Recently, one of my kids was talking about growing up and telling funny stories, and then the kid said this, “I can remember you saying, ‘I am just so drained!  I have nothing left!’” I thought about that conversation for several days.  It was rather convicting for me.

Truth be told, some of those early days of raising kids were hard and some days I fell to what I call my face on the carpet days.  I felt totally done and ineffective.  I really did have nothing left and the reason for that was that I had been giving all I had of MYSELF.  I had been operating in my own strength — and it was gone!  However, if I had only been operating in the strength of Christ, I might have felt tired, but I would never have gotten to the I HAVE NOTHING LEFT stage.  As Corrie Ten Boom says:  “There is no pit so deep that God is not deeper still.”  I might have felt like I was in the pit of a day, but God’s well to draw from would have been much deeper.

If we can’t give what we don’t have ourselves, what kind of things are we to give our children and how do we get them ourselves?

Deuteronomy 6:6-9

And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.

The most important thing that you can fill yourself with, is the Word of God.  Verse 6 says. “Shall be in thine heart.”    What happens to something that is in your heart?  Oh my goodness, when you first started dating some great guy or got engaged, he was IN your heart.  You thought about him, you dreamed about him, constantly… just driving down the road and you would miss a turn thinking about this guy, right?    God’s word is supposed to be IN our hearts.  We take it in (READ IT) – every day.  Didn’t you want to talk to that guy all the time?  But then what?….. we think about it..It is on our mind.  We miss a turn driving because we were meditating on that verse.  Now that is IN your heart.  Memorizing is only part of having it IN your heart.  It is the meditating, the chewing on it, pretty soon — you OWN that scripture. 

One scripture I surely own is Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  I pondered this forever, how faith is a real substance it is actual evidence, however, I can’t see it — I can hope for it.  It is a real thing.  I wish I could tell you when that became my favorite verse, but I don’t remember.  I have often thought of it and I love it so much, I framed it and hung it on my living room wall.  I OWN that verse.  Every kid in my house can tell you mama’s favorite verse.  Do you have something like that in your life?

I also have a favorite chapter of the Bible.  Nehemiah 6 – building the wall..   Verse 3 says: I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down:….  That got me through a lot of tough mothering years.  When I realized being a mom was a great work and I had to say no to a lot of other things.  There is so much more in that chapter — do you have a chapter like that?  A chapter that just carries you through.

When scripture is becoming a part of you, the rest of Deuteronomy 6, will start to come to be.  You will talk about it when you sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way.  Because it will be IN your heart.  You naturally begin to draw from this well and talk about it.

It also says to teach them diligently to your children.  Of course, we can not give what we do not have, so, I must be taught in order to teach.  Funny thing, when you start to teach — you learn more from being the teacher.  So it becomes a big circle, you learn, you teach while you learn, which means you learn.  However, there is that diligent word in there.  Diligent means:  Steady in application…constant in effort.  There must be a plan in place.  Family devotions?  Bible stories before before bedtime?  Do you plan to teach others in your life about God?

You can not give what you do not have.  You have to have that Word in you, you have to be taught and then you can give — to children, to others.  You can talk, you plan to teach.  You have it now to give.

But I got the end of MYSELF.  What do we do with the bad, draining, really hard stuff of being a mom — of working with people, teaching my children.  

Jonah 2:7 – When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee into thy holy temple.

Jonah was in the belly of the whale.  He got to the end of HIMSELF.  You can’t be much lower than the belly of a whale.  That is a pit of a day.  He remembered the LORD and prayed.  In fact, it says he prayed with thanksgiving.   I can pretty much promise you that when I told my kids I had nothing left, I probably hadn’t prayed, and I most definitely was not expressing thanksgiving.  In Chapter 2 verse 9 he says:  But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving. He also promises to do what he vowed and acknowledges that salvation is of the LORD.

The very next thing that happened is that the fish vomited Jonah onto dry land.  He was a mess but his feet were now on a firm foundation and he set out to do what God had directed him to do.  I say quite a bit, that I am a mess walkin’. And that’s what Jonah was.  

What should we do with the bad, draining, really hard stuff?  Remember the LORD, Pray with thanksgiving.  You might be a mess, but your feet will be reset on the foundation.  You can ask the LORD to now direct your feet.  You might be a mess, but you will be a mess walking in the right direction. 

Fill yourself with the Word of God and lean on Him at all times, and you will not have to hear your kids telling you about the days you literally came to the end of yourself.

2 Corinthians 4:16. For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.