Moms, we’ve all been there—the moments when we want to step in, fix everything, and control every detail of our kids’ lives. But what happens when we can’t? When their paths take unexpected turns, or their choices challenge our expectations?

In Episode 109 of the Mom to Mom Podcast, we’re diving into Embracing the Unexpected in Parenting. In this heartfelt conversation, we talk about what it really means to let go of the need to control every aspect of our children’s journeys—even when they make decisions we don’t agree with. It’s about learning to surrender in all seasons of their lives, trusting that God is at work, even when the path looks different than we imagined.

From trusting God’s plan to finding peace in the challenges we never saw coming, we’ll share practical tips on how to release control and allow God to work through the unexpected. 1 Peter 5:7

If you’ve ever struggled with letting go, this episode is for you. We explore how to support our children with love and faith, without micromanaging their lives—because surrendering them to God’s care can lead to a deeper peace for us, too.

Tune in for real talk, encouragement, and a reminder that we don’t have to have all the answers to trust in God’s perfect plan.

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." -Philippians 4:6-7

Thank you to this season's sponsor, BJU Press. You can find them at https://www.bjupress.com/

We are living in a world of quick fixes and instant everything.  In just a few clicks, we can have nearly anything we want in less than 24 hours. We want it fast, and we want it now. 

But God isn’t in a hurry, and as we grow in our relationship with Him, we have to learn to trust His timing in everything, no matter how long it takes.

As moms, how do we resist the urge to expect immediate results in both our spiritual lives and with parenting our kids?

How do we model it, teaching them to trust God’s timing?

Our culture is speeding up, but He’s calling us to slow down and do the opposite of what the world is doing.

So, how do we learn to slow down and trust His timing in a world shouting at us to hurry up? 

Join Kate, September, and Jamie as we share what has helped us develop spiritual patience and endurance for the long haul of parenting.

"Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage. Wait for the Lord." -Psalm 27:14

Thank you to this season's sponsor, BJU Press. You can find them at https://www.bjupress.com/

Our culture in general seems obsessed with the idea of "hustle." But for some of us, a side hustle can make all the difference in meeting our desire to stay-at-home with our kids as well as providing additional income or bringing personal satisfaction in an area of interest outside of motherhood.

Listen as Jamie, Kate and September delve into the topic of side-hustles (specifically for stay-at-home moms) and share insights and practical tips on how to balance family life and side-hustles, as well as how to identify profitable opportunities that may be better suited than others to you and your family.

As always, we’d love to connect with you! Join the conversation on Instagram and Facebook. 

It’s that time of year again! When we line up backpacks, lunch bags, piles of notebooks and return to a routine of academia, more structure and new beginnings for our kids. Back to School Season always brings a mix of emotions for moms. We're excited to have more routine after some much-needed summer flexibility. We're happy to see our kids back to learning and growing and we crave the newness of another school year.

The busyness of fall will be here before you know it. And while you won’t be able to control every part of those chaotic days, you can take charge of a few things. You can control what you can control. Meal planning is one of those easy wins. By just putting a few systems in place, you can not only save your sanity, but also your time, your budget, and in some ways, your waistline and health because a plan will help you eliminate the need to eat out or eat easy.

We all know a great and godly marriage takes work. And it's also fair to say that motherhood is a full-time job of its own as well. It's a delicate balance. How DO we find the time, the space, the energy, and the focus to keep both relationships healthy and strong? Is it possible?

As the old saying goes, “More is caught than taught.” And there aren't too many examples of that proverb that carry more weight than character. Mamas, whether we want to admit it or not, little eyes are watching us. And they are going to parrot back, not just what we say, but what we do. So it goes without saying that if we want to raise kids with character, we have to lead by example.

It’s summer, school is out, and now it’s your chance, mama, to take a little “me” time. You’ve been making lunches, carpooling, driving the kids to soccer or ballet or violin lessons or whatever your children might be interested in every week for months on end so, not having to drive endlessly every day is a blessing! However, summer can become just as busy as the school year. We're hoping you’ll have some time to yourself over the next couple of months.

Mothering is no easy task. It requires much of you and can often leave you feeling overworked, understaffed, and pulled at every angle. But couple the never-ending job of mothering with an introverted personality--a personality that craves alone time in quiet spaces--and you add extra layers of guilt, frustration, and overwhelm.

Your children are growing up. They’re heading out of the nest soon and all those years of love and sacrifice, cooking and cleaning, disciplining and discipling, yelling and listening are coming to an unceremonious end. This is your invitation to Act 2, to Motherhood: The After Party.

Because Mother's Day is right around the corner, we thought it would be fun to share some of our top favorite mom tips, recommendations, and ideas for all moms! It doesn't matter which season you may be in right now, this special Mother's Day bonus episode was made with you in mind. From hospitality to busy days, here are our favorite mom favorites! Be sure to check out the show notes for all the links.

The world would like women to believe that faith in Christ pushes women down and makes them “lesser than”--that the church holds women back or more aptly, that Jesus holds women back. Perhaps in an attempt to right that wrong, the current Christian culture has swung the pendulum in the opposite direction, encouraging women to rise up, to demand platforms and blow horns, to power grab for what is rightfully ours. This Girl Power Gospel has invaded the church and is a dangerous message.

Today anything you want is right at your fingertips and though life might be more convenient, it isn’t easier. In fact, it’s busier than ever! Today we’re chatting about the overwhelm of motherhood. Between the three of us, we have 16 children and have experienced more than our share of overwhelm in our mothering journeys. The stress of a jam-packed schedule can actually alter a child’s DNA and it shrinks brain capacity. That’s terrifying! So, let’s talk about Mom Overwhelm and how we can c

We live in a crazy, mixed-up world, vastly different from the world 20 years ago. Back then, there were no cell phones, only very rudimentary computers, no internet or social media and the world seemed much calmer as we all had more time to spend in face-to-face communication. We weren’t looking more at our phones and less at the world around us, the way many of us do today. Just stand in line at a restaurant or sit at your gate in the airport: ninety percent of people are staring at their phones rather than interacting with the ones around them!

But even 20 years ago, parents still needed to impart basic life skills to children, skills all kids need to learn before they move into life as an adult. There are several critical ones that Kate, Jamie, and September are going to chat about today. Listen as they hit on some of the major topics for the current culture we are living in right now.

For more information and resources mentioned in this episode, see the show notes at our Mom to Mom Podcast website.

A 2017 Gallup poll showed the largest decline of overall feelings of well-being (or joy) in the last 10 years. We’re lonely, disconnected, and discontent with our lives. Now, I don’t think we can pin all of our troubles on comparison. But, I do think that the longing of all of humanity to be more like this, and less like that--to have more of this and less of that--our tendency to make tally marks and tier levels out of virtually everything contributes greatly to our overall joylessness.

There is no greater gift to give your children than God's Word hidden in their hearts. Motherhood is a wide-open invitation to living a life led and loved by Jesus. You are the walking, talking example of God’s love they will remember. Today, we want to talk about the two biggest obstacles that intimidate us from teaching our kids about Jesus: Time and Knowledge. God’s Word is not intimidating, but it is our fear of not bringing it alive that can sometimes stall us.

We’ve all heard the saying, “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.” Right? I hate to tell you, friends, but that saying couldn’t be further from the truth! Proverbs 18:21 tells us, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” Today we’re talking all things words--how our words are either going to build up or tear down our children (not to mention husbands and all the other people in our lives!)

Thank you for joining in the conversation today as we chat about allowing other women into your space, tearing down the walls of fear in perfection, and asking for help from Biblical Mentors. We know that Motherhood can feel lonely and isolating. But, Titus-2 type relationships can create safe places to not only get answers and directions but also to feel loved and encouraged.

We are 3 generations of moms--each about 10 years apart--whose paths to motherhood have all been unique. Though our methods and perspectives are quite different, our mission is the same: to draw others, especially our children, to the Gospel.   In this episode, we share our greatest mothering struggles and strengths.

Months after Jamie wrote her first book, Homeschool Bravely, she was being interviewed on a podcast. And while she doesn’t remember much about that particular show, she does remember one particular question the host lobbed her way. She was asked, do you still have fears when it comes to your mothering? The podcaster was specifically referring to fears about homeschooling, and so Jamie's answer took the conversation in a different direction than she was shooting for. Jamie answered, “Yep, I fear what will happen when everything I have poured into them over the years is now theirs to do with as they will. I pray they will hold fast to their faith and the truth of God’s Word. I pray 2 Timothy 3:14 for them, “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it.” But then we have to let those fears go, give them to the Holy Spirit and trust that in God’s great love for them, He’ll continue to chase after them even when our role in their lives shifts. That interview was nearly 4 years ago. Jamie now has a grown adult child, and yet she still nurses some of those same fears. 

Today, Jamie hopes that Kate and September, in their hard-won wisdom, can calm not just her fears about parenting adult children, but all of our fears.  We can use all the advice we can get! So, let's turn to our mentor moms and come expecting lots of answers!

For Christian families, discipleship that goes to a child’s heart will give them a passion for Jesus like nothing else.  We mamas do our utmost to raise our children according to biblical principles and standards as we do our best to model Christ’s love to them and everyone in our lives.

To chat all about how to focus on discipleship and why it’s so critical for our kids, we’re welcoming Leslie Nunnery, an author and mom of four who along with her husband, David, founded Teach Them Diligently, the nation's premier source for gospel-centered homeschool events. Leslie has been on our podcast before, on Episode 53 which is all about finding your parenting vision and is well worth listening to. She’s the author of two books and she’s written multiple homeschool courses. But whether you homeschool or not, Leslie is full of wisdom about how we can focus on discipleship and why it’s absolutely critical to Christian families, especially in the times we live in. 

Visit Teach Them Diligently, for resources and experiences to strengthen Christian families, at teachthemdiligently.net. You can also register for Teach Them Diligently Conferences, by clicking here. If you do attend, please come to our Mom to Mom panel presentation and say Hi! We’d love to meet you!

Ep. 53: Find Your Parenting Vision with Leslie Nunnery

Ep. 55: Discipline that Connects to the Heart with Jim & Lynne Jackson

As always, we’d love to connect with you on Instagram and Facebook. 

A few years into her mothering, Jamie decided that she wanted to put more emphasis on Easter in her home. It bothered her that Christmas–the day set aside to remember the birth of Christ--had become an entire season of celebration and yet Easter–the day honoring His ultimate sacrifice on the cross and His miraculous resurrection was just defined by most of the evangelical church, herself included, with a few lilies at the front of the sanctuary, maybe some new dress clothes most kids didn’t want to wear, and a basket of candy. She wanted her kids to see that both moments of Christ’s life–His birth and His death–were equally important in their faith.

In this episode, Kate, September, and Jamie chat about Easter and how they’ve found ways to center the season on Christ. We’d love to know how you mark the sacredness of Easter in the ordinary of your days. Find us on Facebook or Instagram and tell us all about it!

Today we’re welcoming Jess Ronne to the podcast. Jess is the author of Sunlight Burning at Midnight,  founder of a non-profit, and mom of 8 including  her son, Lucas, born with profound disabilities. Jess became a widow and single mom at 33, after losing her husband to a brain tumor. She had 4 children under 6, and after several years, she met Ryan Ronne, a widower with 3 children. They married and had a child together in 2015.

At that point, her son Lucas was entering puberty, and raising him became more challenging every day. She and Ryan sought out resources and support for caregivers, but, try as they might, they couldn’t find any community  for caregivers desperate for a break. So she founded her own non-profit, The Lucas Project, to help families with special needs. She realized early on, her efforts needed to include respite care for the caregivers, advice to help all of us to recognize their needs, and practical ways we can help.  Not only do disabled individuals need lifelong care, but their caregivers do as well.

Resources & Links:

Sunlight Burning at Midnight, the new book by Jess Ronne

Unseen: How We’re Failing Parent Caregivers and Why it Matters, an unfiltered, honest documentary that takes a glimpse into the lives of the Ronnes, to enable a change for millions of caregivers and their families.

The Lucas Project, providing recognition, respite and resources to family caregivers of those with special needs.

Jess Ronne's blog, jessplusthemess.com

The Ostrich and Other Lost Things by Beth Hautala

“But so-and-so has one.” “It’s all your fault.” “That’s not fair.” As moms, we’ve all heard these dramatic declarations on occasion–often at full volume and packaged in tears. But while in their immaturity, kids can be prone to selfishness, if left unchecked these self-seeking desires can morph into an unholy trinity of Me, Myself, and I. 

Today, Kate, September, and Jamie chat about curbing this “self” epidemic prevalent in our culture in adults and kids alike. Some folks would call this me-first attitude "privileged." Others might use the word “spoiled.” But for the sake of this conversation, they'll use the word "entitled."

We’d love to meet you on Instagram or Facebook, so feel free to follow us there. And, we’d be deeply grateful if you left us a review on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or Spotify, and shared our podcast with other moms who’d love to join us.

Mamas, God designed sex and it is a great gift to us in marriage, but sometimes it can also lead to frustrations and hurt feelings.  The world has such a fractured view of sex, but we think part of the reason sex has become so distorted in our culture is that we’re not having these kinds of conversations.  

We're sure you can tell by the title of this episode that this is not going to be a G-rated discussion! Now would be a great time to hit pause if there are kids around and find a way to listen privately, perhaps even alone with your spouse.

We’re talking about sex today with our friend Francie Winslow, the host of the Heaven in Your Home podcast and an outspoken advocate for Biblical intimacy between husbands and wives.

Join us for this hard, yet importantly honest, discussion.  Find more from Francie at her website, www.franciewinslow.com and as always, join the conversation with us on Instagram at @momtomompodcast.

It can be a big challenge coming up with healthy meals for your family day after day. But we all want our families to be as healthy as they can, right? Food has a huge impact on maintaining our health and gives us the energy to tackle all the tasks we deal with every day. It’s tough, yes, but it’s certainly not impossible to make healthy choices,  and I'm sure many of you are doing it successfully.

But what about the woman who’s not? Her day can quickly get overwhelming, especially when she’s got littles at home. Or, maybe she works or has a part-time job and the time to prepare simply slips away. It's easy to feel guilty and anxious about what you’re eating and feeding your family, and we certainly don’t want this episode to put any more pressure on you than you might be putting on yourself. But, it’s an important area to examine and see what simple changes might work for you and your family.  So, lets dive in and chat about the proactive things we can start to do to eat healthier.

Also listen to Ep. 12: Meal Planning Hacks for the Busy Mom for more healthy eating ideas!

We’d love to meet you on Instagram or Facebook, so feel free to follow us there. And, we’d be deeply grateful if you left us a review on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or Spotify, and shared our podcast with other moms who’d love to join us.

As women, we live in a world of confusion and comparison over our bodies. Even our womanhood is under “attack.” Raising girls in this next generation with healthy body image is even more challenging in a day when social media heavily influences what we see, think and choose to do or not to do with our minds and our bodies because a healthy body image begins in the mind!

A lot of times, women in our circles speak of childbirth or motherhood as an attack on their body image, but we have been doing some deep thinking on this and if we are being completely honest, any struggles we had with our bodies began long before we had any children!

Listen in this episode as we discuss our own struggles with body image, and share some of the ways we've found to make peace with how God has fearfully and wonderfully created us!  You can join the conversation over on Instagram at @momtomompodcast!

The Mom to Mom Podcast is back with Season 6!! Kate, September and Jamie are excited and ready to dive into a fresh new season focusing on the need for steadfastness—in our faith and motherhood.

In today's episode we're catching you up on what’s been happening in our lives and previewing where we’re headed next in this new season. Whether you’ve been with us from the beginning or are just tuning in for the first time, we invite you to come along with us as we talk about the real-life joys and challenges of motherhood, faith, homeschooling, and everything in between.

"And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds." -Hebrews 10:24

Thank you to this season's sponsor, BJU Press. You can find them at https://www.bjupress.com/

In episode 92, The Well-Read Mother with Jennifer Pepito, Jennifer shared with us all about how reading great books has shaped her motherhood. As we alluded to in that episode, we have been shaped by books too! So in this episode, we want to flip the mic back around and have our chance to share with you some of the books we continue to go back to – books that have mothered us.  

Be sure to grab our list of the many favorites that we just couldn’t get to in this recording – books that maybe didn’t fit one of these specific categories but which has walked through a different season with each of us! The list is at the show notes for this episode on The Mom to Mom Podcast website.

The best kind of mentor for motherhood is a real life one, but sometimes that’s just not possible. When needed, a book can be a great alternative.  Fortunately, we've had Titus 2 examples and the wisdom of other trusted women in our lives because we’ve always surrounded ourselves with good books. Voices of encouragement, discipleship, and practical help have rung out to us from these pages and have helped shape our day-to-day faithfulness to our husbands, our children, our ministry commitments, our walk with the Lord…pretty much every area of our lives!

In today's episode, Jamie Erickson and September McCarthy speak with Jennifer Pepito, author of Mothering By the Book: the Power in Reading Aloud to Overcome Fear and Recapture Joy. They discuss the importance of reading aloud to your kids, making time for personal reading in the busyness of our day, and options for the mom who isn't a reader.

We’d love to know what books have been meaningful to you. Which ones do you find yourself going back to again and again for wisdom, for spiritual discipleship, for practical advice? Join us over on Instagram or Facebook to continue the discussion. 

Resources & Links

Mothering By the Book: the Power in Reading Aloud to Overcome Fear and Recapture Joy by Jennifer Pepito, www.motheringbythebook.com
The Peaceful Press Shop
Jennifer Pepito on Instagram at @thepeacefulpress and @jenniferpepito

When was the last time you took a "date night?" Is this an outdated, old-fashioned idea that seems elusive to busy parents who cannot even find time for a minute alone? 

This episode is all about date nights and how we make it happen even when we aren’t feeling the “love?” Maybe that’s you? Or maybe you have tried date nights and have just run out of ideas or haven’t considered the importance of this time away?

Don’t forget to check out our date night list in the show notes for this episode on The Mom to Mom Podcast website (and this time, we will include them on our Instagram feed as well.)

Try a date night. What do you have to lose?

In today's episode, we're talking about the little years, and although we have all graduated or semi-graduated from those days, we walked through them for a long time and the conversation is never dull or old when we remember or re-invite others to the table to talk about those very formative and busy, crazy years.

For links to some of our favorite practical hands-on helpful tools and resources, as well as ideas to help you bring the Word to life in the lives of your littles, please visit the show notes for this episode on The Mom to Mom Podcast website!

Tis the season. Or at least ‘tis almost the season. Now is the time to start making a Christmas list for all the special people in your life. We don’t know about you, but we don’t want the marketing gurus of Target and Walmart to determine what to put under our trees! Instead of just searching the sales ads or the store shelves for some random something, we find it more helpful to mull over the recommendations of trusted friends – folks who have used and enjoyed certain things and can vouch for their value.

So, that’s what we do in today's episode – we'll be the friends that share what we’ve enjoyed, what our people have enjoyed – in case... like us... you find it helpful to have a few recommendations to get you started as you plan gifts for your people.

For links to all the gift ideas mentioned, please visit the show notes for this episode on The Mom to Mom Podcast website!

There’s a spiritual battle going on in our culture today, Mama, and it’s a battle for our children’s hearts, minds, and bodies. Just turn on your TV and watch the news, or scroll through Facebook, TikTok, or Instagram. It’s everywhere your kids are and everywhere you don’t want them to be.  What can we, as moms, do to stem the tide of corruption targeting our kids?

In today's episode, September, Jamie and Kate chat about how they are raising Christian kids in an unstable world and how we can help our children to not only stay pure, but desire purity. 

• “Keep your heart with all diligence for out of it spring the issues of life.” Proverbs 4:24.
• “As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15.
• “He who loves purity of heart and has grace on his lips, the king shall be his friend.” Proverbs 22:11
• “I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. I will set no wicked (worthless) think before my eyes.” Psalm 101: 2b-3a.
• “Finally brethren, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things.” Philippians 3:8

Are you curious about the lifestyle called hygge?  According to co-host Jamie Erickson, the word comes from the British and Norwegian words for hug, and it's a quality of coziness and comfortable conviviality from fostering a life of comfort, contentment and rest.

In today's episode, Jamie discusses her newly released book, Holy Hygge: Creating a Place for People to Gather and the Gospel to Grow, with Mom to Mom co-hosts, Kate Battistelli and September McCarthy.  While the book breaks down each of the tenets of hygge and examines them in light of the Gospel, the ladies discuss what hygge is and how it can be a versatile tool in demonstrating the Gospel to the world as well as within our homes.

For more on Holy Hygge: Creating a Place for People to Gather and the Gospel to Grow by Jamie Erickson, please visit www.jamieerickson.com/holy-hygge

Marriage is God-ordained.  It’s God’s gift to mankind, as He initiated the very first marriage in Genesis. Its purpose is to bring joy to us, bring glory to Him, and raise Godly families. He gave marriage to us to make our lives more fulfilling and richer, ultimately drawing us closer to God.

As soon as two become one through marriage, their relationship changes, and they are unified in a mysterious way, different from any other human relationship, with eternal significance. God’s design for marriage is companionship, purpose, and passion.

And although every marriage comes with pitfalls, there are steps we can take to strengthen our relationship with our spouse even after physical or emotional infidelity and model what Christ taught us about loving and forgiving others.

Everyone wants to feel at home in their home. For some of us, nothing can be further from the truth. Our homes are sterile, uninspiring, or on the flip side cluttered and overwhelming. The good news is, transformation can often happen with just a few tweaks here and there. Today, we're joined by Marian Parson, known online as Miss Mustard Seed.

Marian is a pastor's wife, mother of two boys, paint enthusiast, and lover of all things home. She’s recently released her fifth book, Feels Like Home: Transforming Your Space from Uninspiring to Uniquely Yours and she’s here to specifically give hope to those of us who are chronically hesitant decorators who might want to transform their spaces but aren’t sure where to start.

We realize that abortion is a very tender topic for some listeners, especially in light of the recent reversal of Roe vs. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court. To be honest, it’s a very tender topic for each of us on the show. All three of us have been touched by the effects of abortion in some way or another. Our goal today is not to pass judgment or to point fingers. Instead, we hope to do two things: First, share our stories and the truth of Scripture to offer help, hope, and healing to anyone who might need it, and second: equip others to help their family, friends, and neighbors choose life.

We are joined by Abby Johnson, former clinic director for Planned Parenthood and now an outspoken advocate of the pro-life movement.

With full fall schedules just around the corner, now's the best time to get into a good meal-planning rhythm. We've gathered up our best tricks and tips for putting dinner on the table with ease and have put them all in this jam-packed episode. By just putting a few systems in place, you can not only save your sanity, but also your time, your budget, and in some ways, your waistline and health because a plan will help you eliminate the need to eat out or eat easy.

This episode originally aired in Season 1 of our show. Be sure to head to https://momtomompodcast.com/12 for the show notes.

Life isn’t always as smooth and happy as a Hallmark commercial. For some of us, tragedy arrives out of the blue, shattering every truth about God we thought we knew. It can come through divorce, death of a loved one, the loss of a secure job, or the loss of a spouse.

How do you find your Rock in the midst of devastation? How do you find unshakeable peace? Danita Jenae has walked the road of deep loss after suddenly losing her husband Dan. In her new book, When Mountains Crumble, she shares a compelling message for the brokenhearted.

Summer is upon us and if you live in a place that is buried under snow for what feels like 95% of the year, you want to take full advantage of all three weeks of it. You welcome the sunburned noses, the skinned knees, and even the mosquito bites that are the required dress code of summer. Some moms, whether because of personality or daily responsibilities,  find summer easy–they become less structured, more breezy, and naturally more fun.

But for some of us, our expectations of summer fun fall far short of our realities. We want to be the fun summer mom, but we’re perhaps more Type A. Or maybe our schedules and responsibilities don’t shift or we just prefer the Great Indoors.

But here’s the thing, no matter our personalities or daily schedules, you and I  most likely only have 18 summers to spend with our kids without adulthood handing them adultish things–18 chances to squeeze in adventures and make lasting memories. Let’s not let this summer just slip by. Let’s grab a hold and make the best of it!

Mom anger is real, it is hidden, it is often something that takes the calmest and even the most loving and positive mother by surprise, and is one of the most shameful and embarrassing topics in mom circles because most mothers think they must be the only ones who get angry with their children.

From our children’s immaturity, our own personal struggles, our circumstances, and a child’s behavior, we all have moments where our children have not seen the best in us. And most of the time, it is directed or misdirected at them.  Which is the last thing any of us want for our motherhood or for our children.

Today, we  are chatting with Amber Lia, a native of California, married to her husband Guy and raising four boys. Amber is an author, speaker, life and health coach and this topic brought her book Triggers, to the top selling list, as it caught the attention of many desperate mamas, finding help and encouragement with our Mom Rage.

Moms, we are in a battle--a battle against the culture for the hearts and minds of our children. Today, Heidi St. John has joined us to help us prepare for it.  

Heidi has an uncanny ability to bypass our prejudices and preconceptions allowing her to speak directly to the heart of every mother as she offers wisdom, inspiration and grace to those who are all too often feeling overwhelmed by all that's on their plate. Heidi’s been married to her husband Jay since 1989. Together they have seven children and several grandkids. The St. John children range in age from tweens to adults. They’ve homeschooled their kids all the way through high school, with 5 graduates now. In addition to all this, Heidi is running for Congress for the 3rd district of Washington state.

We don’t know what myths…or really lies you’ve believed about what it means to be a “good” mom, but we hope that our discussion today will dispel some of those misguided beliefs.

The truth is, we’re all in process–trying to be the best moms we can be to the children that God has specifically given to us to mother. We’re gonna get it right some times and we’re gonna mess it up at other times. But, let’s not get discouraged in doing well. Let’s remember Philippians 1:6 “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” That’s not a myth. That’s a truth and a promise, not just for you but for your kids.

If you’re raising a strong-willed child, you’re well aware of it without having anyone tell you. Strong-willed kids aren’t bad but they can be incredibly frustrating. They’re often smart and confident, able to problem solve quickly, and are determined to achieve their goals. Although those are great traits, they’re probably not the first things that pop in your mind when you think about your child.

The defiance can be exhausting and the disrespect crushing. The weight of it all can exhaust you and become all-consuming.

Strong-willed children crave two things: respect and choice. So how do you find out what makes them behave the way they do? What do they need from you to help you both move forward and build on their strengths?

Motherhood can be overwhelming and quite honestly, as much as we organize, set up boundaries, and have a healthy view of our daily life, the peace and joy may be absent from our soul and our calm feels like chaos.  How can a mom be transformed from the inside out?

Today’s guest, Tricia Goyer, understands what it’s like to be pulled in a dozen different directions with the longing and intention to do all things well.

Perimenopause and menopause are God-designed. They are seasons that can and should be welcomed and celebrated. But unfortunately, they are often talked about with undertones of regret, embarrassment, or lament.

Today, we hope to change the narrative.

In Psalm 141:3, we read, “Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips!” This verse echos the theme of dozens and dozens of verses in Scripture. And it’s not by accident that God warns us more than once to watch what we say. Our tongues are powerful and as we’ve mentioned before on the show, they can give life. Today's guest, Ginger Hubbard, is here to give us some tips for taming our kids' tongues so that they too might speak life. 

It’s been said that lost time is never found again. You have but one life to live. So, how you use your time each day really counts. Today, we are looking back on all the promises we made to ourselves last month and doing a quick assessment of our goals. Hopefully our chat will be like a shot in the arm to you to keep pressing in to yours.

We all know a great and godly marriage takes work. And it’s also fair to say that motherhood is a full-time job of its own as well. It’s a delicate balance. How DO we find the time, the space, the energy, and the focus to keep both relationships healthy and strong?  Is it possible?

This episode originally aired in Season 1 of our show. Be sure to head to https://momtomompodcast.com/11 for the show notes.