Today 5 words of encouragement for Mums
1. Be content 満足する
Contentment is lost when we start to compare.
人と比べ始めると満足感を失います。
Comparing our lives with others can very quickly and easily become toxic and lead to coveting, envy and discontentment. The Bible is littered with examples of this from Cain and Abel through to those who were comparing their ministries and competing with Paul.
We are called to measure our lives by God’s standards, not by comparing our lot with that of others. We called to count our blessings and to live a life of thankfulness and gratitude.
私たちは神の基準によって人生を計るのであって、人のものと比べるのではありません。
Unfortunately, our expectations are often fuelled by a constant barrage of “perfect” scenes and images we see in our media-saturated society.
Not only does this increase our desire for a perfect house, perfect kids, a perfect body, perfect teeth, and a perfect husband/wife, it actually causes us to become discontent with our real houses, our real kids, our real bodies, and our real husbands/wives.
This disillusionment cannot really be resolved because what we are longing for—the perfect house, the perfect job, the perfect spouse—simply does not exist.
So be content with God’s provision.
神から与えられたもので満足しなさい。
Phil 4:12 I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation.
2. Be confident 自信をもつ
I know as a father, I sometimes see guys and fatherhood just seems to come so easily to them. But for most guys it doesn’t. Fatherhood is something that is a learned process. The same is true of mums. There might be some mums out there who take on the role seemingly effortlessly. ‘Natural born Mums’. But for many mums, it doesn’t come easily and confidence for raising kids is a real issue.
Insecurity happens when the voices inside our heads tell us we aren’t good enough
頭の中で自分は十分でないという声がするとき自信喪失におちいります。
And insecurity has some friends: fear and doubt. Don’t listen to the voices of insecurity, fear and doubt. 恐れと疑い
The antidote to insecurity is confidence.
Insecurity says, “I can’t.” 自信がないと「できない」と言います。
Confidence says, “I can because God is with me and He will show me how!”
自信があると「神が私とともにいてくださり、どうしていいか教えてくださるのでできる」と言います。
True confidence is really “God-confidence.” It’s not so much about believing in ourselves as it is about believing in what God can do through us. Our children are God’s gifts to us and God will equip us to raise well and to enjoy raising these gifts. 真の自信は「神に自信をおいていること」にあるのです。
Insecurity is bondage to who we’re not. Confidence is freedom in who we are!
自信喪失は本当の自分でない自分への捕らわれです。自信はありのままの自分への自由です。
Jeremiah 17:7: “But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence” (NLT).
3. Be realistic 現実的になる
“Does the Mommy Monster show up at your house on occasion? When the Mommy Monster yells, her anger affects the whole family. Several years ago I began to realize she was showing up at my house more often than I was comfortable with. When I examined what dynamics brought the appearance of the Mommy Monster, I realized that my unrealistic expectations were contributing to my craziness. I was not accurately estimating my children’s actual abilities. Bottom line: I was expecting too much too soon.
非現実的な期待をするとおかしくなってしまいます。
Many of us overestimate our children’s ability to exercise self-control, to stay focused on a task, and to handle social situations. It’s normal for a two-year-old to get upset if he doesn’t get something he wants. It’s normal for a three-year-old to lose it if there’s a change in his bedtime routine. It’s normal for a five-year-old to daydream in the middle of a T-ball game. It’s normal for a twelve-year-old to be moody. It’s normal for a teenager to be irresponsible every once in a while.
Remember, you are the leading expert on your child. Encourage your child to do his or her best while keeping reasonable expectations. Even a slight adjustment in your expectations can bring huge relief to a child who really wants to do his best, but is limited by his level of maturity.”
無理のない期待をしながら、子どもが一生懸命がんばれるように励ましてあげましょう。
Ephesians 6:4: Do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
4. Be humble in marriage 結婚生活においてへりくだる
There’s no other relationship where replacing pride with humility is more important than in marriage. Pride keeps conflict unresolved. It keeps us from admitting we’re wrong. It keeps us from being willing to see there are other good ways to do things than the way we think is the only right way. Pride separates, hurts, and even destroys.
プライドは争いごとを未解決にします。
プライドは引き離し、傷つけ、壊してしまうことさえあります。
Humility forms the core of a healthy marriage. Humility helps bring resolution to conflict. It allows us to take responsibility for our attitudes and actions, no matter how big or small our contributions are to the problem. Humility unites, heals, and builds up. If you need to replace pride with humility in your heart, here are a couple of helpful strategies:
謙遜は争いに解決をもたらします。
謙遜はつなぎ、癒し、高め上げます。
* Own your own stuff. Acknowledge your wrongs and ask for forgiveness—regardless of whether your husband owns his part or not.
自分の過ちを認める
* Look at what God says about pride. Study the Word. Over sixty verses deal with pride.
神がプライドについて言っていることを見る
* Be thankful for your marriage. There are millions of mums doing motherhood alone. Thank God for your husband’s strengths, and work to affirm him for something every day. Don’t let the Perfection Infection and unrealistic expectations rob you of what you do have.
結婚生活を感謝する
There are no perfect husbands so, ladies, love them and enjoy them – imperfections and all.
1 Peter 5:6-7 – Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
A cheerful heart is good medicine. Proverbs 17:22
5. Be loving 愛情深くなる
I love chocolate. I love swimming. I love listening to the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir. I love chocolate. I love a sunny day. I love a good movie. And I love chocolate. Somehow, though, these loves don’t even come close to the way God loves us. Unlike our loves, God’s love is perfect. Even in our best moments, we have such a long way to go to learn to love like God loves.
神の愛は完全です。
Steve Carell: “I love my wife even when I hate her. (Only married couples will understand that.)”
Human feelings complicate human expressions of love.
But that only illuminates the beauty of God’s love. It’s unchanging. There is nothing we can do to make God love us more, and there is nothing we can do to make God love us less. That’s really hard for most of us to understand because we haven’t been loved in that way in our human relationships.
神が私たちをこれ以上愛するようにすることは私たちにはできないし、神が私たちをこれ以下に愛するようにすることも私たちにはできないのです。
God never says “I love you even when I hate you”. He would never say that no matter what we did because although He certainly hates the sin in our lives, He never hates us. On the contrary, He[God] never has anything but His perfect love for us. His love for us don’t change change when we’ve had a good parenting day or when we’ve blown it with our kids. His love simply does not change.
神には私たちへの完全な愛しかないのです。
God’s love is unconditional. That means it sees the loved one for who that person can be, rather than who that person is right now. Much of the time, love is undeserved. That’s what makes God’s love for us a perfect love.
神の愛は無条件です。
So today I would like to encourage mums to enjoy loving their families as God loves them, and I would like to encourage husbands to love their wives and kids to love their Mums – to shower it on them especially today – just as God loves us.
Ephesians 3:17-19
And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Prayer for Mums.