Inside of St. Patrick’s Cathedral
Every month that I don’t post a blog I feel horrible. I want to tell you how I’m doing and show you how big God is, in and through my life! He is bigger than you and I can imagine! But, life as a mom is busy, to say the least. To genuinely love my family and friends, host monthly “Ladies TIME-Outs”, Tea ‘n Talks (see pics below), and run my household in the summer/harvest season makes it almost impossible to do that, and do it well.
However, I am committed to making sure I share almost everything that goes on in my heart for the glory of God, so I will be posting, but only as I am able to, as I mentioned in previous blogs.
St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland
Before going to Ireland at the end of July to celebrate my birthday and twenty years of marriage, I quickly wrote down the reflections of my heart in the hopes that I would get it out to you before I left. But, as life doesn’t stop for anyone, I wasn’t able to get this out and published in time. But, I feel the need to get it out now because I have so much more to tell you that has happened since then, and I don’t want there to be any gaps in my story. So, without further ado, here are my “Confessions of a Mother’s Heart” blog notes from 7-21-18:
Can YOU relate?
It’s the middle of July already! You wake up daily, trying to glorify your maker, but struggle against your own flesh and unexpected situations happen to get you down, mentally and physically.
But, you get back up again, by the grace of God, who is your strength. His Spirit empowers you every time you earnestly seek God’s kingdom.
You try your best, but that’s never enough. Thankfully, you have come to accept that you can’t fully rely on your own talents or gifts that He’s given you, but on the power of His words to renew you daily, instead.
I’m at a point this year where I’m finally seeing the fruits of my co-laboring with God to accomplish goals He gave me since surrendering my life completely to Him in the summer of 1998.
This week, Lord willing, I will be getting to go to a beautiful country where St. Patrick was first taken to as child labor, against his will. Ireland!
St. Patrick might not have aspired to be a child slave. But, what others intended for selfish gain, God would turn into the catalyst that would put him exactly where he needed to be; under the amount of pressure St. Patrick needed in order for God to stir his heart and direct him back to fulfill his purpose and passion for the rest of his life.
Unlike St. Patrick, I did not experience life as a child slave. Instead, I was able to grow up in a relatively healthy and happy home and then chose to get married, but before becoming a child of God. My husband and I grew up in Christian homes, but were not born again, yet, when we got married. As our marriage progressed in the first year, I fought against the new norm to love my husband well. About a year and a half after getting married, my husband and I would both end up surrendering our lives to Christ and were baptized together in the ocean in the West Coast. You’ll hear more about how this came to be in a future post, hopefully.
Years later I would experience severe Postpartum Depression and Anxiety after giving birth to my third child. But, in all the pressures of those years, the last 20 and half years, to be exact, God has worked in and through me to produce a harvest I could never have accomplished on my own, or even with any mentor or life coach.
This week, while in Ireland, I will also be celebrating my forty-fourth birthday, twentieth wedding anniversary, and the publication of my first book, which was birthed as a result of my family’s first and only year in New Jersey in 2015.
So, I want to ask you the same question again. Can YOU relate?
Can you identify places in your life where you have been put in places of pressure, either by your own choices or by external consequences you didn’t necessarily have much control over?
How did you handle them?
If you have found yourself there, did you lean on yourself or someone else? Who?
IF you can’t relate, do you want to relate? Do you want God to use your “not so clean or ideal” situations for a greater purpose? Then surrender your whole life to Him right where you are. Call on Him! He will not turn you away, if you truly mean it.
“My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.” (Psalm 51:17, NIV)
He’ll give you rest and redirect you onto the path He has for you, just as He did for St. Patrick.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30, NIV)
Search for a local church in your community that is Bible based and get plugged in!
“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones. (Proverbs 3:5-8, KJV)
Check out the ministry work God has developed as a result of His faithfulness in my family’s life at TLCsquared.org through Confessions of a Mother’s Heart.
New Confessions of a Mother’s Heart Book! Volume 1
Buy the new book for yourself and one for a friend! By doing so you’ll be supporting this ministry and helping to “Re-create Homes One Family at a Time via Teaching, Loving and Connecting Families”! All proceeds go towards funding the ministry.
Learn more about the upcoming events and Confessions of a Mother’s Heart (COMH-Unity) Support Groups here!
I will be writing to you again as soon as I’m inspired and able!
To God be the glory!
Socorro Gill
confessions of a mother's heart 