Finding balance as a wife and mother is very difficult. Today women have various roles as a mother. She is counselor, nurse, teacher, waitress, etc. just to name a few. It is very easy to get so wrapped up in our chores and activities of daily life that we forget about the people that are most important in our lives. We must always have the correct priorities when it comes to our family. 

1. The most important relationship that any wife or mother has is her personal relationship with God. Every day we must spend time with God reading His Word and in prayer. If we do not have the correct relationship with God, we cannot have the correct relationship with others. Psalm 119:11 teaches us the importance of hiding God’s Word in our heart to keep us from sinning. When we memorize Scripture, God’s Word can help us deal with unwarranted anger, slothfulness, jealousy, or any other problem with which we may be dealing.
2. Next, I must never forget my husband. God joined husband and wife together for eternity. How many times does your husband want to talk, be intimate or have someone to listen, but you say not now. I have to wash the dishes, or I have to clean the bathroom. Those chores can wait. Take time to listen and spend time with your husband.
3. Finally, make time for your children. Seize those opportunities when they approach you and want to talk or share the little things that happened during their day. If we don’t seize those small opportunities now, they will not approach us when they have serious troubles. They will grow up with the idea that mom is too busy to take time for me.

I want to encourage all of us to not become so busy that we forget our priorities and those who are closest to us.

or

“Looking Good as the Program Chair”

By Marita Littauer with Linda Evans Shepherd

Select a Theme.

A good theme can last throughout the year. Do your women have a favorite topic from the past that can be revisited with a new spin? Is there a topic that occurs naturally in your group? Query individuals in your group for ideas, pick the best then make it fresh. For example, if you pick the theme “God’s Comfort,” consider decorating with quilts and/or teddy bears. This is your chance to be creative!

Choose a speaker.

A good speaker can make your event memorable and even serve to help participants forget cold chicken and bad weather. A professional, or semi-professional speaker can bring the experience and message you need Plus, she can offer support as you plan your meeting. A speaker’s bureau may be able to help you in your search for the ‘right’ speaker.

Before you sign on the dotted line, ask for and call her references, listen to her on cassette, or watch her video. Pay close attention to her message. Will it meet the needs of your group?

Has your speaker written a book or been on TV? A popular speaker can help boost your attendance.

Carefully go through your speaker’s topics. Do they meet your theme and reach your goals to motivate, encourage, and inspire you women?

What about fees?

“You get what you pay for” is advice that still runs true. The better a speaker is at her craft, the more in demand she becomes. The more costs she has and the more backup staff she will need. Her fee reflects not only the years spent in preparation, but her wardrobe, travel time, and loss of income, not to mention the time it takes to update, research, and customize her talk.

You made up your mind!

Work out the details and follow up with a letter of confirmation and/or a contract that spells out the details. Again, a speaker’s bureau can help in this regard. Details to check are 1. Airline arrangements, with enough time factored in to counter canceled flights. 2. Determine if you are responsible to pay for plane tickets, meals, and hotel expenses. 3. If your speaker arrives early to visit friends, know when your obligation to her begins and ends. 4. If she travels with a companion, discuss who is responsible for the additional travel arrangements. This will help you avoid embarrassing situations and extra costs.

Get the speaker’s press kit and photos ahead of time to ensure effective publicity.

Someone in your group may need to help the speaker run her book table so she is free to minister before and after she speaks.

Fill the speaker in.

Tell your speaker about the size and demographics of your group. Put her on your mailing list and keep her informed. This way, she can understand your group and can personalize her presentation. To avoid duplication, let her know what others are doing. Tell her what kind of clothes are appropriate for the different meetings and functions she will attend.

Before the event.

Provide your speaker with a “shepherd” to welcome her. The “shepherd’s” job is to check with the hotel to make sure the room is in order and the reservation is right. The speaker may need the “shepherd” to take her to and from the airport. The “shepherd” should also know where the speaker’s books and tapes are if she shipped them ahead of time. The “shepherd” should also act as an escort to the speaker to help her find the meeting room and to help her test the equipment. She can also help with emergency needs such as ruined pantyhose, aspirin, or missing items. She can provide water for the speaker and help with handouts.

See if the speaker has any special needs or requests before you set up the room. In most cases, the presentation will go better if the meeting is held somewhere other than the sanctuary. Put away the extra chairs! The dynamics are best when attendees are close to one another. If more women show up, set up more chairs. This makes people feel they came to the right place. If the session is geared for teaching and note-taking, consider seating everyone on one side of 6 or 8-foot tables, classroom style. Plan to keep the food service and the book tables all in the same room. This helps build rapport.

The value of a good introduction.

The intro should help sell a speaker to an audience and make them want to know more. Professional speakers should be able to provide you with an introduction which you should read as written. Keep it short! If you know the speaker’s whole story, don’t give away the punch line in the intro or pre-publicity. If you have any questions, check with the speaker.

If you have to write the intro yourself, keep it simple and short. You may want to tell who the speaker is, where she is from, what she does, and her area of expertise.

It’s all over!

Lives have been changed! But don’t relax, yet! This is where your “shepherd” can make sure the speaker gets to the airport in time for her flight. Be sure these arrangements are made ahead of time and be sure the speaker’s hotel bill has been paid.

Let your speaker know how she helped your women. Send her a thank you note and consider writing her a letter of reference on your church stationery. It’s over, you did a great job! RELAX!

Other ideas:

Baked Potato Bar. Bake some potatoes, add butter and whatever other ingredients you have on hand: broccoli, cheese, bacon bits, garlic salt, parsley, etc.

Chicken Soup: Buy inexpensive cuts of chicken or a whole chicken if you can afford it. Put the chicken into a big pot of water and bring to a boil. Then turn it down and simmer until well cooked. remove the skin and bones, then chop the meat and put it back into the water. Add whatever vegetables you have on hand. Add salt and pepper, onions (real or dehydrated). Cook until heated through. If you have bisquick or flour on hand, you can add dumplings and a spot of milk (powdered or regular) to add a little creaminess. You can also add pasta or egg noodles.

Spaghetti and Sauce. Add ground beef to the sauce if you have any. Include applesauce or salad.

Burritos. Buy Tortilla shells, refried beans, cheese (shred your own if it is cheaper).

Macaroni and Cheese.

Breakfast for dinner: Homemade pancakes, biscuits, eggs, fruit, buttered toast, etc.

Brown 1 lb.of ground beef, add a can of mushroom soup, and milk for creaminess. Pour over cooked egg noodles. Spice as you like it. I just use salt and pepper.

Tuna casserole : 1-2 cans of tuna, cooked rice, cream of chicken soup, chopped onions and celery (sauted in olive oil or butter), cooked broccoli (optional). Bake until it sets up at 350 around 30 minutes.Top with a small amount of cheese if on hand.

You can also cut back the portions sizes of your more expensive foods and still serve them. For example, for our family of six I will sometimes make a pasta as a main dish (like mac and cheese) and take a couple of chicken breasts, bake them and cut them into slices. Everyone takes a slice or two instead of getting a whole chicken breast. If you have plenty of healthy side dishes, you can stretch your money a bit. Some healthy side dishes include: frozen vegetables, homemade bread, applesauce, sliced apples, even cooked apples.

• ·4 boneless Chicken Breasts
• ·½ t Garlic (Oh I always double or triple garlic)
• ·2t Worcestershire sauce
• ·1 T brown sugar
• ·¼ t ginger
• ·½ t black pepper
• ·1 T cooking Oil
• ·2 T water
• ·½ cup soy sauce
• ·4 pineapple slices (fresh or canned)

Serving Day:

• ·4 sandwich buns (I used the arnold’s buns that are really yummy whole grain flat tyupe of buns)
• ·4 slices provolone or swiss cheese. (I used provolone)
• ·Fresh pineapple
• ·Lettuce, tomato as desired

Mix all the stuff at the top in a freezer bag and add the chicken breasts. Freeze if you want to use alter, or marinade several hours.

Thaw, reserve marinade. Grill chicken and slices of pineapple. Put marinade in sauce pan and heat slowly to boiling. Boil for 2 additional minutes. Just before finishing chicken, add slices of provolone and pineapple. Spoon marinade as desired upon serving on a bun.

This was VERY yummy and has now moved into our “Top Five” freezer meals.

As a young man, James Haldane was the commander of a ship. In a fierce battle with an enemy ship, he ordered new men on deck to take the places of those who had been killed or wounded. Seeing the mangled bodies of their comrades, the men fell back in horror. Captain Haldane began to swear frightfully and wished them all to hell. At the close of the fight a Christian soldier stepped up and said respectfully to the young captain, “Sir, if God had answered your prayer just now, where should we have been?” This faithful word of rebuke went home to the conscience of Haldane and led to his conversion. He abandoned his career in the navy and became a preacher, laboring faithfully for the next fifty-four years. During that time he led his brother Robert to Christ (who was also became a preacher and a Bible commentator). Robert in turn was used of the Lord in the conversion of Felix Neff (who also became a preacher). So think about it: what if that Christian soldier had remained silent instead of rebuking Captain Haldane? What about you? Do you stand up against those who use profanity or tell dirty jokes?

THOUGHT: Idle words are in the speech of men, but not in the writings of Jehovah.

Day 1- Exodus 20:1-17- One commandment is about taking God’s name in vain

Day 2- Leviticus 19:1-12; 22:32- God’s name is holy and not to be profaned

Day 3- Psalm 36:1-5- Those who speak words of iniquity do not fear God

Day 4- Matthew 12:34-37- We will give an account for our words

Day 5- Colossians 4: 5-6- Our speech is to be seasoned with salt

Day 6- James 3:1-6- Our tongue can defile our whole being

Day 7- 1 Peter 3:8-12- Control of the tongue promises a good life

Weekly Objective

Seek to please God with my every word.

At the age of sixteen, C. T. Studd was already an expert cricket player and at nineteen was made captain of his team at Eton, England. Soon he became a world- famous sports personality. But the Lord had different plans for him; for while attending Cambridge University, he heard D.L. Moody preach and was wondrously converted. He soon dedicated his life to Christ and spent hours seeking to convert his teammates. Sensing God’s leading to full-time service, he offered himself to Hudson Taylor for missionary work in China. 

While in that foreign country, he inherited a sum of money equivalent today to $500,000. In twenty-four hours he gave the entire inheritance away, investing it in the things of the Lord. Later he was forced to go back to England; for his health was failing, and his wife was an invalid. But God called him again- this time to the heart of Africa. He was informed that if he went, he would not live long. His only answer was that he had been looking for a chance to die for Jesus. “Faithful unto death,” he accepted God’s call and labored until the Savior took him home. 

THOUGHT: Missions is the business of every Christian- either to go or to send

Day 1- Matthew 28:18-20- Fulfill the Great Commission

Day 2- Mark 16:15; Luke 24:47-48- Go to the whole world

Day 3- Acts 13:1-3- Missionaries sent by the Spirit through the local church

Day 4- Acts 15:36-41; 16:1-5- Establish other local churches

Day 5- Acts 16:16-24- Must be willing to suffer

Day 6- Acts 16:25-40- Have God’s Protection

Day 7- Acts 1:6-8- We are all missionaries

Weekly Objective

Tell Someone About Christ

Jonathan Edwards, the great eighteenth century- preacher, made five resolutions for himself in his youth and lived by them faithfully: 1) to live with all might while I do live; 2) never to lose one moment of time, but to improve it in the most profitable way I possibly can; 3) never to do anything which I should despise or think wrongly of in another; 4) never to do anything out of revenge; 5) never to do anything which I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.

As a young person you are formulating your life’s character. What resolutions have you made, and are they biblical? This week see what God’s Word has to say concerning youth. 

THOUGHT: The seed of character is being sown and will produce a certain fruit.

Day 1- Psalm 71:5-18- Know the Lord in your youth so you can teach others later.

Day 2- Psalm 119:9-16- Take heed to God’s Word

Day 3- Proverbs 3:1-6- Trust in the Lord, not your understanding

Day 4- Ecclesiastes 11:9-10; 12:1- Acknowledge God in your youth

Day 5- Lamentations 3:24-27- Bear the yoke in your mouth

Day 6- 1 Timothy 4:12-16- Be an example of the believer

Day 7- 2 Timothy 2:20-26- Flee youthful lusts

Weekly Objective

Write down some resolutions you would like to maintain in your youth.

A New Zealand chief who visited England a few years ago was remarkable for the deep spirituality of his mind ad his constant delight in the Word of God. One day he was taken to see a beautiful mansion near London. The gentleman who took him expected to see him greatly astonished; however, it did not seem to excite him in the least. Wondering how this could be, he began to point out the building’s beauty and grandeur. After a while, the chief looked around and said, “Ah, my Father’s house is finer than this.” The other man could not imagine what he meant, for he knew that the chief’s father lived in a mud cottage. The chief went on to speak  in his own expressive, touching strain of the house above, the eternal home of his Redeemer which was full of beautiful mansions.

This week in your devotions you will see the blessings of heaven and why every Christian should long for the day when he will be there.

THOUGHT: Heaven will pay for any loss we may suffer to gain it, but nothing can pay for the loss of heaven.

Day 1: Psalm 11; Isaiah 66:1- Heaven is the place of God’s throne

Day 2- Matthew 6:19-21- Treasures stored in heaven are safe

Day 3- Luke 10:17-20- Heaven is the place where our names are written

Day 4- Luke 15:1-7- Heaven rejoices over the salvation of one soul

Day 5- John 14:1-4- Christ has prepared us a place in heaven

Day 6- 1 Peter 1:1-4- We have an inheritance reserved for us in heaven

Day 7- Revelation 22:15- Christ shall be the light of heaven

Weekly Objective

Ask yourself; Am I prepared for heaven? Am I longing for heaven?

A feud long existed between the towns of Great Base and Little Basel in Switzerland. The inhabitants of Great Basel showed their contempt for their neighbors by attaching the figure of a black face to the town clock, out of whose mouth protruded a long red tongue ever time the bell struck, thus making faces at Little Basel. This relic of barbarism now makes one of the curiosities of Basel.

THOUGHT: Hatred is like a mad dog; it turns on its owner

Day 1- Leviticus 19:17-18- Hatred is forbidden

Day 2- 1 John 3:13-15- Hatred is akin to murder

Day 3- Galatians 5:19-21- Hatred is a work of the flesh

Day 4- John 15:18-21- Christians should expect hatred from the world

Day 5- Matthew 5: 43-48- We are to return good for evil

Day 6- Romans 12:17-21- Vengeance belongs to the Lord

Day 7- Psalm 97:10; 119:104, 128; Proverbs 8:13- We are to hate evil

Weekly Objective

Confess any hatred I have in my heart toward anyone.

Many years ago the famous radio preacher, Dr. S. Parkes Cadman of Brooklyn, New York addressed a great men’s meeting in Center Congregational Church, New Britain, Connecticut. The pastor, Theodore A. Greene, introduced the celebrated cleric with a sudden burst of oratory. Increasing in eloquence, the pastor cried: “Think of the radio ministry of Dr. Cadman and his incredible ministry across the air waves of the nation every Sunday afternoon, the millions whom he holds spellbound I have introduced the king of the electron, the ruler of the airways, in fact, the prince of the power of the air!” Thus in trying to complement him and make him look great, this pastor had actually called Dr. Cadman the Devil himself!

THOUGHT: The same man cannot be both friend and flatterer.

Day 1: Job 31:20-22; 1 Thessalonians 2:5-6- We are not to use flattery.

Day 2: Psalm 36:1-3- The wicked flatter themselves

Day 3: Psalm 5:8-9-; 12:1-2- The wicked flatter others

Day 4: Proverbs 28:23; Daniel 11:21-22- Flattery does not gain respect

Day 5: Proverbs 20:19; 29:5- Avoid those who use flattery

Day 6: Proverbs 7:21-27- A flatterer can tempt you to sin

Day 7: Job 17:5; Psalm 12:3- Flatterers will be punished

Weekly Objective

Avoid using flattery.