All in Hope

Letting Go of Mommy Guilt

Elisa Pulliam
Babies, Boys, Following God, Girls, Hope, Parenting, Prayer, Special Needs, Teens, Toddlers

If I knew that slowing down to say hello to a fellow mom could land me in such a pool of mommy guilt, I would have kept on going. She started off the conversation with a rather innocent question, but before I knew what happening, one of my comments opened up a door to an accusation I never saw coming . . . and that triggered an onslaught of mommy guilt.  I nodded along with a smile on my face, but but on the inside, I was on the brink of tears and feeling like a failure as a mom.  

Guilt has the power wreck us, but God’s grace always has the upper hand when we yield to His truth. {click to tweet}

I pressed on with the details of the evening, feeling icky and wishing I could go home. All I wanted to do was talk to my husband, and yet looking back, I’m so glad that was not an option. Instead, I ended up emptying my heart before the Lord each time the emotions rose up inside of me.

If You're That Mom Who is Dreading the Holidays {How to Find Joy}

Lisa Jacobson
Faith, Family Management, Following God, Hope, The BetterMom Updates

How to Keep the Joy in Your Christmas This Year

Stick to your priorities. Jettison everything else. I love this one because it makes everything so much easier. Once I know what is important to us - to our family - then everything else gets a polite, "No thank you." You are not obligated to attend every craft bazaar, cookie exchange, or Christmas play. You are only committed to what is best for your family.

Reject all commercialism. It has no place in your home. Block advertisements, mute the television,  and throw out the garbage coming at you. Pay zero attention to the world's attempt at redefining Christmas. They've got it all wrong. Stick to the Real Story of Christ.

How Your Prayers Change the Future

Tricia Goyer
Discipling Children, Following God, Hope, Parenting, Prayer

I'd like to think I'm an expert pray-er. I can clearly see how my prayers changed things. For example, I have three little kids—not birthed from me—running around my house who are examples of that. Yet the way that my prayers changed the future is different than you think.

God is not a genie in a bottle. My prayers weren't effective because I figured out the right words to make God do what I want to do. I used to think that. As a young Christian I'd try all sorts of things:

  • praying in the morning
  • praying at night
  • praying on my knees
  • praying out loud
  • journaling my prayers

I wouldn't admit it out loud, but I believed deep down if I said the right things, at the right time, in the right way, that God could be swayed.

3 Early-Motherhood Changes I Wish I Could Make

Jennifer Ebenhack
Discipling Children, Following God, Hope, Parenting, Prayer, The BetterMom Updates

I’m right in the middle of this sanctifying, exasperating, exhilarating job of raising children.

I don’t quite qualify as a Titus 2 “older woman,” so I’m not going to tell you what you’re doing wrong (smile).

But now that I’m past the preschool years and diving into the teens, I’m seeing some fruit of my early-motherhood days...

The good and the bad.

As I think out loud about what I wish I could adjust, I pray you’ll find encouragement. And if the Holy Spirit nudges you to make any changes... well, my advice is listen, so you can look back on these years with joy rather than regret.

The first change I'd make?

Ten Ways to Keep the Darkness at Bay

Kate Battistelli
Discipling Children, Following God, Hope, Parenting, Prayer

I know most of us here are Christian moms but we want the same things as every other mom right? Every mom wants to keep her kids safe, help them grow up healthy and strong,  protect them from monsters and let them believe they’re super heroes, agreed?

All mothers can pretty much agree on these points but as moms following God, we have different standards and we see a bigger picture. We see beyond keeping our children safe to making them holy vessels fit for the Master’s use. We see far past our children’s temporal lives and gaze into their eternal futures.

If you’ve ever seen the first Hobbit movie, you might remember this line:

And I Pray...

Shannon McKee
Faith, Following God, Hope, Prayer, The BetterMom Updates

Tucked away in my journal is a little list that I find myself returning to often lately. At some point I went through the New Testament of my Bible and jotted down all the times that someone says “and I pray that…” You see, my prayer life isn’t always very rich or powerful or consistent. More often than I care to admit, much of my prayer life is me throwing up quick requests for God to bless my plans as I go about life. So I wanted to comb through the Bible and see what sorts of things Jesus’ earliest followers prayed about.

Two of my favorites are in the book of Ephesians. Ephesians is a powerful letter from the apostle Paul to the newish Christians who lived in Ephesus during the first century. He had poured his heart and soul into the early formation of the church at Ephesus and obviously had some important things he wanted to share with them.

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