Adopted for His great plan!

1 Samuel 15-16 got me as I was in the waiting room in the hospital. A very good friend of mine had to have something surgically removed. The character of David has always been close and dear to my heart! I spent the first summer of Zechariah's and my relationship in a Beth Moore bible study learning about him. God's goodness to David never ceases to comfort my weary heart!

In 1 Samuel 15 God rejects Saul as King over Israel. Saul took matters info his own hands and decided to sacrafice the Amalekites livestock. On untrained eyes Saul seems to have obeyed God and even maybe honored him. He was thinking of making a sacrafice as was the Israelite custom to honor God. To seasoned Samuel though it was quite a different story. God told Saul to destroy the Amalekites completely meaning everything! God must have known something we didn't because it's hard for me to gulp that down such a loving Father would order the entire destruction of a people, wicked people. His plan all along was to adopt the Israelites as His own! He had to use extreme measures because they were in such extreme measures.

A few times I caught a word that helped me to see Saul's fatal mistake. Look with me at 1 Samuel 15. Saul uses the word your. As in your God not mine! How sad that the first King of Israel would feel and treat such a loving Father that way. His own dad didn't see much of him as he was hiding behind garbage shortly after becoming king. It was a lot of responsibiltiy! It just doesn't make sense to me that Saul thought he could take on the terrain himself without God's blessing and guidance. Then I remember something, that was me two years ago!

I wanted to get the mothering part of my journey so badly right that I put alot of pressure on myself to get everything right. It all crumbled though when I didn't involve God in the journey. It was a journey I never needed to embark on. But sometimes I'm as stubborn as an ox and lessons have to be learned painfully. So here we are the first king of Israel rejects God as his King! How tragic!! To grieve God's heart is something I never want to do. Then I remember He sent Jesus because I already have we all have!

Then we come to my favorite part in the story! Samuel annoints David as King! Before that though some important and painful things to note. Jesse David's dad brought all 7 sons to Samuel for annionting and Samuel did not choose any of them because their hearts were not in the right place! Then David is mentioned sadly you can hear the dissapointment in his father's voice concerning David to Samuel. He's just out with the sheep essentially you don't want him sometimes I don't either! Ouch much? I'm not sure of a more painful feeling than being disowned by your own family. Regardless of how Jesse felt about David God saw his worth and a future man after his own heart and had him annointed King! Do you catch God's goodness? When our family or friends find no worth in us God takes us in as His own because that is what we are, His children!

So how do I feel God's goodness waiting in the hospital to hear the prognosis of my dear friend? Or when I have a teething baby and screaming toddler? Or a hubby who sometimes doesn't understand? I remember that no matter what He adopted me for His plans! I'm here to do His work not the other way around! When we are rejected we become accepted, when we are forgotten we are remembered, when we have no one to talk to God prompts us to read His love letter to us, His word! I don't know about you but that just brings tears to my eyes!! God loves us so much that he would be willing to look foolish, crazy, misunderstood, misquoted, dishonored all to bring me and you home! Let that resonate in your hearts today as it will in mine!

Love you with all my heart!
Tina Martina Putney

I need to apologize... follow up post

Prompted by the Holy Spirit I need to apologize to you. I wrote a blog called Seeing the old me a while back. It was about giving encouragement to struggling mamas by telling them "You go this!" While my intentions were good and well meaning I was actually getting in the way of the True Gospel of Jesus.

Nowhere in the Bible does it ever say that we have this mothering thing on our own! In fact everyone in Scripture had to depend on God. It's no different than us! God gives us our very breath, all the many blessings, health, protection, love and immeasurable grace and yet God does not give us the freedom to "have it" why would he need him so desperately if we could do it all ourselves?

In many ways this has been a challenging week. Joshua's dedication was Sunday, we had a big gathering for that! It was a beautiful ceremony and was happy with all our support. There was a difficult moment in there which I really didn't process until the next day. Tuesday we took mama to the airport she is already safely back in Slovenia. With big boy turning 3 a lot of reminders of our really rough season have surfaced. It's really hard to know where we were. Yet the grace is how far we've come! If you saw me today with my kiddos it would shock you if I told you Nathan's first year was the greatest struggle of my life!

In every part of our journey Jesus never left us to figure everything out. We prayed and pleaded for him to plead our case. Reality set in when we were granted our son back home! I may have done the hard work and Jesus did everything else! He made sure we were cared for. This is the reason I am writing an apology. Jesus, (not us) has every person's dreams, desires, calling, and future in the palm of his hands. He alone knows! So next time I see a struggling mama instead of saying you got this I need to point her to Jesus. From now on I will say "Jesus got this!" The truth is he does!! He took this angry mom and with each new revelation is making her into a Gospel Centered mom! I will never not need Jesus! None of us will ever outgrow our need for Jesus! He doesn't make us enough He alone is Enough.

I hope that you can take the next step on becoming a Gospel Centered Mom and release the pressure of being enough. No matter what we think or try to do to be enough for our kiddos we will always fall short because we were never intended to be! Jesus and Jesus alone is Enough! You can this and so much more in Brooke McGlothlin's new book. It's out in stores now! You can also find the link in the blog here!

Found on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3gEO8ky 

Found on Ebay: https://ebay.us/96yF8R

So here goes... I'm sorry if I have misrepresented the True Gospel never my intention and I will be very careful to focus on who really is enough!

Gospel Centered Mom by Brooke McGlotlin 

Found on Amazon https://amzn.to/3gEO8ky

Found on Ebay: https://ebay.us/96yF8R

Tina Martina Putney