HANNAH – WHAT TO DO WHEN GOD IS SILENT

Welcome to Week 7 of MATRIARCHS! Study God’s Word with us online or use them in your small group or Sunday School class!  Each lesson includes: Teaching video every Monday (15-20 minutes) Short lesson provided as the content of the post In-depth downloadable PDF to deepen your study Worksheets that take you even deeper ALL LESSONS ARE FREE AND YOU CAN MAKE AS MANY COPIES AS YOU’D LIKE! Week 1: Eve – A Mother Like No Other Week 2: Sarah – Mother of Nations Week 3: Rebekah – Mothering Through Barrenness Week 4: Mary – Stubbornly Inflexible or Sacredly Flexible Week 5: Naomi – Not …

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The Moment I Realized I Was Poisoning My Parenting

I was laid bare. My people pleasing, image-conscious tendencies had slowly and steadily infected my mothering. And with one simple question, she had exposed me.  From the outside, everything looked fine. When my kids were young, I remember my sister-in-law telling me, “You all are just the perfect little family!” I knew the truth. If you peered beneath the surface, the picture wasn’t exactly perfect — for a variety of reasons. However, when my oldest turned 12, a powder keg seemed to go off. She began to act out and assert her preteen independence. At the same time, my son was struggling with his own …

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Blessings or Burdens: My Heart Toward My Children

Adjusting to life with four kids has been hard. I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in months. There have been days when I haven’t slept, haven’t had my coffee, haven’t showered, and haven’t homeschooled.    Even as I write this blog, I have a nursing infant attached to my bosom and he won’t let go… and we are under the threat of a severe snowstorm. We are hunkered down and stir crazy. With all that is going on, there are ample opportunities to become frustrated and short with my children, and I have admittedly taken some of them. It …

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The Paradox of Motherhood

I remember the day a newly-engaged young woman asked me a thought-provoking question. “What do you love most about being a mom?” Her eyes glittered, fresh with the hope of someday–after choosing wedding colors and the perfect white dress–embracing the season I was living.  A mom of five kids under the age of ten, my life was a daily blur of diapers and dishes, homework helping and hand-holding. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d slept through the night. Or gone to bathroom alone. Or curled up on the couch and read a book with a plot line more intricate than Green …

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How to Escape the Busyness of Christmas

Does anyone else feel like they are running the 500 yard dash to Christmas?  From decorating the Christmas tree, addressing Christmas cards, buying and wrapping presents, making Christmas sweets, to attending festive Christmas parties, we jam in so much activity in such a short amount of time. We over eat, over extend, and over buy ourselves into a month-long race, only to end up at the finish line exhausted and wondering why we over-complicated a season that is meant to be rejoiced and savored. Christmas doesn’t have to be a race. #Christmas doesn’t have to be a race. @themominitiativ Click …

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Lessons I Learned from a Toilet Bowl

I’ll never forget the day I realized how even the smallest, most menial things we do are to be done unto the Lord… and that we can actually glorify God in the midst of them.  I was bending over the toilet with the scrub brush in one hand and a can of Comet in the other hand and wondering what in the world I was doing with my life. My days were filled with cooking, cleaning, homeschooling my sons and helping out in the nursery at church. I felt as though nothing I did was really of any significance. Have you ever felt …

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What Does It Really Mean to Live on Mission… and How Can YOU Live on Mission Today?

Have you heard the word “missional” tossed around in Christian cycles and you’re not sure what it means?  It means more than we might think it does, yet it also means less. More, because it’s the life we are called to live no matter where we live… because it includes the concept of God’s intentional plan that our mission field is wherever we live… that the church we go to is not solely there to be a place where we meet to worship, but that we are individually and collectively called to strategically reach the community surrounding us. Less, because …

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Limitless Wisdom

James 1:5-6 “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.” Parenting is a job that takes infinite wisdom. From the moment our babies our born, our experience, patience, and endurance are taxed to the limit. Even all the books that are out there cannot help us with every situation we will face in the …

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Mom – Never Give Up!

I know. I’m there too! Worn out. Exhausted. Each day, this thing called parenting seems to be getting harder. That’s not how we thought it was going to go. Mom – don’t give up. Don’t quit praying; you might be the only one praying for your kids. Don’t quit believing; the Lord says He rewards those who diligently seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6) Hang on to this promise today; His promise: “Thus says the LORD, “Restrain your voice from weeping And your eyes from tears;   For your work will be rewarded,” declares the LORD, “And they will return from the land of the enemy. …

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The Truth about Moms and Schedules

Have you ever wondered how some women just seem to do it all?  She’s the boss lady who owns her own scripture shop, homeschools her kids, and is writing a book. She’s the executive at the office who serves as chair to multiple non-profit organizations, and she’s always at her sons’ (many) baseball games. She’s the mom who goes to the gym, runs the trail, and plays tennis all before ten in the morning. She’s the one who takes food to the Food Pantry and makes her kids’ after-school activities her first priority. We all know women like this in …

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