Encouraging parents in their efforts to raise their children to be enthusiastic servants of the Lord.
This is not another post telling you your child’s brain is turning into mush because he plays too many video games. It may very well be, but recently I was offered the chance to review a book which taught me something new about online gaming and social media. I may have suspected it on some level, but to confront the harsh reality was unsettling.
SEDUCED: THE GROOMING OF AMERICA’S TEENAGERS
Don’t you just love Isaiah 40:31? “But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” (NIV) As a Christian mom, there are days when I need to hear that verse multiple times.
God wants us to be productive Christians. He calls us to be involved moms, training and loving our children. I don’t recall though any verses where He called us to burn-out. Exhaustion from time to time perhaps, but not that complete utter burn-out.
Recently, I was given an opportunity to review the book Your Sacred Yes: Trading Life-Draining Obligation for Freedom, Passion, and Joy
Being a mom is the best job in the world. Most days. Then there are those days when everything seems to go wrong. Things break down, your kids have forgotten everything you have ever taught them about rules and manners and who knows what else has happened. It’s tempting to go hide under the covers and give up.
Moms often need that extra bit of encouragement. It helps to know other moms have felt like giving up, too (FYI, I think we all have at one time or another.). They need to know it is worth it to keep working on your marriage or training your kids. They want to know that even though it doesn’t seem like your efforts are making a difference, they really are.
Holly Wagner’s new book, Warrior Chicks: Rising Strong When Life Wants to Take You Down
She analyzes the idea of the biblical and historical warrior and the traits that make the best warriors. She covers everything from standing your ground, to being prepared to focusing on the goal and more. Each chapter gives examples from the Bible as well as from secular history and current events to illustrate the concept.
Ultimately, this is a book of encouragement. The author is either currently or just recently finished battling breast cancer (It wasn’t totally clear). Cancer is not the focus of the book. In fact, at times she goes so long without mentioning it, I almost had forgotten it was a part of her personal story.
Instead, she focuses on a lot of issues that can make women want to give up fighting. She includes topics like abuse, financial problems, marital issues, illness, job loss, parenting issues and more. In her mind anything and everything that can keep you from doing what God wants you to do – and mind you she doesn’t mean sitting in a church pew, but very active Christianity – she wants to help arm you to conquer and get back to battling for God.
She gives a lot of good advice, but perhaps my favorite is her advice about handing on the baton. She discusses relay races and how in Christian life we should always be accepting batons from women older than us and handing them off to women younger than us. She says the minute there is a woman on earth younger than you, you become the older women in the Bible called to start training the younger ones. I also appreciated how she reinforced we all should be humble enough to learn from those who have already walked down a path and to teach those who are currently on the one we have completed.
There were a couple of things I wish I could change about this book. She quotes scripture, but you have to fumble around in the back to find what scripture she is quoting. Frankly, I’m often too lazy to go to that much trouble. Also she uses the Message version, which alters scriptures so much from the original wording I often had trouble figuring out if she were quoting scripture or some random person. (There was little identifying information with any quote.)
My biggest irritation was how the book was formatted or typeset or whatever you want to call it. There were not proper paragraphs on a page. Sentences were scattered everywhere. Sometimes two or three were together and sometimes each would get a separate line with several blank lines until the next sentence. Tons and tons of white space. Frankly it gave me a headache as I tend to speed read and it is almost impossible when set that way. My brain rebelled and wanted to put down the book even though I really thought it was a great book.
If you are a Christian mom ( or any Christian woman) who is struggling in life, this book can give you the encouragement you need. It can give you new ways of thinking about things. Hopefully, if it’s reprinted at some point, they will format it like most books and it won’t also give you a headache!
This book was given to me for free in exchange for my honest review.
Normally, I am a pretty secure person. Then I attended a homeschool convention. One of the booths had grain mills you could purchase. Curious, I stopped and chatted. Turns out there are moms homeschooling multiple children of varying ages, helping run a farm, sewing their kids clothes AND grinding grain into flour to make homemade bread! Did I mention their kids are multi-talented and hold college degrees by age fifteen? Talk about humbling.
Motherhood can magnify any insecurities you had before becoming a mother and/or add a whole new list for you to ponder. The problem is if we become too consumed with our insecurities, we can lose focus and miss some of the best and most crucial parts of parenting.
Realizing we can all struggle with the comparative motherhood disease, I was interested when offered a chance to review the new book Untangled: Let God Loosen the Knots of Insecurity in Your Life
Summer is the best! I was always one of those moms who loved having her child around during the summer months. The slower pace meant there were days when we could curl up with a good book and just chill. Unfortunately, so many of the books written for pre-teens and teens (and even some for younger girls) are dark. Even if the written and unwritten moral lessons are acceptable, the books leave your daughter feeling like she has just spent hours in a horribly gloomy place. Not exactly, the “think on things that are pure and lovely” type of reading our girls really need.
Our daughter was one of those kids who read everything she could. There was no way I could read everything she did, especially before she read it. When she was younger, I would catch summaries or reviews, talk to others who might have read the book and actually did read a few myself (okay the reading addiction comes honestly!). Our search for good books, eventually led us to the Christian bookstore.
Over the years, our daughter found quite a few books she enjoyed that were written from a Christian perspective. Be aware though, a few books may contain a theology that disagrees with your understanding of the Bible and are probably best avoided. I am not going to suggest an age for reading these books – so much depends upon the reading ability, maturity, life experiences and spiritual maturity of your child.
Here were some books (thankfully some were series!) our daughter enjoyed at one point or another:
Continue reading Summer Reading for Christian Girls (Pre-teen and Teen)