How to Tear Your House Down in Ten Easy Steps

I honored to have my friend Bambi Moore of In the Nursery of the Nation guest posting here today.  Read on, ladies.  It’s “ouch and amen” time.

The wise woman builds her house, but the foolish pulls it down with her hands. Proverbs 14:1

How to Tear Down Your House In Ten Easy Steps

1.) Criticize your husband. Be sure and do it right when he steps in the front door as he gets home from work. Even better if the children can hear. An equally effective time would be in front of his friends.

2.) Complain a lot. If you aren’t happy be sure everyone who lives with you, knows it.

3.) Neglect your prayer life and study of scripture.

4.) Harbor up some hurt feelings you’ve incurred from…oh, anyone will do. Be sure and let it take root and nurture it until it officially becomes bitterness.

5.) Spend more time on the Internet than you do with your family. Make your social life high priority.

6.) At all costs, don’t serve anyone else. Especially not in your own home. And leave that hospitality stuff to the experts, it’s really not your gift.

7.) Keep up the perception you want the folks at church or your outside friends to have of you, but don’t worry too much about the One who knows your heart nor the little eyes who watch you.

8.) Don’t bother with housekeeping. What’s the point?

9.) Impose a set of religious rules on your family and yourself that have no love-motivated obedience behind them. Teach your children to have a self-righteous spirit instead of a heart full of humility and service to others.

10.) Spend lots of money you don’t have. Get into lots of consumer debt, trying to live the illusive American Dream. However, if you find you can’t possibly keep up…be sure and remember numbers 1 & 2.

Bambi has been the blessed wife to Kevin for seventeen years, and together with the Lord’s help they are sharpening eight arrows ages 16 to infant. Bambi is partial to strong coffee and good books, and spends her days managing a busy, happy home. You can visit her blog, In the Nursery of the Nation, where she blogs about marriage, motherhood and family discipleship.

On Having Babies

For a Christian, having babies is not about birthing pains, changing diapers or baking cookies (though it includes all of these).  Having babies is about transforming the world forever.   This investment will last, not for thirty years, not for my lifetime, but f-o-r-e-v-e-r.  The investment is realized on earth and pays dividends for eternity.  On earth, we pray that these children will advance the very kingdom of God.  But in heaven, the souls of every redeemed child will stand with me throughout eternity before the Lord Jesus.  The pressures of today (be they financial, physical, etc.) that taunt Christians to self-consciously distort God’s fruitful purpose for the womb, and to separate life from love, will seem infinitesimally small as we look back upon this whisper of a life with our children beside us in eternity.

My children can have more far-reaching implications for society and posterity than anything else I can do.  Having babies and training children for Jesus Christ means my life work will last forever.  I refuse to accept the minimizing, selfish, materialistic, and limited vision of womanhood dispensed by the apostles of modernity and relevancy in this generation.  My dream is far greater.                                                – Beall Phillips

What We Can Learn From Our Pilgrim Foremothers

Ladies, I hope you’ll take a minute to read my friend Bambi’s post at Visionary Womanhood to be inspired toward “sturdy virtue” and a strong “living faith.”  Our Pilgrim foremothers were remarkable women indeed.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

A Letter to Myself: The Important Motherhood Secret

The following excellent (and sobering) reminder is from Kelly Crawford at Generation Cedar.  May God daily help us practice what we preach.

Dear Kelly,

You have a highly specialized job as your children’s mother; you get the privilege of transferring, teaching, imparting and eternally shaping the lives of the people that have been given to you for just that purpose. In one sense, this is remarkable news. In another, it’s rather terrifying.

Terrifying because the transferring, teaching, imparting and eternally shaping is done primarily through the life you live.

They don’t learn what you tell them you want them to learn; they learn to become WHAT YOU ARE. *Being* is the most important thing you’ll do as a mother. Being what you want them to be, being the person you say loves Jesus, being generous to others, being a godly wife, being a kind woman, being genuine.

Or not…

You can tell them they should “be kindly affectioned” and “prefer one another”. But unless you are BEING kindly affectioned, preferring others over yourself, they will only learn to be a hypocrite.

You can tell them what a godly wife is supposed to be–the virtue, the tongue governed by kindness, the crown to her husband–but they’ll mostly grow up to be the kind of wife you are BEING.

You can tell them about God’s grace and forgiveness, how His mercy covers you because you can’t always BE what you need to be, but unless you reflect that mercy and grace in the inhaling and exhaling of a day, they will not truly learn its depth.

And this being…it is constant, with no reprieve. Which is, in fact, the heart of the matter…that you are always transferring who you are to your children and so it matters who you are–who you are becoming, far more than it matters what you mean to teach them.

So the answer? You seek Him and pursue Him hard with a reckless abandon of all else. You love Him wholly, follow Him completely and make it your only desire in life to become more and more like Him.

Then you will raise children who become what you wish for them to become.

“…for “‘In him we live and move and have our being;”  Acts 17:28

“Love” Worksheet

Are your children short on love, moms?  Are you?

Then gather the kiddos and work through this simple, straightforward I Corinthians 13 study created by Stacy McDonald and available free at her website Your Sacred Calling.

It’s just been added to our day’s agenda, because we’re falling short.  I’m falling short.

 

Mothering Inspiration From Eliza Spurgeon

For you mothers, I wanted to share a recent inspiring post from Keeper of the Home.

Especially moving/motivating is Eliza’s dedication to fervent prayer for her children, not the least of whom was the great preacher of the gospel Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

Lilla Rose Lovelies

I am so excited to tell you that I’ve just become a Lilla Rose consultant, an idea I’ve been toying with for the last few months.  “Consultant” sounds a bit formal to me, but all it really means is that I adore these hair clips and thought it would be fun to make them easily available to my friends, while making a little extra $ at the same time.

I know some of you are already familiar with these beautiful hair accessories, as they’re becoming more and more popular, with good reason.  For those of you who have not yet been introduced to the Lilla Rose hair clips, allow me to show and tell you what’s so special about them.  You know how much I like to offer a good recommendation. 

As you can see, they are lovely and distinctly feminine, and those are qualities ladies and girls would do well to cultivate, yes?  I realize it takes more to accomplish that goal than a $10 hair clip, but it’s one small way of being counter-cultural in our world of androgeny.  My girls and I absolutely love them.

The clips come in all sizes for all hair lengths, types and textures—fitting even my baby-fine-haired 3 year old, on up to those ladies who have a lot more and thicker hair than I do.

These are very good quality clips.  There is a one-year guarantee, but I can tell you we’ve had several clips for years now, and they are holding up just fine to repeated use. (You may have heard of or purchased these clips by their original name Flexi-8, as I did.)

With these clips, it takes just seconds to do your hair in any number of styles.  And once my order arrives, I’ll have a larger-size clip with which to up-do my hair like I’ve been doing Hannah’s, and I’ll have a pretty alternative to my headache-inducing plastic “claw.”  Oh, happy thought.

Lilla Rose also carries beautiful beaded headbands, sticks, bobbies, and more.  Please visit my online store to see the entire product line and view the sizing/styling video (also below.)

For those of you who live nearby, I can help you with sizing and selection in person, as I’ll soon have a stock of beautiful flexi-clips in all sizes.

Want free flexies?  Then consider hosting a Lilla Rose party and earning some free hair accessories!

For those of you receiving new blog posts via email, know that you can visit my blog and access my Lilla Rose online store anytime by clicking on the Lilla Rose logo button at the top right.

Questions?  Please ask.

I Don’t Want a Nap Today

That’s what Elisabeth said to me earlier.

Then I replied to her, “But Mommy knows what’s best for you.  You need a nap today.”

How often do we speak a word to our children, only to have it echo back to our own hearts—not only the exact words at times (“Will you please be patient with her?”) but so often the big picture behind whatever it is we’re trying to convey.

And while I may indeed benefit from a literal nap today, the “big picture” of those words is what struck me.

Just as I know what’s best for my 3 year old and my ways are not her ways, our Heavenly Father knows best for us, and His ways are not our ways.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.   For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.         Isaiah 55:8-9

What is your “nap,” dear mother?  Is your Heavenly Father making you take one?

You may have had a nap yesterday, you may have other plans for the afternoon, you may not even feel sleepy, and you certainly would not have chosen to take a nap if it were up to you .  .  .

but if He’s making you take a nap, it’s because He knows you need one.

Rest in His ways.  He knows what’s best for you.

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.          Romans 8:28

 

 

More Modesty Matters

I’m passing along another thought-provoking article on modesty, where Stacy McDonald shares her personal experience and offers more perspective on this important topic.

I was 22 years old and a brand new Christian when something happened to me that forever impacted my opinion of how to approach immodesty in new Christians. An older woman, the precious lady who led me to the Lord, became very frustrated with me after she and her family invited me to visit their beach cabin.

Read the rest of Stacy’s story here.

 

 

Why Do I Get Discouraged?

Excellent food for thought from the Doorposts blog . . .

“Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?” (Psalm 42:5a, ESV)

How many times have I asked myself this question? Do any of these reasons for discouragement sound familiar to you?

I am likely to become discouraged when:

• I am suffering trials (loss, death, troubled relationships, health problems, financial setbacks).
• I expect people to be and do what only God can be and do.
• I think circumstances ought to change, but they don’t.
• I want to control circumstances instead of trusting God.
• I feel like nothing I do is making any difference.
• I am struggling with illness, fatigue, or hormones.
• I compare myself to others.
• I expect perfection from myself and others.
• I try to play the role of Holy Spirit in someone’s life.
• I try to work in my own strength instead of availing myself of God’s infinite strength.
• I listen to myself instead of speaking the truth of God’s Word to myself.
• I don’t take the time or invest the energy needed to organize my time and environment.
• I don’t set aside time for communing with God (thinking, praying, studying, reading).
• I am over-committed.
• I feel like I’m barely keeping up with all that I am supposed to do.
• I am doing unnecessary things that I am not called to do.
• I isolate myself.
• I am resentful or bitter or start to feel sorry for myself.
• I am worried or afraid.
• I have not repented of sin.
• I am facing the consequences of my sin and negligence.

Click here to read the rest at Doorposts.