I poured the steaming dark brown liquid into my mug. Then I stirred in cool cream until it turned caramel in color. I smiled as I sniffed the aroma of sweet cream and coffee. I lifted my favorite mug to my lips. “MOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMYYYYYYYYYYYY!” I quickly dropped my mug and ran toward the sound. “Mommy!” “Yes?!” I bellowed as my heart beat wildly half from fear half from running up the stairs. “Can you help me brush my hair?” A sigh escaped my lips and my mind drifted back to my coffee. “OK, but next time find me and ask me …
Preparing Your Child’s Heart for Christmas
by Debbie Taylor Williams I will never forget when I was a child and my Sunday School teacher challenged my class to memorize the Christmas story found in Luke 2:1-14. What seemed a daunting task became manageable as my mother helped me memorize one small section at a time. “And it came to pass” “in those days” “there went …
Mentoring thru the School Year
Subscribe today for your FREE copy of… FACING YOUR FEARS – 31 STORIES FROM M.O.M. By now many schooling families have written or received their first progress reports. Areas of weakness emerge, the lunch menu sounds dull, and new pencils have broken tips. Moms who have a mentoring mindset will succeed, even when school year challenges stack up against us. How can mentoring give you a Grade A school year? Teacher to Student Whether the parent wears the hat of “academic teacher” or shares it with another adult, teachers have the potential to mentor …
5 Myths About Mentors – Myth #2 Mentors Are Old Women Who Meet With Young Women at Church
“The older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things—that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to bediscreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.” Titus 2:3-5 Mentoring. It’s what we are called to. We, meaning the church. But could it be that our affinity for attending ‘church’ in big buildings with convenient classrooms has confused what biblical mentoring is at its best? When I was a young mom, a whirlwind of activity …
5 Myths About Mentors – Myth #1-Mentors Are Perfect Parents
Recently, I’ve talked to women who really desire to be mentors and others who desire to have a mentor and have found that there are several factors that have prevented them from stepping into the Titus 2 model. Today, I’m starting a 5 part series entitled 5 Myths About Mentors to help debunk any notions that might hinder women from taking the life-changing Titus 2 journey together. Today, I’m going to examine the myth that mentors are perfect people. So, here we go… Have you ever been intimidated by another mother because you thought she had the perfect kids, the …
10 Ways to Make Mentor Mania Missional
There’s something stirring in the hearts of women around the world. Hearts are beating with the thrill of changing the world and young women are no longer satisfied with doing motherhood alone. Mentors are on the march and mentees are once again ready, willing and able to begin a journey that will encourage, challenge and change women’s lives on both side the mentor/mentee equation. No longer are young mothers wandering their way through life, struggling to figure things out on their own. The older generation is rising to the challenge and answering the call to be Titus 2 women in …
The M.O.M. Initiative VISION
Bridging the gap between a mother’s need for a mentor and the church’s need for resources and support. There’s a lot of talk about manifestos these days and you find them popping up on a multitude of websites defining a ministry or organization. Simply defined a manifesto is a declaration of intentions, motives or opinions. But rather than sharing a manifesto, we’d like to share our vision for The M.O.M. Initiative so you can get a glimpse of the heart of the ministry and what we believe God is calling us to accomplish. With The M.O.M. Initiative in its fledgling stages, …
Mentoring Decoded
She came to my house to pray. I longed for the time and loathed it too. My kitchen was a mess. Dirty dishes lined the sink and crumbs littered my table. My living room looked like a toy store threw-up in it and I didn’t have time to get my house tidy before she came. I planned to pick-up, wipe-down, and clean-up, but time eluded me. I couldn’t rescind the invitation. It was too late. When she arrived, I opened my door and apologized for the mess. She said, “Angela, I wish I played more and cleaned less when my …
Plant a mentee, watch her grow
As the weather warms and growing seasons take root, are you planting anything? If you want plump, juicy tomatoes, now is the time to plant. If you want bunches of cilantro for guacamole, now is the time to sprinkle seeds. If you want to have a mom with her ear turned to the Lord, now is the time to plant a mentee and watch her grow. While soil is soft and sunshine frequent, lovers of all things veggie carefully dig and plant and water. Summer is the perfect time to nurture a mentoring relationship that will take root, sprout new …
Making Mentoring Personal
Mentoring only makes a difference if it gets personal. The way most of us live life today insulates us from getting very personal. In fact, there are more ways than ever to create the profile that we want the world around us to see. A status update and profile picture present the “me” we choose to show our family and girlfriends. If all else fails, we can add highlights, polish, Spanx, or Photoshop to carefully craft our avatar (That’s the little picture that represents “you” online). But a mentor gets past all that. A mentor gets personal. The arrival of …