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Mothers: How You Could Get Published in the New NIV Mom's Devotional Bible Posted: 29 Feb 2012 02:15 PM PST   Are you a mom? Love to write? A devotion about parenting or mothering written by YOU could be published in Zondervan's newly updated NIV Mom's Devotional Bible, due in stores spring 2013. We're excited to see your submissions! (Enter the contest before March 15, 2012)   What We're Looking For Your devotional entry should be encouraging or inspirational in tone, and written from the perspective of a mother. Your entry should be original, 250-300 words in length, and focusing on ONE of the following passages from the Bible: Deuteronomy 6:6–9 Proverbs 22:6 Proverbs 31:10–31 1 Corinthians 13:4–8 Ephesians 2:8–9 The Lawyers Made Us Say This Part: Your entry must be in English, previously unpublished, and not submitted or accepted anywhere else at the time of this contest. And don't forget, your entry should be original to you and only about one of the five Bible passages listed above!   If Your Entry Is Selected... Authors of the winning submissions will have their devotion and a short author's bio printed in the upcoming NIV Mom's Devotional Bible. Winners will also receive a free copy of the Bible. So what are you waiting for? Enter the contest at Facebook.com/MomsDevotionalBible.   Sample Devotionals If you would like to see an example of what we're looking for, here are two: Passage: Genesis 1:26–31 A mother tends to define herself most easily in terms of externals: I am a mom. I am a wife. I am a daughter. I am a graduate. I am a teacher. I am a volunteer. I am what I do. I am what others need me to be. I am what I accomplish. While these descriptions may be true, they are incomplete. They overlook the vital fact that we are made, inside and out, by God. We are created in his image and for his purposes. When we gaze into the mirror of God's Word, we find that God has stamped on our being a reflection of his character, his essence, his being. That is not to say we are mini-gods in any sense. But just as children reflect the physical, mental and personality traits of their parents and even adopted children share the mannerisms and habits of their adopted families, so we who are fashioned by God manifest elements of his character in our beings. Who are you, Mom? Genesis 1 and 2 spells it out. You are God's image-bearer (see Genesis 1:26–27). God expresses his being through both genders, male and female. You are a co-laborer with all of God's people in his world (see Genesis 1:28– 31). When you live in the fullness of who you are, you show your children, your family and your world a full and accurate picture of your God. So there, Mom. Take the definition for who you are from how God made you. You are a unique being fashioned after the God of the universe — inside and out! Think about this: How often do you define yourself by the negatives? Who you aren't, what you haven't accomplished, what you aren't doing. How might this negative definition of yourself affect your mood as well as your daily choices? How might it impact others around you? Switch your sight to God's view of you and get ready for great changes!   Passage: Genesis 2:18–25 In Genesis 2:18, God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone." Ask any mom and she'll confirm that it isn't good for moms either! More than any other time in history, moms today are alone — single moms, working moms, stay-at-home moms, moms with kids who have special needs, military moms. Even moms in marriages can experience a surprising "aloneness" — some with a husband who doesn't share their faith and some with a husband who does but buries himself in work or other interests. Families are scattered, separated by great distances. Schedules are stretched so that there seems to be no time for friends. Past wounds hold us back from the risk of relationship. In some seasons of mothering we find time to connect with others only to have those connections swept away as our children change activities, interests and schedules. One of the ways God provides for our need for companionship is through the church — his people together on this planet. Whether it meets in a steepled building on a suburban corner or in a shopping mall, God designed the church to be a safe place for us to gather and grow. If it wasn't good for Adam to be alone, it isn't good for us either. So there, Mom. Take the definition for who you are from how God made you. You are a unique being fashioned after the God of the universe — inside and out! Maybe the idea of church is new to you and you aren't really sure how to start. Did you attend as a child? What was your experience? Maybe you are already very active but would like to go deeper. Whatever the case, consider taking the next step. Join a Bible study. Find a mothers' group. Enlist a prayer partner. Get involved in a service project that reaches out to other mothers. Take your kids along to help.    Enter the Mom's Devotional Bible Contest (Closes March 15, 2012) - Zondervan Bibles Team   (This post does not represent the views of Zondervan or any of its representatives. The writer's opinions are his own, and are shared for information purposes only. To receive new blogposts in your reader or email inbox, subscribe to Zondervan Blog.)

Making Time (How to Slow Down - An Excerpt by Ann Voskamp) Posted: 29 Feb 2012 07:15 AM PST   Excerpt from Selections from One Thousand Gifts: Finding Joy in What Really Matters by Ann Voskamp.   I speak to God: I don't really want more time; I just want enough time. Time to breathe deep and time to see real and time to laugh long, time to give You glory and rest deep and sing joy and just enough time in a day not to feel hounded, pressed, driven, or wild to get it all done — yesterday.   I just want to do my one life well. In a world with cows to buy and fields to see and work to do, in the beep and blink of the twenty-first century, with its "live in the moment" buzz phrase that none of the whirl-weary seem to know how to do, who actually knows how to take time and live with soul and body and God all in sync? To have the time to grab the jacket off the hook and time to go out to all air and sky and green and time to wonder at all of them in all the light, this time refracting in prism. I just want to do my one life well.   How to Slow Down Time is a relentless river. It rages on, a respecter of no one. And this, this is the only way to slow time: What I fully enter time's swift current, enter into the current moment with the weight of all my attention, I slow the torrent with the weight of me all here. And when I'm always looking for the next glimpse of glory, I slow and enter. Weigh down this moment in time with attention full, and the whole of time's river slows, slows, slows.   Giving thanks for one thousand things is ultimately an invitation to slow time down with weight of full attention. In this space of time and sphere, I am attentive, aware, accepting the whole of the moment, weighing it down with me all here.   I have lived the runner, panting ahead in worry, pounding back in regrets, terrified to live in the present, because here-time asks me to do the hardest of all: just open wide and receive.   This is where God is. In the present. I am — His very name. I want to take shoes off. I am, so full of the weight of the present, that time's river slows to a still ... and God himself is timeless. This is supreme gift, time, God Himself framed in moment... This I need to consecrate: time.   "My always present God, my rock to hide under." -Ann Voskamp When I'm present, I meet I AM, the very presence of a present God. In His embrace, time loses all sense of speed and stress and space and stands so still and ... holy.   I am a hunter of beauty and I move slow and keep the eyes wide, every fiber of every muscle sensing all wonder and this is the thrill of the hunt.   I hunger to taste life.   To taste God. -Ann Voskamp   Learn More Learn more about Selections from One Thousand Gifts, coming March 2012. Visit Ann Voskamp's blog at www.aholyexperience.com. (Image is from Selections from One Thousand Gifts. Some styling above is web-exclusive. This post does not represent the views of Zondervan or any of its representatives. The writer's personal opinions are shared only for information purposes. To receive new Zondervan Blog posts in your reader or email inbox, subscribe to Zondervan Blog.)

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