The Masterpiece Mom

Because You’re Not Alone and What You’re Doing Matters {plus a giveaway!!!}

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“I’m so glad I’m this exhausted and that my days are filled with dirty diapers and crying babies,” said no mom ever.

“I just wish being a mom wasn’t so hard / tiring / frustrating / difficult…,” said every single mother I know. (And if you haven’t said it out loud, you’ve probably whispered it deep into your pillow late at night when everyone else is asleep except for you.)

But what if someone told you that You Are Not Alone?

Would it change your day? Would it change how you mother?

What if you knew to the very core of your being that What You Are Doing Every Single Day Matters?

Would it transform your actions? Your reactions?

Would it shift and revolutionize your priorities as a parent?

As busy mamas that sometimes (or 89.9 % of the time) feel overwhelmed, overtired, and overworked, we need to know that what we are doing is making a difference. That the value of staying up late nursing little ones, the correcting, the listening, the wiping of tears, the cleaning of bottoms … is all totally worth it.

And that remaining 10.1 % of the time? (And feel free to adjust these percentages if you need.) Well, that’s when everything seems right in our world. Those moments when we feel we’re about to burst with heart-oozing love for our people. Until a vase shatters, juice spills, and the dog vomits on our brand new entryway rug.

We need to hear from those who’ve made it through the trenches of motherhood, and lived to tell about it. And we need the voices of those in the trenches right now. Stories of beauty in the midst of the bedlam to pull us through the hard times, giving us the gift of humor and hope for the journey.

And so it is with great pleasure that we introduce you to The Mother Letters – a beautiful, encouraging, compelling (and downright gorgeous) collection of letters just for moms.

As contributor Christy Brockman put it so eloquently,

We as mothers are different, but we all share a common bond. We are a community of women. The fight is not against each other. It is greater than that. So instead of judging each other’s practices, we should stand in support of one another… And when we see a struggling mother, one who flounders in her role as “mother,” let us not be afraid to offer a prayer, a hug, or a kind word. After all, we could all use the encouragement, and our children will be better for the example.  (The Mother Letters, pages 27-28)

And we couldn’t agree more. So in honor of this heartfelt book’s release into the world, we are thrilled to share the mother love with you. (Thank you, Baker Publishing Group!!)

With Mother’s Day right around the corner, maybe this is a book you’d like to read for yourself. Or maybe you have a friend who desperately needs to hear these words of anchored hope. Perfect timing for a giveaway, don’t you think?

Or if you’re impatient like me and just have to have it right now, you can find it at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, ChristianBook.com, Lifeway, FamilyChristian.com, or at your favorite local bookseller.

To enter the drawing:

Simply tell us One Thing You Wish You Could Tell Your Young Mom Self (if you could go back in time). Comment with your answer here in the post (or over on Facebook), then register using the Rafflecopter box below to have your entry counted! We can’t wait to read all of your responses. We will announce the winner on Friday, May 6th, 2016. Let the nuggets of motherly wisdom begin!

If you’re reading this post in your email and want to enter, click here to view this post on the blog. 

We’re cheering for you, sweet mamas! xo

P.S. – And in case you missed it, here’s the mother letter I wrote in March called For Every Mom. It’s from the heart, and just for you.

To join in the Mother Letter fun on Instagram, use #MotherLetters and share your mothering moments.

And thank you, Amber and Seth, for putting together this insightful literary hug for all of us moms! It is much needed and much appreciated!!!

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Why We Need Your Story

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This is for the writer, the speaker, the dreamer, the artist in all of us.

Those with the desire to share what God is doing in their lives.

You may think your story is boring.

Or uneventful.

Or too this. Or too that.

But the truth is, your story is important. It’s needed.

Your family needs to hear it. Your fellow mom community needs to hear it. You need to hear it. Like out loud.

To proclaim what God has done, and how He is moving in and through your life. Through your story. Through the perspective that only you can give.

So often we allow our mouths to be muted to the work happening within us. Maybe we’re fearful. Apprehensive about what others may say. Or we need time. Time to process and figure out what it all means … to be a new creation; a transformed follower of Jesus. Being quiet can seem like the safe choice. The better choice. The easy choice.

For life in general has a way of shaping us and molding us. And not always in the most pleasant ways. Every day our patience levels are being stretched to their limits. Our sanity and compassion is being tested on an hourly sometimes minute-by-minute basis. Our knees and hearts ache with the prayers offered up in desperation, laying our hopes and dreams for our children (and for ourselves) at the foot of the cross.

And all these things, the moving and molding, the developing and discipleship, are all a part of our story.

So share it. Please.

Because it’s important. YOU, my friend, are important.

No story is the same. No life script identical.

So go and declare what God has done. What He is doing.

The world is waiting to hear about your life. In your words.

For those of you who know that burning within. The urge to share. Whether through writing, speaking, singing, painting, or simply sharing with your family. You know who you are. This is your call to action. However God has gifted you, use those gifts! For your family. For your friends. For the world.

LET  YOUR  LIFE  BE  A  MEGAPHONE  FOR  HIS  GLORY.

We’re cheering for you! xo

*** Keep your ears tuned for ways you may be able to share your mothering adventures and stories with The Masterpiece Mom in the future. We want to be a community that encourages and builds one another up. And one way we can do that is through sharing from our own mothering experiences (the good, the bad, and the embarrassing). More than anything, we want this space to be a place where you find hope and encouragement for your mothering journey, every step of the way. We’re excited to share more with you soon. Stay tuned. ***

Reminding Ourselves WHO We Are … Changes HOW We Are

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I was recently visiting the little town I grew up in: Vancouver, WA.

And it never ceases to amaze me how quickly I get right back into the groove of living in the ‘Couve. My favorite shopping spots are there (Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, and NW 23rd). Some of my favorite people are there (the church family I grew up in, my folks, my sweet little grandmother, my brother and his fam, and my best friend from college). It all just feels so normal. And, well, home-ish to me.

Dear Mom,

 

Just BREATHE. It’s all gonna be okay.

For you are loved. More than you’ll ever know. (This side of heaven anyway.)

You don’t have to be fearful. You don’t have to worry.

And you don’t need to know all the answers.

Because believe it or not, God’s got it all under control.

Yes, your job is big and important. Very important. With lots of responsibilities and to-dos.

That’s why you need to REST in Him and His promises. Daily. Hourly. Minute by minute. He won’t let you down. I promise.

DIG DEEP into His Word and RELY heavily on His truths. (And not all that crazy stuff the world likes to shout at you.)

I know there’s been days … weeks … months … where you’ve felt tired and overwhelmed. Alone in your struggle. Alone in your duties.

But TRUST — you are not alone.

He sees you.

And,

He. Is. With. You. Always.

In all.

Through all.

So Mom, dear Mom, you’re doin’ great! And what you’re doing as a mom really matters. Keep up the good work! And know: We’re cheering for YOU!!!

 

With much love,

Anne-Renee (from The Masterpiece Mom)

 

P.S. – Your family is blessed to have YOU!

Where Did Happy Mama Go?

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What happened to happy mama?

The question hung in the air as I sat at the piano, my fingers perched gently on the keyboard. A beautiful piece by Debussy waited in front of me; one of my favorites. But somehow I couldn’t quite conjure up the desire to push down on the black and white keys. Like the actual undertaking of playing a song was too joyous for the cloud of doubt and dejection that seemed permanently suspended over my head.

The joy of the Lord is your strength.  (Nehemiah 8:10)

When Your World Seems Topsy-Turvy

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It all started with an earthquake.

Several weeks ago, here in Alaska, we experienced a 7.1 earthquake piggybacked with a sisterly 6.4 quake.

And as things in motherhood often go – such as sick children, bursting pipes, and plugged toilets, this particular rumbling from the depths occurred in the middle of the night (1:30 a.m. to be exact), and left us, for lack of another word, feeling shaken.

As soon as the house stopped shuddering and pulsating, my protective mama instincts jumped into high gear. Without really thinking about what I was doing, I started murmuring prayers of, You, O Lord, are a shield about me, as I calmed my rattled children and prepared them for a possible aftershock. And as my husband had just had knee surgery, I knew I needed to run and grab emergency cold-weather essentials from the garage in case we needed to vacate. The clock was ticking.

In the midst of the chaos, my son (who likes to know the plan for all of life) started peppering us with questions: “Okay, where is our emergency meeting place? And if it happens again, what do you want us to do? Do we need to get the cars out of the garage? I mean, are they safe out there? Do we have enough food in the pantry? And what if the power goes out? Maybe we should sleep downstairs.”

And as his questions rang forth, I told him he only needed to do one thing. Just listen for his dad’s voice. Dad would instruct us in what we needed to do. At the right time. In the right way.

His only job was to do that one little thing: LISTEN.

And now as I mull over what happened, I am challenged by this truth of heeding. To listen, and listen well. For that’s all we really need to do as children of the Most High. Listen and respond accordingly.

We don’t need to stress out about tomorrow and what may or may not happen. We don’t need to panic in regard to our 5-year plan. Or our 10-year plan. We just need to listen. Listen for our Father’s voice. The One who breathed life into us. The One who with mere words, spoke the world into being.

We make things so complicated. Wanting all our ducks in their proper rows. Having our game plans and desiring for things to be done in a certain sequence.

And yet, our Father, who knows best, is waiting. He’s waiting for us to stop running around, to stop talking and asking all the laborious questions. He’s waiting for us to listen. Listen to His voice. Listen to His heart.

That night, even though the earth was shaking and the lights were swinging, somehow my children weren’t afraid. They know their eternal destiny. They are firm in their love for the Lord. In fact, my son, when he was finally headed back to bed summed it up beautifully in saying, “I guess God must have thought we needed to be reminded of His power.”

Yes we do, my son. Every day. Every hour. Oh how we need Him.

Sweet mama, may the storms that threaten to rock your world today not scare you in the least, but simply put you in awe of His power. For the victory is all His. The world is firmly in His grasp. We know the unmovable unchangeable all-powerful truth.

And we will not be shaken.

The Path to Breaking Busy

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I’ve gotten into this annoying habit of saying “What?” to everyone. To my children. To my husband. To my coworkers.

I don’t like it one bit, but I hear myself saying it all the ever-loving time.

It’s like my overloaded mommy brain just cannot handle one more bit of information, and so it stops up my ears completely.

And what I’m discovering is that this merry-go-round of busy motherhood doesn’t seem to have a stopping place. The horses just continue to dizzyingly go up. Then down. Then up. Then down. Same song. Same circle. Day in and day out.

Even the weekends are not exempt from the craziness. I find myself going through the motions of mothering throughout the week, waiting for that one precious break in the schedule where I can sneak away, cuddle up with my favorite cozy blanket, and relaaaaaax. Praying that my glorious moment of respite will not be hindered by any crusty boogers … or any other substance which might become a potential roadblock to a mother’s much-needed recreation. And subsequently, her state of well-being.

I GET STUCK IN SURVIVAL MODE INSTEAD OF LIVING FULLY MODE.

And so imagine my delight (and numerous sighs of relief) upon discovering Alli Worthington’s new book, Breaking Busy: How to Find Peace and Purpose in a World of Crazy.

Alli gets it. She gets the crazy mom thing and our ever-changing ever-growing schedules. But unlike some of the gushier you-can-do-it parenting books, this girl tells it straight with a no-nonsense relatability moms will find refreshing and much needed. {One of my favorite stories, she tells how she tiredly tucked her cellphone in her bra before falling asleep in an airport shuttle, waking up having totally forgotten where she had put it. I won’t spoil the end of the story for you; you’ll just have to read it for yourself. But trust me, it’s a good one. So good I nearly spit hot coffee all over the poor elderly gentleman sitting beside me in the doctor’s office waiting room where I was reading.}

One of the things Alli addresses is the need to break the dangerous cycle of busyness we get ourselves into. She has lived out years that seemed like a blur. With no defining moments. The memorable times drowning in a sea of busyness. She also knows the pain and regret of missing out on those years.

When I was bored and lonely and trying to be supermom, I let my feelings and my circumstances convince me I’d be happier if I just kept busy, if I just kept pleasing others. But the more I strived, the more I focused on myself and my needs and my feelings, the more unhappy I became. However, when our life and financial circumstances forced me to focus on God instead of everything and everyone else (including myself), I became motived to live my life doing what God wanted me to do. [Breaking Busy, page 64]

…God reminds us that he offers us life – a rich, full, abundant life – free from striving for our own sense of perfection, a life resting in the assurance that we are already perfect because of the work he has done on the cross. [Breaking Busy, page 199]

Now that’s the kind of news you want to hear again and again.

Praise the Lord, we don’t have to stay stuck. There is hope for the rush-rush-go-go busy mama. Better yet, there’s hope for all of us.

Join us in congratulating Alli Worthington on her new book, Breaking Busy: How to Find Peace & Purpose in a World of Crazy. For more on Alli, click HERE. For more on her book, Breaking Busy, click HERE. Thanks, Alli, for sharing your message of hope with all of us!

Counting It All Joy

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My soul was itching for a break, in desperate need of a slow Saturday timeout. Just me, my favorite cozy blanket (the one that looks like soft curly dog hair), and a hot cup of tea. Sheer bliss. I could almost feel my body relaxing at the mere thought of putting my feet up and doing absolutely nothing but stare at my socks. I had to refrain from audibly sighing as I hurriedly finished the last load of laundry and half-walked / half-ran to my favorite chair. Yes! At last!

But as I burrowed into my magnificent blanket oasis, a scratchy object caught my eye.

You have got to be kidding me, I grumbled aloud.

A booger. A nasty dried-out crusty ol’ booger on my beautiful birthday blanket! For the love! Who does these things? Seriously. Who cannot wait the 2 seconds it takes to walk a measly 15 feet to the bathroom and grab a tissue from the box? And who would have the audacity to wipe such a disgusting thing, something the body clearly did not want, from their nose onto my lovely clean blanket?!

Obviously my husband and I were exempt from this Guess Who game. My blood boiled as my dreams of a blissful mommy break went up in smoke in favor of finding the culprit and giving them a piece (or two) of my mind.

But then my thoughts did a little recall of the verse I’d read just that morning. It started with these powerful words: “Count it all joy…”

ALL? Really?

And JOY. That small, yet potent little word that had been creeping into my thoughts day and night. Jumping out at me in the most random places. At Target. At church. Online devotionals. Even my leftover Christmas décor was talking to me now.

You see, like many of you, I like to choose a word for my year. Something that will challenge me in my walk with the Lord and remind me to focus on Him when life gets out of whack. And the word JOY had been bouncing around in my head and heart for several days.

 {Portions of this post were taken from Shopping for Resolutions, an original work written by Anne-Renee Gumley for The Masterpiece Mom in December 2014.}