Maternity Photos – Baby #2 (PART 2)

Maternity Photos – Baby #2 (PART 1)

Good friends of ours, Allen and Melanie Seay, took these wonderful photos near and at their home in Shelbyville, Kentucky. It is hard to believe that we will be a family of four in less than a month. God has been incredibly gracious to us and we can hardly wait to meet this little one. **You can click on the pictures to expand.

Marriage Myth Busters

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Dan Phillips

Dan Phillips gives his thoughts on two marriage myths we all may have heard at some point. I tend to agree with his sentiments.

1. First: it takes two to create marital problems. No, it doesn’t. It only takes one.
2. Second: an occasional knock-down, drag-out fight is good for a marriage. This is a great idea… well, apart from that whole thing about it being totally dead-wrong.

Read his thoughts on each here.

Discipleship and Young Mothers (Series)

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Christian discipleship

The ladies at Domestic Kingdom have just finished an excellent series on the responsibility and privilege of discipleship as young mothers.

Excerpt from (part1):

What do young moms have to offer to younger women?
Because we get the privilege of serving little ones day in and day out, often with little self-initiated appreciation, we get the opportunity to live out the gospel before watching eyes.

As Christ came not to be served but to serve (Matt. 20:28), our dying to self to serve our children displays Christlikeness. As believers we are all being made more and more into the image of Christ, by the grace of God.

Motherhood in the young years lends a unique crucible into which our selfish natures are refined to be more holy. That should be shared with others!

• Part 1: Discipleship is for young moms, too
• Part 2: No sufficiency to disciple other women? No problem!
• Part 3: No time to disciple other women? No problem!
• Part 4: No priorities to disciple other women? No problem!

New Cure for Social Media Addiction – “Just Go Outside”

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Facebook, Pinterest, Social Media, Twitter

(HT: Z)

Desiring God: Mommy Wars Series

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Carolyn McCulley, Christian Motherhood, Christian Parenting, Christine Hoover, Gloria Furman, Local Church, Mothering, Parenting, Pregnancy, Rachel Pieh Jones, Raising Children, Raising Kids

Below is an excellent series on the struggles of motherhood.

Desiring God Blog:

Are You Mom Enough? (Rachel Pieh Jones)

The message screamed at moms from this issue of Time, from television, Facebook, blogs, and Pinterest is: unless you are fit to run marathons, breastfeed into the preschool years, own a spotless and creatively decorated home, tend a flourishing garden, prepare three home-cooked meals per day, work a high-powered job, and give your husband expert, sensual massages before bed, you are not mom enough. From my perspective, however, the Mommy War is over. Done. Finished. Kaput. And I lost.

The End of Mommy Wars (Christine Hoover)

Because of the gospel, the Mommy Wars have no place among believers. After all, at the heart of the Mommy Wars is pride (“I am more spiritual than that mother because I employ this method and she does not.”), competition (“My children are better than hers because I employ this method.”), and self-condemnation (“I am not spiritual enough or a good enough mother because I don’t employ the method that she does.”).

Mommy Wars in the Local Church: A Parable (Gloria Furman)

God’s forgiveness, and our knowing that we are forgiven sinners, frees us from the very things that spoil our relations with each other. It frees Christian mothers from the need to prove anything. It frees us from envy and one-up-mothering. It frees us from the craving for approval and praise that we seek from others. It liberates us to value each other in Christ, and to love our mother-neighbors as ourselves.

Mommy Wars Are Spirit Wars (Carolyn McCulley)

Therefore, the real “mommy wars” are not against other people and their parenting styles, nor even against Darwin, Sanger or those who promote similar ideologies. As Ephesians 6:12 says, “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” The real mommy wars are spiritual. And this conflict began with the very first mother, Eve.

A Pregnant Woman’s Defense Against the Schemes of the Devil (Gloria Furman)

Scripture exhorts us to “put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11). Even when the only pants and skirts that currently fit you are held up on your hips by a yard of elastic, the armor of God still fits you and you should wear it.

Mothering Toward a Common Goal

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Christine Hoover, Desiring God

Christine Hoover:

The gospel of Christ holds no place for comparison. We are all equally in need of grace, and we all equally receive it as a gift from God. In regards to mothering, the gospel clearly applies:

• None of us are good enough mothers.
• Through Christ, God offers us grace in our mothering. He takes our meager efforts and produces spiritual fruit in us and our children. He is enough.
• He has given us principles in Scripture as a framework for mothering.
• He has also given us the Holy Spirit to individually lead and guide us in mothering our unique children.

What does this mean in day-in, day-out motherhood?

It means that we are all mothering toward the same goal — that our children know and worship God. Our methods for reaching that goal may vary according to our unique families, circumstances, and the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Will he lead every believer toward the same goal? Yes. Will he lead every believer to the goal in the same way? No. And this is a very good thing.

Read the rest here

On Losing the Mommy War

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Parenting, Rachel Pieh Jones

Rachel Pieh Jones:

I have spent 10 of my nearly 12 mommying years in Africa, so when an American friend mentioned the “Mommy Wars,” I had to ask her what that was.

Apparently, as she informed me, there is a perceived “mothering battleground” where moms pit themselves against each other over topics like feeding babies, choosing schools, eating healthy, disciplining children, and more.

Are You Mom Enough?

Time Magazine recently joined the fray with the provocative cover of a beautiful young mother visibly breastfeeding her four-year old son next to the title, “Are You Mom Enough?”

The message screamed at moms from this issue of Time, from television, Facebook, blogs, and Pinterest is: unless you are fit to run marathons, breastfeed into the preschool years, own a spotless and creatively decorated home, tend a flourishing garden, prepare three home-cooked meals per day, work a high-powered job, and give your husband expert, sensual massages before bed, you are not mom enough.

From my perspective, however, the Mommy War is over. Done. Finished. Kaput.

And I lost.

I am not mom enough. Never was, never will be.

But I am on the frontlines of another war. The battles are raging and the casualties could be my children, my husband, or myself. This war isn’t about me being mom enough. This war is about God being “God enough.”

Read the rest here