Category: Motherhood

Messy Times

I was re-typing portions of our book, Mighty Acts of God, and reading all the Bible story act-out suggestions. They brought up some spicy memories…like Benjamin scrawny and whining, an inside-out T-shirt on his head, stomping his foot and yelling “No” at a  half-sized Moses. Johanna, giggling while she pretended to drive a stake through Sisera’s head (my dad’s hair before it was completely white). Yeah…I got a little nostalgic. […]

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Helping Our Children Remember God’s Hand in Their Lives

Last night we watched reminders lighting up the sky all around us. Fireworks, sparklers, booms, and cracklings all helped us remember the battles that men fought to earn our country’s freedom. Independence Day commemorates the beginnings of our nation, and if we want to do our job well, we will take advantage of the holiday to teach our children about God’s hand in our country’s history. Memorials are powerful teaching tools. […]

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Helping Our Children Confess

“Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted” (Galatians 6:1, ESV). Yesterday, as I read the first chapters of Joshua, an account brought back memories of the “old days” — the days when it was obvious that one of the kids had done something naughty. The evidence was all […]

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Musings on a Cat Mess

I didn’t step in it – this time. But my husband did, in the dark as he left for work early in the morning. Then he walked through our room, back out, and through the entire house to the back door. I know, because his footprint was in the mess our cat had very rudely deposited on the floor during the night. The trail went from one end of the […]

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Don’t Give Up!

Tomorrow our second-born son celebrates his 26th birthday! He is the son who made me wonder if I wanted to be a mother anymore. 🙂 He is the son who was toasted at his wedding by one of the men in our church, who smiled as he said that years earlier he would have voted Joseph, of any of the little boys in church, most likely to end up in […]

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Mother’s Day Thoughts

“…for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5, ESV). Last week I spent a little over thirty-six hours on full-time duty caring for two of my little granddaughters, with two of their little cousins joining us for the evening. Those thirty-six hours were filled with: Unproductive and oops-too-late runs to the bathroom, punctuated with hilarious comments and sweet hugs Total meltdowns over a cat that was innocently sleeping […]

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What I Would Do Differently, Part 3

“Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13:7). What else would I do differently if I could go back to my early days of mothering? I would memorize 1 Corinthians 13 sooner and pray for God’s grace to take things less personally: The “oversights” and “blunders” that are simply a husband thinking like a man instead of like a woman. He’s not trying […]

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What I Would Do Differently, Part 1

“. . . I began to speak less to the kids and more to God. It was actually quite relaxing.” Wow. That statement stopped me in my tracks. The words are from Paul Miller’s book, A Praying Life. They are quoted in a book I’ve been working my way through over the last few weeks, Give Them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids with the Love of Jesus, by Elyse Fitzpatrick and […]

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How Do We Know What God Wants Us to Do?

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2, ESV). “So, how do you determine which things God wants you to do each day?” This was a question asked in response to a recent post about doing the things God has called […]

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Welcome to the World!

There’s a new man in my life — a very little man. He’s already mesmerized me with his charm and good looks. A text message woke me up at 11:47 last night, and kept me semi-awake the rest of the night. At 4:30 I finally got up and bustled around, waiting for the call. At last it came. “We have a baby.” “Yes?” (Come on, boy or girl?) “His name […]

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