heart Archives - The Mom Initiative

15 Ways to Break Your Child’s Heart

Working with parents and kids I have seen the little ones (and older kids) totally deflate when mom or dad parents or interacts a particular way. There are 15 arrows that always pierce the tender hearts of our kids. Let’s put these weapons down. If you want to break your child’s heart and crush his spirit, do these 15 things: Do these 15 things if you want to break your child’s heart.@themominitiativ @loriwildenberg #RaisingKids Click To Tweet Discipline in anger. “You are grounded for life.” Criticize rather than correct. “That’s a stupid way to solve that problem.” Lecture rather than …

Forgiveness is a Choice of the Heart

“Be gentle and ready to forgive; never hold grudges. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.” Col. 3:13 TLB Forgive? How do you forgive the one who… * sabotaged your husband’s business. * introduced your child to drugs or alcohol. * stole your identity, leaving you with a financial mess. * abused you sexually as a child or did so to your child. * lured your teenager from the internet into running away. * kidnapped your child and sold him/her for sex trafficking. * drove down the wrong side of the expressway at night in a drunken …

The Old Rugged Cross

I cannot sing and cry at the same time. Therefore, I never sing “The Old Rugged Cross.” You see, I had a precious grandmother whom I adored. She loved to sing the old hymns, loud and off-key. And that hymn was one of her favorites. I can still hear her voice ringing in my memory. Jesus has been listening to her sing for the last 56 years. I’m sure she sings much better now. George Bennard, a Methodist evangelist, wrote the first verse of “The Old Rugged Cross” in 1912 and finished the hymn one year later. It is said …

No Yeast in the House!

Time to clean out the closets. Scrub the walls. Mop the kitchen floor. Wipe out all the cabinets and drawers. Scour every utensil. Passover is coming. Why all the cleaning? Because the Law said no yeast shall be found in the house. Not even a tiny particle. All leaven was expelled from the house and kept out of the house for seven days. To the Hebrew/Jewish mind, fermentation meant uncleanness and corruption and was to be purged out, as it was synonymous with sin. It was to be spotless! However, one house did not remain spotless; it was the House …

Keep Parts of Your Heart a Secret by Lynn Cowell

Keep Parts of Your Heart a Secret Facebook, Twitter, Vine, Instagram, Snap Chat…(when does it end), it’s easy to follow each detail of your sometimes roller coaster life. Girl flirts with boy. Boy returns the favor. Girls spills her guts to said boy. Boy breaks up. Girl spills more – only this time it is pain. This scenario isn’t just girls; it could easily be reversed. Because you now have access to each other non-stop, the “getting-to-know” period is now on steroids. A girl and guy can literally know everything there is to know about each other in just …

A Mother’s Heart…Heart Murmurs

Heart murmurs… * are extra heart sounds caused by turbulent blood flow, sufficient enough to produce an audible noise, ranging from very faint to very loud. * are due to functions and activities of life or of living matter (physiologic conditions) outside the heart. * are a treatable and preventable condition. If not serious, medication will improve the condition. If more serious, surgery may be in order. But what if it is spiritual rather than physical? What then are those heart sounds, from faint to loud, due to conditions outside the heart? Israel had this heart problem. What was it? …

5 Ways Laughter Protects a Mother’s Heart

As a mom, I have days where the smallest thing blows up to huge proportions ( is that just at my house?). I become wrecked with emotion and feel like my heart just can’t handle anything else. When this happens, Satan attacks my heart as a mom. I feel guilty, overwhelmed, and anxious about the choices I make. I don’t see the joy in motherhood, I just see the hard. I’ve only been a mom for three years but the biggest lesson I’ve learned so far is to let go. If I don’t loosen my grip on life, I’m not going …

When Thanksgiving Gets Stuck in Your Throat

Not everyone will have had a happy Thanksgiving…especially this year. Many are out of work, have issues relating to health, children, or family. Some are facing the holiday season for the first time as they mourn the loss of a loved one or as a divorcee. So, what happens to their thanksgiving and praise when their peace disintegrates into chaos? As I go through trial after trial, circumstance after circumstance, what happens to my praise and thanksgiving? What happens when my day is darkened with a multitude of problems? Do I still sing to Him anyway? You bet! When my …

WHEN YOUR HEART HURTS

Has your heart ever “hurt”? Perhaps it hurt for someone who was going through a difficult time. Or, your heart may have ached to the point you thought you were going to die because of what someone did to you; or you unintentionally did to someone. Have you ever noticed that no one can heal your hurting heart? As a matter of fact, sometimes it’s even a puzzle to you why your heart hurts. Things can seem to be in place. Things can appear okay, but deep down, you know they aren’t. As hard as you try to put …

A Mother’s Heart…Do You Ever Feel Like a Herman?

Subscribe today for your FREE copy of… FACING YOUR FEARS – 31 STORIES FROM M.O.M. In a shadowed corner of the house, outside by the side door, sits my hydrangea plant under a tree. Light cannot penetrate the plant’s leaves as it should to soak up the radiance of the sun because of the overhanging of the tree. I say plant because it totally lacks the definition of bush. I nicknamed him Herman. Don’t ask me why. I haven’t a clue. The soil under the tree must be bad. None of the plants …