well, we have to have courage. You know, sometimes we have to have courage just to get up in the morning, and courage is very closely related to faith, because sometimes you just do it by faith. You do it by faith and believe that you know, if the Lord has called me to something hard, then he is going to give me the strength to do it. Even though I may not feel that strength right now, I'm going to do it by faith.

Audrey McCracken:

And we, as moms, we need courage, and I just want to encourage you today that God has all the courage and encouragement that you need. And you know you might say, well, I'm just a mom. Why would I need courage? Right, I'm just a mom, I'm not going into battle, you know I'm not facing giants, but oh you are, because you are facing the giants that want to discourage us from doing the things that God has asked of us as moms. Those giants are very real. We are called to teach our children to live godly lives in an ungodly world, and that takes courage.

Audrey McCracken:

You know, we as Christians are counter cultural. I like to fit in, I like to just kind of go in with the crowd and not cause any waves. But as a Christian, if I have to choose between the truth and keeping the peace, I gotta go with the truth, right. I don't go in and stir up controversy just because I want to stir it up. I'm not that kind of person, but I also can't be ashamed of the truth.

Audrey McCracken:

So to be a Christian mom means that we are training our children to be different, and often to be countercultural is to be different. It's to be different from the world and therefore, unfortunately, we stick out Because we don't look like the world. Sometimes that means that we suffer for truth sake. Sometimes it just means that we're kind in an unkind world. And I don't know if you ever thought about these things, but I remember when my children were young and I was trying to teach them God the character and I wondered. I said, lord, now I'm teaching them to be kind and I'm teaching them to forgive, and I'm teaching them to do the right thing, but I know that I am sending them out into a world that they do not care about kindness. They do not care about doing the right thing, they actually prey on people's kindness. So why am I teaching my children to be gentle and to be patient and to be kind when they're going to a world that is anything but? And I had to remind myself we do what's right even when nobody else is doing it. That meekness is not weakness, it's powerful, that God has asked us to train these little hearts to do what's right because we love him and because we love others.

Audrey McCracken:

And that takes courage, it really does. It takes courage to do the right thing when it doesn't feel good. And it takes courage to train our children to do the right things in a world that doesn't care about the right things. So we need courage. We need courage, we need faith to believe that, lord, as I teach them to walk with you, you will help them, you will keep them even in difficult situations. You will give them the courage to do what's right, even if they have to suffer for it. We need courage to believe God when the world around us does not. We need courage to believe in his word when it seems contrary to what we see with our eyes. We need courage to believe that God's word is true, even when it doesn't look true or feel true or seem true. We need courage to pray. We need courage to pray for our children. That takes courage to pray for our children and send them out into a world that is hostile to the truth and believe God to keep them. That takes courage. It takes courage to pray. It takes courage to send them out. It takes courage to believe that God can and will keep them. We need courage to pray for our children when they don't go the way we hoped and prayed and thought they would.

Audrey McCracken:

I'm in a season of life where I have all my children at home, and so I can oversee them, even though they're gradually becoming more and more independent. They're still under my roof, but you know I'm not in control of what's going to happen to them when they leave my home. I pray. I hope that they will keep the faith that me and their dad have tried to impart to them I pray and hope that they will love God with all their heart. But I'm not in control of that and I need courage. If they don't go the way I thought they would, I have to have courage to still pray. I have to have courage to still believe God, to still trust God, to not be mad at God when things don't go the way I thought they would or the way I thought they should, or the way I thought he showed me they were going to go. We, as moms, we need courage to walk in love, even when we're hurt, because God said that was the way we were to walk. And so you, as a Christian mom, you may not see yourself as courageous, you may not think of yourself as a person of courage, but in this day and time, it takes courage, takes courage to believe God, to trust him, to walk with him, to pray for those we love. When so many things around us say, oh, that's, that's useless, why bother? We do it because we trust God, like David.

Audrey McCracken:

David looked at Goliath and Goliath was huge and David was the only one who knew he could defeat Goliath. Nobody around him believed. Even the king thought really, even Goliath said this is what you send out before me. He was offended, but David knew. David knew because he had courage when the giant had gone out for days and ridiculed the men shaking in their boots, the warriors, the mighty warriors shaking in their boots when they were too afraid, because they were discouraged, because the enemy had taunted them for so long, saying you can't defeat me, who are you against me? Well, they believed it.

Audrey McCracken:

The difference with David was he heard another voice. He heard a voice that said you can do it with my help. He heard another voice who said go, I'm with you. And we have to hear that voice too. We have to trust the voice of the Lord that says I don't care how big the giant is, my God is bigger. And, ladies, I just want to encourage you that your position, that your assignment in the kingdom is so important. We are on the front lines as mothers. We are on the front lines of the cultural war. We are the ones that are helping. By God's grace, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we are helping to shape the hearts and minds of our children and we are the ones that are praying them through, even when it feels like they have walked off of the path. Mama, your prayers are so powerful. Do not do not stop praying for those children.

Audrey McCracken:

This week I was speaking to a lady at the conference where we just got back from, and she told me something that just so blessed me. She has a list, a list of sons and daughters that have walked away from the faith, and when she talks to a mother who has a son or a daughter who has walked away or looks like they've walked away from Jesus, she writes their name down and she prays for them. They go on the list and I thought, lord, I mean, that's got to be a God idea, right? I thought what a wonderful idea. I thought, Lord, I know you put that in her heart. Somebody is praying for these children that their mom and dad has poured into them. It seems like they've left the Lord, but people are praying for them, mamas are praying for them, and there is nothing as powerful as a mama's prayer, not on this side of heaven. I truly believe that.

Audrey McCracken:

So, mamas, I encourage you pray for those children, pray for the ones at home, pray for the ones that are gone, pray for those who are walking with the Lord, pray for those who are not. Pray. God answers your prayers. And even when you don't see the answer immediately, even when there's voices saying why are you wasting your time? Pray. It takes courage to pray.

Audrey McCracken:

Father, I thank you for my sisters. I thank you, lord, god, that you have not left us as orphans. You have sent your Holy Spirit to encourage us, to show us the way, to give us the wisdom, to give us the strength, and I thank you, lord, god, for courage. Lord, thank you for courage. I pray right now, lord, just for a shot in the arm of courage and encouragement this week for all of these mamas listening. I pray, lord, god, that you would give us a clear assignment, that we would see our assignment through your eyes, and, lord, that you would help us to take a deep breath and, lord, god, once again to put our eyes on you and to go forward in our calling as mothers. And Lord, we thank you. It's all for your glory, in Jesus' name, amen.