Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Praise Her In The Gates: The Calling of Christian Motherhood


I recently finished this book by Nancy Wilson. It gave me so much insight and got me thinking about many parenting convictions that I never considered before. Here's a recap of just a few of the key points that caught my attention.

Chapter 1 - The Big Picture: "When mothers faithfully obey God in this very precious and demanding role, they can expect God to fulfill His promise of blessing in their families" (p.11).

Chapter 2 - The Church Our Mother: "The Church is fruitful. While evangelism brings more worshipers into the Church, childbearing brings more disciples into the home. Children are not to be viewed as a hindrance, an intrusion, an interruption, or a burden" (p.19).

Chapter 3 - Conception, Pregnancy, Childbirth: "We cannot play God...It is all of God's doing. We must be humble when we consider what He ordains to do in & through our bodies, & we must look to God for His sustaining grace..." (p.24).

Chapter 4 - When the Kids are Sick: "Sickness is a good time to teach our children about compassion & mercy, as well as about the frailty of life. Use all these times for spiritual profit" (p.34).

Chapter 5 - Loving the Kids: "God supplies us with motherly love for our children. We should be praying that God will give us a godly, self-sacrificing, rejoicing love for our children, even when we think we have enough already" (p.37).

Chapter 6 - Manners: "We must model Christian courtesy to our children, not simply expect it of them without showing them what it looks like" (p.48).

Chapter 7 - Respecting Sons: "When a mother respects her son, she verbalizes it. She praises him for his achievements. She expresses her admiration to him for his accomplishments. She gives him responsibility and expects him to fulfill his obligations" (p.58).

Chapter 8 - Loving Daughters: "Daughters primarily need love & security. Mothers must be diligent to praise their daughters, not for their achievements primarily, but for who they are. They needs lots of love, hugs, understanding, and reassurance" (p.66, 67).

Chapter 9 - Setting Standards: "God has given us our children as our "ministry". Our children are our disciples. Godly discipline is focused on the long-term goal of maturity, not a short-term desire to make life easier for ourselves now" (p.73-75).

Chapter 10 - The Importance of Education: "Christians have the reponsibility & opportunity to educate their children in a God-honoring, God-glorifying way. Whether parents choose to enroll their children in a school or homeschool, oversight is required by the parents" (p.83, 84).

Chapter 11 - The Pleasant Home: "A pleasant home should be full of joy and full of beauty--the beauty of holiness. Our homes should be pleasant, happy, lovely reflections of the joy we have received in Christ" (p.91, 92).

Chapter 12 - The Domestic Arts: "Domesticity is a devotion to home & family life. God created marriage, He creates homes, He delegates the management of the home to the wife, & He gives us the desire & the ability to imitate Him in "creating" lovely surroundings for our families in our homes" (p.97).

Chapter 13 - Letting Them Go: "We want to train & equip our children so that when they are of age, they will be able to leave our homes to lead productive, godly lives on their own. We do not live for our children; we live to glorify God" (p.103, 104).

Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates.
Proverbs 31:30-31

3 comments:

Tricia Keierleber said...

I am dedfinetly going to have to read this one! :) I hope all is well!

Steph said...

Yes! I have this whole series of books, but I haven't read them yet. I am anxious to get to them now! Thanks so much for posting that. Just those little summaries were a great encouragement and reminder.

Tricia Keierleber said...

Happy FIRST birthday to Carysse and happy birthday to Kempton!!! Last night at like 11:58 I thought about their bdays, not kidding! :) BUT I was not about to get out of bed to comment then! lol