I am a singer, songwriter, wife, mother, Jesus follower. I send out a 2-minute read every Tuesday about Jesus and life in God.
Motherhood Goals
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Hi Friends, Happy Mother’s Day week! I once saw a video where a woman shared “one simple tip to keeping your home spotless”. In the next scene, she ushers her children and husband out the front door, and closes it behind them. Brilliant! We chuckle at memes like this because of the seed of truth underneath them. There is so much pressure on mothers, self-imposed and otherwise, to do it all—keep a perfect home, advance her career, remember all the milestones, volunteer at all the things. We read the million parenting books, pulling from each one, hoping not to mess up our kids all the while knowing we will miss the mark. It has me wondering: what does God want in a mother? As the only person in the world who chose His own family, who did He choose? You might think He would choose to be child 2 or 3 in the family. Let them work out their parenting style on someone else first. Maybe He’d choose a well respected family line: one with generational wealth and respectability. But He chose Mary—a young girl with no experience in having a family. Too young to have much experience in anything, really. But there is one thing she had: Mary had a heart fully surrendered to God. God chose the woman who said, “Be it unto me according to Your word” to raise the Man who would say, “Not My will but Yours be done”. It is not wealth or opportunity or comforts that are ideal conditions in which to raise a child. Perhaps the most important environment is one of surrender. Maybe preparing our children for their future has less to do with getting them in front of all the right STEM curriculums or in the perfect sports leagues. Maybe it’s not agonizing over exposing them to the right Bible teachings at the right time. Maybe our greatest gift to our children is raising them in a home where we face the future with our eyes on Jesus and our hands wide open. I’m aware, even as I re-read these words, that I’m not one who can speak out of authority on this. There are miles between where I am and where I hope to be. Lord, help me to live in open-hearted surrender. Help me to trust You in all things. Let all my life say, “Be it unto me according to Your word”. –Anna |
Anna Blanc
I am a singer, songwriter, wife, mother, Jesus follower. I send out a 2-minute read every Tuesday about Jesus and life in God.
Hi Friends, If you’ve been following along for a while, you know my family has been on what we are calling a “church tour” for the last year. We have been to many different churches representing different denominations and expressions of worship. And with each unique experience, each vastly different expression, one thing was the same in every place we went: We sang. In fact, in the Orthodox Church, minus a ten minute portion of the two-hour service, they sang the whole time. The megachurch...
Hi Friends, Remember the story in 1 Kings when Elijah stood on a mountain before the Lord, and the Lord passed by him? A fire broke out, a strong wind tore through, and an earthquake erupted… But the Lord was not in those things. After the fire, winds and earthquake, there was a still small voice. Him. I don’t want to miss those whispers. The moment He enters your thoughts as you’re chopping vegetables in the kitchen. The worship song that lifts your heart during your morning commute. The...
Dear Friends, When my oldest son was two years old, he used to do this thing. Oftentimes he did this when he was tired, or frustrated, or lonely. He would pull on me and say, “Sing about me?” And so, I’d lift him onto my lap, hold him close, and sing. We sang about the oatmeal he had for breakfast, how he had blueberries and said no to the cream. We sang about the consequence he got an hour ago for refusing to obey. We sang about how he played with the excavator he got for his birthday, and...