Maybe you have already heard of the age old Cherokee tale where a grandfather is teaching his grandson about two battling wolves. One wolf represents fear, sorrow, lies, envy and anger. The other wolf represents joy, kindness, truth, compassion and peace. After his grandfather explains about each wolf, the grandson asks, “Which wolf wins?”, to which is grandfather responds, “The one you feed.”
As moms, on a daily basis, we are feeding one of these two wolves. By what we choose to read, watch and believe we are either bringing about fear and anger or joy and peace. And in turn, we are either passing along fear and anger onto our children or we are passing along joy and peace to the next generation. Honestly, this can change from day to day. One day we are in the Word, watching the right things, listening to truth and we have an immense amount of joy, peace and kindness in our hearts. The next day we allow ourselves to rabbit trail on that social media page or watch that video and before we know it, fear, anger and discontent have built up in our hearts. It seems like a never-ending roller coaster.
How do we engage in this cycle of emotions battling for our heart and the hearts of our children? That’s just it. We need to engage in the battle. We can’t sit back and hope for the best. Each day, we have to fight to feed the correct wolf. We need to make choices that will put truth in front of our face and in our homes. We have to combat the lies of the enemy each day and during certain seasons, even each moment.
The best way to combat the lies that vie for our attention is to have our nose in God’s Word – Every. Single. Day. It is of utmost importance that you read His truth each day. Now, I am not going to sit here and say make sure you do that in the morning. We are all in different seasons and though a morning routine may work for some with older children, that doesn’t work for all moms who are up all night with a newborn or toddler. The key is that you are IN HIS WORD. It doesn’t matter when and it doesn’t have to look a certain way either. Choose to read a Psalm each day. Go through one book at a time simply reading a chapter a day. Listen to it as you nurse your baby or fold the umpteenth load of laundry. Post scriptures up around your house in places where you can read and reread them (we all know that probably means the kitchen sink!). Whichever way you choose to get into His Word, allow it to penetrate your heart so that the wolf of joy, kindness and peace rules your heart as you lead your children.
“So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
Isaiah 55:11
Excellent!
Great post!