Today's devotional is different in that rather than basing my musings on a particular woman of the Bible, I will be speaking on a an experience that is unique to women- giving birth.
Whilst this process is understood as a natural or physical (reproductive) process, today I am going to be speaking about the process of giving birth to our spiritual children or brainchildren (ideas, goals, dreams, vision).
"What got you thinking along these lines, Nina?"
Glad you asked...
In today's interview, I will be talking about how to balance career and family as a mother with the amazing Lauren Whitworth (of Laurenwhitworth.ca).
By the end of this video you will know:
Sound like your cup of tea, lovely?
Great! You can do whatever it is you need to do to get comfortable and press play to access this awesome conversation, below:
Last Sunday, we discussed what Naomi can teach us about:
In that devotional, I particularly focused on Ruth 1:20-21 which says:
But she said to them, “Do not call me Naomi [meaning "pleasant"] call me Mara [meaning "bitter"] for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, and the Lord has brought me home again empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?”
On inspecting that scripture further, I realised that it didn't just:
But it also gives us some insight into imposter syndrome- all of which I shared on my Facebook page this week via the (live) video below.
Here's a little bit of what you can expect in terms of:
Great! Do whatever it is that you need to do to get comfortable so you can watch and enjoy the video below.
In today's interview, I will be talking about how to be a great leader with none other than business coach and leadership strategist, Marlyne Pierce (of ModernMogulHQ.com).
By the end of this video you will know:
Sound like your cup of tea, lovely?
Great! You can do whatever it is you need to do to get comfortable and press play to access this awesome conversation, below:
(PS do excuse my sound at certain points during the interview. There were some technical difficulties on my end).
Naomi, like Orpah, is first mentioned in the first chapter of the Book of Ruth. She was Orpah and Ruth's mother-in-law before her 2 sons (who were their husbands) died. What killed them was a famine that swept Moab and had also been responsible for Naomi's husband's death prior to this point.
The irony and saddest part about this situation is that Naomi and her husband had originally moved to Moab from Bethlehem years earlier to escape a famine that had swept that land. As such, by the time we meet her in Ruth 1, Naomi is grief-stricken and ready to return back to Bethlehem (especially because she had heard that the famine there was over).
Apart from being struck by the many lessons that can be gleaned from Orpah within this chapter about:
I also have new insights from Naomi about the fear of failure and how to overcome it.
Last Sunday, I wrote about the lessons that we can learn from Orpah about success (and what NOT to do)! (This will be summarised briefly in today's post but, just in case you prefer to read the whole thing in detail, you can do that here).
However, even after writing this post, I got more insight into other things that Orpah can teach us about success- all of which I shared on my Facebook page this week via the (live) video below.
Here's a little bit of what you can expect in terms of:
Great! Do whatever it is that you need to do to get comfortable so you can watch and enjoy the video below.
To a certain degree, Orpah reminds me of Vashti. Like Vashti, Orpah appears in a book of the Bible that chronicles one of our most celebrated matriarchs of the faith's life (Vashti is mentioned in the book of Esther, whereas Orpah is mentioned in Ruth). Yet, neither of these ladies are remembered and held in as high regard as their more esteemed counterparts (Esther and Ruth respectively). Despite this, there are still lessons to be gleaned from each of these women as to why that is. For example, Vashti has already given us lessons on (the importance of) obedience and today, we are going to take lessons from Orpah on how to be successful.
We first hear of Anna in Luke 2 which details, amongst other things, Jesus':
It is during Jesus and His parents' stint in Jerusalem that Anna makes her debut in Luke 2:36-38, which says:
"Now there was one, Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity; and this woman was a widow of about eighty-four years, who did not depart from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. And coming in that instant she gave thanks to the Lord, and spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem".
When I read that scripture it reminds me of Matthew 21 which tells of Jesus' triumphant return to Jerusalem many years later, as a grown man. The part of this passage that I am particularly put in mind of is Matthew 21:12-13:-
"Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’”
Whilst these scriptures speak of contrasting moments in Jesus' life (the beginning of His life and the end of His life respectively), there are some common themes that I would like to explore. Namely, what it means to be a "house of prayer".
