New Year Archives - The Mom Initiative

New Year’s Thoughts from the Strangest Places

New Year’s thoughts popped into my head, but you’ll never guess where they came from! Here’s what happened… The Empty Cup and Coffee Part I stare down at the coffee cup. As I lean over it, I can smell the aroma of coffee…it’s coming from the coffee pot just inches away. I can even taste it before it touches my tongue. My palate knows that familiar hazelnut flavor. I pour some half and half in the empty cup and fill it with coffee to the brim. I add a little sugar to sweeten it. My thoughts spill over into the …

Heretofore…

“Heretofore the Lord has helped us.” 1 Sam. 7:12 Amp In all the highs and lows of the year closing, was God a small part of it, or was He in every part of it, helping you all the while? He was there, in every part of your year, even if you didn’t recognize His presence. My guess is that He brought you through many situations. My guess is that He spoke to your heart with words of comfort and peace and quite possibly discipline, encouraged you through others, gave you hope for a renewed future, and fought for you, …

Join the MOMs for New Start 15!

Today is the first day of New Start 15 and the MOMs would love to have you join us! We’re taking the month of January to renew our commitment to understanding God’s call to holiness and His plan for us to be godly moms. Different MOMs and friends of The MOM Initiative team will be posting around the blogosphere this month, and we’ll be using truths from the New Start 15 reading plan. We’ll share here at The MOM Initiative during some days of January, as well. If you join us, you can plan to enjoy these benefits: Benefits of …

Are you ready for a New Start mom?

Dear moms, we made it! It’s the last day of the year. Some of us are dragging ourselves across the finish line, some are dancing through in a time of joy, and some of us are crawling over on prayerful knees. Not a single one of us is perfect, and we are all in need of generous mommy-grace and wisdom. The transition from one year to the next is like a good cheeseball recipe or a blend of essential oils: a little sweet, a little spice, and something to anchor it all. Moms may be: reflecting on this past year’s …

Juicing Once a Day for a Healthier Me & for Healthier Kids

I LOVE food! All food! Well, almost ALL food. But the older I get the more my food shows up on my hips, my thighs, and unfortunately all that yummy stuff affects my heart and my health. When I was younger, I could eat what I wanted and then just watch my intake for a few days and lose the weight I had gained. But those days are LONG GONE and my body is now in need of a little makeover. Okay…so a big makeover. And it’s not about my weight…it’s about my health. So, I started juicing. At first, …

How to Start the New Year Right

Goodbye, 2013. Hello, 2014. For some people, today is a day of making new year resolutions. A time of promising to do better…to lose weight…to eat healthier…to read God’s word every day…to forgive that person you’ve struggled to forgive. For years, I have made these types of resolutions, only to find myself in exactly the same place one year later. Still not healthier. Still not in the Word daily. And still the exact same person I was one year prior. It’s not the resolutions that are the problem, of course, but the person who fails to keep them. This year, …

Dear friend: a letter for the end of a year

By now you know I didn’t get Christmas cards sent this year. Though I couldn’t squeeze out the time to get them done, I feel compelled to carve out this time to write you a letter. A real letter. There’s something I want you to know before tomorrow comes and we stand on the first step of 2014 and wave goodbye to the year that was 2013. There’s something I need to tell you. I looked back over our Facebook messages to remember that thing you said to me, but I got distracted, scrolling through all the things that …

A Mother’s Heart…10 Encouragements for a Better New Year

Did you make any resolutions? Have you already given up on carrying them out? We all need encouragement at one time or other but especially at the onset of a new year. Here are ten encouragements to inspire you to get a good grip on making improvements in your life this year. You already know these, but if you do them, all your other resolutions should fall into place. Here we go… 1) Gather up all the negative events of the year now closing: its sins, weaknesses, and failures; its heartaches and griefs. All that filled your year. 2) Lay …