Grace Filled Encouragement for the Purposeful Life
Being a mom is hard. It’s a wonderful calling, but it’s not an easy one! I find that I need more encouragement as a mom than I did as a teen or a young adult. And when we’re constantly comparing ourselves to others or wishing we were like “her”, we can begin to feel discouraged, […] Read more…
“Help me out, fellow moms,” my friend pleaded on Facebook. “How can I talk about God with my kids? They go to preschool at a church and I feel like they know Jesus better than I do!” As Christian parents, we want to be the main spiritual influence in our kids’ lives. But what if […] Read more…
Since I was a little girl, I loved reading. My mom read to me for countless hours and once I learned to decipher words myself, I’d spend hours curled up in chairs or under my covers, reading when I was supposed to be asleep. Now as a mom, my love for the written word is […] Read more…
As adults, we’re pretty awesome at a lot of things. We tackle big challenges in our careers, our finances, and our health. We build impressive things. We write legal documents. We manage teams and conferences and estates and classrooms. But when it comes to parenting, we often feel surprisingly unsure whether we know what we’re […] Read more…
There are days you feel like you’ve done everything right. And then….. The eight year old melts into a puddle of tears because you won’t let her have a playdate with her favorite friend. Your pre-teen fights with you after a long day of school over a project due tomorrow that he should have begun […] Read more…
As crazy as it seems, it’s a brand new year! I remember sitting down last year at this time, trying to plan out a list of books that I wanted to read in 2016 and being so excited about learning new things and growing as a woman, mom and blogger :) Though I didn’t get […] Read more…
Maybe it’s just me, but when my kids are off school for Christmas break, it gets plain old WILD at our house! Something about the combination of the upcoming holiday, the candy and gifts, kids who are getting used to being around each other all day again and the lack of routine results in emotions […] Read more…
If you’re looking for a new Christmas family tradition to start with your kids, may I present The 12 Books of Christmas! I’ve seen several ideas for 25 days of Christmas books but I didn’t have enough time to gather that many Christmas themed books, so I decided to do 12 instead! Here’s how you […] Read more…
Does it ever feel like you’re constantly telling your kids to stop complaining? As a Christian parent, do you share Bible verses with them in the hopes that they will see how important it is to always be thankful and grateful and never grumble again….but it doesn’t seem to work? :) I think sometimes we can […] Read more…
“Mom?” My seven year old approached me timidly, long past her bedtime. I was tempted to get upset, but something about her expression made me stop. I asked what she needed. She held out a stuffed black dog, that she’d won at a raffle a few days earlier. “Remember when our church sent that big […] Read more…
How many times have your children been caught in a lie? They might be little white lies or “big whoppers” as my grandpa used to say, but it seems that most children go through a stage where they feel like they need to tell untruths, for various reasons. None of us is always perfectly honest. […] Read more…
I like to accept advice from other moms….but in secret. Since childhood, I’ve had the tendency to only want to learn when I am the initiator. I really don’t like unsolicited advice. Does this describe you? :) For moms like us, this is where the internet comes in very handy. While we want to remember […] Read more…
We teach our children the proper and polite words to say. We discipline them at home to help guide them in the right direction. We pray over them and show them Scriptures that teach character. And it’s working! And we feel good. And then, there’s the fit at Target. Or a meltdown at at playdate. […] Read more…
As a mom of four young kids, three of whom are school age, I desire our children to not only grow academically but also in wisdom and character as they learn. All the A+ grades in the world do no good if our children do not grow in godly wisdom throughout their school years. Prayer […] Read more…
With the school year quickly approaching, I put together a 31 day back to school prayer calendar for your kids! Each day lists a specific Bible verse and then a corresponding learning related “theme” that you can use as a prompt for praying for your kids. The way that it is created, you can use […] Read more…
Ah, morning. Whatever time of year we are in, whether the sun rises early or later, morning is supposed to be a great time to get ahead of the day and be productive before the kids get up! For the longest time, especially when I had really little babies, I struggled to make the most […] Read more…
Sometimes, when I get to the end of the day, I finally notice just how tired I am. My brain power grinds to a halt as I try to process the craziness of the day and grudgingly prepare for the next. It isn’t that I don’t enjoy what I’m doing. I desire to have lots […] Read more…
Do you sometimes wake up in the morning feeling weary, resigned to another difficult day? Or go to bed at night tired physically and emotionally, your energy completely spent? So many of my days begin and end this way. Though I know God wants me to recognize my abundant blessings and not believe the lie I […] Read more…
When is the last time you focused on something you did right as a mom? Not just “I kept everybody alive today” or “no one burned down the house this week” but “I did ____ to encourage my children” or “I helped my child ____”. If you’re anything like me, it’s probably been awhile since you’ve allowed yourself […] Read more…
You lost, again. The battle with anger, that is. Some days are better than others. But still, you want to be redeemed “for good” from acting out in anger against your children. These are thoughts that run through my mind often. Why do I keep repeating these same behaviors? I ask my kids not to act in […] Read more…
From the moment she was born, I was certain my daughter Leah would be a strong-willed child. She came into this world screaming and didn’t stop for months! She resisted my efforts to sleep-train, bucked against toddler discipline of any kind and continues to test my patience every. single. day. Yet despite the enormous amount of […] Read more…
Once again, I felt it happening. The uncontrollable hot feeling of frustration welling up inside me when my 4 year old spilled his milk all over what seemed like the entire dining room for the second time in one meal. Not pausing for one moment to consider what I was doing, I hollered, “Seriously, what is […] Read more…
Every time our two year old goes to her Tiny Tots Sunday school class, the teacher passes around the Bible and asks the kids if they want to put their hands on it. If they forget one Sunday, you can bet Lydia will wave her arms wildly in the air and remind them that she […] Read more…
There’s a damaging mindset I’ve been struggling with in regards to motherhood. It’s played itself over and over in my mind at different times during the past decade….and it’s hard to make it stop. It’s a nagging thought that sneaks into my mind late at night, when I can’t sleep. Or during a difficult day, […] Read more…
My first grade teacher, who I dearly loved, had this quote framed on the wall of her classroom. As the hard-working farm wife and mother of four children and the beloved teacher of hundreds of young boys and girls who passed through her doors during her 40 years of teaching, these words were representative of her […] Read more…