From "moms of sons" to "moms of seniors"

Hello everyone! I thought I'd give a little update on Moms Encouraging Moms. Last night a group of mothers of sons met to begin a six week Bible/book study on "5 Conversations You Must Have With your Sons." I was excited to be able to attend it and I'm looking forward to all that I'm going to learn. One of the reasons that I was so excited about it was because of all who were there. When we met for our first Mom's meeting a while back to evaluate the needs of the mothers in our church, one of the biggest needs mentioned was how to parent boys and raise them to be godly men. One of the blessings to me about the Bible/book study was that the women who asked for encouragement in this area actually came and an  added blessing was that many other women came, too!

Sadly, our society is failing our boys... We, (their mothers), must take an active role in teaching them and guiding them to go against the way of the world and become the men of God that He created them to be. God has blessed us with the privilege of raising them and with that privilege comes a huge responsibility. It can be daunting at times, but  so worth it in the long run. Praise the Lord for all of the moms who are striving to raise up godly men!!!!

Speaking of raising our children to adulthood...

I am beginning to plan another evening for Moms Encouraging Moms.  I don't have the date or time yet, but I'll tell you the topic now....I would like for any moms of seniors to have a time to meet together and talk about our changing roles as our students graduate. It's an emotional time for me as a mother to Bethany, my graduating senior, who is supposed to still be 10 years old. I think we would all benefit from talking together about how fast the time has gone and how to be handle and encourage each other along the way in the coming months. I'm looking for a home and a date to meet. If you think this would benefit you or if you would like to host the evening, let me know. I think maybe a Tuesday evening for about an hour or so might be good, or maybe a Saturday morning brunch. I'd like for it to be soon because life is just going to get busier in the next few weeks. Let's try to make it happen:)

5 conversations You Must Have With Your Sons

I wanted to take a quick opportunity to encourage any mother's of sons to consider attending this Bible study.  When many of us met to share our needs as mom's with each other, one of the needs was for moms of sons to share their concerns with each other....We met once with raising sons as a topic and now I'm so happy to let you know that this Bible Study is being done with YOU in mind. I hope many of you will try to attend...I'm sure there will be many things to learn, both from the study itself and from each other. Details are below.... 5 Conversations You Must Have with Your Son - is a women's Bible study for moms who desire to help their sons build foundations of faith that will equip them throughout their lives. Author, Vicki Courtney, helps you prepare to talk to your son about the tough topics — because even though knowing what to say or how to say it can be hard, there's no one better to teach him about life, love, and faith than you. Mondays @ 7 pm - Starting April 23 The member book also offers variety of between-session activities that build parenting skills and biblical understandings. Book cost is $11 and will be provided on first day of class. Meet at FBC. Facilitated by Monica Richardson.

Moms of Sons Encouraging other Moms of Sons

Hi moms, I hope your week has been wonderful and, just in case it hasn't been wonderful, I hope you have been able to find blessing in the midst of any chaos and peace in the midst of any storms. My week was spent on many things, but one of my focuses for this week was figuring out what our next step in "Moms Encouraging Moms" ought to be....

I have, indeed, figured it out and I'm excited to announce that Monday, February 20th, we will have another meeting of the moms, but this one will be specific to mothers of sons. It is my prayer that God can lead us to develop relationships that will help us all as we raise our sons to grow from boys to men. This will not be a Bible Study or book study, although those things may come in the future. This will be a time of sharing and encouraging one another from a Biblical viewpoint.

I'm very excited to announce that my friend and the mother of my son-in-law, Connie Fulks, is going to cohost the evening with me at her home.  She is going to share some of her story with you and I know you will be blessed. She is the momma that raised my daughter's husband to become a Godly young man, so I will forever be grateful for her influence on him.

Because of the evening being specific to mothers of sons, I feel like we will be able to have time to ask questions and discuss things that we were not able to go into depth with the last time we were together. I hope that, if you have sons, you will be there and I hope that you will extend the invitation to any of your friends that have sons whether or not you will be able to attend yourself. It is possible that you have sons that are grown or older and you may be wondering if this evening will have anything to offer you...well, maybe it will and maybe it won't, but one thing I'd like to ask you to do is pray about coming and participating with us anyway. Maybe God's plan for you on this night is for you to pour the wisdom that you have gained from your own experiences into some of the moms of younger boys.

I should have more details after this weekend, but mark your calendars now so you will be able to be with us. As always, you can contact me here with questions.

Blessings to you all!

Boys, boys, boys...Men

On my last post, which I wrote very late last night (if you haven't read it, please do), I mentioned that today I would approach the topic of raising boys...What was I thinking? That is way too big of a topic for a single blog post. I have a feeling we may need to talk about this topic a lot. One of the things that came out of last nights gathering of moms was the huge need we moms have in the area of raising our boys to become men.

Having two sons, I know a little about what is going on in the minds of some of you younger moms as your boys move into double digits and the early teen years...I think the thoughts that went through my mind were, "Where did my sweet, playful little boy go?" "Who took him?" "How can I get him back?" and "Who is this replacement boy that won't talk to me anymore?"

I remember that, as a mom who had only raised girls to that age, I lived in the fairytale land of denial. My denial was simple, if I don't admit that we are having trouble in our relationship then we aren't really having trouble...Please take my advice to NOT do that because the fact of the matter is... "living in denial" didn't end pretty at that time. I really didn't want to admit that my precious little boys were dealing with the pressures of the world and I sure didn't want to admit that what was going on was out of my control..I remember the devastation that I felt when I realized that my perfect family wasn't really perfect. I also remember being completely clueless about how to "fix" my family. Did we need more family time? Did they need more time with their daddy? Did they need to go do a bunch of manly activities? Did they need another lecture? Did they need more space? More rules? More food? More sleep? What in the world did they need that I could give them? I think I may have tried all of those things and honestly, it was a probably a combination of all of that and more, mixed with a lot of prayer and tears and time, that finally made a difference. My girls had definitely been moodier at that, "Awkward for all," stage, but I hadn't felt like they had evaporated into thin air and been replaced with look-a-likes.  It was definitely a confusing few years for the boys AND for their mom.

Now, fast forward to today...Halton is a wonderful, Godly young man that has gone through more physical pain than most 20 year olds and still he knows to be thankful for the life God has given to him. He studies and worships on his own, buys books that will help him grow as a leader, seeks Godly council and is trying to faithfully walk down the path that God has him on. Hunter is my 16 year old young man who is more servant minded than any 16 year old that I have ever met. He serves continuously in the background while Halton serves in the forefront. He gives of himself all the time. I've come to realize that one of the  phrases that I often hear him say is "I'll do what ever you need me to do, Mom." He entertains us with his quick wit and prays for me and for others all the time.  Last night, on the way to the moms meeting, I suddenly became anxious and started tearing up out of fear and insecurity. The next thing I knew, Hunter reached out his hand, placed it on my shoulder and began praying out loud for me as I drove.

If you are a mom of young boys reading this and think, "I'm in that stage where I don't feel like I know my boy very well". Take heart, every mom of sons has been where you are and I would very much like to help you navigate through this turbulent time and I know many other moms would like to help you and your son to come out stronger on the other end of this time of life, too.

Now, just in case you were wondering, I really believe your son needs men in his life, too, but right now we are concentrating on what we, as moms, can do and how much more we need to understand in order to make it through and bring God glory as we help raise our sons to adulthood.

I think, after talking about raising boys so much, we who have sons really need to get together again very soon to talk and encourage and answer each other's questions. Let me know of your schedules for when we can make that happen. In the meantime, please leave questions or comments on here. You never  know if your question or comment is something that someone else really needs to hear, so don't be shy. We can only minister to each other if we know what each other's needs are and we can't answer questions that don't get asked.