Hi, friends ~
What a week! Becoming a Girl of Grace – A Joint Bible Study for Tween Girls and their Moms is officially available everywhere! Click here to order your copy or to gift a book to a friend. Thank you all for your prayers and words of encouragement. They were felt and cherished.
This study came to fruition through God’s grace and the support of my amazing tribe. Seriously, y’all. I am one hot mess of a mama hanging onto each day through God’s love and mercy. During the launch, both of my girls were ill with what their school coined “the Plague of 2017,” since nearly half of their students were out with flu, strep or some other equally fun bug or virus. Friends rallied, and prayers were felt. This is what it means to thrive in community, because the truth is we all have a little hot mess inside of us.
Even in the craziness of everyday life, I remain so thankful God made me a wife and a mom. Each new season of my girls’ development brings some exciting new experience even as we mourn the passing of another beloved season.
Before I had children, I was organized. Planning was a precious pastime. I could peruse office supply catalogs with leisure and zeal. One of the best moments each year was the selection of my next perfect desk planner. Oh, happiness.
Then, God made me a mama. I learned playing Legos was more important than folding laundry. Reading books with my girls was more important than an organized office. Wearing cute clothes and fixing your hair everyday was overrated.
One of my favorite moments in my life was my first official day of “for as far into the future as we could see” to stay home with my daughters. We were all curled up in my bed. My youngest daughter was months old laying cradled in my arms, and my oldest snuggled into my side as we watched “Barbie’s 12 Dancing Princesses.” I know…but friends, it was a precious moment.
Prince Charming was working at a new job God provided on the DAY our youngest daughter was born. Those years were lean. Truly. Some months we weren’t sure how we were going to make it, but God provided each month. The December after our youngest was born, our insurance dividend check was to the penny what we needed to pay our electric bill. God was faithful. He provided.
That moment with my girls in my bed on that very first day of being a “stay-at-home” mama was pivotal.
I made a promise to walk in faith and to trust God even when I don’t understand the why or how of the path in front of me. I made a promise to love my family and to teach my children to know and love Him as I do. That legacy of faith is generations deep. Generations of prayer warriors.
This was the heart behind why I wrote Becoming a Girl of Grace. We live and strive to survive in a broken world, a place where we are encouraged to please ourselves and look to earthly measures of happiness and success. I wanted to fight this fallacy and share Truth with my girls that they are daughters of the King. They have a legacy that is far more precious than anything they will ever find on this earth.
Yes, God can and does bless us immensely during our earthly lives, but that is just the tiniest speck of how amazing eternal life will be with Him.
Becoming a Girl of Grace is a cry from my mama heart. The cry to be present over perfect. The cry to be transparent and truthful. The cry to build memories not monuments. I pray this study touches the hearts of many moms and tween girls, that they may find joy and strength digging into scripture together. I pray they prioritize the gift of their relationship and stockpile memories in the storehouses deep within their hearts.
