It took me quite awhile to get through the first chapter of The Mission of Motherhood (M.O.M) because of distractions and vacation.  When I finally, for the third time, sat down to read the first chapter something jumped out at me…

“Give her the product of her hands” Proverbs 31:31

The product of my hands.

What will be the product of my hands?  I am thinking about this question and have so many thoughts on it that I do not have time to express right now.  Truthfully, I am returning from vacation and didn’t realize I scheduled the start of the book club on the day I’d be getting home.  As much as I regret my poor planning, I do at least want to share with you my favorite quotes from the first chapter and a bit from the discussion questions (I will will write more on the product of my hands as soon as I can).

Quotes that stood out to me:

“Somehow, over the course of the last century, traditional motherhood had become a lifestyle option-and to many, a lesser option-rather than a divine calling.”

“As much as I loved my children, I often felt like a failure.  Surely someone else could do a better job with these precious ones than I.”

“We mothers have the opportunity to influence eternity by building a spiritual legacy in the lives of our children.”

“My calling as a mother is the same as any other Christians’: to fulfill God’s will for our lives and to glorify him.”

“Saying yes to the mission of motherhood has certainly not meant giving up my ministry. To a great extent, it is my ministry.”

What I love about Sally is that she went to the scriptures to find out for herself “just what God, the Designer himself, had in mind when he created the role of mother thousands of years ago.”

Book discussion:

Something to think about…

Psalm 127:1 – What, according to this verse, is the secret to the success of a godly family? What will happen to the work of the house building if parents are not following God’s path?

Unless the LORD builds the house,
They labor in vain who build it;
Unless the LORD guards the city,
The watchman keeps awake in vain.

I was surprised that Sally chose this verse, but I’m glad she did because it reminds me that I need to be on my knees before the Lord praying that God would build our home for his glory.  Also, he has shown me in his Word his design for the home, so if I follow his plan, he is building our home.  It is an interesting two part observation that presses me deeper into prayer, the Word, and obedience.

Something to Try…

I’m going to buy a blank book for each child and write their story and add to it every year on their birthdays.  I love this idea.

Your Turn! Link-up your blog and let us know if you are following along in the book club.  Then, leave your thoughts on the first chapter in the comment section.

The book: The Mission of Motherhood

I am writing this in response to an earlier question about “what about the lost youth? those who don’t have Christian parents?” Please note that my response is only of the opinion of a person who did not grow up with Christian parents. It is very likely that my experience with VBS and Youth Groups would be different had I a different background.

I was born to a drug-addicted mother and an alcoholic father in South Central Los Angeles, Ca. Throughout the years, I can see how God used experiences (good and bad) to draw me to Him. I did participate in activities such as VBS and 5 Day Clubs (By Child Evangelism Fellowship) and probably asked God into my heart a dozen times. However, it wasn’t until God brought two families into my life that I began a true believer and grew in the faith.
The first family was my 4th grade teacher, her husband (who was principal), and their 3 children (all younger than me). They shared the gospel by inviting me to their home whenever I wanted to come, taking me on family vacations, and including me in family prayer meetings. Having not come from anything near what I grew up with, I was intrigued. When I went to Junior High, I lost touch with this family but I remember always thinking that “Whatever they had that made them love each other so much, I wanted.”
Well, a couple of years later, God sent me another family. This family also had three children, but they were home schooled. Now I attended Youth Group with this family’s two oldest children. Like the other family, this family made me a part of their family. It was with this family that I learned about the role of the father in the home and the importance of teaching Scripture in the home.
It is with these two families that I saw the Bible lived out. I am not saying that Youth Groups and other age-segregated groups had no influence on my life. There I learned songs and scripture. It is just that the families God sent in my direction were the greater influence. They taught Scripture daily at meals. They encouraged me to participate in family activities. They made me realize that without Jesus Christ as my foundation, my life would be meaningless.
Friends that I made in Youth Group, VBS, etc. changed overtime as they were exposed to more and more of the world. However, these families stayed consistent. I refer to the second family as my God-family (as God surely sent them). I remember when I was 17 and she said, “Dad and I pray every morning for your spiritual walk and your husband.” My response, “HUH?” Aside from the fact that I thought she was looney for praying for my husband, it meant a lot to me that I was important enough to be a part of someones prayers on a daily basis. Someone who had their own biological children to love and their own families to raise. Now, over a decade later, this family is a large part of my life. In fact, the mother of the family is flying out for the birth of my first child. She says that she can’t wait to hold her newest grandbaby.

So, my response to the initial question – “what about the lost children?” is this. Perhaps God is giving them a family. A family who will show them, as much as possible in our human capacity, the love that Christ has demonstrated for us. A family that will include them, teach them, and encourage them in the way they should go. I have seen God use a family to bless my life in so many tremendous ways which far surpasses the three hours I spent each week with my peers.

Segregation from NCFIC on Vimeo.

What are your thoughts on the current state of Youth Ministry in the church?

Guest post by Jaime @ Like a Bubbling Brook

Dr. Howard Hendricks once shared the story of a professor who stayed up late at night pouring over his books. A passerby asked him, “What keeps you studying? You never seem to stop.” His answer was, “I would rather my students drink from a bubbling brook than a stagnant pool.”

How about those you have relationships with? Are they drinking from a bubbling brook or a stagnant stream? The wellspring of wisdom is as a flowing brook (Proverbs 18:4).

This illustration always stayed with me and, as I was completing my master’s degree a few years ago, my heart grew heavy. I’d spent many years obtaining a formal education, reading books assigned by professors, studying subjects dictated by degree requirements, but I had neglected my study of His Word, His divinely-inspired love letter to me, the most important book of all.

And then, as my master’s program neared an end, it was if God whispered into my heart, “Let me be your professor.”

That single sentence shattered my thinking and broke my heart. I was hit with the realization that formal schooling had quietly become my idol; I had made my schooling more important than my spiritual growth. Then I remembered the Great Commandment (Luke 10:27), which instructs us to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. How could we love Him with our mind?

With God’s help, my husband and I made significant changes in our lives that year. We read through our Bible in entirety and spent special times in prayer and fasting. We desired to let God speak to us, teach us, lead us.

We studied the Word and sought to understand it for ourselves, both privately and in the context of our family and church. We prayed that we would be transformed by the renewing of our mind (Romans 12:2), and cultivate a greater intimate relationship with this God who created us.

We began to realize that, like every other aspect of our being, God created our minds to be used for His glory. Our failure to allow God to actively develop our minds will cause us to be stagnant streams, unable to sustain a vibrant spiritual life or offer refreshment to our husbands, children, and communities.

Letting God renew your mind is not about reciting facts, having the right answers, or obtaining a formal education. It’s about letting Him shape how you view the world.

When we pursue truth, when we pursue God’s way of relating with our families and the world around us, it bears fruit in our life. When we offer our minds to God, that’s when our behaviors finally start to change into what He desires of us. When we pursue Him, we are increasingly led to worship Him because we begin to understand He is infinitely greater than we could ever imagine.

Read your Bible; pray; learn; grow; always pursue truth. Speak His truth into the lives of your children and others around you. Grow in wisdom, stature, and in favor with God and others (Luke 2:52).

Your kind of intelligence, your background, your pattern of thinking is unique and valued by God. What are you doing with it?

Jaime G is blessed with an amazing husband and two sweet boys. She is a homeschooling mama who writes about faith, family, and food on her blog, likeabubblingbrook.com.

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Her head bows and the tears come as she takes her little hand and covers her crinkled up face.

I stoop low and ask what’s wrong.  She takes my hand and says, “Mommy, let’s talk.”

We walk quietly to her bedroom and gently sit on the pink sheets below.  In her mature four year old way, she tells me she is sorry for complaining, and that she is having a hard time with it.  She says she’s had a rough day.  She tells me, through wrinkled expression, how I hurt her feelings.

She is so much like me…sensitive…vulnerable…

I pull her up on my lap and hold her close, her hair tickling my arm, her body warming my mine.  I tell her that I struggle with complaining too, and that it is hard to always be positive.  I tell her how much I need Jesus because He is the only one who can invade my spirit and change me.  I tell her Jesus can change her heart too.  She asks me if I love her when she complains.  I tell her I will always love her, no matter what, but even more wonderful, Jesus always loves her because she is His.

I forgive her and she forgives me.

I leave her alone on the bed as she takes a few moments to talk to Jesus by herself.

And I thank God for these tender times…the moments she gives me to creep into her heart with compassion and truth and humility and love. The ones where she releases her troubles to me and we, together, release them to Him.

The way she needs me in those moments is the way I need my God.  When the day is just too much and I feel like breaking down and losing control and fighting it all, He quiets me.  I release my troubles to Him and I know He has compassion on me like I have compassion on her. I know that even though I can’t see him or feel his arms warming me, He is listening…and I feel that in my soul and it warms me from the inside out.

And He helps me.

And I love Him.

And I love her.

And I pray that she will be led to His invisible arms, and that she will cry out to Him and He will nestle her heart with peace.

Because only He can make our hard places soft, and our cold places warm.  And only He can save us from ourselves.

The LORD is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.

He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;

he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;

as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;

for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.

Psalm 103:8-14

Come back Monday (can you say GIVEAWAY!?)

Erin is SO amazing (and no, you can’t buy it yet…muhahahahaha…)

I remember when I loved to study my bible, lead bible studies, and tell people about Jesus.  I thrived on it, and got life from it.

Then I got married and had three children.

My energy level depleted.

My time depleted.

My already natural fatigue easy body got more fatigued.

My light dimmed.

Throw in the fact that I’m also a natural ‘messy’ but have to run a household…and desire to run it well.

Oh yea, and teach and train my children for their souls eternal purpose.

Heh.

Help?

Anyone?

Someone?

I  need a match.

…

P.S.  This could all be hormonal. {ahem}

As many of you know, I’m going to be reading ‘The Mission of Motherhood: Touching Your child’s Heart for Eternity‘ and I asked if you would like to read along with me.  Many of you said yes, so here is how I’m planning on making it possible for us to read and discuss together:

We’ll discuss one chapter per week (using the ’something to think about’ and ’something to try’ questions and challenges at the end of each chapter), and we’ll just do it right here on the blog in the comments section (I decided not to put it in the Coffee Talk community because other people who aren’t reading along may just like reading the information in the posts on what we’re learning/doing/discussing in the book.)

I will start the discussion on Friday, July 30th.

We’ll have a link-up that day to everyone’s blogs so we know who is all reading the book.  Sound good?

Can’t wait to dig in with you!

You can get the book here or here.

From the back cover of The Mission of Motherhood:

Do you long for your home to be life-giving and peaceful?

Is it your desire to pass on a legacy of righteousness to your children?

Do you struggle to balance the duties of motherhood with a loving relationship with your children?

Would you like creative ideas and direction for keeping your child’s heart open to you and to the Lord?

No calling is greater, nobler, or more fulfilling than that of motherhood.  Every day, as we nurture our children, mothers influence eternal destiny as no one else can.  Tragically, today’s culture minimized the vital importance of a mother’s role.  By catching a vision of God’s original design and allowing it to shape your life, you can rediscover the joy and fulfillment that can be found in the strategic role to which God in all his wisdom has called you, for a purpose far greater than you can ever imagine.