I mentioned awhile back in a prior post that I wrote a short e-book a few years ago on the topic of strengthening your child's faith at Christmas. Being that the majority of my posts here on The Alabaster Jar are written on marriage, and when I have more time on my hands I write on growing your Faith, I'm sure some of you were quite surprised that I wrote an e-book geared towards discipling your children.
Although the tagline on this blog has mothering in it, I've considered dropping it several times but the Lord keeps tells me no, so that's why I leave it there. Anyways, I focus more on marriage and your walk with the Lord and here's why: I believe if I can encourage and equip you to deepen your faith and have a strong, Christ-centered marriage, then those two things will help you in your parenting. With a stronger marriage, it'll make parenting your kiddos easier. Notice I didn't say easy, just easier! Remember, we're raising sinners.
You might be asking yourself why in the world did I write a book on discipleship, then? Well, this post will give you a little bit of history on my e-book as well as my writing ministry.
Go now, write it on a tablet for them, inscribe it on a scroll, that for the days to come it may be an everlasting witness. Isaiah 30:8
Before the Lord sent me on this path of blogging, my man and I were immersed in running a homeschool ministry for other Christian families. Each month I wrote articles for our newsletter encouraging the families to keep pressing on in raising their children in the Lord as they home-educated them. (Let me insert a little disclaimer here... I don't believe all families should homeschool. Now that I've said that, we can all be friends, right?) Anyways, my Beloved had been encouraging me to write for the Lord for the past 10 years and I, on the other hand, had been reluctant and too insecure to do so. The once a month articles were a big stretch for me but over time the Lord kept showing Himself and He continued to strengthen me as the articles I had written either received awards by organizations or were published in ezines.
I also heard from friends that I needed to keep speaking to others or that I should write a "How To" type of book. Well, while I appreciated their encouragement, I still wasn't comfortable getting out of the boat, per se, like Peter did when he attempted to walk on water to get to Jesus. Yes, I lacked faith in my abilities to communicate. Still do, quite honestly. But today I know full well where God has called me. It's right here, writing to you, His daughter, and I'm humbled and honored to share my life with you, my pain and struggles with you, the miracles that God has done in my life, and the things He has taught me, so I can in turn, minister to you. (Tears!) Just know that I'm not worthy to do any of this because I'm vile.
Now back to the book. One day in the Fall of 2010, my man said I should share with the women in our school all the ways I teach our boys how to focus on Christ at Christmas. Hmmm, you know, I can do that, after all, it's just a 'how to' book. In my mind, I kinda felt like I was listing out a recipe only my recipe was in the form of activities you can do with your children, rather than how to cook a chicken in the crockpot. By the way, my chicken always comes out dry, so if you've got any pointers, I'd love to hear them!
So I set out on this endeavor the day after Thanksgiving, which by the way, is not the best scheduling idea to get a Christmas book written, printed and into the hands of a mama who will be implementing some of the ideas in time for the Christmas season! I wrote it in a week and since I wanted to offer it to you, it needed some serious revisions.
I've since revised it to about 98%. I was hoping to have it completed and into your hands by the middle of this month. Well, that's not going to happen since I've done the Wives of the Bible Series. Boy, my mind sure is tired and I can use a nice break! And speaking of a break, I'm leaving for some beach camping, yes, beach camping in the middle of October! By the time you get this post I'll be enjoying the overcast skies of the beach; my favorite kind of weather!
So I'll be off the internet for awhile and when I come back I'll have lots of sand in our bags and I'll be well rested. Ha! Who am I kiddin'? Camping with kids is work! As I've said before, a family trip is not a vacation, it's just parenting in a different location!
Oh, and if you're a blogger and would like to do a fun giveaway with your subscribers, just contact me and I'll give you the link to my book so you can hand several copies of it out to your peeps!
Live a poured out life for Christ,
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