Pearls of Encouragement for Christian Working Moms
January 2007 Edition
Welcome and Need Your Help
Book Recommendations
Blog has moved
Online Bible Study
Article – New Year’s Resolutions
Final Thoughts

Welcome and Need Your Help

Happy New Year to all of you! I pray that you had a wonderful Christmas and New Years and hopefully got some much needed time off work. Also, welcome to all the new subscribers to Pearls of Encouragement for Christian Working Moms. New woman join each week. As many of you know I do a Christian Working Mom Interview every month. I need more women who are willing to be interviewed. I promise it is “practically” painless. If you are interested send an email to Kimberly@kimberlychastain.com and put Interview in the subject heading. I will send you a list of questions by email to answer. Thanks in advance for your help. Also, if you have not filled out the Christian Working Mom Survey, go to www.christianworkingmom.com and click on Survey on the home page.

Book Recommendations

I am in the process of reading Beth Moore’s new book, Get out of That Pit. I think she speaks to all of us when we are having difficult times in our Christian walk and not living the victorious Christian life. I would highly recommend you checking it out. You can click here to read more about her book.

The second book I have read twice now is Lost Women of the Bible by Carolyn Custis James. Carolyn looks at the women in the Bible with a fresh eye and uncovers things we did not know about these women. Even though those women lived a long time ago, I think you will find similarities between their lives and yours. Also, you will learn how God is faithful even during the most trying times. You can click here to read more about Carolyn’s book.

Blog has moved

The Christian Working Mom Blog has moved to http://christianworkingmoms.blogspot.com/. You can also link to it from the main www.christianworkingmom.com site by clicking on CWM Blog. I moved the blog, because on the old one I was receiving way too many spam posts and spending hours deleting the posts. On the new blog it is not possible for that to happen. Make sure when you type in the blog address you put christianworkingmoms, plural. The new blog is brighter and hopefully we can do more things. So, go check it out and let me know what you think. Also, you can post any New Year’s Resolutions you may have. After this newsletter goes out, the old Blog will be deleted.

Online Bible Study

You can find our online Bible Study at http://kimberlychastain.com/discussCWMU. I have not added a new lesson, but hope to in the near future. You can start whenever you want and post your answers to the forum. Also, you maybe doing the Bible Study on your own, but not posting answers. That is okay, but please let me know so I can gauge interest for the Bible Study. As always you can email me at Kimberly@kimberlychastain.com

Article – New Year’s Resolutions

What do you think about New Year’s Resolutions? Do you make them? Or have you given up on making New Year’s Resolutions? I think the most important New Year’s Resolutions we can make have to deal with our spiritual life and relationship with our God. Many of you have written me that you don’t seem to have time for everything you need to do and sometimes time alone with God gets lost in your busy, hectic schedule. I do think we have to be creative about how we spend time with God and that may look different for each woman.

Here are some suggestions about New Year’s Resolutions we can all consider:

1. Aim to spend time alone with God each day.
You may pray in the car on the way to work. You may pray while rocking a baby to sleep. God is the source of our strength and we need to be hooked to our power source.

2. Realize there are seasons in your life and sometimes your
Quiet time may involve teaching your children. I remember
when my children were very young a friend ask me what
God was teaching me right now. I replied, “Jesus, loves
me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” My study time
was devoted to reading Bible stories to my toddler and
preschooler. Yet, I realized how much I still need to know
that Jesus loves me, too.

3. Begin each day with praising God for all your many blessings.
There is great truth to that old hymn, Count your blessings,
name them one by one. When we focus on all God has done
for us, we become a more thankful and gracious person.
Also, realizing all God has done for us will remind us of what
he can do for us.

4. Pray that God will direct each moment of your day, even the
divine interruptions. I think as CWM’s we need to be ruthlessly
efficient at work so we can get out of the office on time and
get home to our children. On the other hand, we can not miss
opportunities to share God’s love to our fellow workers or other
people we meet. Ask God to help you get his to do list done
and not yours.

5. Remember the main goal for us as Christians, found in
1 Corinthians 10:31, “So whether you eat or drink or
whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” Every
action of our lives needs to glorify God and point others to him.
That includes changing diapers, listening to hormonal
teenagers and all the many things we do.

In conclusion, all of us struggle with balancing work, home, and our spiritual life. We serve a Savior who knows our every need and concern. He has written our days since before time began, so he certainly knows what we will be doing. Please do not hear me making you feel guilty about something else. In my own life my quiet times (time spent alone with God) have been inconsistent. I do know when I make spending time alone with God a priority my whole outlook changes and I can handle the stresses of life much better. So, may I encourage you to consider the above suggestions and may 2007 be a year that is marked by an increasing closeness and dependence on God.

Final Thoughts

I do believe I’m the queen of mismatched socks. My laundry basket seems to be overflowing. I don’t know if they are under beds or eaten by the dryer monster. Maybe that will be a question for when I get to heaven. Of course, I won’t care then and probably won’t need socks.

Till next time,

Kimberly M. Chastain

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