YOU are the Panelists: What About Love?

By on February 28, 2011 in connection with boys, the heart, your turn

You have just become a panelist for today’s post. Are you ready?

Here’s the scenario…

I’m in the car with my four-year-old and the subject of love comes up. We talk for a little bit, until he asks…

“What does love mean?”

Uhhh….how exactly DO you answer that question?

It seems so easy, but I couldn’t find the right words to explain it to him, beyond “It means you really like or care for something.” It just didn’t seem adequate.

We’ve been talking about love all month here at the MOB, so to wrap it all up, we want to hear your thoughts…

How would you answer my four-year-old’s question?

How do you explain love to your boys at the age they are at now?

7 Comments

Growing Godly Men Link-Up!

By on February 25, 2011 in growing godly men, your turn

That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace. Psalm 144:12 (KJV)

Today’s the day!

Let’s all benefit from each other and share our struggles and insights about raising godly men!

If you have a post on that subject please link it up below. It can be a recent post, or a (not so) recent post. No restrictions except that it be based on the Truth of the Word and be specifically about your attempts to raise godly men.

Be sure to share as much of the title in your link name as possible so that other moms can look for what they need!

(Looking for a great resource on raising godly men? We recommend Plants Grown Up, by Doorposts.)

We’ll be doing this link-up every month, so please join in!

Can’t wait to learn from you!

2 Comments

What will you tell them about sex?

By on February 23, 2011 in giveaway, growing godly men

{Today’s guest post is from MODSquad mom, Melissa Nesdahl.  Check out the bottom of the post for a special giveaway!}

Decorating the wall of our master bedroom is a picture from my wedding day.

Enamored by the beauty of the big white dress and love in our eyes, our three and five year old girls often stare at it and ask questions about that day. Last time my five year old ended the conversation saying,

“I wonder who I will marry?”

My heart stopped.

As the mother of girls, you may be asking what qualifies me, Melissa Nesdahl, to share your space today. And, the simplest of answers is my love for sharing truth about purity with you and your boys. You see, when I am not busy caring for my girls, blogging at Fill My Cup, or writing with MODSquad, I’m extremely busy corresponding with teens and writing curriculum and books with Internationally known abstinence educator, Pam Stenzel.

Sadly, your sons live in a fast paced, broken world that is challenging them to grow up before they are ready. Conflicting messages in the media and church, the differing perspectives of “safe” from society versus the Bible, and uneducated, disconnected parents have left young males confused about relationships and sex. Unaware of where to go for answers, many rely on the “in” choices of their peers, which for some is a one way path to self destruction.

Consider the following statistics-
-20% of teens have sent or posted nude/semi-nude pictures of videos of themselves.
-1 out of three females in the US gets pregnant before the age of 20, leaving a very young male and female to make very adult decisions.
-STDs are the most common diseases in America next to the common cold and flu. In fact, over the next 24 hours more than 10,000 of the (tested) sexually active teens (which is a select portion) will find out they have one.
-Individuals who engage in premarital sexual activity are 50% likely to divorce later in life than those who don’t.
-Sexually active boys are nearly 9 times more likely to attempt suicide than their peers who abstained.

Knowing this, it is critical that you as mothers have the opportunity to get caught up to speed on today’s realities and are empowered with a tool that will help explain God’s design for sex and relationships in a way that glorifies Him and yet is powerful enough to pack a punch with your sons when they hear it so they want to choose His best – abstinence.

To help you do this, I’m giving away one copy of our new book “Nobody Told Me: What You Need to Know About the Physical and Emotional Consequences of Sex Outside of Marriage.” to a lucky MOB Society mom. Pam and I compiled approximately 8 years worth of the best teen and young adult stories and questions about God’s intention for love and relationships, Scriptural encouragement, media influence, peer pressure, abuse, pregnancy, STDs, emotional heartache, recycled virginity, and choosing abstinence until marriage and put them into a fun Facebook-like format that infuses Godly teaching and direction.

Start by reading the book yourself. It will draw you into the world of today’s teens, educate you, and equip you to have these sensitive conversations with your preteen sons so that you become their “go to” person on this topic. Then, once your son is 12, share it with him. Getting this Christian teaching immediately will help him recognize and set healthy boundaries, prepare him to date, and strengthen him to say no until he stands before God saying, “I do.”

The greatest thing about this book, however, is that it is applicable to every young man regardless of the choices he has made to date. If your teen son has made past mistakes, this book will provide him the opportunity to hear stories of young people struggling right along with him, but hope, forgiveness in a loving God, and practical steps to a redeemed future will prevail.

I don’t know who my five year old will marry. But, I pray that that young boy has a caring mother (and father) invested in sharing powerful conversation and Truth so that he loves, values, and respects her long before he even sees her face for the first time.

Thank you all for being that kind of mom.

*******************

To enter:

Leave a comment sharing what concerns you the most about raising boys in today’s sex-saturated society.

For extra entries:

Share the post any way you like including a link back here & then leave a comment telling us you did.

Thank you Melissa!

115 Comments

Stirring Up Love

By on February 22, 2011 in a mother's heart

I have ALWAYS wanted to be a mother.

Always always always.

Voted “Most Likely to Be a Mom” as a senior in high school.

And I became one at 25.

After two years of working full-time AND being a mother, we had our second and God made a way for me to be at home.

It was exactly what I wanted, but different. Clear as mud, right?!

I don’t know how to describe it, but until I started reading Sally Clarkson’s The Mission of Motherhood: Touching Your Child’s Heart for Eternity, I didn’t realize I was missing something in mothering our two precious boys. Or I felt I was missing something but I had no idea what, so I just pushed those thoughts to the back of my mind.

It’s not that I didn’t love them or didn’t love being with them before. I just feel a different kind of love being stirred up as I read her words. I think the majority of the book is highlighted – seriously.

Words like these…

“As it is, after eighteen years of learning the truth of living sacrificially, I have found that embracing God’s call to motherhood once and for all has brought me great peace. Instead of seeing fusses and messes as irritations in my day, for instance, I am more likely to see them as opportunities to train my children to be peacemakers and to learn to be responsible for their own messes. Instead of resenting the interruptions in my schedule, I am more likely to accept them as divine appointments. More and more, I have learned to see my children through the eyes of God and to accept the stages of growth through which he has designed them to grow.”

I can almost 100% guarantee that I have been in the previous frame of mind she mentions the majority of my time as a mother: frustrated with messes, resentful of interruptions to MY schedule, just trying to get away from the irritations.

And that is really painful for me to admit. But not as much in the light of where God is leading me.

How can my children be an interruption to my life when they ARE my life?

The fresh love and perspective He is bringing through Sally’s words is truly changing our everyday life. I find myself wanting to linger reading just one more book before naps or bedtime. A simple day can become so special when I work with the boys on a new game or craft or Bible verse.

And a fabulous speaker at our MOPS group a few weeks ago drove this home for me even more:

“There’s always something that can replace time with your kids, but you’ll never regret time with your kids.”

The TV is off more, more conversation is happening, laughing and wrestling and play don’t take a backseat to one more blog post or email or Twitter.

Now, even in the middle of food, sibling or obedience battles, I am still not the perfect mother (and never will be), but I am more likely to have the time and love in me to correct and train the child instead of entering a full-on battle where no one wins. Or to find the time BEFORE a battle starts to lead him along the right path.

Being a mother to THESE boys was God’s plan for me and I feel that more than ever.


This mama’s heart is stirring and the love is starting to bubble over…


What words have inspired and changed you in your journey as a mother?

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