God is Love: Quantrilla Ard

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Monday, December 31, 2018

Devotionals for the Heart: The Power and Legacy of A Good Name

What Is His Name?
A devotional by Quantrilla Ard

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father,

Prince of Peace.” ~Isaiah 9:6 (NIV)

I remember having grand ideas of what my children’s names would be when I became a parent. I would spend hours searching through websites and books, trying to put together the right combination of first and middle names although I wasn’t sure of what their last names would be (this began long before I was married). The sound of the name was important as I waded through names both traditional and non-traditional, and it had to have just the right ring to it. What I didn’t always take into account was the meaning of the names, and I am glad that I had a few more years yet to ultimately make that decision.

A saying that I hear quite often in my writing and professional circles is “Words mean things,” and names aren’t excluded in this overarching message of the worth and value of words. There is the belief that what you name a child will shape and/or define who they become – that they will live up to what you call them. Although it may or may not have some credibility, this belief was very influential in the naming of our children. So every time someone asks us what our children's names are, I feel a sense of pride knowing that their names were carefully and lovingly considered and chosen.

In this Advent season, I often think of how Mary truly felt. She had to have grappled with the weight of such a responsibility – being the mother of the One for whom all the world had been waiting. There was one burden she didn’t have to carry, naming him. Although it was typical for the naming of the children to be the duty of the mother, this time the baby that was to be born was named by His Father, not by Mary or Joseph.

Matthew 1:20-21 (BSB) says: “But after he had pondered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to embrace Mary as your wife, for the One conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a Son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.”

This name meant something, something special. This name wasn’t just thought up on a whim or conjured from the imaginations of well-meaning family and friends. This name was different. The salvation of the world depended on it. Acts 4:12 (KJV) tells us, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Can you imagine if Joseph and Mary had gotten that one thing wrong? I can’t. Mary and Joseph’s obedience in this matter was of the utmost importance, it literally was the difference between life and death.

While the naming of our children is not typically done in the fashion of Mary and Joseph, I still believe that God wants to be a part of how and what we name our children. I have met many mothers who like Hannah named their children based on God’s response to a specific prayer or circumstance. There are also family names that are passed down through generations, representing years of tradition. What I know to be true is that every time I say the name “Jesus” something shifts in my spirit. There is power in the name of Jesus and rightly so.

The next time you hear the question, “What’s his/her name?” take a moment and think about the name above all names, Jesus, and what a profound impact His name truly has in your life.

~*~
Author Bio:

Quantrilla (Quanny) Ard is a faith-based personal and spiritual development writer who lives in the D.C. Metro area with her husband and three littles.

In addition to being a dedicated wife and mother, she is an entrepreneur, doctoral student, and curator of all things lovely.

As a woman on her own quest of shining a light on the shadowy, hidden places in her life, she writes as the PhDMamma about things she knows to be true in hopes to encourage others to do the same.

Her spiritual goals and her love for Christ propels her quest to share the journey with other women: to walk alongside them and encourage them with words, deeds, and wisdom. Quanny believes in the power that is within collective strength, community, and fellowship.

You will find her wherever people are sharing stories of triumph.

~*~
Connect with Quanny:
Website - https://www.thephdmamma.com
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/thephdmamma
Twitter - htt ps://www.twitter.com/qyard08
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/quannyboo/

Monday, October 29, 2018

Devotionals for the Heart: A Life Lesson inspired by a Bible story

Don’t Take It For Granted
A devotional by Quantrilla Ard

“‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.’”

–Luke 15:31 (NIV)

As parents, our responsibility is to pour into our children wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. We are to teach them about how to discern right from wrong and to discern between what’s good and what’s best. Watching them grow up and become independent thinkers is equal parts excitement and terror, as you know the challenges and difficulties that accompany growing up. Peer pressure, societal demands, and personal preferences all play roles in the decisions our children make. We can only hope and pray that they will choose the good.

Many sermons and devotionals have drawn inspiration, taught object lessons, and mined messages of hope from Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son. I love this story in its entirety and in each of the characters’ stories. Today, we will focus on the brother, the one who stayed behind and the one who in my humble opinion had the most to lose. Let’s dig a little deeper into his story.

The Bible doesn’t specifically go into the historical details of this family. Honestly, I’ve always wondered where the mother was! We are only afforded a snapshot in time of this hypothetical family: a hard-working father and his sons.

One son, tired of his daily duties and ready to “make it” on his own asks for his inheritance and leaves home. We know how the story goes, he loses all he owns and returns home destitute and apologetic. The father is moved with compassion on his son and welcomes him home with open arms and celebration.

The other son, the one left at home, broods over his father’s reaction to his brother’s return. The parable doesn’t discuss what this son did while his brother was away. However, he is left at home to help the father as his choice was made for him once his brother decided to leave. Someone had to stay behind. Now I’m not sure if there was an actual invitation from the other brother to leave, but many of us can relate to him having your circumstances dictated by the behavior and decisions of someone else. It doesn’t seem fair, and if our emotions are unchecked, the root of bitterness can take hold in our hearts and lives.

Here are a few areas where I believe the brother that stayed at home, lost sight of the prize:

- He viewed being at home with his father as a punishment rather than a blessing.

- He resented his brother for leaving but didn’t show him grace when he returned.

- He focused on the external blessings his brother received and did not recognize the internal change that had taken place in his life.

- He viewed his brother as being selfish for leaving but didn’t himself take advantage of his father’s best qualities, forgiveness, and compassion.

How could this brother have lived with his father and worked beside him all those years and not reflect his character? Sound familiar yet? How can we who know the character of our Heavenly Father and have spent time with Him not reflect His character? Why do we question God when good things seem to happen for others, while we have waited in His Presence with our hands outstretched? Have we too, taken our relationship with the Father for granted by allowing ourselves to be in His presence but letting the roots of bitterness and lack of compassion permeate our lives?

What the brother failed to recognize is that the father would have just as readily given him whatever he asked for. All the father had belonged to him as well. Friends, let’s draw close to our Father not in hopes of what we will receive as a reward but because we love Him and want His character to be reproduced in us. And because He is such a good Father, He will sing and rejoice over us also when we come to ourselves and return to Him. Let’s desire the Giver more than the gifts He gives.

~*~
Author Bio:

Monday, July 30, 2018

Devotionals for the Heart: Rest

Rest on This
A devotional by Quantrilla Ard

"Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." –Matthew 11:29 (ESV)

I remember as clear as day the moment it happened. We were headed to the boys’ first day of school, joy and excitement in tow. Book bags and lunches packed, we began the commute to their new educational facility and new educational journey. Out of the blue, the car started to spin, and things began to go dark. I immediately asked my husband to pull over to the side of the road because I wasn’t feeling well. Concerned, he asked me what was wrong. I couldn’t speak. I began crying as I felt an increasing loss of control over my body. What was going on?

Several doctor and specialist visits later, the words I heard gave me relief, but not answers. “We can’t find anything wrong with you,” the doctor stated matter-of-factly. “Have you been under any stress recently?” he asked. Of course I have, I thought to myself, I’m a wife, mother of three, student, entrepreneur, friend, and daughter along with probably five more hats I probably forgot I was wearing. I was exhausted just thinking about it. I simply admitted that there had been several major changes that occurred in our lives lately, and I just hadn’t slowed down to process them. I hadn’t slowed down.

As followers of God, our goal is to have His nature replicated in us; part of having His character is following His example. Yet we often overlook one very important example He set. Rest. Intentional Rest. What had been missing from this very harried time in my life was rest. I always pushed it to the side, assuming I would be able to catch up on it during some unscheduled time over the weekend that never came. It became the ever-elusive carrot dangled in front of my face to keep me moving ahead. I had hit a brick wall, and my body was paying the price.

We are not honoring the temples God has created and told us He would dwell in when we dismiss rest. I have finally realized that pushing myself to go past my limit is a form of selfishness and self-harm. It not only ignores the example set for us by God after creation, it perpetuates a harmful example for our children and others in our sphere of influence with whom He has entrusted us.

I believe with my whole heart that rest is where we commune with God and solidify our relationship with Him, and I must admit, the times where I have rushed a hurried life along are the times where I feel the most disconnected from Him.

Today, I am making more time to rest. Physically, mentally, and spiritually.

I pray that you too will join me and do the same.

~*~
Author Bio:

Monday, April 30, 2018

Devotionals for the Heart: He Laughs

The Last Laugh
A devotional by Quantrilla Ard

“But Abram said, “Lord God, what can you give me, since I am childless and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”

~Genesis 15:2 (HCSB)

One of my dear children loves to get the last laugh when things happen in our family.

The words “That’s what you get, baby!” rang out loud and clear one day to my surprise as my two-year-old chided her brothers for something they had done. She is undoubtedly spirited and full of passion when identifying her brothers’ mishaps. Of course, she has a few challenges identifying her own. This, coupled with her comedic and ironic timing, makes laughter an everyday occurrence. With so many opportunities for giggles, I am reminded of the old adage, “He who laughs last, laughs best.” I’m so glad God has a sense of humor. Abraham and Sarah would probably agree.

Abraham and Sarah had waited, albeit not so patiently, for God to keep His promise to them through a son with whom He would establish His covenant. Sarah was long past childbearing age and well into her sunset years. Abraham was knocking on 100. God’s timing was then and is now often vastly different from our own.

In their story, the first laugh comes from Abraham, in his ninety-ninth year as God changes his name and again calls him to remember the promise He made years earlier as the story details in Genesis 17:17. The second laugh comes from Sarah, after a visit from three men, one of whom just happens to be God Himself (Genesis 18:12). They were hopeful yet equally despondent from the trials of waiting. One son Ishmael, through Sarah’s servant Hagar, had to be sent away because Sarah’s desperation and subsequent insecurity got the best of her. They are spent.

One question changes everything. “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” God asks as He calls Sarah out for laughing. And I can imagine in my mind’s eye that God is laughing to Himself at the look on her face. Within the year, as God had promised and re-promised, Isaac was born. And guess what Isaac’s name means? Yep, you guessed it, “He laughs.”

Is there a place in your life that seems desolate and barren? A place that feels forgotten? Have you held out hope only to see another year pass without God fulfilling a promise in or to you? I know I have. I have laughed at reminders that God sent my way, thinking that my season has expired and it’s just too much to expect that things will turn out the way He said they would. And then I hear God ask me, thousands of years later just as He did Sarah, “Is there anything too hard for the Lord?”

The answer is a resounding no. I see His promises come to pass in His timing, not my own. I wait sometimes patiently, sometimes not (thankful He loves me anyway). I can rejoice in my “Isaac” circumstances, and see that God indeed gets the last laugh.

Nothing is too hard for the Lord. Absolutely nothing.

~*~
Author Bio:

Monday, January 29, 2018

Devotionals for the Heart: Quanny's Question based on a Bible story

What Do You Have in Your House?
A devotional by Quantrilla Ard

“And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? Tell me what has thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil.” ~2 Kings 4:2 KJV

A few years back I was searching for something. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but it kept me up at night, concerned me throughout the day and quite honestly had me in an overall sour mood. Now I tried to put a brave face on and cover up this discontentment through being busy. I was a wife, mom, student, and church secretary at the time so there was no shortage of tasks from which to choose. But there was a void of sorts. In trying to figure out my feelings, I came across a passage of scripture that changed the direction of my life forever.

It wasn’t that I didn’t know the story, I’m sure I had heard it before growing up. Yet this time, something clicked and came alive in my heart. It literally moved me to tears. In chapter 2 of 2 Kings, Elisha had just received the double portion of God’s spirit after Elijah was translated and he begins to do miracles. Two chapters later, we find a certain woman in a precarious situation, a woman who happened to be a widow of one of the sons of the prophets - the same group of men who trained under Elijah.

The Bible says that she cried to Elisha because the creditor had come to take her two sons to be servants, to pay off the debt they had no doubt accumulated since the passing of her husband. Elisha asked her, “What shall I do for you?” Then he follows up with another question, “What do you have in your house?” Now, this was interesting! I’m sure this woman had probably sold any and everything of value to pay what they owed. She replied that there was nothing, “save a pot of oil" (2 Kings 4:2).

Next, Elisha told her to do something that stretched her way out of her comfort zone. It wasn’t that she lacked faith; she knew that Elisha through the power of God could help her. So what did she lack? Not sure. But what I know for sure is this - when you are down and in the depths of despair, you do not feel like going to anyone asking for anything. At all. And here it is that her salvation was dependent on her ability to set her pride aside and ask for help from people she had probably tried to hide her situation from the whole time. Mercy.

Let’s continue. Elisha told her to borrow empty vessels from all her neighbors, and not just a few. Can you imagine the stares and looks of confusion? Then, she was to come back home, shut herself and her sons in, and pour that leftover oil into all the vessels, setting the full ones to the side. While pouring out, she asked one of her sons to bring her another vessel, and he replied that there was not one left to fill. The oil remained. Hallelujah, the oil remained. She tells Elisha what she had done, and he responds with one last task. He says, “Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children off the rest.” The end.

When I think about this story and the pain and fear that were such large parts of it, I am brought to tears. Like the widow, I have often found myself in situations in which I am literally empty – situations in which I have sold everything in my “house” and cannot identify anything left of merit or value. I cry out to God asking Him to fix my destitute mess, and He asks me, “Beloved, what’s in your house?” This question urges me to look for my pot of oil, that thing I’ve overlooked because I’ve not assigned it much worth. God then instructs me to go to my neighbors, to tell my story, to ask them for vessels to pour my oil in. “What miracle can come from that?” you may ask. Dear friend, I’ll tell you. Full vessels of oil…plenty, supply, met need, overflow, and freedom from the surety of bondage! Thank you Jesus.

So did I ever find what it was I was searching for? Absolutely. God revealed to me through His word that what I needed was already in my purview. I didn’t need to look elsewhere to fill the void I was experiencing, I simply needed to take inventory of my house and find my oil.

I guess all that’s left to ask is, “What’s in your house?”

~*~
Author Bio:

Quantrilla (Quanny) Ard is a faith-based personal and spiritual development writer who lives in the DC Metro area with her husband and three littles.

In addition to being a dedicated wife and mother, she is an entrepreneur, doctoral student, and curator of all things lovely.

As a woman on her own quest of shining a light on the shadowy, hidden places in her life, she writes as the PhDMamma about things she knows to be true in hopes to encourage others to do the same.

Her spiritual goals and her love for Christ propels her quest to share the journey with other women: to walk alongside them and encourage them with words, deeds, and wisdom. Quanny believes in the power that is within collective strength, community, and fellowship.

You will find her wherever people are sharing stories of triumph.

~*~
Connect with Quanny:
Website - https://www.thephdmamma.com
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/thephdmamma
Twitter - htt ps://www.twitter.com/qyard08
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/quannyboo/