Summer: Season of Friendship

Growing a friendship makes me a better mom. Toddler moms may be tempted to think they will never have time for a friend again, unless they happen to be named Dora and wear a backpack. Teen moms may be tempted to think they’ll only have time for friends who  cross paths on sign up sheets at sports meetings. But our children and our husbands can not meet all our relational needs, and it’s unfair and unrealistic to expect they will. Even a mommy, especially a mommy, is meant to have a friend. Mom-friends grow in summer In addition to the …

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Just Between Us Girls

Fellow Moms, we all know our husbands need us to be their cheerleaders.  Sometimes we feel resentful of that need. We wonder, “Where is my pat on the back for the things I do?”  Let me attempt to put things into perspective. Typically our kids are created to look to moms for encouragement and then those same children desire to impress mom with all the things they can do. “Mommy watch me!” is a common phrase from little ones. Bigger kids less overt, “Mom, are you coming to my game?” We innately know we are to build up our children. …

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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 …

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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 …

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I Am A Controlling Woman

By Special Guest: Gina Smith We’ve all heard the phrase, “SHE wears the PANTS in THAT family!” We shake our heads and think about how controlling other women can be. But did you know that every time I complain or am discontent with my husband, correct or criticize him, tell him what to do, or interrupt him…I am controlling!? I see it so clearly in others but the truth of the matter is that I am a controller. I wear the pants in my family. It’s a part of who I am. It’s a part of EVERY woman. The Word …

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Complaint-Free: Who Me?

Complaint-Free: Who Me? As I thumbed through a copy of A Complaint-Free World five years ago, I considered myself the most optimistic, positive, encouraging (and obviously humble) person I knew. In fact, I joked to my husband that we needed to buy two (maybe three) dozen copies to give the long list of negative people in my life who drag me down with their never-ending complaints, criticism, and gossip. Than I read a little farther. And the author had the nerve to suggest that of all the negative people in my life, I might be the worst of the worst! That. …

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Nurture Your Marriage ~ Take a Break

Why in the world would a marriage post have the title, “Take a Break”? Take a break with each other. There are times that I need to take a breather; a time of refreshing, to get myself together. There are also those times that taking a break with my husband gives me a chance to possibly gain a new outlook on something that I’ve been rolling over in my mind. This wouldn’t be possible if I had children in my ear also. I try to find unique and creative ways to spend time alone with my husband. My children are …

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I Will Carry You

Lightning pain coursed through my abdomen. I was nearing my 5th abdominal surgery in four years. Like the pinball in a pinball machine, I bounced from doctor to doctor trying to find the answer to my mystery illness. Some mornings, the only thing I could pray was “Jesus help me” as I doubled over on the floor. “Was I dying?” “Did I have a hidden cancer they couldn’t find?” “What was wrong with me?” It was a parched, lonely season, one of unrelenting isolation. I so desperately needed a friend who understood my pain. I remember a day when I …

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Five Ways to Impact Your Children & Grandchildren with the Message of Easter

By Featured Guest: Kathy Howard   Rich memories of childhood Easters keep popping up in my mind. I can still feel the cold metal of the folding chair as I sat with my family in the church parking lot waiting for the first rays of the sun to make their appearance. And with the sun, the somber notes of “low in the grave He lay…” became the joyous thunder of “up from the grave He arose (He arose), with a mighty triumph o’er His foes.” After prayer and singing, everyone escaped the chilly air and enjoyed pancakes and sausage in …

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Choices

That afternoon changed everything.  Our happy, church-going family was suddenly thrown into unimaginable pain.  Like so many of my sweet  sisters in Christ, this was the afternoon I stumbled upon porn on our computer, and the pornography ended up to be just the tip of the iceberg.  It seemed each day brought new, unimaginable confessions from my husband. I was plunged into pain so deep and heavy I could hardly breathe. The shock that this could have come from my husband, practiced in my own home, was incomprehensible. Where was God in this? Why didn’t He protect me? And what …

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