Things Mama Told Me

If you stopped by today from Encouragement Cafe WELCOME! So glad that you are here. Friendship can be a tricky thing among girls but as we grow up and change the friendships we have as grown women are some of the most endearing ones. From high school and college friends to my friends today who are in the same stage of life as me to my girlfriends in ministry, God has answered a prayer from years ago to give me a real, loving, and precious community of friends. The entire devo is featured today at www.encouragementcafe.com and is re-posted below. If you want to receive new updates on my blog, just sign in with your email to the right and your in! Thanks for visiting me! The heartfelt counsel of a friend is as sweet as perfume and incense. Proverbs 27:9 NLT I recently had the opportunity to spend time with girlfriends from high school, celebrating our 40th birthdays together. We came from three states, several different cities, to spend a weekend at the beach. For over two d

You call it stubborn, others see determination. You say tantrums, I see passion. You call it hard-headed, others see strong.  You say manipulative, I see creative.  You may call it obstinate, I call it tenacious You say unrelenting, others see perseverance.  We are your strong-willed children. We are the ones who simultaneously frustrate our parents beyond belief while they look at us with awe at all we can accomplish. We are the ones that l ay in the Oval Office of the President  for the world to see our temper tantrums while our parents shake their heads in embarrassment and say, "she's my strong-willed child."  You choose how you want to view us. The synonyms are interchangeable. Stubborn or determined, hard-headed or strong, obstinate or persevering?  When you are cheering for me on the sidelines you love my drive and  determination, but at home when it's time for bed, not so much.  When I stand up to my friends because I simply

If you stopped by because you read my devotion today over at  Encouragement Cafe , WELCOME! So glad you are here! Today's devotion is featured on Encouragement Cafe and  Crosswalk.com .  To sign up to receive my blog by email just fill in your email address to the right and your in! My prayer for you today is that you realize many of us have struggled and swam through the darkest waters of depression but there is Hope. May you be encouraged as I shared my story and know that you are never alone in this journey. 

If you stopped by because you read my devotion today over at  Encouragement Cafe , WELCOME!   So glad you are here! Today's devotion is featured on Encouragement Cafe and  Crosswalk.com .  To receive updates to my blog by email, just fill in your email address to the right and your in!  My prayer for you is that you see how we all struggle in our marriages, but like every relationship God has given to us we are called to reflect the love of Christ. 

My house over the summer was full of lazy days by the pool and relaxing vacations at the beach. I had children going to bed whenever they got tired or whenever they passed out from a sugar rush on the couch. They liked sleeping in as late as they wanted. They had friends over to play video games all afternoon in the basement, with a fridge full of high-fructose, corn syrupy soda. There were lots of sleepovers and little to no schedule. Cereal for dinner and ice cream for breakfast became a norm. Labor Day Weekend by the Pool  On the flip side, I did notice that about 8 weeks into our 10 week break, anarchy began to reign. My children got a little sassier, a little more argumentative, and they forgot that I was still the authority figure in the house. They really weren't getting told what to do during the day from anyone besides me. And honestly, I was just as tired from a busy year as everyone else and going lax on the schedule was a wonderful break. My house had turned

If you stopped by because you read my devotion today over at Encouragement Cafe , WELCOME!   So glad you are here! Today's devotion is featured on Encouragement Cafe and Crosswalk.com . The full devo is also posted below.  And while I am thinking about it I am in the process of working on a new post about the back to school blues. My big kids have returned to school this week so the crazy train has hit us and we have abruptly fallen off the lazy days of summer train... New post coming soon.  To sign up to receive my blog by email just fill in your email address to the right and your in!  Café Menu for Tuesday, August 25, 2015 Today’s Special is: Confessions From A Type-A Main Ingredient: And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.  So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. Genesis

I can understand why Christians have been labeled hypocrites. I understand why someone from the outside looking in can scroll social media for about 3 minutes and decide they want no part of Christianity.  I understand why we are accused of picking and choosing what parts of the Bible we strongly adhere to and which parts we seem to glance over.  I believe that it is our own faults as Christians that we haven't done more to love others and show the transforming truth of Christ to a world that is confused. I think part of this is because we have not done a good job of teaching others to read Scripture for themselves nor have we allowed them the opportunity to be transformed by God's Word in their time. Our voices are so loud and overpowering that we can't even give others the opportunity to experience personal conviction for themselves by a Holy Spirit that is much more powerful than our rhetoric.  We mistakenly cite our own personal convictions as the tr

In our Westernized culture we have somehow begun to believe that once you reach a certain age you must start acting a certain way. You must quit pursuing the dreams that haven't come to fruition yet. You must be afraid to try something new because it is too hard to teach an old dog new tricks. You have to do things the same way you have always done them because, even if it is more efficient, learning something new is too hard. So we become complacent. We wait for the next day to drag by. We live for the weekend so we can mow the grass, sit in boredom in front of the tv, or splurge for a weekend meal at the local Mexican restaurant. We go to bed at the same time, we get up at the same time, we eat the same breakfast, and go to the same job that some of us love but many of us just tolerate because at least it's a job. And along the way we never consider what could happen if we truly began to live the life that God intended for us to live. A life that actually makes a difference

I used to feel really guilty for being a stay at home mom. I mean really guilty. I often would try to take an inventory of all the things I did throughout the day so that in the evening when my husband asked what I did I would be ready to fire off my lists of accomplishments. Somehow I figured he would be more proud of me and I would feel less guilty if I just completed the most tangible tasks possible. But then I got over it. Over time I have seen the tremendous value of my presence and that just being here is what he loves and appreciates most. Me, being at home is a precious commodity and it speaks the most love to him.The single most important job and ministry that I have is to my husband and children. I have discovered that being at home with our children, taking care of the daily chores of life, and loving my husband with the utmost respect is, hands down, the best way I can show my love to him, to others, and to God. Not a single paycheck. No income. No big awards on the wal

When I was a kid in junior high school my girlfriends and I would sit around and dream about what kind of guy we would marry (tall, handsome, can play the guitar and sing, great athlete, needs to have money, and looks like Joey from  New Kids on the Block) , how many children we would have (two to three, first a boy then some girls), and we couldn't even imagine what the year 2015 would look like when we turned 40! I figured I would be really old, out of touch with reality, certainly grey headed, and probably have a few teenagers.  Yet here I sit on the eve of my 40th birthday and I can't even believe that tomorrow is March 5, 2015 and I am saying goodbye to my 30's and entering the much more mature ranks of the 40's. Or so I imagined.... I must say that turning 40 is not quite as terrible as I pictured it would be. I am grateful for things I've learned these past 4 decades and I look forward to a new chapter. Life is getting better with age. So here are a

Dear inventors, marketers, creators, designers, and forward-thinkers: I am sure that when you designed certain things you had a large target population in mind and maybe never even considered how convenient and revolutionary your design would be for a busy mom of young children. So I would like to take a moment and thank you for the following things that have made my life so much easier and helped me maintain my sanity in the midst of motherhood. The day Starbucks created a drive-thru window Oh Happy, Happy, Happy Day. I cannot even tell you how having a drive thru at your beautiful barista shops have been a source of strength and sanity for me. Before you opened your drive thru I tried a few times to get my tall, skinny, decaf, non-fat caramel latte with a baby carrier on one arm and a purse on the other and it was quite the balancing act. It seemed like quite a lot of work to haul baby and carrier out of the car, into the cold, across the parking lot, all for a cup of coffee