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Good Morning Mamas!!

It's 6:05am and let me just say it's been 4 weeks of early-morning rising for the Schaumloeffel parents! That's a huge victory and a New Year's resolution that I didn't biff! Now, to address the plate of chocolate chip cookies on the counter that seems to lose a member at the most inopportune times: well, that resolution still needs work!! Self-control is definitely NOT one of my strong suits when it comes to CC Cookies!

Looking back a month, when you wrote our your goals for your year, how are you doing on them? Are you doing them? If so, what progress have you made? If not, what is getting in the way? (Email me personally if you want some accountability! I'd love to do that for you!)

As women of our homes, we should always have personal goals outside of motherhood and wife-dom (like "kingdom"...not wife-doom!!). It's what keeps our identity intact. What we do is NOT who we are. WHAT??? I know...wrap your brain around that one. My hubby is a medic; it's what he does; yesterday he put together a cameraman's finger that had been filleted by his camera in a shot (I know...I got chills too!); but what he does to provide for our family is NOT who he is.

Sometimes we get so wrapped up in doing, that we forget our being. What have you done lately to stretch your brain or your heart? What have you tried that's new? What have you done to chase your interests?

NOW...do not hear me say, "Hey, you hate being a wife...so follow your dreams and leave;" or any other non-sense that would validate the darkness in your heart. (And when it's dark, don't we try and look for that validation to justify our behavior?? I know I do. And if I'm looking for it, then I'm very selective in choosing friends. Who wants to be friends with someone pushing you in the direction of light??)

But, I'm saying, if cooking interests you, try something different. If gardening is your thing, do it! If reading something new, challenging, interesting is your cup of tea, GREAT! If sewing purses, starting a playgroup, beginning a blog, redecorating your home on the cheap, learning more about child development, running 5 miles a day, floats your boat...don't leave those things behind!

Sometimes I think we convince ourselves that if we're going to be great wives and moms, we must forsake all that interests us. But we don't. We may have to get up early to do so. We may have to budget our time better. We may have to do something out of the ordinary. But ladies, you were created uniquely by a God who meant for you to be exactly who you are. Don't lose that passion for life around you...and imagine the impact of the world if He led you! For you may be some other mommy's light down the road.

Proverbs 4

18 The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn,
shining ever brighter till the full light of day.

Officially, the dawn has not happened yet. But have you ever watched the sun rise? Have you ever sat and watched the glorious FIRST beam pop over the mountains and how bright it seems compared to the general glow of the sun behind it?

Last week, Cliff was working up at Castaic Lake and had to be dropped off around 6:45am. Each morning, I drove home facing east and got to witness that beam's first appearance. And it was amazing!! The air was pristine, the mountains pronounced, the glow of the sun made everything look clean, and my heart was filled with the hope of a new day.

Now, let me share that my perspective has changed over the years. Formerly, I hated sunrise. I hated it because it meant I had to face the world, gather every ounce of warrior-woman in me, and face the unknown. I hated thinking about the energy I had to muster just to make it to dinner time, and I would look way too far in the future to make getting up look like a monumental task only for the strong and successful. (And I loved sunset because it meant I was DONE!!)

But He has changed my thinking...for every morning is new. The opportunities waiting to be snatch, the achievements (such as laundry, kids not fighting, devotions) waiting to be made, the conversations waiting to be talked, the life waiting to be LIVED is so thrilling to me!!

For this day is His...and in the light of Him, it is mine! Mine lived in the glory of the Lord...only for His glory in the end!

Girls, whatever you do today, see His light. See the path of righteousness stretched out before you as that first beam of light that pops over the mountain top in the freshness of the morning, as your call to be His servant, to honor who He has created you to be, and to be in the position He has place you in as the keeper of your home, mother of your children, lover of your hubby with gusto and glory.

For if you do this, you will be an imitator of Christ. For in 2 Samuel, David speaks of Jesus:

2 Samuel 23:3-4
The God of Israel spoke,
the Rock of Israel said to me:
‘When one rules over men in righteousness,
when he rules in the fear of God,

4 he is like the light of morning at sunrise
on a cloudless morning,
like the brightness after rain
that brings the grass from the earth.’



Be that light of a morning sunrise...the brightness after the rain...to your hubby, your kiddos, your home, your friends, and your heart. Find that excitement, that fresh newness that honors who He created you to be...

And most of all, my friends, LIVE!

Love!!!

R