March 12, 2024 • 11 mins
Welcome, moms! In Episode 6, we discuss an important question many of us grapple with - Does God seem distant to you? Indeed, how can we bring Him closer to our lives and hearts?
Are you striving to lead a Christ-centered life for your family? Would you like to have a more profound impact on your child's spiritual growth? Tune in to this podcast for insightful ways to deepen your faith and learn how to be the ultimate wife and mother. Let's embark on this spiritual journey together with a short, concise message.
Moving on to our core topic - relationships and vineyards. I draw parallels between an interpersonal relationship and our connection with God. What if we viewed our relationship with the God as the gardener, Jesus is the vine, and we are the branches? By cutting off distractions (sucker shoots) and staying attached to the vine, we can grow and bear fruit in our spiritual lives and become closer to Jesus in the process.
This podcast also reveals three effective practices to stay connected with Jesus and nurture our spiritual growth. Firstly, we can invite God into our lives through prayer. Secondly, gathering resources to boost our faith also helps to facilitate this growth. Go to my website for some excellent suggestions. Lastly, engaging in group studies - such as the one at Front Parking Spot Moms - can foster spiritual development and community engagement.
Remember, we must strive to truly abide in Jesus, soak in His presence, and let Him drive our lives. By doing so, we can ensure that our spiritual growth doesn't rot but flourishes into bountiful fruit. So, brace yourselves, mamas, as we together embark on this journey for the front parking spot in our extraordinary lives.
Fill your child's Easter basket with a copy of my book I Know the Plans at www.jenniferbosma.com
Subscribe at www.jenniferbosma.com
Review on Apple by scrolling down to the bottom to "Write a Review"
Connect on Instagram @FrontParkingSpot
Facebook at Front Parking Spot- Mom Community, or on our website, jenniferbosma.com. Here's to an Ephesians 3.20 type of day!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello, moms. Welcome to Episode 6. Does God seem distant to you?
Do you want Him to be more front and center in your life?
Well, whatever you're doing right now, give me the next 10 minutes and we're
going to take you through ways that you can get closer to God.
Are you a faith-based mom trying to live out a Christian life for your family?
Do you want to learn more ways that you can have power over your child's spiritual growth?
(00:23):
Inside this podcast, you will find tried and true ideas to grow in your faith
and be the best wife and mom you can be.
So listen in as you're cleaning up, doing the drive, or matching that sock,
and be encouraged to know that God has his front parking spot set aside for you.
Welcome to the front parking spot. I want to first give a big shout out and
(00:45):
a congratulations to Sandra Chambers.
She is the winner of the journal from my last episode in episode five about
the best gift that you can give your kids.
So I was able to send that to her, and she is going to be able to give that to her daughter.
So really excited about that. And y'all, as the Easter season comes upon us,
if you need a book for your child's Easter basket, head on over to my website.
(01:09):
You can get there two ways, by jenniferbosma.com or frontparkingspot.com.
And on my homepage, you can go to this section for children's books.
But I know The Plans is a great book for any child you know for their Easter basket.
It's a real blessing. All the the scriptures that I prayed over my daughters, I put to rhyme.
(01:30):
And it is a great God talking to the child of all the plans that he has for
them, packed with really great scriptures.
So this is a great way to get to the front parking spot in your life,
starting every morning or night, reading them this book and the scriptures.
And we all know that when we read
scriptures over our kids, it is like a double-edged sword to our prayers.
(01:51):
So mamas, really think about getting I Know the the plans for any kids you know
for their Easter basket.
Well, let's launch into our topic for today, and relationships and vineyards.
Let me tell you why I picked that title.
When you're in a relationship with anybody, we're going to focus today on your
husband, that relationship that you have.
(02:12):
When you spend time with him, when you go on dates, when he brings you coffee
or you write him a note, or you just give him time to really talk about his day and vice versa.
Another great way is just go for a walk, whether you have a dog or not,
just go outside for a stroll or always family dinners are a great way to really
connect with your spouse or any other relationships that you have.
(02:36):
So when you look at your own relationships, the more time you spend with that
person and really invest in them and put your phone down and talk,
you're going to grow closer to them.
Now, when we go to church once a week, we're there for maybe two hours,
and then sometimes Sometimes we'll say a prayer before dinner.
Hopefully we are saying this a lot more now that you're in on this podcast.
(02:58):
But when we're just hanging out with Jesus, it's kind of like a laundry list
of the things that we need, or Lord, help me with this job interview,
or let my kids do well on their test, whatever it is, we kind of bring a long list of things to Jesus.
And we do carve out, you know, a couple of hours at church.
So when you think about a relationship, when you're just kind of just kind of
(03:21):
dabbling in a relationship with the Lord, you're not going to grow.
Your life is not going to provide fruit.
You need to grow closer to him and build that relationship.
I'd like to ask you, do you have religion with the Lord where you go to church, you follow the rules,
you maybe celebrate Lent, you kind of do the things that you were kind of taught
(03:44):
through traditions in your life, or do you have a relationship with him?
Let's talk more about how you can get a relationship with the Lord,
because just like I mentioned before, when you have your interpersonal relationships,
you get much deeper that person when you really invest time into your relationship.
(04:05):
Let's look at it from the perspective of a relationship and a vineyard.
There is a great scripture. It's John 15, 5. And I want to read it to you. I am the vine.
You are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.
Apart from me, you can do nothing.
All right. So let's look at this vineyard. You have a beautiful vineyard in
(04:27):
a beautiful countryside.
God is the gardener of that vineyard. In the vineyard, he has many vines.
And think of the vine as Jesus. is.
He grows up from the ground and he from Jesus's vine, there are many, many branches.
So think of yourself as a branch on this vine.
To be truly abiding with Jesus, you need to be attached to the vine.
(04:51):
Because if you are not attached to the vine, then you're not going to be bearing
fruit because fruit can't grow unless it is growing from the vine,
which gives it all nutrients.
As the branch is growing, there is something that pops up along the branch,
and those are called sucker shoots.
The sucker shoots tend to drain the true big main branch from all the nutrients.
(05:16):
And there are a lot of sucker shoots in our life that can creep up to kind of
detour our relationship with Jesus.
Think of, number one comes to my mind, is your phone or any other situation
that can be a distraction to you in your relationship.
And that's why in any kind of gardening situation, you need to prune branches.
(05:36):
You need to cut off those sucker shoots that pop up. You need to trim them down.
Sometimes you take it all the way back to the vine, and then your branch will grow out stronger.
So when sucker shoots come up to kind of distract you from your relationship
with the Lord, that's when you need to really cut back on those and focus back
to the vine, which is Jesus.
(05:57):
Another really cool picture that you
can think of, too. and when you see a vineyard, you see a lot of wires.
The wires are holding up the branches because from the branches comes the fruit and the fruit is heavy.
The wires are not there. The fruit will tend to fall to the ground.
And then that creates the fruit to rot. And when we have, when we want fruit
in our life, we don't want the fruit to fall to the ground, to fall to the bottom
(06:23):
where there's no sunlight,
where there's dirt that will get into the fruit and actually cause it to rot.
So the Holy Spirit I like to think of is the wires on that vineyard,
the vineyard plant that is supporting us and holding us to Jesus, our vine. vine.
So when you think of this, we need to just hang out with Christ and we will bear fruit.
(06:46):
If we live apart from Christ or we let the sucker shoots come in, you will not bear fruit.
So if you want fruit in your life, this is how you do it.
You need to stay close to the vine and you need to build yourself up in ways
that you can grow closer to Jesus.
Number one, there's three ways that I've learned to really abide in him.
(07:07):
The first way is ask for God to just show up in your life.
Have that be your prayer. Lord, I really want you closer in my life. Please show up to me.
You know, let the Holy Spirit come in, direct me. I wanna be closer.
Ask and seek and ask for him to become involved in your life.
That's the number one best way to do it.
And I mentioned a lot of these in my podcast number three about different ways
(07:28):
you can pray throughout the day to God and to grow in your relationship with
you and along with your kids.
And the number two thing I found is give yourself a lot of good information
that you can grow in your faith.
One of my favorite books and one of my favorite authors is Tony Evans.
I will link it on my website for some of the things I love on my podcast page.
(07:50):
But The Power of Knowing God by Tony Evans, he is a master writer,
and he has a way to paint word pictures to really make you understand how God
wants to be involved in your life.
And this vineyard example came from the book, and I've heard it before,
John 15, 5, and it is so vividly clear how God wants to be.
(08:11):
We want to be connected to Jesus, to that vine, so that we can bear the fruit.
And the third way is go to Front Parking Spot Moms.
I am going to be creating some Bible studies coming up, but if you want to be
connected to me, we're going to be having Front Parking Spot Moms coming up in April.
If you're interested in that, just go to frontparkingspot.com or jenniferbosma.com
(08:33):
and you can subscribe, go to the home button and subscribe.
Mention to me that you'd like to be a part of this Bible study.
I'm in the process of setting it up now.
And I'm just going to be walking through with moms on how to grow closer,
that you can build up your faith. So moms, we don't want to be the low-lying fruit.
We want to go for the front parking spot in our life.
And that is with God at the helm. He needs to be driving this.
(08:56):
We need to be looking for a relationship with him.
Going to church once a week, and then when you're in the middle of church,
thinking about what you're gonna do for breakfasts.
That's not going to cut it. That's not going to be where we can abide in him.
And abiding in him is where we want to be.
The word abide is used 10 times in the first verse of John 15.
(09:16):
When you think of the Greek, I looked it up, but the Greek words means to dwell,
to remain, to be present, and to be held and kept.
And we want the fruit in our life. We want those grapes.
And so many people Just don't go for the grapes that God has for us.
And by simply abiding, this is where we find that.
And moms, I just am so excited for you as you go for the front parking spot
(09:38):
in your life. This will filter into your family's life when you just focus on you.
Don't be thinking of, oh, my family should do this and they're far and my husband
is his branch is really far from the vine.
No, don't think of that. Think of ways that you can improve and you can grow
in your relationship with him.
And this is a true way to have fruit in your life and to not be low-hanging
(10:02):
fruit that decays in the ground when he starts to give you fruit and it goes away. Be strong.
You are lifted up with the Holy Spirit wires.
You are attached to the vine and God is the gardener. Be encouraged,
mom, as you go through your day today, because I know that you can abide with
Jesus and have the fruit in your life manifest.
(10:22):
Well, mamas, thank you so much for joining in. I know you are super busy doing
all the things that can consume your day, but you took a couple of minutes to
learn how God wants to build you up in your faith, family, and life.
And He wants to applaud you for this.
Music.
Please subscribe and review my show. This helps other moms tune in as well.
(10:43):
I'd love to connect with you on Instagram at Front Parking Spot,
on Facebook at Front Parking Spot Mom Community, or my website at jenniferbosma.com.
Have an Ephesians 3.20 type of day, mamas, and be encouraged as you go for the
front parking spot in your life today. God bless.
Hello, moms. Welcome to Episode 6. Does God seem distant to you?
Do you want Him to be more front and center in your life?
Well, whatever you're doing right now, give me the next 10 minutes and we're
going to take you through ways that you can get closer to God.
Are you a faith-based mom trying to live out a Christian life for your family?
Do you want to learn more ways that you can have power over your child's spiritual growth?
(00:23):
Inside this podcast, you will find tried and true ideas to grow in your faith
and be the best wife and mom you can be.
So listen in as you're cleaning up, doing the drive, or matching that sock,
and be encouraged to know that God has his front parking spot set aside for you.
Welcome to the front parking spot. I want to first give a big shout out and
(00:45):
a congratulations to Sandra Chambers.
She is the winner of the journal from my last episode in episode five about
the best gift that you can give your kids.
So I was able to send that to her, and she is going to be able to give that to her daughter.
So really excited about that. And y'all, as the Easter season comes upon us,
if you need a book for your child's Easter basket, head on over to my website.
(01:09):
You can get there two ways, by jenniferbosma.com or frontparkingspot.com.
And on my homepage, you can go to this section for children's books.
But I know The Plans is a great book for any child you know for their Easter basket.
It's a real blessing. All the the scriptures that I prayed over my daughters, I put to rhyme.
(01:30):
And it is a great God talking to the child of all the plans that he has for
them, packed with really great scriptures.
So this is a great way to get to the front parking spot in your life,
starting every morning or night, reading them this book and the scriptures.
And we all know that when we read
scriptures over our kids, it is like a double-edged sword to our prayers.
(01:51):
So mamas, really think about getting I Know the the plans for any kids you know
for their Easter basket.
Well, let's launch into our topic for today, and relationships and vineyards.
Let me tell you why I picked that title.
When you're in a relationship with anybody, we're going to focus today on your
husband, that relationship that you have.
(02:12):
When you spend time with him, when you go on dates, when he brings you coffee
or you write him a note, or you just give him time to really talk about his day and vice versa.
Another great way is just go for a walk, whether you have a dog or not,
just go outside for a stroll or always family dinners are a great way to really
connect with your spouse or any other relationships that you have.
(02:36):
So when you look at your own relationships, the more time you spend with that
person and really invest in them and put your phone down and talk,
you're going to grow closer to them.
Now, when we go to church once a week, we're there for maybe two hours,
and then sometimes Sometimes we'll say a prayer before dinner.
Hopefully we are saying this a lot more now that you're in on this podcast.
(02:58):
But when we're just hanging out with Jesus, it's kind of like a laundry list
of the things that we need, or Lord, help me with this job interview,
or let my kids do well on their test, whatever it is, we kind of bring a long list of things to Jesus.
And we do carve out, you know, a couple of hours at church.
So when you think about a relationship, when you're just kind of just kind of
(03:21):
dabbling in a relationship with the Lord, you're not going to grow.
Your life is not going to provide fruit.
You need to grow closer to him and build that relationship.
I'd like to ask you, do you have religion with the Lord where you go to church, you follow the rules,
you maybe celebrate Lent, you kind of do the things that you were kind of taught
(03:44):
through traditions in your life, or do you have a relationship with him?
Let's talk more about how you can get a relationship with the Lord,
because just like I mentioned before, when you have your interpersonal relationships,
you get much deeper that person when you really invest time into your relationship.
(04:05):
Let's look at it from the perspective of a relationship and a vineyard.
There is a great scripture. It's John 15, 5. And I want to read it to you. I am the vine.
You are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.
Apart from me, you can do nothing.
All right. So let's look at this vineyard. You have a beautiful vineyard in
(04:27):
a beautiful countryside.
God is the gardener of that vineyard. In the vineyard, he has many vines.
And think of the vine as Jesus. is.
He grows up from the ground and he from Jesus's vine, there are many, many branches.
So think of yourself as a branch on this vine.
To be truly abiding with Jesus, you need to be attached to the vine.
(04:51):
Because if you are not attached to the vine, then you're not going to be bearing
fruit because fruit can't grow unless it is growing from the vine,
which gives it all nutrients.
As the branch is growing, there is something that pops up along the branch,
and those are called sucker shoots.
The sucker shoots tend to drain the true big main branch from all the nutrients.
(05:16):
And there are a lot of sucker shoots in our life that can creep up to kind of
detour our relationship with Jesus.
Think of, number one comes to my mind, is your phone or any other situation
that can be a distraction to you in your relationship.
And that's why in any kind of gardening situation, you need to prune branches.
(05:36):
You need to cut off those sucker shoots that pop up. You need to trim them down.
Sometimes you take it all the way back to the vine, and then your branch will grow out stronger.
So when sucker shoots come up to kind of distract you from your relationship
with the Lord, that's when you need to really cut back on those and focus back
to the vine, which is Jesus.
(05:57):
Another really cool picture that you
can think of, too. and when you see a vineyard, you see a lot of wires.
The wires are holding up the branches because from the branches comes the fruit and the fruit is heavy.
The wires are not there. The fruit will tend to fall to the ground.
And then that creates the fruit to rot. And when we have, when we want fruit
in our life, we don't want the fruit to fall to the ground, to fall to the bottom
(06:23):
where there's no sunlight,
where there's dirt that will get into the fruit and actually cause it to rot.
So the Holy Spirit I like to think of is the wires on that vineyard,
the vineyard plant that is supporting us and holding us to Jesus, our vine. vine.
So when you think of this, we need to just hang out with Christ and we will bear fruit.
(06:46):
If we live apart from Christ or we let the sucker shoots come in, you will not bear fruit.
So if you want fruit in your life, this is how you do it.
You need to stay close to the vine and you need to build yourself up in ways
that you can grow closer to Jesus.
Number one, there's three ways that I've learned to really abide in him.
(07:07):
The first way is ask for God to just show up in your life.
Have that be your prayer. Lord, I really want you closer in my life. Please show up to me.
You know, let the Holy Spirit come in, direct me. I wanna be closer.
Ask and seek and ask for him to become involved in your life.
That's the number one best way to do it.
And I mentioned a lot of these in my podcast number three about different ways
(07:28):
you can pray throughout the day to God and to grow in your relationship with
you and along with your kids.
And the number two thing I found is give yourself a lot of good information
that you can grow in your faith.
One of my favorite books and one of my favorite authors is Tony Evans.
I will link it on my website for some of the things I love on my podcast page.
(07:50):
But The Power of Knowing God by Tony Evans, he is a master writer,
and he has a way to paint word pictures to really make you understand how God
wants to be involved in your life.
And this vineyard example came from the book, and I've heard it before,
John 15, 5, and it is so vividly clear how God wants to be.
(08:11):
We want to be connected to Jesus, to that vine, so that we can bear the fruit.
And the third way is go to Front Parking Spot Moms.
I am going to be creating some Bible studies coming up, but if you want to be
connected to me, we're going to be having Front Parking Spot Moms coming up in April.
If you're interested in that, just go to frontparkingspot.com or jenniferbosma.com
(08:33):
and you can subscribe, go to the home button and subscribe.
Mention to me that you'd like to be a part of this Bible study.
I'm in the process of setting it up now.
And I'm just going to be walking through with moms on how to grow closer,
that you can build up your faith. So moms, we don't want to be the low-lying fruit.
We want to go for the front parking spot in our life.
And that is with God at the helm. He needs to be driving this.
(08:56):
We need to be looking for a relationship with him.
Going to church once a week, and then when you're in the middle of church,
thinking about what you're gonna do for breakfasts.
That's not going to cut it. That's not going to be where we can abide in him.
And abiding in him is where we want to be.
The word abide is used 10 times in the first verse of John 15.
(09:16):
When you think of the Greek, I looked it up, but the Greek words means to dwell,
to remain, to be present, and to be held and kept.
And we want the fruit in our life. We want those grapes.
And so many people Just don't go for the grapes that God has for us.
And by simply abiding, this is where we find that.
And moms, I just am so excited for you as you go for the front parking spot
(09:38):
in your life. This will filter into your family's life when you just focus on you.
Don't be thinking of, oh, my family should do this and they're far and my husband
is his branch is really far from the vine.
No, don't think of that. Think of ways that you can improve and you can grow
in your relationship with him.
And this is a true way to have fruit in your life and to not be low-hanging
(10:02):
fruit that decays in the ground when he starts to give you fruit and it goes away. Be strong.
You are lifted up with the Holy Spirit wires.
You are attached to the vine and God is the gardener. Be encouraged,
mom, as you go through your day today, because I know that you can abide with
Jesus and have the fruit in your life manifest.
(10:22):
Well, mamas, thank you so much for joining in. I know you are super busy doing
all the things that can consume your day, but you took a couple of minutes to
learn how God wants to build you up in your faith, family, and life.
And He wants to applaud you for this.
Music.
Please subscribe and review my show. This helps other moms tune in as well.
(10:43):
I'd love to connect with you on Instagram at Front Parking Spot,
on Facebook at Front Parking Spot Mom Community, or my website at jenniferbosma.com.
Have an Ephesians 3.20 type of day, mamas, and be encouraged as you go for the
front parking spot in your life today. God bless.
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