For as long as I can remember, I have enjoyed wearing bracelets. Growing up I think they were mostly bracelets that I had made with friends, and within the past few years beaded bracelets have become very popular again. For my birthday about 3 years ago, I purchased myself beaded bracelets with our kids names on them. Sometimes I would wear all of them or I would wear one to two at a time. I felt like some days the Holy Spirit would put one or two of the kids on my heart to pray for throughout the day. I’d be able to look down at my wrist and see their name then say a quick prayer for them. I recently wrote about teaching our kids discernment and in that blog post I shared about the realization I had with our son starting school. It hit me that as they get older and are at school they will be having conversations or experiences completely separate from me, which again I am very excited about, but I think it also emphasized for me the importance of praying for my children throughout the day. I also pray for their friends and teachers throughout the day. When beaded bracelets started to get popular I decided they’d be fun to learn how to make. Originally my idea was that I could make mama and mini bracelets, or personalized bracelets but that idea has morphed into something different over time. Now I make the bracelets mostly for myself and use words that will give me encouragement or a word from the Holy Spirit throughout the day. The ones that I wear the most are two bracelets that say “blessed” and one that says “pray”.
When I look at my life from a bird’s eye view I know how blessed I am, our four children are all miracles, my husband has a wonderful job, I get to stay home with the kids and run my own small business, we have a wonderful church and church family, we have so many blessings. But we are also in a difficult and busy stage of life. Four kids between the ages of eight and four is so busy, so chaotic, so loud! Many days it can feel like I am barely keeping my head above water and when I look down at my bracelet stack, it works as a wonderful reminder of how blessed I am. It also is a great reminder to stop and pray. If you are like me you will try to “power through” tough days or a difficult situation, it often takes me a long time to stop myself and slow down enough to pray and just take a breath. And when I think about it, it’s so silly that it takes me long to do so because it always helps! I also have a bracelet with “ruakh” which is the Hebrew word for spirit, breath or wind. It came from a podcast I listened to from The Bible Project about creation and I thought it was such a pretty way they talked about ruakh. They discuss that another way to describe this Hebrew word is breath, it’s a beautiful reminder that God breathed life into all of us, and that can be very grounding as I go about my day. I made ones for my husband and I that say “Psalm 1” after he memorized that Psalm, it reminds us that it is a blessing to walk in the way of God. I have also been gifted a few bracelets, one that says “called” from Romans 1, a wonderful reminder that God has called each and everyone of us to belong to Christ Jesus. Another friend made me one that says “shalom” on it. The Hebrew word for peace. Often times our lives feel so crazy and out of our control, when we are longing so much for peace. “Shalom”reminds me that the one and only way to find a true path to peace is through Jesus.
The last thing I will say about these bracelets is that I have found they make wonderful gifts. I have made a batch of them for a baby shower to be the party favors. The words on them were “anointed” “daughter” “beloved” “blessed” “called” any word that God has called us in scripture are beautiful things to wear. They serve as as reminder that it is He who sees us and in Him is our true identity. If you’d like your own personalized bracelet or Mama Stack, email me at babycloth@icloud.com My prayer would be that they can help you through your day the same way they help me.
