We want to wish each and everyone of you moms a Happy Mother’s Day! In case you didn’t see our announcement earlier this week, I am thrilled to share with you our very first resource from The Better Mom team of writers. We are calling it Rhythms!

As you read the Bible, you begin to notice that God instructs His people to follow certain rhythms. In the Hebrew Scriptures, this came by way of yearly feasts, holidays, or appointed times. In the New Testament, we are told to “remember” and “proclaim” Jesus’ death and resurrection as we gather regularly at the Lord’s Table. These rhythms were, and are, meant to be reminders. They are sacred traditions containing sacred truths.

This is a book about family rhythms. Each of them, in their unique way, is a family tradition meant to instruct, inspire, and help pass on memories worth remembering. Our hope is that these family rhythms will help you to establish your own traditions worth passing on to the next generation!

In this book we have weekly traditions, all-the-time traditions, and holiday traditions. Here is an example of a one tradition that is included in the book from contributor, Nicole O’Dell.

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TTYL by Nicole O’Dell

The years of texting descended upon us and my girls dove right in. But something just didn’t feel right about it to me. It was clearly unbalanced as my girls were spending a lot more time texting than talking to me, and way more time texting than talking to God. I worried about disordered priorities and also about what kind of influence my daughters’ friends could have on them with that level of access.

Short of banning cell phones completely, what could I do? Did I want to make rules about number of texts allowed? Time limits? Friends?

I definitely did set some of those boundaries and then allowed them to morph as the girls get a bit older. For example, we have rules that they aren’t allowed to text after a certain time and friends need to be approved before being added to the list.

But something still wasn’t right.

I realized that the problem was in the order of priorities. If the first thought and the last thought of each day was about text messages, something was wrong. So, a little over a year ago, I instituted a plan that they would earn access to their cell phones for the day by reading a daily devotional, talking to God about it, and then talking to me about it. When they brought it to me, they were to share what they read, what it meant, and how they could apply it to their current circumstances in life. If they overslept or didn’t do it, their cell phones would remain untouched.

The goal was that they would experience a natural order to the priority of the right kind of communication. God first. Mom next. The world last.

Almost instantly, they noticed changes in themselves: closeness with God they hadn’t experienced before, and a connection with me because of the meaningful conversations we were having each morning. They began to look forward to those talks and thanked me for thinking of it.

It’s almost a year later, and we’re still going strong. This will probably be my favorite parenting tradition, and one I’ll employ with all of my children, because it teaches important things about life, relationships, and God, that I could not accomplish with mere words. Especially not texted words.

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I want to personally thank you friend, for joining our community and sharing life with us. I pray that this book will be a tool that God uses in your family to create traditions that will last a lifetime. 

Click the subscribe button below to get our free eBook….and have a wonderful Mother’s Day!!

(NOTE** You can also subscribe in the link in the sidebar. Once you subscribe by email, you will receive the link for the free eBook at the very bottom of your next email from us.)

Blessings,
Ruth