Your Best Life Now for Moms Read online

  Copyright © 2007 by Joel Osteen Publishing

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in review.

  All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

  Scriptures noted AMP are taken from Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified® Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

  Scriptures noted NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible®. Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

  Scriptures noted NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.

  Scriptures noted TLB are taken from The Living Bible, copyright © 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

  Scriptures noted NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

  Scriptures noted THE MESSAGE are from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

  Scriptures noted KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

  Literary development and design: Koechel Peterson & Associates, Inc., Minneapolis, Minnesota.

  Portions of this book have been adapted from Your Best Life Now, copyright © 2004 and Daily Readings from Your Best Life Now, copyright © 2005 by Joel Osteen. Published by FaithWords.

  FaithWords

  Hachette Book Group, USA

  237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017

  Visit our Web site at www.HachetteBookGroupUSA.com.

  First eBook Edition: April 2007

  ISBN: 978-0-446-53993-7

  Contents

  Introduction

  Part 1: Enlarge Your Vision

  Change Your Mind and Expand Your World

  God Is on Your Side

  Change Your Expectations

  The Favor-Minded Mom

  The Power of an Attitude of Faith

  Part 2: Develop A Healthy Self-Image

  God Sees You as a Champion

  BE Strong and Courageous

  Be The Original You

  Become What You Believe

  Part 3: Discover The Power of Your Thoughts and Words

  Success Begins In the Mind

  Think About Your Thinking

  The Power of Your Words

  Speak Words of Faith

  Let Go of the Past

  Letting Go

  Get Up and Get Movin’

  Forgive to Be Free

  Keep Moving Forward

  Part 4: Find Strength Through Adversity

  Get Up on the Inside

  Trust God’s Timing

  Be Content

  Tests of Faith

  Part 5: Live to Give

  No “Lone Ranger” Moms

  Walk in Love

  Keep an Open Heart

  God Loves a Cheerful Giver

  Part 6: Choose to Be Happy

  Happiness is Your Choice

  Be a Person of Excellence and Integrity

  Your Best Life Now

  GLUE

  PRESENTED TO:

  ______________________________________

  FROM:

  ______________________________________

  DATE:

  ______________________________________

  MOTHER IS THE NAME FOR GOD IN THE LIPS AND HEARTS OF LITTLE CHILDREN.

  —WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERY

  Introduction

  THE PROVERBS 31 LADY IS EXTRAORDINARY in every facet of her life. She is the perfect wife and the ideal mother wrapped up in one person. One cannot read the descriptions of her noble character and not want everything that she is and has.

  Yet we all know that while some moms grab life with enthusiasm and find great joy in motherhood, such a grandiose dream doesn’t always pan out for everybody. I’m not talking about becoming a perfect mother. I recognize the strain of nighttime feedings and chicken pox and toilet training and temper tantrums and personality differences and on and on. No mom is perfect, and not every moment is glorious. Motherhood has its ups and downs and tremendous challenges.

  But I am talking about moms who never seem to get even close to discovering the joy of motherhood. Why is that? What makes the difference?

  Happy, successful, fulfilled moms have learned how to live their best lives now. They make the most of the present moment and thereby enhance their future. You can, too. No matter where you are or what challenges you face, you can enjoy your life right now!

  Many women enter motherhood with low self-esteem, focusing on the negative, feeling inferior or inadequate, always dwelling on reasons why they can’t be happy. Others put off their happiness till some future date. Unfortunately, “someday” never comes. Today is the only day we have. We can’t do anything about the past, and we don’t know what the future holds. But we can live at our full potential right now!

  In this book, you will discover just how to do that. Within these pages, you will find seven simple, yet profound, steps to improve your life as a mom. If you take these steps, you ultimately will be happier than ever before, living with joy, peace, and enthusiasm for the rest of your life!

  I challenge you to break out of the “barely-get-by” mentality that possesses so many moms, to become the best you can be, not merely average or ordinary. To do that, you may have to rid yourself of some negative mind-sets that are holding you back and start seeing yourself as doing more, enjoying more, being more. That is what it means to live your best life now!

  SHE IS CLOTHED WITH STRENGTH AND DIGNITY; SHE CAN LAUGH AT THE DAYS TO COME.

  SHE SPEAKS WITH WISDOM, AND FAITHFUL INSTRUCTION IS ON HER TONGUE.

  SHE WATCHES OVER THE AFFAIRS OF HER HOUSEHOLD AND DOES NOT EAT THE BREAD OF IDLENESS.

  HER CHILDREN ARISE AND CALL HER BLESSED.

  —THE BOOK OF PROVERBS

  ENLARGE Your Vision

  AS A MOM, YOU SERVE THE MOST HIGH GOD, AND HIS DREAM FOR YOUR LIFE

  AND FOR YOUR FAMILY IS SO MUCH BIGGER AND BETTER

  THAN YOU CAN EVEN IMAGINE.

  MOTHERHOOD IS PRICED OF GOD, AT PRICE NO MAN MAY DARE

  TO LESSEN OR MISUNDERSTAND.

  —HELEN HUNT JACKSON

  Change Your Mind AND EXPAND YOUR WORLD

  WE SERVE THE GOD WHO CREATED THE UNIVERSE . . . and motherhood. Never settle for a small view of God. He wants to do big things and new things in our lives. God wants us to be constantly increasing, to be rising to new heights. He wants to equip you for the vast responsibilities that mother-hood entails. He wants to increase you in wisdom and help you make better decisions. He wants to pour out “His far and beyond favor” on you and your children (Ephesians 2:7).

  But do you believe it? Or are you focused on your mothering failures and flaws and feelings of being overwhelmed and never being a good enough mom? Is your own wrong thinking keeping you from God’s best?

  It’s time to enlarge your vision. To live your best life now, you must start looking at life through eyes of faith, visualizing the life you want to live. See your family prospering. See your children growing in the faith. See your marriage restored. You
must conceive it and believe it is possible if you ever hope to experience it.

  To conceive it, you must have an image on the inside of the life you want to live on the outside. This image has to become a part of you, in your thoughts, your conversations, deep down in your subconscious mind, in your actions, in every part of your being. If you develop an image of victory, success, health, abundance, joy, peace, and happiness, nothing on earth will be able to hold those things from you.

  “See,” God says, “I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43:19). Perhaps God is asking you this question today. “Don’t you see what I want to do, and are you making room for it in your thinking?”

  The truth is, if you will get in agreement with God, this can be the greatest time of your life. With God on your side, you cannot possibly lose. He can make a way when it looks as though there is no way. He can open doors that no man can shut. He can cause you to be at the right place, at the right time. He can supernaturally turn your life around.

  Get rid of small-minded thinking and start thinking as God thinks. Think big. Think increase. Think abundance. Think more than enough for you and your children!

  __________________________________

  CONSIDER GOD’S WORD IN THE LIGHT OF MOTHERHOOD

  “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

  JEREMIAH 29:11

  NO LANGUAGE CAN EXPRESS THE POWER AND BEAUTY AND HEROISM AND MAJESTY OF A MOTHER’S LOVE. IT SHRINKS NOT WHERE MAN COWERS, AND GROWS STRONGER WHERE MAN FAINTS, AND OVER THE WASTES OF WORLDLY FORTUNE SENDS THE RADIANCE OF ITS QUENCHLESS FIDELITY LIKE A STAR IN HEAVEN.

  —E. H. CHAPIN

  BUT THE ANGEL SAID TO HER, “DO NOT BE AFRAID, MARY, YOU HAVE FOUND FAVOR WITH GOD. YOU WILL BE WITH CHILD AND GIVE BIRTH TO A SON, AND YOU ARE TO GIVE HIM THE NAME JESUS.”

  — LUKE 1:30–31

  God Is on YOUR SIDE

  AS A WOMAN, PERHAPS YOU’VE CONSIDERED what the Virgin Mary must have felt like when the angel told her that she would conceive without knowing a man. In other words, God was saying it would happen through supernatural means. The power of the Most High God would come upon her and cause it to happen by His Spirit. And the reassurance given was profoundly simple: “For nothing is impossible with God” (Luke 1:37).

  Similarly, God is constantly trying to plant new seeds in your heart. He’s constantly trying to get you to conceive, to give up antiquated ideas, and spark new bursts of creativity within. He’s trying to fill you with so much hope and expectancy that the seed will grow and bring forth a tremendous harvest.

  Will you allow that seed to take root? It starts by being willing to change your thinking and start believing for something bigger. Interestingly, when Jesus wanted to encourage His followers to enlarge their visions, He reminded them, “You can’t put new wine into old wineskins” (Matthew 9:17). He was saying that you cannot have a larger life with restricted attitudes. Will you stretch your faith and vision and get rid of those old negative mind-sets that hold you back?

  Get beyond the barriers of the past and expect God to do great things in your life. Start making room in your thinking for what God has in store for you and your family. You must conceive it in your heart and mind before you can receive it. The key is to believe, to let the seeds God is placing in your life to take root so they can grow. Expect God’s favor, just as Mary did, to help you break out of the ruts and rise to new heights. Expect to excel in whatever you do.

  This is your time for increase. You may have been sick for a long time, but this is your time to get well. You may have a child who is bound by addictions or bad habits, but this is the time to be set free. You may be struggling financially, but God is not limited to bank loans or having the right education. It can happen in spite of your past and what the critics are telling you. Will you believe?

  Eliminate a barely-get-by mentality and let God’s seed take root. Remember: With God, all things are possible.

  __________________________________

  CONSIDER GOD’S WORD IN THE LIGHT OF MOTHERHOOD

  “It shall be done to you according to your faith.”

  MATTHEW 9:29 NASB

  MY MOTHER PLANTED SEEDS OF FAITH AND WATERED THEM WITH LOVE.

  —ALICE GRAY

  MOTHER LOVE IS THE FUEL THAT ENABLES A NORMAL HUMAN BEING TO DO THE IMPOSSIBLE.

  —MARION C. GARRETTY

  Change YOUR EXPECTATIONS

  GOD HAS MORE IN STORE FOR YOU! His dream for your life is so much greater than you can imagine. If God showed you everything He has in store for you, it would boggle your mind.

  He is extremely interested in what you see through your “spiritual eyes.” If you have a vision for victory in your life, you can rise to a new level. But as long as your gaze is on your problems instead of on your possibilities, you risk moving in the wrong direction and missing out on the great things God wants to do in and through you. It’s a spiritual as well as a psychological fact: We move toward what we see in our minds.

  Your life will follow your expectations. What you receive is directly connected to how you believe. If you dwell on positive thoughts, your life will move that direction; if you continually think negative thoughts, you will live a negative life, which will affect your relationship with your husband and children. If you expect defeat, failure, or mediocrity, your subconscious mind will make sure that you lose, fail, or sabotage every attempt to push above average. If you raise your level of expectancy, you will enlarge your vision.

  It’s time to quit limiting God. Remember: God is your source, and His creativity and resources are unlimited! God can give you a dream. One idea from God can forever change the course of your life. God is not limited by what you have or don’t have. God can do anything, if you will simply stop limiting Him in your thinking.

  Maybe you hail from a long line of divorce, failure, depression, mediocrity, and other personal or family problems. You need to say, “Enough is enough. I’m going to break out of this cycle and change my expectations. I’m going to start believing God for bigger and better things.”

  When God puts a dream in your heart, when He brings opportunities across your path, step out boldly in faith, expect the best, move forward with confidence, knowing that you are well able to do what God wants you to do. God wants to do a new thing in your life. But you’ve got to do your part and get outside that little box you’ve grown accustomed to. Start thinking big!

  This could be the day you see your miracle.

  __________________________________

  CONSIDER GOD’S WORD IN THE LIGHT OF MOTHERHOOD

  Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended;but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which area head, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

  PHILIPPIANS 3:13–14 NKJV

  ONE HUNDRED YEARS FROM NOW IT WILL NOT MATTER WHAT KIND OF CAR I DROVE, WHAT KIND OF HOUSE I LIVED IN,

  HOW MUCH MONEY I HAD IN MY BANK ACCOUNT, OR WHAT MY CLOTHES LOOKED LIKE. BUT ONE HUNDRED YEARS FROM NOW THE WORLD MAY BE A LITTLE BETTER

  BECAUSE I WAS IMPORTANT IN THE LIFE OF A CHILD.

  —FOREST E. WITCRAFT

  “MOTHER” MEANS SELFLESS DEVOTION, LIMITLESS SACRIFICE, AND LOVE THAT PASSES UNDERSTANDING.

  —UNKNOWN

  THE Favor-Minded MOM

  WHEN GOD LED THE HEBREW PEOPLE out of slavery in Egypt, the eleven-day journey to the Promised Land took forty years. God wanted them to move forward, but they wandered in the desert, going around the same mountain, time after time. They were trapped in a poor, defeated mentality, focusing on their problems, always complaining and fretting about the obstacles between them and their destiny.

  No matter what you or your family has gone through in the past, no matter how many setbacks you’ve suffered or who or what has tried to thwart your p
rogress, today is a new day, and God wants to do a new thing in your life. Don’t let your past determine your future.

  If you will change your thinking, God can change your life. You were born to win; you were born for greatness; you were created to be a champion to your children. Our God is called El Shaddai, “the God of more than enough.” He’s not “El Cheapo,” the God of barely enough!

  The Bible clearly states that God has crowned us with “glory and honor” (Psalm 8:5). The word honor could also be translated as “favor,” and favor means “to assist, to provide with special advantages and to receive preferential treatment.” In other words, God wants to assist you, to promote you, to give you advantages. But to experience more of God’s favor, we must live more “favor-minded.” We must expect God’s special help and release our faith, knowing that God wants to assist us.

  We can expect preferential treatment, not because of who we are, but because of whose we are. It is not because we are better than anybody else or that we deserve it. It is because our Father is the King of kings, and His glory and honor spill over onto us and our families. As God’s children we can live with confidence and boldness, expecting good things. If we love God, He’s working life to our advantage, and it will all work out for our good, although it may not always be the way we hope. No matter what does or doesn’t happen, keep believing for the favor of God.

  Live favor-minded. Get up each day and expect and declare it. Say, “I have the favor of God. My family has the favor of God.” Don’t sit back passively. You do your part, and God will do His part.

  __________________________________

  CONSIDER GOD’S WORD IN THE LIGHT OF MOTHERHOOD

  You have dwelt long enough on this mountain. . . . Behold, I have set the land before you; go in and take possession of the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their descendants after them.