Walking With God in the Season of Motherhood

A lot of books, blogs, magazines, and Bible study materials are geared toward a specific season of motherhood, which leaves some moms feeling left out of the encouragement loop because they no longer have toddlers, they aren't struggling through the teen years, or they aren't caring for a special needs child. Melissa Kruger has written a Bible study that encompasses all seasons, and does it beautifully. 

Walking With God, an 11-week devotional Bible study, is written in a 5-day format. Each day includes a devotional reading, Bible reading (included in the book), and questions to ponder. The fifth day is a devotional that brings everything together and helps the reader reflect on the week's study. 

More about the book:

From Amazon:

Learn how God’s imprint on your heart can make a lasting impression on your children.

Being a mom usually means being busy. Really busy. Whether you’re zipping from your children’s piano lessons to their next ballgame or nursing a baby while comforting a toddler, life is brimming with activities.  Yet one encounter can help shape every moment: time in the Word with Jesus. In Walking with God in the Season of Motherhood, you’ll learn how to nourish your own heart, mind, and soul with the wisdom you need to become the mother you long to be.  
As you spend time with God through this eleven-week Bible study, you’ll gain life-shaping insights to help you…
·         Understand and pursue your purpose as a mother
·         Live out your true priorities
·         Entrust your child to God
·         Bear the fruit of the Spirit in your everyday interactions
·         Recover from Perfect Mom Syndrome (PMS)
Each week offers four days of study geared specifically to a mother’s concerns, with the Bible passages already printed out for your convenience. The fifth day is a warm-hearted devotional reading to help you reflect on and apply the truths you’ve learned. 
As your relationship with God deepens through prayer and studying His Word, you’ll discover how His imprint on your heart can make a lasting impression on your children.

I recommend this book, no matter your season of motherhood. 

5 out of 5 stars.

 I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

Small Talk (Review & Giveaway)

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars.

I expected this book to be sort of light and fluffy. You know, cute stuff from children mixed in with the sometimes startling, often thought-provoking things that children say. Small Talk is so much more than that! It is surprisingly deep, touching, and emotional. Amy Julia Becker has a warm, easy style. Reading her book feels as if you've been invited to sit at her table, drink a cup of tea, and share about motherhood, faith, hardship, loss, blessings, and grace. Her brutal honesty about her struggles with motherhood and faith (especially her run-ins with her rambunctious son) reminded me that I'm not alone.  

Small Talk is a must read and would make a perfect gift for any mother, especially mothers of children with special needs. I think it would even be appropriate for use as a devotional.  I enjoyed this book and I learned a great deal from it. 

More about the book:

Every day, one of Amy Julie Becker’s children says something that prompts her to think about life in a new way. “Mom, does Santa love me?” William asks, after his mother explains the meaning of Christmas…In a chat with her dad about the children who died in the Sandy Hook shootings, Penny asks, “Did they go to heaven?” …”You was a jerk, Mommy?” asks Marilee one morning in the car.

These conversations deepen Amy Julia’s relationships with her children, but they also refine her understanding of what she believes and what God is doing in her own life.

In Small Talk, Amy Julia draws from the wisdom and curiosity of those young voices to reflect on beauty and kindness, tragedy and disability, prayer and miracles. As she moves through the basic questions her kids posed when they were very young to the more intellectual questions of later childhood, she invites us to learn from our own day-to-day conversations with the children in our lives.

This eloquent parenting memoir is about the big questions little hearts ask, the thoughts their words provoke, and the laughter and soul-searching their honesty brings—to adult and child alike.

About the author:

Amy Julia Becker writes about faith, family, and disability for Parents.com, the New York Times Motherlode blog, TheAtlantic.com, The Huffington Post parents page, Christianity Today, The Christian century, and numerous other publications. Her first book, A Good and Perfect Gift: Faith, Expectations, and a Little Girl Named Penny, was named one of the Top Ten Religion Books of 2011 by Publishers Weekly. Amy Julia lives in western Connecticut with her husband and three children.

Official Website: http://www.zondervan.com/small-talk

Book Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFiRKM19JZY 

Amy’s Website: http://amyjuliabecker.com

      Follow her on Twitter here!

      Check out her Facebook page here!

One of my readers will win a copy of this wonderful book! Enter here: 

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"Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”): Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway. Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation. I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post.

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Praying for Boys by Brooke McGlothlin (Review & Giveaway)

I've enjoyed the privilege of being a part of the launch team for Brooke McGlothlin's wonderful new book, Praying for Boys. My own review of the book, and the giveaway (yay!) is now live on my personal blog: It's The Little Things. C'mon over and enter! It's easy!