Several years ago, I was able to take a basic biblical counseling class, and one of the sessions focused in on the “Anti-Psalm.” This exercise was a challenge for us to better understand what a text is saying by carefully thinking through the exact opposite meaning. It can be very insightful to look at the “opposite” of what we…
Category: Grow as a Woman
Why Have More Kids?
Recently, on an older post about exhaustion, I received this comment: “I don’t want to offend anyone but why do people keep having more kids if they are already exhausted with the 1 or 2 they do have?” There are so many answers I could give, but for me, it all boils down to this:…
What Moves Us From Fear to Faith?
I still remember those mornings laying in bed, paralyzed with fear, staring at the creaks coming from the ceiling over my head. We’d just purchased a 30-year-old home in the country, and my husband left for work by five each morning. The attic creaks had me “convinced” (though I would regularly rationalize myself back into reality) that…
10 Essential Self-Care Habits for Moms
A chart on my Facebook feed offered a humorous look at what “taking care of yourself” looks like before, and after, kids. According to the chart, taking daily vitamins turns into eating “one of the orange gummy vitamins your toddler won’t eat.” Reading a novel becomes reading the yogurt’s expiration date so you don’t poison the kids. 60…
Avoid Burnout: Intentionally Steward YOU
Burnout can come to any of us. Sometimes it comes because we’re in a high-stress season, and sometimes it comes because we’ve over-committed. There are times, though, when burnout comes because we have not treated ourselves as human beings worthy of care. Whether because we’ve been a “mommy martyr” or because in the busyness of life,…
7 Ways to Stop Being a “Mommy Martyr”
In Part 1, we asked the question- “Are You A ‘Mommy Martyr?’” That article gives a fleshing out of what it looks like to take on the identity of a ‘mommy martyr’ as well as some of the ways it affects our lives. Today (in Part 2), I want to look at 7 ways we…
Are You a “Mommy Martyr?”
What is a “mommy martyr?” This mom: steps up to “do it all,” taking on more than she can cheerfully do, then feels bitterness and frustration doesn’t ask (but still expects) others to help may keep an internal “list” of all the things she does that no one else appreciates magnifies her own responsibilities, contributions, and burdens, and…
Just MYOB
Have you ever caught yourself listening to a sermon on someone else’s behalf? What I mean by that is, are you mentally internally saddened because, “so-and-so SURE COULD BENEFIT from hearing this,” but she isn’t there? Or perhaps you’re cheering the pastor on because you think, “Boy, I hope that couple across the aisle is paying…
Trajectory
TRAJECTORY– (noun) the path followed by an object moving under the action of given forces. When a plane is on a certain trajectory, you can fairly accurately predict where it is headed based on its previous course, its speed, and the direction its nose currently points. The same is true of many things in life. If you…
Battling Insomnia? Anxiety? Stress? Exhaustion?
A friend recently asked about battling postpartum insomnia, and I shared my thoughts with her and then decided to share them here with you, too, in case you’re facing similar concerns. SPIRITUAL/PHYSICAL ANGLE? I’m not saying this lightly, but have you prayed about it? I have found, for me, that those times when I am…