Author Archives: Heidi St. John

About Heidi St. John

Heidi has been married to her husband Jay since 1989. Together they have seven children and three grandchildren! The St. Johns homeschooled their kids all the way through high school. Heidi is the the author of seven books, host of the popular podcast "Off the Bench," and the founder of MomStrong International, an online community of women learning God's Word and how to apply it to every day life. She and her husband Jay are also the founders of Firmly Planted Family and the Firmly Planted Homeschool Resource Center, located in Vancouver, Washington.

Leave the Big Assignments to Him {Part 2}

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perfection

I’m in the book of Judges again today.  So pick up your Bible and open it up to Judges 6.  Yesterday, we talked about the fact that God was asking Gideon to lead an army.  Gideon was sure a a few things; first, he wasn’t even sure it was God who was asking him to take on this huge task, and then, he wasn’t sure if he could do it!  Can you relate?

Does that remind you of anyone else we’ve heard about in the Bible?  Many of the Bible’s main characters, not the least of which might be Moses…

The Bible is so rich with examples of people just.like.us. It’s interesting to follow the story of Gideon and to see how he responds to the Lord, so let’s go back to verse 16 in Judges chapter 6:

16 The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”

17 Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me.18 Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.”

And the Lord said, “I will wait until you return.”

19 Gideon went inside, prepared a young goat, and from an ephah[a] of flour he made bread without yeast. Putting the meat in a basket and its broth in a pot, he brought them out and offered them to him under the oak.

20 The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” And Gideon did so. 21 Then the angel of the Lord touched the meat and the unleavened bread with the tip of the staff that was in his hand. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the Lord disappeared. 22 When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he exclaimed, “Alas, Sovereign Lord! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!”

23 But the Lord said to him, “Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.”

24 So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it The Lord Is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

It’s wonderful to notice that God did not lose patience with Gideon.  Even though Gideon doubted Him, even though he did not obey the first time, God understood his heart, and He did not lose patience with Gideon.  God has something that He wants us to do.

The Bible says that while man looks on the outward appearance, God looks on the heart. So as you go about your day today and you think of all things that you have to do, remember that God is looking at your heart.  He’s not asking you to be perfect, or to follow Him perfectly, and tomorrow we’ll see yet another opportunity that Gideon has to follow the Lord and another example that he chooses to ask the Lord for a sign.  Join me tomorrow as we continue in Judges chapter six.

Heidi St John Firmly Planted Family Devotional For All Ages

Leave the Big Assignments to Him {part one}

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 Big_Assignments

Hi moms!  I’m going to try something a little different this week, and encourage you to do a little bit of reading on your own.  I’d like to take you through the story of Gideon for the next couple of days—it’s a story of faith that will encourage and inspire you.

Take a look at this passage:  Judges chapter six.  I’ll read a little bit for you on the podcast, but I’d like to encourage you to read the chapter on your own if you get the opportunity.  It’s interesting to note that in the beginning of Judges chapter six, we see that again, the Israelites did evil in the sight of the Lord.  Again.

I love to read the Old Testament to our children because there’s so much that the kids can learn from watching how the Israelites followed God and didn’t follow God, and what the consequences were for.  Because really, the players have changed, but God hasn’t changed. His Word and His law is still the same.

So, here we find that the Israelites are in trouble again.  Have you ever felt that way?  (I have!)

11 The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites.12 When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”

13 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”

14 The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”

15 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”

16 The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”

17 Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. 18 Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.”

And the Lord said, “I will wait until you return.”

I can’t believe how Gideon argues with the Lord!  It’s fascinating to see God’s patience with us, and love for in this situation, isn’t it?  It’s also interesting to note that God sent a messenger to Gideon and yet Gideon believed that he needed proof of God’s call on his life in order to lead Israel. He said, “My family is the weakest in the tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least!”

You see, Gideon recognized his own weakness,  but God uses ordinary people whose hearts are to serve and obey Him.

If your heart is to serve and obey the Lord, He will use you! He has a plan for you and a purpose for your life, just like He had for Gideon.  Tomorrow, we’re going to keep talking about Gideon, so take a moment, open your Bible, and read Judges, chapter six.

Heidi St John Firmly Planted Family Devotional For All Ages

A Friendship That Lasts

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Proverbs 17:17
“A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.”

Have you ever struggled with loneliness or maintaining friendships? Over the years, I have noticed how sensitive I can be (and I wrote about this recently).  I wrote specifically about the dangers of social media, because thanks to the Internet, we can see things that we were never able to see before: that party that we didn’t get invited to, the women’s ministry team that went out for lunch and I saw pictures of it but never received an offer to join in.

As women, it’s easy to take those things and internalize them. I’ve noticed too, that women in mid-life often struggle with relationships.  As the children grow, the demands on our time change. As the family grows, the dynamics change. The demands on my time are so much greater now than they were when all of our children  were little.  I have five  young children at home and my oldest children are in their early twenties.  The older ones are going through their own sort of growing pains, spreading their wings—and they need me in a different way than the little ones do—all this means that at the end of the day, I’m very tired—and I have less time now for things outside my immediate family than I once did.

Have you been there too?

I’m so glad for friends that understand seasons of life.

As the years pass, I find that the friendships I cherish the most are with those women that I can run and visit with at the drop of a hat.  A dear friend of mine who I may or may not hear from for months at a time will give me me a call just to say, “Hey! I was just praying for you!  Tell me how you’re doing.” Those friendships last.

They last because we choose to believe the best about each other, rather than the worst. We believe the best for each other, too.  If you’re struggling with a friendship today, I want to encourage you to ask the Lord to give you His eyes for your friend.

As many of you know, I have a mantra.  It is “No Drama, Mama!”  I really believe that the Lord would have us extend grace to each other.  If you have a friend who is not “hitting the mark” in your relationship today, ask the Lord to give you His perspective. As Him to give you grace for your friend for that moment and then see what He’ll do.

True friendships are worth it.  They’re worth investing in and they will survive the tough seasons of life.

A friend loves at all times,
heidi

Heidi St John Firmly Planted Family Devotional For All Ages

Dealing with Worry

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Are You Worrying?

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I’ve been thinking recently about the topic of worry, as I have been walking through some things in my own family. There have been some difficult situations in our lives lately, and it’s made me realize how prone to worry I can be. Last week, I was reading in Matthew 24, where Jesus was reminding us of what our response to fearful things should be. He said,

“You will hear of wars, and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed.”

As moms, we can be prone to worry, can’t we? There are lots of things to worry about, from Continue reading →

The Wife of His Youth

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Have you ever been in a place where you felt frustrated by what you saw in the mirror?  I think just about every mom can relate to this feeling.  I know I sure can. Most moms I know struggle with feelings of insecurity about their bodies—and having children can make it even more apparent.

Some time ago, I was preparing to speak at a women’s conference in Oregon. We were talking about self-image and how we could learn to see ourselves as God saw us instead of how the world saw us. I studied some passages and I came across Proverbs 5:18. I laughed to myself as I read the verse:

“May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.”

I looked at my husband and said, as sarcastically as I could, “of course you’re supposed to rejoice in the wife of your youth! Let’s be honest! In a few short years the wife of your youth will be a distant memory!  Let’s be honest! Pretty soon, things will be sagging. my hair will lose it’s youthful shine and  Oil of Olay will be the only thing I won’t be able to live without. I’ll be old and tired, so you better rejoice in the wife of your youth right now, because when I’m old there won’t be much to rejoice about!”

My husband was looking at me with one eyebrow raised (as he often does) and he said something like, “Wow, babe. You need to stop reading People Magazine. That’s now how I see that verse at all!  When I read that verse, I imagine an old man sitting on the porch with the wife of his youth … you know—the one God gave to him when he was young—as this man looks at this older woman, just remembering the wife of his youth makes him smile.”

Hearing my husband’s take on this verse made me wonder how other women might interpret the verse and so I read it at the retreat.  Wouldn’t you know it—almost all the women saw the verse like I did! Most of the women that I talk to are very self conscious about our bodies.  And why shouldn’t we be?  We live in a culture that is literally consumed with sex and body image. All you have to do is go through the checkout at the grocery store to see pictures of “fat” women on the covers of magazines.

We all know that according to our culture, “fat” is defined as anyone who is over a size 6 who might have *gasp* cellulite!  In the name of beauty, women undergo liposuction, breast augmentation, tummy tucks, facelifts, eyelifts and even chin implants!  Instead of being seen as a sign of wisdom, wrinkles send 40-somethings running for Botox injections.

Now, I’m not suggesting these things are sinful. What I am saying is that we have a serious problem in our culture.  We’re bought into the lie that People Magazine knows more about beauty than God does.  It’s just not true. God’s word is so counter to the culture!  The Bible tells us that God is not concerned about outward things. He is ultimately concerned with the condition of our hearts.

Look at what Samuel said in I Samuel 16:7

“The Lord does not look at the things that man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

You know, my husband is always reminding me that I am the wife of his youth.  The older I get, the more I appreciate what that really means.  Busy mom, you are the wife of your husband’s youth.  And the days are fleeting.  Nourish both your body and your spirit—and then enjoy your husband with your body every chance you get.

You are the wife of his youth. Beautiful inside and out. Enjoy the body God gave you. Don’t let the world cheat you out of enjoying the gift you’ve been given.

Rejoice—you’re the wife of your husband’s youth!
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Heidi St John Guide to Romance

Heidi St John Firmly Planted Family Devotional For All Ages