Angela Mackey Archives - The Mom Initiative

When Giving Thanks Hurts

Sometimes life burns. Kids wander, husbands don’t understand, political climate at work is tenuous at best, there are test results that may change the course of your life forever. The unknown future looms large and dark and uncertain. Fear and worry feed on the dark things rolling around in your head. Everything feels hot and heavy and dark. How do we give thanks in the midst of the fire? We look for moments of beauty in the fire and through the fire. We train our eyes to acknowledge the mess and admit we don’t have all the answers, and we …

Emotions and Truth

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? Jeremiah 17:9 ESV There are a lot of emotions in my house. I have three kids, a wonderful husband, and two dogs – one who has an anxiety issue. Not to mention my own emotions. Sometimes those emotions are in harmony and we laugh and enjoy talking to each other. Other times those emotions are a cacophony irritating the ears of all who experience it’s splendor. God created emotions and we mishandle them. As an adult I have more tools so I have learned to handle …

Lavish Grace Week 7: The Glory of Grace

Welcome to Lavish Grace Week 9 (our final week): The Glory of Grace from Kathy Howard’s new bible study Lavish Grace. Throughout this study, we have been examining how God’s lavish grace intersected and changed the life of Paul. In this lesson, Kathy challenges us to discover that “God graciously uses our trials as a testimony to others.” I have seen this first hand both in my life and in the lives of my friends. I have watched as a dear friend buried her five-year-old child and sought to give God glory even in her grief and pain. I have …

Trying Again: Exchanging Bad Communication Patterns for Good Ones

Parenting is tough. And I can easily fall into terribly patterns with my kids. Times when just the mention of a topic causes my blood to boil and I can barely speak a civil word because I am annoyed. Annoyed at poor attitudes. Frustrated that I cannot communicate clearly with them. Irritated that they don’t just take my word for it. And those sensitive topics like math can send both my child’s and my hearts pounding and blood boiling. So how do we try again? How can we remove the bad habit of frustration over difficult topics? “Everyone should be …

Weakness and Strength

There is a lie I swallow whole and it is killing me. The lie that everyone is better at this life than I am… …that they all know what they are doing. …that they are better at this mothering thing than I am. …that they have best friends who “do life together” and they communicate every day and have dinner together and their kids love being together. …that they have the best marriages and cook healthy meals every night. And I somehow don’t measure up in any sense of the word. The truth is everyone is figuring out this life …

Feasting on God’s Word

“I don’t like food; I LOVE it. If I don’t love it, I don’t swallow!” -Anton Ego Ratatouille I am not as fastidious as Anton Ego and his love for good food. But I have noticed something about my appetite. The more I eat healthy food and drink water, the more I want healthy food and the less allure junk food holds. However, the more I eat junk the more I crave junk. And it isn’t only true in my physical appetites. It is true in how I treat the Word of God. When I get by on a steady diet …

Getting to the Heart of Obedience

Our “With LOVE from MOM” week is here, and today parenting expert and MOM Mentor shares the BEST MOM TIP EVER! TODAY’S GIVEAWAY IS… The Making of a Mom by Stephanie Shott The Making of a Mom is an all-in-one resource that is written TO moms yet FOR ministry leaders. A heart to heart mentoring resource that gives moms 12 key foundations to biblical motherhood with practical help for their everyday journey. The Making of a Mom also gives ministry leaders everything they need to enhance or begin a Titus 2 ministry in their church, ministry or community. Complete with questions …

Grace, Holiness, and Christmas

“Why do we have to read the Christmas devotional?” my kids chorused in unison. My heart squeezed tight with anger, frustration, and sadness. “Because I want us to remember what Christmas is really about,” I managed with frustration edging my tone. As I read the devotional to my children God gently reminded me – I instruct my children to know the truth, I live my faith out in front of them, but my kids must make their own choices, develop their own relationship with God. What then is it that draws our hearts closer to God’s? Romans 2:4 tells us …

Encouraging First Time Obedience

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise: “that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.” Ephesians 6:1-3 (NKJV) First time obedience is a goal parents desire for their children. Parents desire it so children learn to respect authority, for their safety, and our sanity. However I often wonder if the goal for first time obedience removes the human element from our children. Children are not robots. They have plans, desires, dreams, and wills of their own. Therefore children will get frustrated when …

Living with Hands Wide Open

My chest tightens as electricity shoots through my neck into my shoulders. My heart beat races and my left eye twitches. I’m messing them up, my mind races ahead twenty years. They will be in therapy because I…I can’t do this. I see them in my mind’s eye, twenty years older, telling their counselors how much they hate me. My eye twitches faster. I take a deep breath and rub my temples. If only I could… But there is no time. “MOM! She stuck her tongue out at me,” one precious child bellows. “He kicked me!” another retorts. And …

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