By Erin Davis
“There’s something wrong with your baby’s kidney.”
I’d heard these words before. Five years earlier, I was lying on a table in an ultrasound room, the image of my tiny baby was on the screen and a doctor was telling me something was wrong.
By Erin Davis
I have a random theory.
I think that God chooses one thing from nature to remind each of us individually of His love for us. He uses that thing to woo us and to remind us that even though He is the Creator and we are the created, He’s totally smitten with us. I’m not sure if it’s a theory that works across the board, but I do know that God has always used one specific creature in nature to affirm His love and remind me of His sweetness.
What is it, you ask?
Groundhogs.
By Erin Davis
One of the things that troubles me about raising kids in the current cultural climate is the trend toward blurring gender lines. In the eyes of the majority, what makes girls girls and boys boys is all up for negotiation. The implications of this shift seem huge in the lives of my children (and their children, and their children…).
But frankly, I’m a little too swamped with bedtimes and temper tantrums to find time to figure out how to instill Biblical gender roles in my sons. I don’t have a clue how to cut the Truths in God’s Word up into pieces small enough for my littles to digest and embrace. Most days I just tell them to go play in the mud and hope that somehow translates into an understanding of who God wants them to be. I recognize that it it’s important to teach my kids about God’s design for who they are, but I need some tools to make it happen.
I pen these words the day after a bomber took out an 8-year-old as he waited for his dad to cross the finish line of the Boston marathon. There’s not a single day that I drop my son off at pre-school that I don’t think about Sandy Hook and have to fight the urge to do a U-turn in the school parking lot, bring him home and lock all the doors. Then there are super viruses, bacterial infections, and childhood cancers…It’s enough to make me want to say this desperate prayer all day, every day “Jesus, keep my kids safe. Jesus, keep my kids safe. JESUS, PLEASE KEEP MY KIDS SAFE!”
By Erin Davis
“For we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us” Luke 11:4.
Kids make mistakes. Lots of them. Sometimes those mistakes are pointed squarely in our direction as moms. We understand that missing the mark is part of the learning process but when we are extra tired, extra stretched or extra raw as we mother all of that disobedience, anger and loss of our personal property can sting. Continue reading
As you may well know, Megachurch Pastor Rick Warren’s 27-year-old son killed himself this week. I’ve been troubled that so many have felt the need to weigh in on this one. There are those who have built a tiny platform on that boy’s casket to talk about everything from politics, to homosexuality, to mental health. This is not one of those posts. Truth be told, those posts are making me kind of nauseas.
By Erin Davis
“Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples’” Luke 11:1.
Prayer. Add it to the list of things I feel guilty about as a mom right below never wanting to do crafts with my kiddos and being too cutthroat during games of Candyland with my four-year-old. Continue reading
By Erin Davis
Motherhood is hard for me. Its’ not hard in the usual way. The I’m sleep deprived, I have so much laundry to do, my kids are pushing my buttons way. Honestly, I can handle those challenges most of the time. But still, most days motherhood feels extraordinarily tough. I think I know why.
By Erin Davis
Janet Parshal writes, “Hannah’s story teaches us what it means to be a true woman of God. She let go of her own plans. She knew that God was in charge, not her. She believed Him enough to say yes even when desperation had caused her to go out of her comfort zone and ask for the unthinkable. Continue reading
By Erin Davis
Oh, the Exodus. What a strange and troublesome blot on the story of God’s people…
Every time I read about how God delivered His people from slavery with dramatic interventions like plagues and parting the Red Sea I am amazed. But within a few pages, when God’s people start grumbling about petty issues like food, frankly I want to slap them silly. Continue reading
By Erin Davis
“He said, ‘Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you’” Genesis 22:2.
Hannah’s story has much to teach us as we mother. In addition to demonstrating gratitude even in difficult circumstances by sacrificing her son to live in the temple, Hannah learned early on a lesson that God is constantly teaching me. My children are not my own. I only get to hold them for a fleeting moment in the hopes that they’ll spend a lifetime serving Him. He is the true Lifegiver and the only one capable of shaping them into His image. Continue reading
By Erin Davis
In Matthew 15:29, we find Jesus trying to rest on a mountainside. He barely sat down when a crowd of people came to Him looking to be healed. How did He respond? He healed them.
When Jesus received word that His cousin, John the Baptist, had been killed, He tried to grieve alone. But crowds of people followed Him and begged for His attention. Scripture tells us that instead of hiding in His grief, He had compassion and healed the sick in the crowd (Matthew 14:13–14). Continue reading
By Erin Davis
“Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” Ephesians 6:4.
How exactly is motherhood ministry? What is it about our role that God can use? There are lots and lots of answers to that question, but the simplest is that God uses us to lead and train our children to be like Him. Continue reading
By Erin Davis
Maybe you’ve been following our Mom Sex Challenge posts and think, “Yeah whatever, my husband is not interested at all in sex!” Trust me friend, you are not alone. Although it’s easy to think all men just want sex and want it all the time, there are cases where the wife has more of a sex drive than her husband. Continue reading
By Erin Davis
I was on Pinterest yesterday and I saw a pin for pregnant boudoir sessions. I laughed out loud. Clearly, the gals in the lingerie with the adorable baby bump and no stretch marks are aliens. That’s the only explanation I can think of. What pregnant girl in her right mind feels sexy enough to schedule a steamy photo shoot?
Certainly not this one. Continue reading