Rest Through Turmoil

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Leslie Basham: There’s something beautiful about women honoring their mothers.

Guest Caller 1: I want to praise the Lord for my mother.

Guest Caller 2: She was there for me when there was nobody there for me.

Guest Caller 3: What an awesome role model I had growing up, and I never knew it.

Guest Caller 4: I remember she always had her Bible wherever she was.

Guest Caller 5: I knew that with a mom like that, everything would be okay.

Leslie: This is Wednesday, February 28th, and this is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss.

If you’ve been with us the last couple of weeks, you know that we’re in the middle of a thorough study of Proverbs 31. I’ve gotten so much out of this chapter that I never even knew was there. If you’ve missed any of it, don’t worry about it. You can catch up by listening to the audio at ReviveOurHearts.com. You’ll also find transcripts there, and you can order the entire series on CD or MP3.

When you order the series called The Counter-Cultural Woman on CD, not only will you get deep, biblical teaching, you’ll also get some special programs that are part of this series, like the one we’ll hear today. We let our listeners do the talking, and when you hear the tributes they have to offer their moms, well, let’s just say you’ll have to have some Kleenex handy.

We’ll get to that in just a few minutes. First, here’s Nancy explaining how the Proverbs 31 woman gets her incredible strength.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: We talked in our last session about how the woman of virtue, the excellent woman in Proverbs 31, girds herself with strength, and she strengthens her arms. Her goal is to be pleasing to the Lord. And I just want to pick up one additional thought in relation to that matter, and then we’ll move on to verse 18.

Isaiah chapter 30, verse 15 tells us that “in quietness and trust is your strength.” Now, we know that God gives strength to the weary, so we need to ask Him for strength. We know that the joy of the Lord gives us strength, that having a pure heart and a clear conscience will give us strength, and now we see in Isaiah 30 that in quietness and trust, we find strength.

Those two qualities, quietness and trust, are things that don’t come naturally to most of us. They don’t come naturally probably to any of us. We live in a very loud, chaotic, busy, frenzied, frantic world, and it’s hard to find quiet. And let me say that quiet is not so much a matter of your environment as it is a matter of your inner spirit. You can have a quiet spirit before God, or a resting spirit before God, even if you have eight children in your home, or even if you’re working in an environment that is loud or secular.

But I do believe it’s important, when possible, to find ways and times to get a quiet environment to help us develop a quiet heart. For some of us, our world is loud and noisy not just because we have no choice, but some of us make choices that make our world loud and noisy.

I would say (and it’s a little awkward for me to say this on a radio program), that some of us need to develop different habits as it relates to radio, television, media, computers, entertainment—things that make noise in our lives, things that keep us frazzled. Some of us are just in the habit of always having to have some electronic device in the “on” position. So we get in the car, we turn on the radio. We get in the house, we turn on the TV or the TVs, or the computer, or whatever is our fix.

I would say if you always have these things that make noise on in your life, you’re going to have a hard time having a quiet heart. Now, it may be that your husband turns those things on, and you cannot control his life in these areas. But you can control your choices in these areas.

And as much as I’m thankful for the ministry of Christian radio, and I want you to listen to Revive Our Hearts and other teaching ministries that can build your life, there are times when you need to turn that radio off. There are times when you just need to make the choice that, "I’m not going to fill up the empty place of my life with noise. I’m going to discipline myself to pursue quietness."

That doesn’t mean you make your children leave home. There’s noise in your life that is good noise, that is appropriate and right noise, and it’s important as a mother and a wife that you not become resentful of those children and that husband who make noise in your life. We have some widows here who would be so thrilled to have a little of that noise back, but there are times when you do have a choice when it’s important to get that quiet time.

That’s one of the advantages to being an early riser. In most situations, that’s a way to get a quiet environment and a quiet heart before you go out into this very noisy world. For you, it may be late at night that is that quiet time. And then, in quietness and trust is your strength. Discipline your life for quietness and then steadfastly trust in God.

What deprives us and depletes us of strength to serve the Lord is that we worry about so many things. We’re anxious about so many things, and we need to learn to trust that God is in charge, He hasn’t fallen off His throne, and He doesn’t need me to fix the whole universe, or even my little part of it.

I know there are situations in many of your lives, as there are some in mine, that are beyond our control. So stop trying to control, and trust that He’s got the whole word in His hands. Trust Him to do what is good and what is right and to be the God and governor of the universe. And in that quietness and trust, you will find strength.

Now, in the couple of moments we have remaining, I want to just make a few comments about verse 18, and it really connects to verses that we’ve already looked at in Proverbs chapter 31, but I don’t want to skip over this verse before we move into the next section in our next time together.

Verse 18, this virtuous, excellent woman “perceives that her merchandise is good.” The NIV says, “She sees that her trading is profitable.” She sees that the work of her hands, the things she’s been investing her time and her effort in, she sees that it has produced a good fruit for her labor.

She’s quality conscious. She wants to make sure that the work she’s doing is a good work, so she’s not going through life as a wife, as a mom, as a woman, as a homemaker, in whatever her season of life, she’s not doing things in a sloppy way or a haphazard way. Quality matters to this woman, and she’s able to stand back and look and see that the work of her hands has been good.

And, now this last phrase—some of you live by this verse, and some of you don’t like this verse at all—“her lamp does not go out by night,” or at night. And some of you are night people, and your lamp doesn’t go out at night. Some of you are out at nine o’clock like a light at night, but I think the emphasis here is not on what time she goes to bed. The emphasis here, as in an earlier verse, where we saw that she was up before dawn, is that she’s a woman who’s diligent, and she does whatever is needed at whatever hours it’s necessary to minister to the needs of her family.

She’s up early if she needs to be; she’s up late if she needs to be, and in her waking hours, she’s gainfully occupied. You don’t see a picture of a woman who spends her evenings watching TV, or a woman who sleeps until 11 o’clock in the morning when there is work that needs to be done for her family.

I’m not telling you what time to get up. I’m not telling you what time to go to bed, because the Scripture doesn’t tell us that. But it does tell us that as women, we are to be industrious, and using the hours, the moments the Lord gives us in ways that are pleasing to Him.

So does that mean I never stop and have fun with my kids? Yes, you absolutely must stop and have fun with your kids! When it’s time to do that, then that is holy, then that is being virtuous, that is being excellent. But it does mean we don’t fritter away the precious moments and hours and days that God gives us, but that we use them in a way that is purposeful and intentional and intended for the glory of God.

Leslie: A balanced look at time from Nancy Leigh DeMoss. We’re about to hear some moving stories about moms who make good use of their time. These stories will make you stop and consider: when you reach the end of your life, will you look back and say, “I truly spent my time wisely. I invested in my home”? The choices you make today will influence the way you answer that question.

Most of us just spend every spare moment rushing from one demand to the next, so it’s hard to pause and reflect on whether we’re using time effectively. Would you invest a few minutes each day in learning what it means to build a godly home? Read a few pages of a book written by Nancy Leigh DeMoss and some other wise women, such as Bunny Wilson and Susan Hunt. It’s called Becoming God's True Woman. Look for it when you visit ReviveOurHearts.com.

Over the last couple of weeks in the series called The Counter-Cultural Woman, we’ve learned a lot about what it means to be a woman of honor. It’s time to pause and let some of our listeners tell us about their moms. We set up a special phone line to allow listeners to call in and tell us how their moms invested in them, and I think you’re going to enjoy hearing these moving tributes.

Tracy: This is Tracy calling from Tampa, and I just want to praise the Lord for my Christian heritage of women that have surrounded my life. First, I wanted to praise God for my grandmother, Catherine, who just this January has gone to be with the Lord. But she showed me her whole life how to be a servant, first to God and then to others.

I want to praise the Lord for my mother who is a joy to me and is probably the most beautiful example of God’s unconditional love to me. I know without her I wouldn’t be half the mother I am today. She is a precious treasure, and I’m just so thankful that God picked her to be my mother.

Last but not least, I want to praise God for my mother-in-law, for providing me not only a Christian heritage on my side of the family, but then giving my own husband this beautiful Christian mother who supports us in prayer and who loves my three precious boys so much.

I just want to thank God for all of His blessing through their examples to me and to encourage other women that being that godly role model will not go unnoticed. Thank you so much for this opportunity to say thanks. I love you, Mom.

Guest Caller 1: I was calling for Anna Jean Wales; she’s my mother. I have a husband that had a stroke, and my mother was just there for me. My heart is so full. She was there for me when there was nobody there for me. I had been so stressed out, and she always told me it’s going to be okay. I couldn’t have asked for a better mother.

Guest Caller 2: One of my dearest memories of my mother goes back to when I was a young teenager, struggling with doubts about God and my salvation. I was so troubled I couldn’t sleep at night, and I went up and I talked to Mom at about midnight. She spoke words of wisdom and was comforting to me. But once I got back down to my bed, the same old troublesome thoughts came back to haunt me.

At about two o’clock in the morning, again, I went back to Mom’s bedroom. When I opened her bedroom door, I found her kneeling beside her bed. I knew she was talking to her Father about me, and I knew that with a mom like that, everything would be okay. And I did find a solid, true understanding of God and the confidence that I was His child.

Mom, you were there when I needed you, and now I want to be there when you need me. You have buried two sons from a dreaded disease. You have stood by a husband who has had his health failing and no longer seems like the man you said “I do” to; but you took your vows seriously, and you are faithful. When many in the world would have given up and gone to seek their own pleasure, you stayed by the fire and did what you knew God wanted you to. I’ll always love you, Mom,

Guest Caller 3: We are the Elmwood children, and we love our mom because she is loving, patient, kind, and she listens to us very well, and she works really hard at making things special and being almost as perfect as she can. She’s a really great mom, and she cooks, and she’s poured into our lives as much as she could, and what we are is what she’s made us. Thanks, Mom!

Guest Caller 4: Hi. I am 17 years old. My father and mother will soon be celebrating 40 years of marriage. In that time, they have raised seven children, have been the grandparents of 15, and have become full-time evangelists. Although I am extremely close to both of my parents, there is a special bond between my mother and I. You see, she was 39 when I was born in 1984, and being an older mother, she had already learned the do’s and don’ts of motherhood, thus making it easier on me, the youngest of seven, to get away with many more things than my other siblings did. I don’t think they liked it, but it was a good thing for me.

As I said before, my parents are evangelists, and being an evangelist's child, we were supposed to act a little bit more behaved than others. When I was small, I just despised this, not being able to draw during church or especially not being able to chew gum, eat candy, or sit with my friends. I had to sit on a pew and behave myself by my mother.

Even through the constant routine of getting up every morning for school, only to come home that evening, get ready for church, leave for revival (that’s 45 minutes), seeing them work during the altar services, come home late, go straight to bed, and up for school the next morning, only to repeat the whole process again.

I wouldn’t change it for anything because through this time, not only did I get the honor associated with serving the Lord with my parents, but there are many times during the altar services when my mother (she has very bad arthritis), whenever her hands would become very tired from playing a long time during the later service, and she would call one of my sisters or me to come up and play the piano, or my dad would call one of us to play the guitar or sing.

And you know, if it hadn’t been for that, I might not be able to play the piano. That’s where I learned to play the piano. During church, I learned how to play the guitar; I learned to sing through this time. Through this time, my mother, with her soft-spoken ways, stood by my dad like a pillar, never complaining—not a negative word. What an awesome role model I had growing up, and I never knew it. I took it for granted.

I remember the mornings, and even now, I would wake up to hear someone weeping in our front room, only to walk in and find my mother on her knees praying, her Bible open, and usually she would have my grandmother’s hankie beside her. Chills would just go through me, and I would start crying.

She never knew I was standing there listening, and I don’t think she even knows it now how comforting it was to hear her and see her there, just turning to her God, just praising the Lord, lifting up His name, which is exalted. How wonderful and what an awesome sight that was to behold. I will always hide that in my mind.

Watching from my childhood, I have learned to make my own prayer time with just me and God. If there’s one thing I can say, it’s that I’m truly thankful for this tribute. I am thankful for my mother, for a praying, God-fearing mother, who has taught me there is a way to depend upon Jesus for my every need. I have no worries, for I know that there is One greater than I who is watching over me. If He can love and watch a little sparrow, then I know He’s watching me, and He’s taking care of me. I love you, Mom. Thank you so very much.

Guest Caller 5: I’m calling on behalf of my mom, Lois Jones. A sweeter person you’ve never met. From the time I can remember when I was very young, she disciplined us; she made us behave; she lived a life in front of us, and she’s the kind of mother that every child could dream of. She had nine children, and she loved us all equally. She still does. I just love her, and I thank God for her every day, and I just want to say that I think she’s the greatest mom that ever lived.

Guest Caller 6: My mom, her name is Domette Cone. She and my dad were married for ten years, and she adopted my older brother, then she had me and my brother. After ten years of marriage, my dad met another woman and was going to leave. At that time, my mom was pregnant with my youngest brother.

The true tribute is through all of these things and the turmoil that she was going through during the divorce and raising us four children as a single parent, the one important thing that she always taught us was about the love of God and about the stories of the Old Testament. We would do Bible stories and have memory verses.

We always went to church. We went to Bible studies on Wednesday or Thursday night. I remember she always had her Bible wherever she was. She always was reading her Bible, and just her actions . . . She didn’t try to go out and find a husband, and she sacrificed. She didn’t have new clothes, but she always made sure us kids had what we could have. The legacy she passed down to us was her love for God, and through all these things, He was always the most important thing. I love my mom very much.

Guest Caller 7: My mom has been by my side through everything, and at the age of 29, I became a widow. My husband died of cancer, and my mom was by my side through it all. I just want to say thanks, Mom. Thanks for being there and letting me lean on you and for showing just what a Christian mom is, and that I can be a Christian mom for my children. I love you, Mom.

Guest Caller 8: Mom, as I was growing up, I would look at you, and I would think, “I never want to be like you.” I looked around, and I thought people used you. I thought people took advantage of you, and I thought, “I’m never going to be like that. Never.”

Well, growing up, Mom, I wasn’t like that. I hardened myself, and I tried very hard not to be like you. But then, as Christ came into my life, as I saw Christ and Christ touched my heart, I now look at you in a different light. I now see you as the example that Christ had put in my life because you were that peacemaker, Mom. And now, Mom, I count it an honor as I strive to be just like the person that you are. I love you, Mom.

Leslie: You know, I’ve been so moved by the simple obedience our listeners have shown today. Scripture says to honor your father and mother. Well, it sounds simple, but as women have just honored their mothers, we’ve heard how incredibly powerful this kind of honor can be. I hope you’ll take some time to honor your mother.

Of course, it’s important to honor fathers, too, but we’re focusing on moms during the teaching series by Nancy Leigh DeMoss called The Counter-Cultural Woman. It’s an in-depth look at Proverbs 31, and if you’ve missed any of this helpful material, you can listen at ReviveOurHearts.com.

Wouldn’t it have been a shame to miss today’s program and the stories we’ve just heard? Make sure you don’t miss what’s going on at Revive Our Hearts. There’s an easy way to stay in touch with this program: sign up for the Revive Our Hearts Daily Connection. When you do, you’ll get key quotes from each day’s program by email. If you’re intrigued by the content, you can easily dig deeper by accessing the transcript or by listening at your computer.

Another reason for signing up for the Revive Our Hearts Daily Connection is to keep track of all the information that you hear on this program. For instance, if you were in the car a few minutes ago and heard me talk about the book, Becoming God's True Woman, it would be tough to write everything down. But when you’re signed up for the Daily Connection, you can relax, knowing that all of the information is waiting for you in your inbox. Sign up for the Revive Our Hearts Daily Connection when you visit ReviveOurHearts.com.

If a woman spends all of her time volunteering at a homeless shelter, that’s a good thing, right? Well, maybe not. It depends on what’s going on inside her own home. We’ll hear about good works and priorities tomorrow on Revive Our Hearts. Let’s close out time today praying with Nancy.

Nancy: Lord, would You help us know how to use our days as we should and to live them in such a way that we’ll be able to stand back at the end of our lives and look back over our lives and see that our work has been good. That You, by Your grace, have allowed us to produce something that is of good quality, and that we have used our days and our moments to please You. So Lord, would you show us the time You want us to get up in the morning and when we’re to go to bed at night and how You want us to use each moment in-between for Your glory. I pray in Jesus’ name. amen.

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss is an outreach of Life Action Ministries.