Grace for My Home | Christian Women, Growing in Faith, Spirit-Led, Hearing from God, Sowing Truth

REPLAY: Like a Tree Planted By Living Waters

• Audrey McCracken | Mom Encourager • Season 4 • Episode 131

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Speaker 1:

hello friend, welcome back to grace from my home. I'm audrey mccracken and I'm so glad to be back with you again this week. I hope that you're doing well. Just a little update um, what's going on in our lives? Um, getting ready for summer at the coffee shop.

Speaker 1:

Summer has a different vibe at the coffee shop. I didn't realize how big summer would be for us when we first opened up the shop about two years ago. You know, I kind of thought summer may be the quiet time because it's coffee, right, and who wants coffee in the summer? Well, everybody wants coffee in the summer. We do a lot of frappes, a lot of smoothies and a lot of cold brew and iced lattes, and I just I had no idea. All the kids are off from school and we've become a little hangout place for them, which we love. We have some older kids that will be off from school and actually helping us, some juniors and seniors that we've hired for the summer and you know, young people bring life. We're also working on our summer drinks and that's the fun part of running a coffee shop is you get to think of these new cool drinks, and that's usually a team effort, like we've got several different people who help us with that and, you know, love to do the taste testing and come up with ideas, and so we're getting ready for summer at the coffee shop and having the younger people, like I said, it just brings a different vibe. It also gives our regular employees some time to take off, to do vacations, spend time with their kids while their kids are off for summer break. So so, yeah, that's what we have going on right now. If you've been listening, then you know that we're in the middle of a five-week replay series where I'm sharing some of my most listened to episodes, and there's a few reasons why I'm doing this. One of those reasons is I have a lot more listeners now than when these first aired and they have been some of my most popular, and I want to give people an opportunity to listen to them who haven't, and if you have, hopefully they'll be just as good the second time and there'll be an encouragement to you.

Speaker 1:

Also, this summer I'm taking some time to work on some projects that I really want to get started on, but I just haven't been able to make much traction on. One is my second book. Back in October, I released my first book, which was a book of prayers for moms and it's called Covered in Prayer 31 Prayers to Cover you and your Children in God's Grace, and you can find that on Amazon if you're interested. But I have another book that I've been working on and it's a devotional. So I'm another book that I've been working on and it's a devotional, so I'm working on that. Also, it's in my heart to start a second podcast, a daily devotional about five or ten minutes to help you get your day started. So I'm working on trying to get that created and launched. And also I've got some Bible studies that I want to work on, so I want to get some traction on those things, so they're not just ideas and they're actually in this world, in the real world. So this summer that's what I'm concentrating on, for a few weeks at least, but I am still around.

Speaker 1:

I'm blogging every week. You can check that out at graceformyhomecom. I'm sending out weekly newsletters. If you have not signed up, go to the show notes and you can sign up there, or you can go to my blog, graceformyhomecom, and sign up there, and that's one way to stay in touch with me. Also, in the show notes there is a link where you can send me a text and I'd love to hear from you. I'd love to hear from you. Every time I hear from a listener, it excites me, it's like, oh, somebody's listening and I love that. So please go to the show notes. You know, follow me on social. Let's get connected. Tell me about yourself, tell me about your kids.

Speaker 1:

Today's episode first aired back in February of 2024, and it's called Like a Tree Planted by Living Waters. It's a reminder that our faith doesn't have to be flashy to be powerful. You know, sometimes the most spiritual thing we can do is to stay rooted, to stay close to Jesus, to stay in his word and to stay faithful during the seasons when nobody's looking and nobody sees us. You know, our life can be an encouragement, an example for other people when we live faithfully and we can become like that tree planted by the living waters. So I hope that you're encouraged by today's message. Let's listen. Hello everyone, welcome back to Grace.

Speaker 1:

For my home, the temperature is warming up here in South Carolina. It is a beautiful day today and it's starting to feel like spring. It's not spring, but it's starting to feel like spring. It's still a little chilly, but there's hope in the air. I went for a walk yesterday and it was so nice and I just I'm so excited about the spring weather coming because, well, I just love change of season, but I especially love the spring. You know, the spring is like new hope. Everything's been dead, everything's been cold, everything's been brown and, just, you know, just kind of yucky. And now with the spring new things are starting to pop up and that's exciting. So here it's starting to just be beautiful outside. I don't look forward to the pollen, but you have to take the good with the bad right.

Speaker 1:

Just to give you a little recap of what's going on around here, our boys are starting to get ready for spring sports. We have one who is he's practicing soccer. Right now they're in soccer practice. I have another one who, um, he is, his head is all into football. So right now for the spring he's doing track, he's training with the track team and he has really enjoyed that. But the whole point of it is he's getting ready for football. He thinks that track will help him be faster and more agile and so that's why he's doing that. And then we are getting ready for the summer, thinking about what we're going to do this summer as far as travel and those kind of things, and my husband. He travels a lot during the summer and sometimes I get to go with him and sometimes I don't. Now that I'm managing the coffee shop, I'm not able to go with him as much, and that's okay, but it just kind of. You know, we're just trying to figure all that out right now.

Speaker 1:

I had a scripture on my mind and on my heart today actually two and I thought that this would be two good scriptures to share with you today. The first one is Psalm 1. I had my children, when we were homeschooling, memorize Psalm 1, and it's such a good scripture. I'm going to read Psalm 1 to you out of the NIV right now. It says or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord and who meditates in his law day and night, that person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever they do prospers, not so the wicked. They are like shaft that the wind has driven away. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous, for the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction. And, like I said, when my boys were younger, we memorized this together because I just think it's so important to see the contrast, that there is a difference between those who serve the Lord and those who don't, and we all have that choice.

Speaker 1:

That is a choice that every person has to make. How are we going to walk? And I wanted them to see clearly from the very beginning that there is a distinction, because this world will tell you there's really no big difference between Christians and non-Christians. There's really no big difference between those who believe in God and those who don't, no big difference between those who believe in God and those who don't. But there is, and sometimes you know at the beginning, you may see two people, you know the beginning of life, and one is a believer and one is not. And it may not look like a whole lot of difference between those two, but as the years go on, as time passes, and they make more and more decisions about their lives. The person who has built his home, his life, on the rock of Jesus, who has decided to live rightly, who has decided to do the right things, even when it doesn't seem like it matters. That person's life will look a lot different 20, 30, 40 years down the road, because the differences they start off small, but they grow exponentially. And that's what it's like for a person who builds his house on the solid rock of Jesus Christ.

Speaker 1:

We are those who delight in the law of the Lord, who meditate on his law day and night. We don't stand in the way of sinners, we don't sit in the company of mockers, we don't walk with the wicked, and it makes a huge difference in our lives. We become like a tree planted by streams of water, and what that means is, when there's a drought, we are beside the river, even if you don't see the water in the riverbed. We have roots that go down deep and we have a stream. We have a source that the world can't see, and it sustains us in hard times. We have a leaf that doesn't wither. Now we have fruit in the season when we're supposed to have fruit, because whatever we do prospers, because our prosperity is not based on our own ability, but the fact that God watches over us, the fact that we do those things that please him, and so, even when on the outside it doesn't look like there's a big difference between the one who serves Jesus and the one who doesn't.

Speaker 1:

In the long run, it makes all the difference, and we as Christian moms, as Christian parents, we are the ones that have to show that to our children early, so that they see that there is a reward for serving God, there is a reason to serve God, and there will be a day of judgment. There will be a day where we stand before Jesus and we give account of all the things we've done in our lives. And you know, we may do things here on earth that make people scratch their heads. We may do things that the world just can't understand. Why would you give? Why would you give when you're yourself struggling? Why would you reach out and help other people when you're not rich yourself?

Speaker 1:

Because there's a reward, because I look after my brother and my sister, because I'm like my father, I see and I love to bless, and so there is a hidden current that flows through God's children, that brings blessing everywhere it goes, and it's not always financial blessings. Many times it doesn't have anything to do with money. There is a blessing that flows. There's a joy, there's a strength, there's a support, there's a happiness that goes deeper than money, that a lot of people can't see, because to them that's what blessed means is it means finances. Can't see because to them that's what blessed means is it means finances, and I'm thankful that our finances, that our needs, our financial needs are met. But the blessing of God is so much more than financial, and God is showing us here in Psalm 1 that there is a distinction between he who walks after God and he who does not. The implication is be the one who walks after God, be the righteous one, be the one who does right when nobody else is watching, because it matters. Send those roots down deep so that when the storm comes, that tree doesn't topple over and God will supply all that you need.

Speaker 1:

I also want to read another scripture that is over in Matthew. It says in Matthew 13, starting in verse 31, talking about Jesus, he presented another parable to them, saying the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field, and this is smaller than all other seeds, but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches. So Jesus is talking about the kingdom of God and it's like a mustard seed and you know he said in another section, he said another place, that if you have faith as a mustard seed, then you can say to a mountain, be moved and cast into the sea and it will obey you. But he's talking here. The kingdom of God is like that mustard seed it's small but once you plant it and it grows, it becomes bigger than any of the other plants in your garden, so big that it's a tree where the birds can come and make nests and find safe haven, find a protected place, and I see that a lot like Psalm 1.

Speaker 1:

As we grow in our faith, as we learn how to walk with Jesus, as we become more and more like him, we become a safe place, we become a stable person. We spread out our branches and make a place for other people to come and to hear and to be safe and to learn about God. And as moms, that's who we're called to be. We're called to be men and women of faith where others can come into our branches, because we've stood the test of time, because we've stood through the storms, because we've grown in our faith because we've allowed our roots to go down deep and our branches to go up high. We can make a place for other people who need a break from the storm, for other people who need to come into the protection of our faith so that they can learn, so they can grow, so they can be inspired, so they can have an example of how to walk with God. And that's what our faith is like. As our faith grows, it produces a place where other people can grow too, and our homes are like that can grow too, and our homes are like that.

Speaker 1:

Your children, they need lots of things, right, they need a lot of stuff, but most of all, they need you to be an example of walking with Jesus, of what it means to walk by faith, of what it means to love God, of what it means to enjoy God, of what it means to hold on when we don't feel like holding on anymore. You know that is taught. That is one of those things that we don't think that that is important. It doesn't seem like, you know, one of the big things that we need to be training our children, but that is so foundational that it's one of those things that they will absorb from us as we walk in hard places and they know when we're walking in hard places. But as we walk in hard places and we still trust God and we still pray and we still forgive people who hurt us and we still strive to please God in hard places, they may not verbally say I see that, but it goes down deep and years later, when they're going through their own situations, their own circumstances where it would seem a lot easier just to just to strike the rock and just say forget this. It'd be a lot easier just to walk away or do what feels good to them at the moment, they will have a picture of of mama, believing, praying, worshiping in hard places, and that is worth its weight in gold, mama.

Speaker 1:

Now, that's one of those things that you can't buy it, you can't manufacture it. It's a faith walk and it matters. It matters a great deal. And if you don't, if you feel like you're failing all the way around, okay, if you feel like you know I didn't get this right and I didn't get that right and I didn't get that right, you just keep walking with Jesus and your very walk with him will be a testimony to your children that we serve Jesus, even when it's hard, that we walk after God, even when nobody else sees it, because we believe and that's what faith is. It starts off as a little seed and we keep walking with them, and walking with them, and walking with them, and before we know it, we are a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings protection and a place of rest for those who live under our roof and for others that will come alongside that the Lord will send to walk along with us, and it's so worth it. It's so worth it. And he sends us times of refreshing. There are seasons, like I said when I opened up, there are seasons. There are seasons that it feels dark, there are seasons that it feels just really yucky and hard and cold, and then there are times when the sun comes out and the spring comes and the birds start singing again and it's like the sap starts running through our veins again and we're reminded that serving Jesus is the best life there is Amen.

Speaker 1:

I do want to let you know that I am going to take a few weeks off from the podcast. I am spending a few weeks praying, just seeking the Lord for direction for my life and for my family, and I love doing the podcast and I will definitely be back, but I do want to be serious about seeking the Lord's direction and, instead of trying to come up with a message, I want to hear from the Lord during this next probably about two to three weeks and so just want to let you know, so you don't think that I have given up or that I'm not coming back, but I am going to take a few weeks off just to clear my mind and hear from the Lord. So if you would pray for me that I would hear direction from the Lord, that would be great. So, just so, just to let you know, father, I pray right now for these mamas that are listening, lord.

Speaker 1:

I pray that they would feel you moving in their spirits today, that they would feel the sap running again, lord, that, lord, new life is on that, lord, spring is coming and new life is on the way. And, lord, I ask you, lord, that they would feel you as their strength inside of them. Lord, for all that, they need God, we are a resource to our family. They're constantly pulling from us, constantly coming to us for wisdom. God, give us your wisdom for them. And, lord, I just ask you for strength in our hearts and our minds, and, lord, we give you all the glory and we just honor you in Jesus name, amen.