Mother's Day Pink Saturday Guest Post with Tricia Goyer 5/12

Welcome to a Wonderful

Pink Saturday Celebration

of Mother's !

Tricia Goyer is guest posting here today ~

Welcome to Faith Hope & Cherrytea, Tricia!

We look forward to celebrating motherhood with you this special weekend...

Whether you'll be waking up to breakfast in bed ~

source

with something delish like Sophie Dahl's

Lemon Ricotta Spelt Pancakes

{as featured at pink to green blog }

{complete w/ recipe}

or spending the day reflecting ~

"Making the decision to have a child - it's momentous. 

It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body."

-Elizabeth Stone

I warmly wish you ~

What I Am Not 

by Tricia Goyer

Becoming a mother is a complicated thing. Not only am I trying to negotiate a relationship with my child, I am trying to negotiate a relationship with myself as I attempt to determine how I mother, how I feel about mothering, how I want to mother and how I wish I was mothered.

— Andrea J. Buchanan, in Mother Shock3

Sometimes the easiest way to discover who we are is to know who we are not.

• We are not our children. We all know mothers who go overboard trying to make themselves look good by making their children look great. I saw one woman on the Oprah television show who had bought her preschool daughter more than twelve pairs of black shoes just so the girl could have different styles to go with her numerous outfits! Just as we -don’t get report cards for mothering, we also -don’t get graded on our child’s looks or accomplishments. While you want your children to do their best and succeed in life, your self-esteem -shouldn’t be wrapped up in your child.

Life as I See It:

My individuality will never end. There will be no one exactly like me, not even my child. She will be like me in some ways, but not at all in others. I -wouldn’t have it any other way.

— Desiree, Texas

• We are not our mothers. I remember the first time I heard my mother’s voice coming out of my mouth. The words “because I told you so .  .  .” escaped before I had a chance to squelch them.

It’s not until we have kids that we truly understand our mothers — all their frets, their nagging, and their worries.

It’s also then that we truly understand their love.

Since you are now a mother, it’s good to think back on how you were raised. If there were traditions or habits that now seem wise and useful, incorporate them into your parenting. You also have permission to sift out things you now know -weren’t good. Just because you’re a product of your mother, that -doesn’t mean you have to turn out just like her. Repeat after me, “I am not my mother.”

• We are not like any other mother out there. Sometimes you may feel like the world’s worst mother. After all, your friend never yells at her son — and sometimes you do. Then again, your friend may feel bad because you have a wonderful bedtime routine that includes stories and songs. In many cases, the moms you feel inferior to only look like they have it together. All moms feel they -don’t “measure up.” Instead of feeling unworthy, we should realize that everyone has strengths and weaknesses. The key is where we place our focus.

 “Let’s just go ahead and be what we were made to be, 

without .  .  . comparing ourselves with each other, 

or trying to be something we aren’t” 

Romans 12:5 – 6 MESSAGE

The problem with comparison is, we always measure our weaknesses against the strengths of others.

Instead, we need to thank God for our strengths. We can also ask God to help us overcome our weaknesses — not because we want to compare ourselves, or look good in someone else’s eyes, but because we want to be the best mom out there.

Tricia Goyer is a CBA best-selling author and the winner of two American Christian Fiction Writers’ Book of the Year Awards (Night Song and Dawn of a Thousand Nights). She co-wrote 3:16 Teen Edition with Max Lucado and contributed to the Women of Faith Study Bible. Also a noted marriage and parenting writer, she lives with her husband and children in Arkansas. You can find her online at www.triciagoyer.com or at her weekly radio show, Living Inspired.

Exciting News – the latest Pearl Girls book, Mother of Pearl: Luminous Legacies and Iridescent Faith will be released this month! Please visit the Pearl Girls Facebook Page (and LIKE us!) for more information! Thanks so much for your support!

... do enter the contest for a chance to win a beautiful hand crafted pearl necklace. 

To enter, just {CLICK THIS LINK} and fill out the short form. 

Contest runs 5/6-5/13 and the winner will on 5/14.

Contest is open to US and Canadian residents.

"A mother is not a person to lean on, 

but a person to make leaning unnecessary."
-Dorothy Canfield Fisher

more Mother's Day Pinks here ~

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God With Us in Our Mothering ~ Guest posting Carey Bailey 5/10

God Promises to Walk with Us ! 

~ today's guest post by Carey Bailey

As a little girl, I loved baby dolls. Loved them! I played school, adoption agency, daycare operator and babysitter all day. I felt like I was born to be a mama. Therefore, I was a bit anxious when the ages, 22, 25, 28 and 32 came and went and there were no babies. Have you ever desired something so much and feared never getting it? That was me.

My day finally came at the age of 34. I soon realized that God knew what God was doing when I had to wait. To my shock, it wasn’t as easy as playing with dolls. I was surprised that it wasn’t the dream world I imagined it would be! I felt like life became a gigantic prayer.

“God, HELP me!”

“Please, God. Please, please, please make it all better. I can’t do this!”

“God, this feels impossible. Where are you?”

While I adore motherhood, it is harder and there are more adjustments than I expected. (I am hoping there are some nodding of heads and Amen’s being said out there in cyberworld.) Not only did I have a new life to care for, but my identity suddenly felt all scrambled up. It took me until my son was one to finally feel confident in my new role as a mother, confident that I could drop my child off at preschool without crying, confident that I could go out with the girls’ and the world wouldn’t fall apart, and confident that I could go on a date night and have conversations that didn’t revolve just around our son.

I was feeling settled in my new world and then WHAM! I discovered I was pregnant again. Can I be vulnerable with you? I actually cried when I found out. And they were not tears of joy. I feel awful saying that out loud, and I hope you will give me a moment to explain. It was not that I didn’t want another baby or feel like I couldn’t love a new life, it was just that I got scared. Discovering a little person was on the way sent a panic through me. Would my son still receive the love and attention that he deserved? How was my husband going to feel about my body changing again? Would I ever be able to pursue the vision I felt God had for me in writing and publishing? I was truly wondering if I was going to be able to handle another intense wave of identity crisis like the one I had just been through. I wasn’t sure.

God and I needed a serious talk. And in that conversation God carefully reminded me of this:

“For I know the plans I have for you," 

declares the LORD, 

"plans to prosper you and not to harm you, 

plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

God reminded me in our time together that I, too, 

am God's child and God has every intention of loving me, 

caring for me, and giving me the future that God has planned for me.

As mothers, we can get so caught up in parenting 

that we forget that we, too, have a spiritual parent 

who loves us as a child. 

God loves you as much as God loves the children God has given you. 

God will never forsake you.  

And on those days when motherhood seems 

too overwhelming and too impossible 

I step back and take a deep breath. 

Then I remember that 

this journey I am on, right now, 

is the one God has designed and created uniquely for me. 

I simply need to live in it, learn from it, and allow 

God's love to sweep over and through me.

God will walk with me! God will walk with you! Grab God's hand. 

**Friday 5/11 Freebie~

just caught this one at amazon ~ check that it's free

before downloading if  you need that option..

Devotions for the First Few Days by KM Logan

Welcome to Pearl Girls™ Mother of Pearl Mother's Day blog series - a week long celebration of moms and mothering. Each day will feature a new post by some of today's writer's 

Tricia Goyer, Sheila Walsh, Suzanne Woods Fisher, Bonnie St. John, and more. 

I hope you'll join us each day for another 

unique perspective on Mother's Day.

 ... do enter the contest for a chance to win 

a beautiful hand crafted pearl necklace. 

To enter, just {CLICK THIS LINK} 

and fill out the short form. 

Contest runs 5/6-5/13 

 the winner will on 5/14.

Contest is open to US and Canadian residents.

If you are unfamiliar with Pearl Girls™, please visit www.pearlgirls.info and see what we're all about. In short, we exist to support the work of charities that help women and children in the US and around the globe. Consider purchasing a copy of Pearl Girls: Encountering Grit, Experiencing Grace or one of the Pearl Girls™ products (all GREAT Mother's Day gifts!) to help support Pearl Girls.

And to all you MOMS out there, 

Happy Mother's Day!

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On Mothers, Fathers and Alzheimers ~ Guest Post by Suzanne Woods Fisher

Totally appreciating the Mother of Pearl

guest blog posts in  this week's

Celebration of Mothers 

anticipating Sunday's US + Canada 

Mother's Day ...

with the crazy 8 hour day I spent at the hospital this Monday

I am delited to allow others to post for me

here at Faith Hope and Cherrytea !
{prayers appreciated! please + thankyou!}

please Welcome and enjoy today's post by Suzanne

on a topic I'm personally caught up in

and one that's brought a new depth of love

and appreciation for my own MoM...

She’s My Everything | Suzanne Woods Fisher

“A mother is one who can take the place of all others, 

but whose place no one else can take.”

--Cardinal Mermillod

Just a few more months. My mother was hoping Dad would hang on long enough so they could celebrate their sixtieth wedding anniversary in April. But on January 1st, as the sun rose on the new year, my dad’s worn out heart beat its last. Dad had battled Alzheimer’s Disease for ten years. As many of you know, AD is a long, hard journey. Hard on the one afflicted with the disease, hard on the caregivers.

But not without its blessings.

Four years ago, as I began researching stories for Amish Peace: Simple Wisdom for a Complicated World, my path crossed with a handful of Plain families who were coping with Alzheimer’s. It was just about the point when Dad’s illness was shifting from early to mid stages AD and the timing was a divine accident. I learned so much as I observed the calm acceptance of these families. Rather than waste time shaking a fist at God for allowing this disease to take their loved one, they put their energy into trusting God’s sovereignty. They didn’t deny the difficulties and complications and sadness of Alzheimer’s, but they didn’t dwell on them. “God has a plan,” one woman told me. “He always has a plan.” 

Something else I noticed was how privileged my Amish friends felt about caring for their loved one. Caring for the elderly, they believe, is the time to give back to them.

Source

Those encounters shaped my perspective of Dad’s illness. I started to pay attention to how God provided answers to new wrinkles created by Alzheimer’s, just in time. God may be slow, but He is never late.

I started to cherish special moments or good days with Dad—just as he was at each point in his illness. Not mourning the past, not dreading the future.

I really miss my dad. I miss his scratchy whiskers and the way his eyebrows would wiggle at us, even as words failed him. Yet I have such peace in my heart that he was well loved and well cared for, right to the very end. And as hard as Dad’s end of life has been, it isn’t the end. We will meet again. As the saying goes, “Some may see a hopeless end, but as believers we rejoice in an endless hope.”

There’s a beautiful story that illustrates my parents’ 59-year marriage. This event happened about a year or two ago. My sister had accompanied our mother to the doctor appointment for Dad at the Stanford Memory Clinic.

Dad had declined quite a bit that month. He was weak and lethargic, even to the point of whispering, as if it took too much energy to project his voice. During the doctor's appointment, the doctor told my mother and sister that Dad was now in late stages of Alzheimer's. Dad didn’t have much vocabulary left, but when the doctor asked him who mom was, he whispered something back. The doctor looked at Mom and asked, "Did you hear what he just said?"

Mom shook her head.

"When I asked him who you were, he whispered, 

'She's...my everything.'"

Welcome to Pearl Girls™ Mother of Pearl Mother's Day blog series

 - a week long celebration of moms and mothering. 

I hope you'll join us each day for another unique perspective on Mother's Day.

AND ... 

do enter the contest for a chance to win 

a beautiful hand crafted pearl necklace. 

To enter, just {CLICK THIS LINK} 

 fill out the short form. 

Contest runs 5/6-5/13  

the winner will be announced on 5/14.

 Contest is open to US and Canadian residents.

If you are unfamiliar with Pearl Girls™, please visit www.pearlgirls.info and see what we're all about. 

In short, we exist to support the work of charities that help women and children 

in the US and around the globe. 

Consider purchasing a copy of Pearl Girls: Encountering Grit, Experiencing Grace or one of the Pearl Girls™ products (all GREAT Mother's Day gifts!) to help support Pearl Girls.

And to all you MOMS out there, 

Happy Mother's Day!

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