I’m not sure which topic of conversation or question generates more questions than laundry or meals for families. I’m thinking that both are either areas of great frustration or testing or are grounds for great victory or great defeat. As for meal times, women generally ask me questions that are more logistical or are more along the lines of creativity and time-saving methods (I’ll share about some of these tomorrow). Women are generally more able to get that area of homemaking “mastered” or taken care of than they are regarding the dilemma of… the laundry. Laundry. There’s always more laundry. You know… I’m pretty sure the LORD has this necessary part of living for more reasons than just the clothing that meets the eye -for laundry sort of represents other things in our lives… attitudes, actions, words, and decisions we might make all sort of pile up and either need continue reading

Only in recent years have WMD’s or the term WMD’s become a commonly known or commonly used term.  I think about the devastation of weapons of mass destruction and as I often do, I think of how ‘weapons of mass destruction’ might correlate to the home or motherhood.  It’s a term of war or arsenal of the enemy. So, I was walking through the store and I heard a tired, exasperated and foolish mother unloading her WMD’s on her children.  WMD’s are what I’ve come to think of in recent years when I hear a mother’s angry outburst or some tirade against her children.  She warns them they’re not getting anything.  She threatens to take them out to the car.  She tells them they’re naughty little brats.  She tells them she’s tired of them making noise.  She tells them she’s going to leave them at the store.  She tells them continue reading

It was with shear astonishment that I held my first child – our first child – twenty-eight years ago, and it was with awe and humble amazement that I saw that God had, indeed, given us a precious gift. I saw my Lord and Saviour in a whole new way. It wasn’t just that He had forgiven me of my sins, redeemed my soul and had given me the free gift of salvation and eternal life, never-to-be-separated from God through faith by His atoning death and resurrection, and it wasn’t just that He had blessed my womb, but also that He had thought on me, that He had visited me and had allowed this very imperfect vessel to be used for His glory and His purposes: He had created me to be a mother — a joyful mother of children (psalms 113). He, in His wisdom and mercy, created me continue reading

I want to share today on a particular matter that I find to be discouraging. I know that it is one of the unintended matters or, rather, the message is unintended, but when a mother leaves her home so that she can pursue “meaningful work,” or “have real conversations with real people,” or to “not waste” her life, she is saying to her children: you are not as valuable as ______, or spending time with you is not fruitful, relevant, important, or fulfilling [to me!]. I’ve met many young mothers who work outside their homes in careers or what have you because they say they needed to be with “real people” and have “real conversations.” Shame. This happens everyday all over the world. Women leaving their homes to be something they weren’t created to be to do things they weren’t created to do to spend time with people other than continue reading