Ready or not...: A Mother's Heart, a book review

Monday, September 6, 2010

A Mother's Heart, a book review

I have a huge line up of books to read - I'm so excited about that. In the meantime I want to make sure I take the time to process and reflect on what I've read so far. I just finished, A Mother's Heart: A Look at Values, Vision, and Character for the Christian Mother. This book was a treasure. I gained encouragement from it and I want some of these nuggets to go deep into my soul.

One of the key things I'm taking away from this book is about having a vision for the task.

Here's a quote:

If commitment to our role as a mother languishes, this may be true not because the job is too small or unchallening but because our vision is too small. Our dreams for our task may be thin and weak. We fail to hear God's call and miss the broad scope of the possibilities before us. We focus instead on the routine activities and demands - changing diapers, potty training, clenaing up messes, telling the kids for the fifth time not to slam the door - and miss any sense of a higher calling.

Mothers, look up and look ahead! Ask yourself: In five, ten, twenty, even forty years, what will I wish that I had done today? We want to avoid reaching the end of our lives with regret. Look ahead, decide what is really important and plan to live accordingly.

Solomon wrote, "A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it" (Proverbs 22:3). He repeated this saying in Proverbs 27:12. Perhaps Solomon repeated this proverb because too few of us look ahead, assess our situation, and change direction when necessary.

Several years ago, I heard a dedicated missionary share what she would do differently if she could start raising her family again. This woman was committed to Christ and his cause, and she spent her life serving others - so the depth and quality of her life made me sit up and listen when she shared. She said she would stay home more, be kinder to her children and feed them spiritually.

...I long to become more kind in my reactions towards my own children.

I feel like that is my heart's cry right now. More kindness, more patience, more vision and purpose. I feel really challenged.

The rest of the book talks about our calling and vision, values, prayer, taking care of ourselves, teaching, discipline and some creative ideas mixed in. She really challenges mothers to step it up!

In every generation mothers must answer the call to be what no one else can be and to do what no one else can do for their children. It isn't that mothers can't do many other things, but if they refuse to accept their calling as mothers some child ends up short changed. And the empty space that mother leaves echos for generations.

Mothers are neither the cause of all society's ills nor the saviors of the nation. But the future of society does depend, in part, on what we do with the children under our care.

What a challenge! I'll be sharing more thoughts on the book the rest of this week.

If commitment to our role as a mother languishes, this may be true not because the job is too small or unchallening but because our vision is too small. Our dreams for our task may be thin and weak. We fail to hear God's call and miss the broad scope of the possibilities before us. We focus instead on the routine activities and demands - changing diapers, potty training, clenaing up messes, telling the kids for the fifth time not to slam the door - and miss any sense of a higher calling.

Mothers, look up and look ahead! Ask yourself: In five, ten, twenty, even forty years, what will I wish that I had done today? We want to avoid reaching the end of our lives with regret. Look ahead, decide what is really important and plan to live accordingly.

Solomon wrote, "A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it" (Proverbs 22:3). He repeated this saying in Proverbs 27:12. Perhaps Solomon repeated this proverb because too few of us look ahead, assess our situation, and change direction when necessary.

Several years ago, I heard a dedicated missionary share what she would do differently if she could start raising her family again. This woman was committed to Christ and his cause, and she spent her life serving others - so the depth and quality of her life made me sit up and listen when she shared. She said she would stay home more, be kinder to her children and feed them spiritually.

...I long to become more kind in my reactions towards my own children.

In every generation mothers must answer the call to be what no one else can be and to do what no one else can do for their children. It isn't that mothers can't do many other things, but if they refuse to accept their calling as mothers some child ends up short changed. And the empty space that mother leaves echos for generations.

Mothers are neither the cause of all society's ills nor the saviors of the nation. But the future of society does depend, in part, on what we do with the children under our care.

What a challenge! I'll be sharing more thoughts on the book the rest of this week.