Dear Daughter, The Truth about Love

To my dear daughter, You turned sixteen this month. I am well aware of how exciting that is to you but I'm pretty sure you have no idea how much this birthday has shaken me. More than any before, this February 17th brought home the truth that time is fleeting. You'll be getting your license and experiencing a new freedom as you pull away in the car without me or your daddy by your side. And I'll be in the house sobbing about how time is a thief and praying for your safety. I've been ... [Read More]

My Big List of Great Books for Moms

It's no big secret I adore books and reading.  I'm a failure at keeping an up-to-date book list here on the blog but I seem to be doing better at posts that share what I've been reading each month.  I've been working on a few projects connected to Prayers for Girls lately and because of that I've been pulling books off my shelf {and from my Kindle} to find quotes and information I know I've read somewhere. In the course of all that, I began to realize how many of the not parenting per se books ... [Read More]

Top 10 Posts of 2015

Can you believe we're less than a week away from 2016? This year feels like it passed so quickly.  All those moms who smiled at me when my girl was a baby and said, "Don't blink!" were so right!!  My girl will turn 16 in less than two months.  What??  {I find this most amazing since I haven't gotten any older at all since she was born. haha!} I looked over all the posts I wrote in 2015 and made a list of the top ten {measured by numbers of page views and social media sharing}. So, here ... [Read More]

Mom of a Teenager? Come Hang with Us!

Once upon a time there was a mom who wondered if she was ruining her child.  She second-guessed every decision she made.  She struggled to find her own identity as a mom.  The reasons for this confusion and insecurity on her part were countless.  She knew better.  But somehow, the older her girl grew, the less confident she felt in parenting. She prayed about it, asking God to help her and to send her a friend {or even better a group of friends} who would both commiserate on the bad days ... [Read More]

On Weaknesses and Parenting

I've been writing a lot more about parenting lately. Not because I have all the answers ... quite the opposite in fact.  It seems I basically coasted through the first 12 years of being a mom.  My girl was never really sick, potty trained easily, wasn't clingy, ate well, had lots of friends, and in general was a delightful person. But something crazy happens when a girl turns 13.  Or maybe it's just that something crazy happens to a mom when her girl turns 13. Either way, life since February ... [Read More]

Dear Weary Mom, The Hardest Lesson

It's Thursday.  I love Thursdays.  Thursdays around here are for dishing up truth and hope and grace about mothering.  And I'm so glad you are here to join me.  So let's get going . . . This mothering gig is so much harder than I ever thought it would be.  And I'm so much worse at it than I thought I'd be. Seriously, I thought I'd be awesome! Especially at having a teenager.  I mean, my husband was youth pastor for years.  Parenting a child of our own would be a breeze after that. {Yeah, go ... [Read More]