Top 10 Quotes on Motherhood

February 20, 2012 By Courtney 22 Comments

This weekend I flew to Dallas, Texas to attend and speak at Sally Clarkson’s Mom Heart Conference. God filled my cup there!!! Not only did I glean wisdom from every single session but I felt blessed to get one on one time with Sally to ask her questions about my own life.

I also got to spend loads of time with my high school best friend and partner over on GoodMorningGirls.org – Angela. Angela was a speaker also.

Another fun part of the weekend was meeting for the first time our new contributor over at GoodMorningGirls.org – Whitney!

And also getting to meet Mandy from Biblical Homemaking - whose blog I happen to be a fan of!

Theses are my top 10 favorite quotes from the Mom Heart Conference:

10. There are no formulas given in the Bible for Motherhood – each mom’s puzzle is different. We must walk by faith.

9. Don’t isolate, protect and or solve all of your children’s problems. Rather than keeping your children from difficulty, walk them through difficulty.

8. Do not point out every single one of your children’s flaws. If God followed me around all day long correcting me, I wouldn’t want to be a Christian.

7. In the absence of Biblical conviction, Moms will go the way of the culture.

6. In the absence of a loving h0me, children will go the way of the culture.

5. God made us for more than rules – Have fun with your children!!! Be interesting!

4. Non-Christians are not the enemy. “It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

3. The love in your home will be like water in a garden that causes your children to grow.

2. “In your face” parenting – passes on guilt. Sometimes your children need understanding not another lecture. Be an “in your heart” mom.

1. Follow Jesus’ example in motherhood. He is our source of grace and truth. Be a source of grace and truth to your children. Listen with patience, ask thoughtful questions to draw your children out, encourage and edify them, serve them. Know and do what is meaningful to them.

The thing I enjoy most about Sally is her high ideals. She calls moms to a higher standard. I’ve been to a lot of conferences and retreats and often I am so sad to see them end because I want to continue the “party” lol! Sally’s conference made me want to rush home and go love on my kids! I wrote this post on the plane because I knew when I got home the LAST thing I wanted to do was be on my computer!

Sally has inspired and renewed my desire to be the best mom I can be, to embrace this season of life, to read thousands of pages to my kids and spend time with them rubbing their backs, talking about interesting topics, listening to their hearts cries, speaking life and truth into them. She also reminded me that I need to put blinders on, not worry about what others think and simply believe in my children.

Sally’s stories remind me that the things I go through with my children most moms face…we all feel ragged, overwhelmed, and like bad moms some days. But together we can pick ourselves up and begin new days with high ideals for God’s glory.

Walk with the King!

Courtney

**To see many more pics from my weekend and a mini-video I made with Angela and Whitney – visit Good Morning Girls today.

Filed Under: Parenting

Pursuing Beauty

February 12, 2012 By Courtney 29 Comments

On Thursday, I’ll be flying south to sunny Dallas, Texas (it’s 20 degrees and snowing here in Ohio so I’m looking forward to it!). I’ll be speaking at Sally Clarkson’s Mom Heart Conference! It’s going to be a great joy to share a hotel room with Angela (my partner at GoodMorningGirls.org), listen to Sally speak all weekend long and it’s like the cherry on top of a great weekend to get to speak. Sally said over 420 rooms are booked for the conference – so the turn out is great – even more than last year!

So I dug through my archives and found my post from last February when I attended Sally’s conference and I thought I would share with you some of what I gleaned. Sally’s daughter Sarah opened the conference with a talk on Living Thoroughly Alive. She encouraged us to cultivate time for beauty in our lives.

The Bible starts “In the beginning God created…”

In nature we can see God’s grandeur and beauty – we cannot watch television and experience this.

God is the source of beauty.

Whatever keeps us from his beauty keeps us from his presence.

Sally and Sarah tag teamed as they gave practical ways to express beauty inside our homes.

1. You can read books together – to make books even more beautiful – do it beside a fireplace with a warm glow.

2. You can serve the family a warm dinner – but if you add a candle and some light music it becomes an event.

3. Take the time to make holidays extra special – celebrate life together – this builds a beautiful strong foundation.

4. Read good books – you can only give to your children what you already possess inside. Good books are essential not a frivolity.

5. Expose your children to the best things – the best art, best people, best books, and the best thoughts.

Sally shared that it was in some of their darkest moments that their pursuit for beauty saved their family. And all this beauty doesn’t happen by accident. We must cultivate time for beauty and time to celebrate life with our families. We must remain connected to the source of all beauty.

(from the archives)

Looking back on this post, I’m so thankful for the sweet reminders that Sally gives my generation – to smell the flowers…literally!

The biggest pitfall that keeps my family from pursuing beauty is electronics. We must put our iPads and iPods down to read good books or watch a sunset. This is not easy for me because there’s this artificial joy I find in simply looking at beautiful images on my computer screen. Have you read Ann Voskamp’s A Holy Experience? Her blog has magnificent photos that take me into the presence of God everytime I’m on her site. You see Ann has stopped – looked at the fresh fallen snow – worshiped the giver of the snow – captured it on her camera and shared it with her readers to be blessed also. In the same way, we must stop – see the view out our window, call the children and invite them to worship the creator of our view also.

I know that in the midst of the mess of school papers and dirty dishes there is beauty in small hands folded for prayer time. There is beauty in the sound of my beginner piano player plunking at the piano. There is beauty in the recitation of memorized Bible verses as they fall off the lips of my son. There is beauty out the window as the sun sparkles on the snow making it appear as though diamonds have fallen on our lawn overnight.

Beauty is all around me but I must walk away from my computer to see it and so this week I made a change…

My computer desk has sat conveniently in the kitchen for 2 years. I hop on and off of it all day long…it’s nice because I’m in the heart of the house so I am never away from the action while I’m on my computer…but I need a break – not from Women Living Well…but from the temptation to websurf and hang out on social media too often…so I did this…

I moved my computer away from the kitchen – off the beaten path into the school room – in hopes that I will spend a little more time capturing the beauty of this season of life that is right before my eyes. Because…

”Whatever keeps us from his beauty keeps us from his presence.”

Walk with the King,

Filed Under: Homemaking, Parenting

Vlog ~ An Object Lesson & Prayer For Our Children

January 30, 2012 By Courtney 7 Comments

Ezekial 11:19 & 20 says:

“I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God.”

I made this video this past summer but never posted it…but it goes with the Gentleness Challenge. Often times our frustrations with our children come because we are tired, exhausted and irritable…but sometimes it is because they have hard hearts and they need a mama who is willing to get on her knees and plead in her child’s behalf before the throne of God. Ezekial 11:19,20 is my prayer.

(If you can’t see this video click here.)

Let’s pray that God gives our children undivided hearts. That they would be born again with God’s Spirit within them and that their hearts would not be hardened by sin but soft and tender. Pray that they would be careful to keep God’s laws and follow hard after Jesus!

Walk with the King,

Courtney

Filed Under: Parenting, Teaching Our Children Along the Way, Videos

Perfect Women Aren’t Real

January 29, 2012 By Courtney 34 Comments

The Gentleness Challenge is coming to a close. I know for many of us who participated in the challenge, we had some discouraging days where we blew it…I’ll be the first to raise my hand and admit despite my best efforts, I lost my temper this month – {ahem} more than once…

The reality is – there are NO perfect moms but that should not stop us from pursuing a good and Godly life. We are all a work in progress. The greatest lesson we can learn from a challenge like this is that we are flawed (the cross says that we are all flawed and in need of a savior and repentance), we are weak (when we are weak, then we are strong - 2 Cor. 12:10), and we must lean hard on God daily to help us be the women He created us to be!

Perfect women aren’t real, and real women aren’t perfect. We are not left alone in our imperfections – read Isaiah 41:10:

So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

The God of the universe says – I am with you – I will strengthen you and help you – we need only to turn to him and allow him to help us!

Take hope in this – it was flawed mamas who raised the greatest world changers. Abraham Lincoln said: “All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my mother.“ The statue of Liberty is of the sculptor, Frederic Bartholdi’s, mother. Hundreds of people a day go and visit lady liberty and look up at Frederic’s greatest influencer – his mom! Super Bowl football players look into the camera and say “Hi Dad!” Noooooo – they say “Hi MOM!”

We know of many famous women who have achieved great accomplishments in this world – their names are in lights – but think of the many many unnamed women who rocked the cradle of great men and women who changed the world. They will forever be unnamed but their influence is forever with us.

Dear Mamas, do not lose heart. Do not grow weary in doing good. (Galatians 6:9) You are raising the next generation and we can’t do it alone. We need to daily be on our knees in prayer – not just for our husband and children – but for ourselves!

If you missed a part of the Gentleness series here’s a look back:

Week 1 – Yelling At a Bud Won’t Make it Bloom

Week 2 – Replacing Old Habits With the New

Week 3 – Anger Management

Week 4 – Michelle Duggar – A Role Model for Gentleness

Now let’s look ahead. My dear friend Joy – a homeschooling mama of 5 and missionary in Indonesia is beginning a series Monday on her blog, Grace Full Mama, titled:

She will be including printables, encouragement and lots of practical tips for mamas. I encourage you to join her for this series.

But first – could those who accepted this challenge share how things went in your home this month? I invite you to leave a comment in the comment section with feedback. If you are a blogger, I invite you to “copy” and “save as” this button and put it somewhere on your blog and link it back to http://www.womenlivingwell.org Then link up below!