Yesterday was one of the worst parenting days I’ve ever had. There was not one time during the day that one of my children was not completely out of control. I was livid by the time my husband came home. In fact, I crawled into the bed as he finished eating dinner and hid until he had put the kids to bed. (He could feel my weariness and I didn’t even have to ask!)

After the kids went to bed (screaming), my husband and I sat on the couch and talked—about parenting, God and for some reason about dishes. My husband declared that he was better at keeping the kitchen clean because he put the dishes away immediately instead of letting them pile up. (Which, in all honesty, is kinda true.) But after the day I had, this pointed look at my failure to keep the kitchen clean hurt my feelings deeply.

I couldn’t talk anymore. So, I got up, went to my room, got ready for bed and decided to read. I picked up Don’t Make Me Come Up There! by Kristen Welch. You might know Kristen from We are THAT Family. She’s a blogging genius, an advocate for Compassion International and has started The Mercy House, a maternity home in Kenya. And I am in awe of her. I got her book as a review (because I wanted to share the awesome news of her book!) and had read a few of the short chapters when it first came in the mail.

But this night? It was as if the book was written just for me. I started with Chapter 12 entitled, “When I Fail.” Oh, I had failed this day–as a parent, homemaker and even a wife. Kristen tells of how she blew it as a mom, how she was short-tempered and impatient.

And with each confession, I cried more. I felt the same way. A failure.

Then she relayed something her pastor taught her, “When I cut my hand chopping veggies in the kitchen, the blood in my body rushes out of the wound. That’s what it was created to do. Our blood was designed to wash out the impurities and clot to protect us. When I fail as a parent or wife or a person, His blood goes to my injured heart. It rushes to the place I hurt. Because that’s what it was created to do. He is there to wash away my regret and my sin when I fail.”

By this time I was sobbing.

I try so hard–SO HARD–to teach my  kids to love God. I try so hard to point them to Jesus. But sometimes I forget to do the same. Sometimes I lean on my own understanding. Sometimes I rely on my past experience. Sometimes I just think I know best and I fail to do the best thing I can do:

Lean into Jesus.

Bring him my parenting failures.

Allow His blood to cleanse my bad attitudes towards my kids.

Rely on His strength to be my joy.

I ended up reading the rest of the book that night–all 52 chapters. And the more I read, the more God’s Word and Kristen’s open and honest confessions, stories and comfort healed my wounded heart. I felt like I had a sweet friend saying, “Yup. I’ve done that too.” with every one of my mess-ups.

Oh, and my husband came into the room to apologize and held me as I sobbed into his arms. I forget I need him, too sometimes.

Do you need some encouragement today? You’re not alone. You might fail as a mom every day. (I know I do.) There are moms everywhere going through the same thing as you. And Jesus is here. He made your children. He made you. And He put the two of you together. He can teach you to work together, to love together and to lean on Him together.

I’m giving away one copy of Kristen’s book to one of you. I pray it will encourage you as it did me.

Enter to Win Don’t Make Me Come Up There! by Kristen Welch (do one or all, leave a separate comment for each):

• Leave a comment. Any comment will do but something that says, “I know how you feel, Amanda” would be nice, too.
• Tweet it! Win @weareTHATfamily’s new book at @impressyourkids today! http://bit.ly/gb3VpI
• Share on Facebook. It’s easy – just click the “Like” button at the bottom of this post!
• LIKE Impress Your Kids on facebook (see sidebar) or tell me that you already do.

Contest ends Friday April 1.

ps–all the author royalties from Kristen’s book go to Mercy House Kenya. So even if you don’t win…or even if you do–will you buy the book? You can read it and pass it along to another mom!

comments are closed. congrats to our winner!

We have read The Jesus Storybook Bibleso many times that sadly, my kids think THAT is the Bible. And there are some Bible stories they don’t know because we’ve never read them! I’m always on the lookout for new Bible storybooks that aren’t too cheesy or watered down.

This week I got the The Beginning Reader’s Biblefrom Thomas Nelson*. And oh, wow, do I love it! It’s gorgeous–a huge book that’s perfect for laps and for sharing with lots of eager eyes. It even has a bookmark (which Lydia looooves).

It’s actually a real-life Bible with scriptures not stories. The difference is each “story” is told in just a handful of actual scriptures. We chose to read Nehemiah (which the kids didn’t know!) and the story was a collection of about 30 scriptures taken directly from the book of Nehemiah. The kids got the basic gist of the story and heard the actual words of scripture, too. (The scriptures are taken from the International Children’s Bible which I don’t know a lot about because I usually use the New International Reader’s Version. But so far, so good.)

We’ve begun reading this as Asa’s bedtime story. Then the next day we’ll do an activity based on the story. This is super easy because each story comes with a scripture to memorize, a scripture to pray (LOVE THIS) and an activity labeled, “Do God’s Word”. (LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS!)

For Nehemiah, the activity was to make a wall out of pillows and then get inside and pray–thanking God for protecting and surrounding us like a wall. So, we collected some every single pillow in our house and made a wall.

After we read the story again, we decided to get out our swords and build the wall with one hand on our weapons! (4:17-18)

We hopped inside our wall again and held hands. I had the kids repeat a prayer (which is like the cutest thing ever when a 2.5 year old is repeating things like “Nehemiah” and “protection”). They stayed inside the wall for at least an hour–they played with animals, pretended to go night-night and even played doctor.

I loved that they felt comfortable in their little wall. I pray they always feel the protection and comfort of God their Father!

Wanna win this gorgeous new book for yourself? Tommy Nelson is giving 1 away today!

Enter to Win (do one or all, leave a separate comment for each)

• Leave a comment. What’s your kids’ favorite Bible storybook?
• Tweet it! Include @impressyourkids & link to this post http://bit.ly/BeginningBible
• Share on Facebook. It’s easy – just click the “Like” button at the bottom of this post!
• LIKE Impress Your Kids on facebook (see sidebar) or tell me that you already do.

Contest ends Friday March 4.

Disclosure: I received this book as part of the Tommy Mommy Club. As always opinions are my own.

Asa pulled The Dragon and Turtle book off the shelf the other day and almost jumped for joy, “Dragon! Turtle! Dragon! Turtle!” So, when we got the new The Dragon and the Turtle Go on Safari book in the mail* Asa knew it was for him. He was ready to read it and we settled right in to do so.

Roger, the Turtle and Padraig the Dragon spend the whole night in a tent in the backyard. They try to be brave but as they begin to hear animals they get a little scared. A raccoon sounds like an elephant. A kitten is a leopard. As soon as they want to run home and escape the wilderness they realize they’ve made it through the night. The main theme is about bravery and not letting your imagination run away with you.

As in the first Dragon and Turtle book, there is a final page addressed to the parents with a scripture (Deuteronomy 31:6, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid…God goes with you; he will never leave you.”) and some questions and activities to do with the kids. I love this because it shows me the authors want to do more than entertain kids, they want them to know God’s Word in everyday activities. (Right up my alley!)

And the message is perfect for my Lydia. Since she is always battling fear and self-control this is a good lesson for her–learning to not let your imagination run away with her and getting fearful things that have not even happened.

I don’t think the story is as good as the first book. And the pictures are a little confusing because they show the imaginary animals combined with the real animals (like a racoon-elephant) and I know the kids didn’t get it. But overall it’s a fun story and I just love that it’s a real BOY book!

To help the book come alive a little more (my fave) we printed off a “flat” turtle and “flat” dragon. We let them tag along with us all day…they ate lunch with us, Lydia showed them around the playroom and of course, helped me with my blog (see first pic!). Even days later, the kids got super excited whenever they saw their little friends. They feel like they ARE friends! I love when books can come alive. And I hope the message of being brave stays in the forefront of my kids’ minds!

*book was received as part of Blogging for Books from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group. You can join, too!