Nancy Wilson's Blog

Moms love practical advice on raising kids, and so they should. But let’s back up a step and talk about the home itself. Little people need to grow up in a place where they will grow fat little souls, and this can only happen in a Christian home.

A Christian home is centered around the Lordship of Jesus Christ. A Christian home is a home where He is loved and served and obeyed. But not all Christian homes are what I would describe as oasis homes. A home that is an oasis is where parents take their job assignments seriously, but they do so with joy. This joy in the Lord spills over so that the kids grow up sloshing around in it. In fact, they grow up so used to it, that they know nothing else. This is an oasis home.

What is an oasis? It is a small green fertile area, usually having a spring or well, in a desert region. It serves as a refuge, a relief, a haven, a harbor, a retreat, a shelter, a pleasant change from the world outside. It provides refreshment and rest.

So we don’t simply want Christian homes where we are teaching the kids to know the catechism, but we want homes that refresh everyone in them. Homes that provide shelter and relief to our families and friends. What’s this look like?

A central characteristic of this kind of home is that there’s a mother in it!  She’s not simply present, she is engaged in her mission. She remembers how the Bible describes her: A fruitful vine in the center of the house (the very soul of the house); and a crown to your husband.

The centerpiece of our homes is the table, and we

She is taking pains to see that her family sits down around the table together every day. That means she’s investing herself in food preparation (planning, shopping, preparing, cleaning up). She feeds them. This sitting down at the table together is the rhythm of the kids’ lives. It is an image of the Lord’s table to them. It is a place of sweet fellowship and happy times and good food. It is not a place for correction and discipline, anger and fussing. This is where the husband eats the fruit of his labor. He goes to work, brings home the pay check, and the wife transforms (glorifies) the pay check into a wonderful meal. There is a direct connection: he works hard, she works hard to feed the family wonderful food.

This kind of mother in the home has her internal clock set to Dad’s return home. Not so she can hand off the kids to him, but rather so she can prepare a homecoming  for him, welcoming him  into the oasis she has prepared. An oasis is rejuvenating, refreshing. When you walk in the door, you can relax, and strengthening and prepares Dad so he can get back to work the next day. She respects her husband; her little kids hear her praising him during the day. They hear her speak respectfully about him and to him. She appreciates him, and she prepares for his return. Kids LOVE it when Mom respects Dad. It gives them all kinds of security.

This is how a wise woman builds her house. She works hard all day, just like her husband does. She’s not idle. She is beautifying and glorifying her oasis, making it a place the kids love to be, where they want to bring their friends. And she thinks of her husband coming home every night, and makes it a sweet homecoming, a welcoming homecoming.

This is not an idealistic picture. If your husband gets home at 5 o’clock, you can start the pick up with the kids at 4:30. “Okay, guys, we need to get things picked up for Daddy!” You can comb your hair and change into something that doesn’t have the day all over it. You can wipe the dirty noses and straighten up the living room. It doesn’t take but a few minutes. Have something in the oven that smells good. Have the kids looking for him, one with the paper, one with a nice cold drink. Have him sit down for a minute while you finish up in the kitchen. You can do this if you decide to do it.

You can’t hope to have fat-souled little happy kids if you and your husband are sniping at each other. You don’t want to greet your husband with a sour face and a list of grievances about your terrible day. You don’t want him to have to be praying for grace on the way home from work. You want him stepping on the accelerator to hurry home, and to breathe a sigh of relief when he gets in the door.

Don’t have the bed covered with loads of unfolded laundry. Even if you have to shove it all back into the dryer to hide it. Make a welcoming space for him. You are teaching your children while you do this. You are praying that you’ll be a blessing and an oasis to him.

And don’t forget to nourish him sexually with new toys like the one on this We-Vibe Melt review. Keep the marriage bed lush and green too. Don’t let it shrivel up and die of neglect. Make your bedroom a retreat, a place that looks inviting. Don’t let it become the dumping ground for loose ends around the house. Don’t let it be the last place that gets cleaned up. It’s your private garden. Keep it watered!

This may sound like a lot to you. Well it is. We have pretty comfortable lives. We moms can take breathers on the computer and the phone. We can find many excuses to put off our duties in our homes. Don’t be idle. Building a home takes a lot of work.

Or it might sound really simple to you. Do you mean just cooking and cleaning will make my kids happy, secure little kids? Not in isolation. But when it is all done as a means to a glorious end, as a way of fulfilling your calling in Christ, He will use these things to do far more than you could have imagined.

Ask God to give you a vision for it; ask God to give you the energy and the enthusiasm it takes. Ask Him to help you do these things when you don’t feel like doing it. It’s very true that when mama ain’t happy, nobody’s happy.

The post Making Your Home an Oasis appeared first on Femina.

Somewhere in the course of your transformation from a single girl to a mother of however many, you may find yourself up against your old habits. How did I ever find an hour to get ready in the morning? Does it matter if I do my hair? Should I care to ever fit into my old jeans? Who am I and what should I care about now? Add to that the bountiful advice you will hear from all quarters about “me time”, “self care”, or whatever else people are calling it. Be careful, they say, to not lose sight of yourself! You are more than a mother! You are more than a wife! Make sure you have plenty of time for yourself, that you exercise and relax, and that you always feel put together. Prioritize your needs and your body! I recommend you contact  https://gymequipmentbuyers.co.uk/ to get a home gym.

Sometimes, this kind of thing can be super discouraging. Because it sounds wonderful. But that is because there are times in life when God has given you

The post Selflesshness. appeared first on Femina.

When the twins were born, I was not ready. I had two toddlers, a small rented house, we still had a business downtown (for a few months) and we used software from this paystub example to make payments. We didn’t have a lot of money, we didn’t have a lot of time, we didn’t have any volunteer live in help (worst luck). Life was full. Full of diapers and wipes, lost shoes, crying infants. Leaking milk, croup in the night. My full time job was being touched. I was deliriously tired nursing the twins, and the older two were hardly hands off.  It was a time of life when 45 minutes seemed like an eternity, when I might not cry when my husband came in the door and asked how the day was.

This was the year when our toddlers got a bunch of toys for Christmas (the twins were barely one month then) – the kind that had lots of pieces – and I actually packed them into a black garbage bag and hid them behind our bed ( I don’t think they noticed). God had promoted me right out of my comfort zone, and into a new and way more demanding lifestyle – one that I couldn’t help but notice I was not naturally good at. I wanted to start smoking at this time – because when I saw people outside in the cold sucking hard on a cigarette that just really looked good. It looked quiet. And alone. And perfect.

Now I didn’t start smoking, and I didn’t die – although I am sure I suggested I would many times. I cried a lot and I laughed a lot, and I learned a lot. I learned about losing your patience because you haven’t slept like people are supposed to. I learned about asking toddlers to forgive you and trying to explain why to them. I learned not letting my fleshly attitudes win. I learned about how I actually could keep on going when I thought I couldn’t. And at the heart of all this, I learned about God. I learned that there is a tremendous amount of scope for spiritual growth in the home. I learned that far from being a haven of peaceful domestic bliss, the home can be a straight up battlefield for the faith. Believing what God has said, acting in faith, praying for grace, repenting of sins, teaching children to abandon their sins, cleaning bathrooms for the kingdom, loving people close to you when you don’t want to. Children can be a refining fire, burning out all kinds of dross. And God delights in our being purified through this.

That time in my life was physically awful. I was physically stressed, physically broken, physically sleep deprived and physically a major mess. But looking back on it is was spiritually rich. Every one of those very bodily weaknesses drove me to a very spiritual strength in Christ. Physical stress drove me to spiritual peace. Physical brokenness taught me about  wholeness in Christ. Physical exhaustion taught me about spiritual renewal. Physical mess drove me to spiritual tidiness. As the house got messier faster, my attitude got tidier quicker. This is because Jesus Christ was there with me. I knew that no matter my situation, Christ was the first answer. If I need sleep and I am angry, it is still sin, and His blood is still the answer. If I am selfish, even if I have my reasons, it is sin, and looking to Christ is the only way out. If I am despairing,  I need to look to Christ.

As Christians, we believe that we are both spiritual and physical beings. An illness can drive us to get our soul in order. Bodily trials are like compost for your spiritual garden. We cannot divorce our bodies and our souls from one another. We are whole beings.

This brings me to the heart of what I wanted to say, which is that the first answer, the first response – must always be Jesus Christ. It must always be calling on God and seeking His will. After we have done that, there may be physical helps. Maybe making yourself a cup of coffee would be a good idea. Maybe trying a soothing oil. Maybe magnesium lotion will be great for you. Maybe salts and teas and vitamins and stretches and remedies of diverse origins will help something. But if you haven’t gotten things right with God, maybe they are only clouding the issue. If you are constantly irritated with your children, the answer is Christ – not a lotion, not a bath, not a healthy bacteria. If you don’t feel like loving your husband, maybe you need to ask God to look at your heart first – and maybe looking into the medicine cabinet will only make the actual problem worse.

Imagine a situation where a woman describes to you her symptoms: she is crabby with the kids, really low on energy, can’t sleep, is anxious, feels like giving up, doesn’t like her body, wants to quit, and any other extreme sad time you can think of.

What do you think of first? What help do you offer? Is it an arsenal of thc syrup bottles? A prescription you heard about? A delta 8 vape cartridge at ExhaleWell? Is it vitamin D? Is it an exercise regime? If you ask a room full of women what to do about these things – you will get testimonial after testimonial for products.

The sad truth is that many Christian women have been caught without a testimony to Christ. We don’t treat our worries, our hurts, our stresses like they belong to him.

The post The Whole Being appeared first on Femina.

“For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” 1 Corinthians 6:20

Glorify God and enjoy Him forever. That is the chief end of man. So simple.

It isn’t a long to do list and it isn’t a situationally dependent complicated activity. Just imagine if the answer to this question was all about your credit rating and income, and the house you need to buy. Imagine if our faith said that the chief end of man was to put in a certain number of hours reading, or to have a certain number of children. Imagine if we thought that you had to work exclusively inside the home, or exclusively outside of it. Imagine if the church confessed that we had to have immaculate yards, sew all of our own clothes, grind our own wheat, or get a certain number of meals for the needy delivered. Imagine if the chief end of man was to be fit, or beautiful, or wear designer clothes, or have a home that could be featured on a blog. Many of these things are outside of our control, if not outside of our desire.

Now I know, and you know, that most Christians would not put any of the above random requirements into words as a statement of faith. But many of us slip equally ridiculous things into our own private goals and expectations. So while it is rare (probably not rare enough!)  to hear a church state that you have to have at least four children, it is not at all rare to hear the sorrows of a woman who always thought that she had to do just that or she wouldn’t be a real Christian. It is not normal for Christians to express these things positively as a statement of faith, but it is absolutely common place for them to express it negatively as a failure. What I mean by that is, “I am not a real Christian like those other ladies in our church because I work part time outside the home” or “I am just doing the worst job because chronic pain and personal suffering has made it so that I can’t have large groups over for dinner regularly.” Or  for a woman to feel less than a good Christian because she still has a bunch of baby weight (or bake sale) weight to lose. 

If we hang on to the simplicity of this answer we will see the incredible freedom it offers us. Glorify God. That is your whole purpose. That is the purpose for your life. That is the purpose for your month, your week, your hour, your minute. That is the whole thing. God purchased you (you! with your unique problems and situations and concerns), and having been bought, therefore glorify.

Now I hope you can see with me what an incredible freedom this is. There is no suffering, no situation, no obstacle, no failing, no loss, no head cold, no trouble, no weakness that can get in the way of this. Are you God’s? Therefore glorify. We are all equally equipped every day that we have breath to glorify God, because in every day and in every situation we belong to Him. You can do this in poverty and in sickness, in wealth and joy, in sorrow, in grief. You can glorify Him in your weakness, in your faith, in your hope, in your bad hair day. Glorifying God is something that we can always, at any moment, accomplish. It is never done and it is never over until we go to do it eternally.

So if your marriage has failed, is you struggle with abuse in your past, glorify your God. If your laundry is threatening to overwhelm you, glorify your God. When you are sitting in a chair nursing an infant and your heart wants to count the things you are not getting to, get to the glory and glorify your God. If you feel overwhelmed by the weight you know you need to lose, know that you can begin glorifying God right now! Obedience is glory, faith is glory, hope is glory, work is glory, joy is glory.  Glorify Him in your obedience. Glorify Him as you take dominion. Glorify God as you lay your lives on His altar. Are you financially muddled? Glorify God and dig in. Are you full of fear and anxiety? Glorify your God with how you deal with that. Is your heart broken over bad health, or sin, or trouble? Glorify your God as you steward those hardships. We are all of us, every day, in every situation, equipped to glorify our God. Don’t think you will do it after you get a grip, when you have time to get your hair done, after the crisis passes, or when you feel like it. This is the ultimate To Do list, and you always have the means at your disposal. You always belong to Him, therefore glorify.

Accomplish glory. Do it when you rise up and when you lie down.  Do it when your house looks lovely and when it doesn’t. Do it when things are going smoothly and when the load you carry seems unbearable. Your God does not require from you that which you cannot offer. In every situation that any human will ever find themselves, there is always an opportunity for glory. Find it, and accomplish it. Those stretches of life where you feel like you never accomplish anything at all, accomplish glory. Those moments where you see your plans or hopes falling apart, accomplish glory. Whatever you do, do it for the glory of God. You are His, and He has equipped you in the very act of purchasing you, to glorify Him forever.

The post Accomplish Glory appeared first on Femina.

Well the next installment of What Have You is up over at NSA. Click here if you feel moved to follow along and listen to our coffee date podcast in the car. We chat about policing our emotions and our various forays into some of the more obscure domestic arts.

Meanwhile – here are a couple pics.

First of all, here’s that cookbook I couldn’t remember the name of.

Here are a couple of the other ones we mentioned:

And that time we were re-glazing windows in the never-ending girls’ room project. . .

And here’s that quilt  Rachel never finished that is currently on the tippy-top shelf of her yarn room:

The post What Have You, Part Deux appeared first on Femina.

So here’s a thing that happened. Rachel and I started a podcast! It is nothing if not professional and glamorous. We basically get ourselves a coffee, drive somewhere and park (generally behind Goodwill, just to keep it classy) and then we chat in the car for a bit. Often we talk over the top of each other, sometimes we forget to turn off our phones and Mom calls us in the middle. Sometimes we’re more tired and slap-happy than other times – for instance we’ve noticed that if we do this after dinner then we are 200% more likely to invent words. But. Nonetheless. We are posting them.

We often chat on the phone during the day – while I clean and Rachel does laundry, or while we are both driving around doing errands. This podcast is basically us inviting you into that random conversation, but hopefully minus the abrupt, “Gotta go I’ll call you back in a bit.”  Oddly enough, it’s actually quite rare for us to do our chatting in person! We’re both pretty busy as it turns out. But we are making an effort to actually get together once a week for this, and conduct our chat face to face. We discuss what projects we’re doing, what books we like, our laundry issues, what we’re thinking about regarding raising kids and our walks with God – just all the stuff.

We’ll post it here, but for all the technical stuff like if you want to subscribe and all that, the podcast is being hosted by New St. Andrews College and you can hop over there if you want more info. In fact, since I have no idea how to embed the audio here, you’ll have to go there if you want to listen to it. It’s still a bit under construction, so forgive the oddly blank website.

And meanwhile, here are a few pics from what we discussed in our first episode.

The post Introducing . . . What Have You appeared first on Femina.

Today, as we all know, the feminists are being silly again. In a sort of “that’ll learn ‘em” move, the feminists are urging women to refrain from doing any work today. A day without women working will apparently land us all in a huge mess which will teach us a lesson of some sort. There are so many levels of funny about this that it’s difficult to know where to begin.

But the thing that’s shocking is the rest of the nation which puts up with this. Don’t we all know the basic rules that you should never negotiate with terrorists? Granted, compared to real terrorists these women are just gesturing menacingly with their parasols, but the principle is the same. If you give in to that behavior then you have  guaranteed you’ll get more of what you just subsidized.

In Anglo Saxon England there were a few troublesome centuries during which the Saxons were being constantly plagued by the Vikings. The Vikings would come to England to plunder and pillage – but they would also offer the Saxons the chance to buy peace. If the Saxons agreed to pay the “danegeld,” the Vikings promised they would go home. But of course, once you pay the money you have just demonstrated that you are a coward with cash – and rather than ensuring the Vikings would leave you alone, you have just guaranteed they will come back next year. Thus Kipling’s famous line, “Once you have paid him the Danegeld, you never get rid of the Dane.” And America has been paying this ridiculous danegeld for way too long.

On the other hand, though, I think the feminists have come perilously near to a good idea this time. They missed it, but for a minute there they were getting warm. I think going on strike is a great idea – but I would humbly suggest a much more radical strike. What if the women in America decided to stop giving out sexual favors for free? What if, instead of shrieking that everyone needs to respect women more, they started respecting themselves more? What if American women started putting a higher price-tag on their bodies than a few bucks for a drink or a dinner? What if they took their bodies out of the lending library where any old man can borrow it for a while and then return it a little worse for wear when he’s ready for a different one?

In fact, forget a little bump in wages . . . . I think these ladies should swing for the fence and actually demand that a man have to stand up in front of witnesses and promise to love her until he dies, that he has to bestow upon her all his worldly goods, that he has to take care of her children, and that he has be faithful to her until death or suffer dramatic monetary consequences.

Oh wait. It turns out that’s what Christians have been saying all along? How surprising.

But just imagine how many social ills would vanish overnight with zero legislation if the women decided to start treating themselves with a little more dignity. Imagine the dramatic drop in tax money being funneled to single mothers. Imagine Planned Parenthood dying a quiet death by going out of business. Imagine a break from the yelling about the free birth control the government must hand out. Imagine children being raised in homes with two parents.

But this actually shows us why America is willing to pay the danegeld to the feminists when they occasionally start hollering for a few more bucks here or there or a little more token respect. It’s worth it. There is an enormous social structure built on the assumption that every woman can be treated like a rent-a-concubine – and the feminists have worked tirelessly to define that as liberation.

But redefining doesn’t actually change anything. A concubine is still a concubine, a kept woman is still a kept woman, and a free woman is still a free woman. Changing the labels doesn’t change the reality of the damage – it just tricks a lot of women into staying cheap and easy by making them think they’re liberated, modern, and glamorous. The slavery is real even if the slave isn’t aware of it.

But there’s a way out – one of the most striking features of Christ’s ministry was the fact that he was surrounded by women liberated from this very thing. You can’t erase the damage with definitions but you can erase it with repentance – and that’s a message that our feminist friends desperately need to hear.

If you’ve had a two-year-old in the family, you know that the heart of man is prone to disobedience.

“Don’t ride your big wheel in the street,” my husband said to my son.

“But I want to,” replied the two-year-old.

“You may not,” answered the voice of authority.

“I’m gonna,” was the reply as he sailed off on his big wheel across the street.

We laugh about this story, which is a family favorite, and we laughed at the time, even though justice was meted out in such a way as to teach our son to be wise in the future.

(No, that’s not my son in the two-year-old picture above, but my grandson Judah at age two.)

But the thing that I want to bring to our attention is not that our young children need to be taught to obey, but that we grown ups must be taught to obey as well. All the time.

Think about the children of Israel as they followed Moses into the wilderness. God provided manna for them to eat, but gave very specific instructions, kind of like, “You may not ride in the street.” And they replied, “I’m gonna.”

“And Moses said, Let no man leave of it [manna] till the morning. Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank: and Moses was wroth with them” (Exodus 16:19-20).

“And Moses said, Eat that to day; for to day is a sabbath unto the Lord: to day ye shall not find it in the field. Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none. And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none”  (Exodus 16:25-27).

When we read this about the Israelites, it is not nearly as funny as my son on the big wheel. Children must be taught and instructed to obey. And the reason we want them to learn to obey us, their parents, is so they will obey God when they grow up.  Disobedience might be cute when they’re little, but it is not cute at all when they are grown ups.

So what’s my point? Just a reminder to us all to obey God on all points. The Great Commission is a three-fold charge: make disciples; baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and teach them to do “all things that I have commanded you.” (Mt. 28:20).

If He says don’t leave it till morning, then don’t leave it till morning. If He says do not commit adultery, then there it is. Clear as a bell. The more we obey, the more grace we receive to keep obeying. And if we love Him, we obey His commands. Reinterpreting His commands to fit our desires is not obedience, and it’s not love. When we fail, as we will, He tells us what to do: confess our sins. That is obedience as well.

In short, obedience is not the same thing as “works.”

I was trying to persuade a woman to see that if you are going to follow Christ, you must do what He says. I said something like, “If God’s Word told me to wear pigtails, then I would wear pigtails.”

She quickly replied, “Well I wouldn’t.”

Exactly. That’s my point.

“The sin of discontent is very witty with its apologies” (Thomas Watson).

I sometimes think that since I have read enough over the years about contentment that surely I must be doing it. But then God opens my eyes to some discontent that has not only slipped into my heart and mind, but has positively set up shop there. Usually I have been listening to myself complain or worry about something, and the quickest way to be free of the discontent is to replace the complaints with gratitude.

A new difficulty or affliction or hardship takes us into new territory, opening up new possibilities for discontent, or giving us new opportunities to learn to be content.  You were doing just fine until…

A new family moved in next door and their dog is barking all hours….or they park their car in front of your house….or the kids are always in your yard….or…..

My friend has broken a confidence….or has never returned my phone call….or forgot my birthday….or….

I had to empty out my savings to pay my taxes….and now I can’t go on vacation ….or buy the new furniture I was wanting…or..

You get the idea. What seems to me to be something that I am perfectly right to be indignant about turns into a discontent that begins to fester until I am noticeably unhappy. Then when I go looking for the culprit, it’s actually not the neighbor or the friend or the taxes causing the problem but my very own heart. The happy news is that my heart can repent and be cleansed.  And this new cleansed heart is much more comfortable to live with.

I have seven children who love to eat. We eat by day, and we would eat by night if we were allowed to. Keeping up with the appetites makes me feel not unlike the man on the old coal-powered train whose job it was to never stop shoveling coal. Some of my children are the fire that runs extra hot. Blaire, for instance,  is a major breakfast eater, and cereal is a special thrill around here. I don’t know if it was just the knowledge of the Cheerios in the house that caused it, but the other week she got up so early it was still dark out, and while we were in bed, she ate two bowls of cheerios in the dark, went back to bed, and woke up at the normal time thinking she had only dreamed of Cheerios. Two bowls of the precious Cheerios, shot down in the dark and forgotten completely.

Because there are so many children, even a very moderate pace of telling me they are hungry once or twice a day each adds up to what  feels like a constant air horn of hunger in my ear.  Moses doesn’t know how to say hungry, but does know how to gesture winningly at the counter/ fridge/ cupboard and say (with the very cutest fat cheeks) “More?? More?? More??”  WE ARE HUNGRY is the message.  What have you planned to feed us, Mom? Were you thinking you should make popcorn? What about cookies?! Let’s talk the next meal! Is it coming soon? How long will it be Mom, do you think?!

For whatever reason this has elevated a bit at my house recently – and something struck me about it. Here they are with these physical appetites that can’t get full, and that is only a picture of the spiritual hunger that every one of these precious kids has. Feeding them actual food takes so much work, and planning, and learning, and trying, and changing the routine, and the same amount of work should be going into the feeding of spiritual food too. It makes perfect sense to me that the passage in Ephesians 6 says to bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.  Nurturing the spirit in the same way you nurture the body, which is to say all day every day, and even in the dark of the night sometimes too.

It is a beautiful thing that our children generally come and get us with their needs. Help me mom,  I’m hungry. Help me mom, she’s having a bad attitude. Help me mom, I am being selfish. Help me mom, I want some milk. Help me – I need to be nurtured, and I need to be admonished. Give me the food – the hot bread you just made, and the gentle correction about the attitude. Give me all you have, and let me grow. And this isn’t beautiful because we always have the solutions on standby. It is beautiful in part because we don’t. The baby birds in the nest with their loud mouths open, the frantic mother goes out looking for God to provide. The thing is that He always does. There is no time that we go out looking for the nurture of the Lord and come back with nothing.

I don’t know about you but this thought just gave me so much encouragement. They need things all the time. And they need things that I cannot always give at the first sign of the need. Sometimes I don’t have a clue what they should eat either physically or spiritually. But either way, the need is mine to fill. These are my children to feed, and God does not leave my pantry bare.

So yes, sometimes my children get the spiritual nourishment that is the equivalent of the last third of a bag of frozen peas with a scrambled egg. It happens. Sometimes I feel like I must have forgotten to go to the spiritual grocery store in a timely manner also – because instead of feeling calm and prepared, the spiritual needs of my children are throwing me off balance. I don’t want them to be spiritually hungry right now because I did not anticipate this moment and have not prepared. All the spiritual meat is in the freezer. Something tells me that the stale corner of a saltine in the bottom of the sleeve won’t make a difference one way or another.

“Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.” – Deuteronomy 11:18-19

So let’s stock up our spiritual cupboards. Let’s think about how to feed these things to our children in the car, and when we are grabbing a few things at the store. When we are cleaning the toilets and when we are folding the laundry. It requires that we as mothers lay up the words of God like they were so much free food being handed out. Because that is exactly what they are. And when our children are overwhelming us with their needs, thank the Lord that He has the answers.