Bridging the gap between a mother’s need for a mentor and the church’s need for resources and support. There’s a lot of talk about manifestos these days and you find them popping up on a multitude of websites defining a ministry or organization. Simply defined a manifesto is a declaration of intentions, motives or opinions. But rather than sharing a manifesto, we’d like to share our vision for The M.O.M. Initiative so you can get a glimpse of the heart of the ministry and what we believe God is calling us to accomplish. With The M.O.M. Initiative in its fledgling stages, …
Mentoring Decoded
She came to my house to pray. I longed for the time and loathed it too. My kitchen was a mess. Dirty dishes lined the sink and crumbs littered my table. My living room looked like a toy store threw-up in it and I didn’t have time to get my house tidy before she came. I planned to pick-up, wipe-down, and clean-up, but time eluded me. I couldn’t rescind the invitation. It was too late. When she arrived, I opened my door and apologized for the mess. She said, “Angela, I wish I played more and cleaned less when my …
Plant a mentee, watch her grow
As the weather warms and growing seasons take root, are you planting anything? If you want plump, juicy tomatoes, now is the time to plant. If you want bunches of cilantro for guacamole, now is the time to sprinkle seeds. If you want to have a mom with her ear turned to the Lord, now is the time to plant a mentee and watch her grow. While soil is soft and sunshine frequent, lovers of all things veggie carefully dig and plant and water. Summer is the perfect time to nurture a mentoring relationship that will take root, sprout new …
Avoiding The Summer Meltdowns, 8 Tips How!
Tis the season for whining, crying, complaining and more. It’s summer time! Usually that means fun in the sun, but if you and you’re kids are like mine, meaning they strive on downtime, structure, and routine; I’ve got some timely tips to help you and your kids ease into summer! In fact, you could be the next ‘child whisperer’ among your peers! STOP and HALT No I’m not talking about stop signs, I’m talking about listening to the instincts that God has graciously instilled in us as mothers. Okay, so you’re trying to get stuff checked off on that fabulous to-do list …
Making Mentoring Personal
Mentoring only makes a difference if it gets personal. The way most of us live life today insulates us from getting very personal. In fact, there are more ways than ever to create the profile that we want the world around us to see. A status update and profile picture present the “me” we choose to show our family and girlfriends. If all else fails, we can add highlights, polish, Spanx, or Photoshop to carefully craft our avatar (That’s the little picture that represents “you” online). But a mentor gets past all that. A mentor gets personal. The arrival of …
The 4-1-1 On Motherhood
Let’s face it, when it comes to motherhood, we’re clueless–but we THINK we know everything. The moment that stick turns up two lines to show a positive, we suddenly are knowledgeable about being pregnant, giving birth, and caring for an infant. Most of us inhale books, some sit back, relax and say, “Let the good times roll,” while others are on their knees praying for divine intuition about motherhood. But in most of these versions of mom’s I’ve seen, we act as if we know it all. If you ask me, giving birth (my youngest was over 10 pounds, so …
How Mama Got Grounded
Intentional Steps: How Mama Got Grounded How many times have you just said to yourself or to your girlfriends in conversation, “Well that’s just the way life goes…” or “I just don’t understand how I let that happen…” Or “I just learn to roll with the punches.” What about, “When I get my schedule organized…” “After I get that promotion…” How many times have I said those things to myself, as my plate began piling higher and higher with: pleasing people meeting deadlines turning in papers for school working extra shifts for someone else apologizing profusely for missing school concerts canceling dates …
Revelations of a Mama Prayer Slacker
Let Me Be Honest I don’t know about you but I’m one of those gals that doesn’t ever really get around to praying except at meal times, church, or I’m not getting my way with our Almighty Maker. I have to say that was me until recently. The dynamics of prayer time has changed and so has my heart towards it. First I’d like to say God does hear all of our prayers, every one of them. Secondly, prayer time is a way to build your relationship with Jesus who intercedes for us. And thirdly, it awakens the power that was instilled …
How to Be a Good Mentee – A Mentee’s Role
While many women dream of being the perfect mom who has all the right answers, never raises her voice and never has to count to three, we all know it’s not always easy being a mom. Those sweet little bundles of joy don’t come packaged with instruction manuals or warning labels and moms are often left to figure it out on their own. But we weren’t meant to meander through motherhood alone. It’s admittedly a bit more difficult to have someone join your journey as a mom, but it certainly will give you a broader scope of reference, a well of …
Five Ways to Love Your Children Well
An excerpt from The Making of a Mom… “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach” These words may have dripped from the pen of Elizabeth Browning’s love sick heart, but counting the ways a mother loves her children is as endless as Elizabeth’s love for her man. Yet how do we love our children? What does that look like when it’s more than words on a page? We say we love our children, but do we understand what it actually means. Love is so much …