Stay ConnectedThe Delighted Motherhood Podcast is devoted to applying biblical principles to everyday motherhood as we delight ourselves in the Lord and in the calling that He has given to us.
Kira is a homeschool mom to five young children, wife to James, a placemaker, neighbor, friend, Bible teacher, and SBTS grad. But more than anything else, she’s a Christian who is loved by her Savior and it is her conviction that we can, and should, enjoy our children to the glory of God.
Copyright: © 2023 Delighted Motherhood
Welcome to 2024! The start of the new year is also a helpful time for considering our ways and specifically how we spend our time.
Scripture teaches us that our lives are like a midst, we are here today and gone tomorrow.
How are we spending our time? What do our days look like? In what ways may God be calling us to re-evaluate our schedules? What things are most important to us?
In essence what are our priorities and how will it look like to accomplish our goals in the new year?
As D.A. Carson has said, “we don’t drift towards holiness.”
Listen in as we discuss three biblical principles and two helpful tools for keeping our daily routines on track.
For many of us, motherhood is anything but easy. From blowouts, to tantrums, learning difficulties, health problems, constant noise, conflict inside and outside our homes --the possibilities for us to feel like we are in an impossible season are endless. Sometimes this feeling of “hard” can feel completely overwhelming.
And the truth is that some of the demands of modern parenting that feel really hard are signs that something actually is wrong. When things are hard and overwhelming it is a good idea to wisely evaluate what is causing the "hard."
But is hard always a negative thing? Or could challenging circumstances actually be a gift in disguise? In what ways has worldly thinking colored the way Christians talk about the “hard” aspects of parenting?
Listen in to a helpful conversation with Abbie Halberstadt, Bible believing mom to ten and author of M is for Mama and Hard is Not the Same Thing as Bad about evaluating hard situations and allowing the Lord to refresh our mindset.
Advent, which officially begins this Sunday, December 3rd is a tradition that has been celebrated by Christians since the 5th century.
Advent, understood rightly, is a time for Christians to look back at God’s work in bringing the infant Savior into the world and look forward to when Christ will return as the glorious King to judge the living and dead and make all things new, right, and beautiful.
There are many different, valid and good ways to celebrate advent. In this episode I'll what advent looks like at our house and why we do what we do.
Resources:
Unwrapping the Greatest Gift Jesse Tree Printable pages --small coloring ornaments, full size coloring pages, Night Before Advent Party Guide , lots of other great free printable pages here!
The Lord chose to reveal himself to us through a story --a story that actively shapes us the more we study and understand it.
But it's not only the gospel narratives that we see in scripture that can shape us --all stories have a profound ability to cast us in their image.
The question is, what kind of stories are we listening to? As moms, why should we be particularly thoughtful about the stories that are defining our family culture? Not in a way that is fearful, but in a way that helps us to glory in the best story ever told?
As we head into the Christmas season, what are some particularly sweet stories and books we might share with our families? What traditions, old and new, might we enjoy together that will help us to reflect on the mystery of what God has done for us?
Listen in for an uplifting conversation with Leah Nicklaus, a homeschooling mama of five sweet and wild boys. Her family lives in Iowa where they are involved in their local church and community. Leah is passionate about beautiful books that point us to the gospel message, nourish our minds, and reveal what is good, true, and beautiful. You can follow her on Instagram at @lovingleadinglittles.
Check out Leah's top Christmas book recommendations here:
Picture Books:
The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree by Gloria Houston
The Christmas Promise by Alison Mitchell
Room for a Little One by Martin Waddell
The Tale of Three Trees by Angela Elwell Hunt
Mortimer's Christmas Manger by Karma Wilson
Christmas books by Jan BrettChapter Books:
A Tree for Peter by Kate Seredy
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
November is a time when many of us begin thinking more about service and giving. Our mailboxes begin to fill up with donation requests and full color gift catalogues and we often begin thinking about who we can bless others during the holiday season.
To that end, how can we invite our kids into the process of giving and serving? In what ways might we provide our kids opportunities to practice serving and giving within their regular rhythms? How can we, without being burdensome and overwhelming, foster hearts of generosity within our children and invite them to serve alongside?
Why, from a biblical perspective, should providing these opportunities be a priority? And how can the Lord bless our hearts and engage our minds in a deeper way through cultivating this regular, every day serving?
We serve a God that is abundant in generosity. Part of his generosity is inviting us to join him in being generous towards others. While for some generosity feels natural, for others it takes more work. Regardless of where you are, everyone always has room to grow. Like much of the Christian faith, generosity has to be developed.
Tune in for a wonderful conversation with the lovely Joanna Beasley, mom to three and church planter in an underserved area on the why behind prioritizing generosity and a few ideas of how to get kids involved.
Motherhood to little kids can be mentally and physically draining and sometimes it can feel like our husbands are the last people we feel like investing in. Or worse yet, we can use them as an outlet for our frustration.
But our words matter and they don’t just matter to our husbands. The words we speak to our husband will directly impact our kids.
As counterintuitive as it may seem, if we want our kids to thrive we must pay attention to how we speak to our husbands. How can we choose words that speak life, give grace, and strengthen our faith and our marriages?
Listen in for a helpful conversation with Sara Molitor -- a wife, mom to seven kids, and author of Well Said: Choosing Words that Speak Life, Give Grace, and Strengthen Your Faith and Family on why is it so important to focus on the heart behind our words.
October's Party by George Cooper describes a party, thrown by October herself, that everybody comes to and stays long after the party has officially ended.
October is a time for parties --but the very best kind of parties are those that focus specifically on the people we love most, our own dear families. As the days get shorter and the nights get colder, many of us will start to gravitate inside.
And as we do, what are strategies for making our dinnertimes magical? How can we make our tables warm, inviting and a place no one wants to leave?
If you are like me, you grew during the Leadership Craze. I went to half a dozen “leadership” camps during high school and when I was applying to college it seemed that every university was “training tomorrow's leaders.” Even at the time, this seemed like a bit much. I mean, we can't all be president.
Plus, this self-absorbed leadership didn't seem all that biblical (not that the training was self-absorbed, but simply how I perceived it).
The Bible seems to suggest that Christians ought to consider the interests of others before themselves and should humble themselves before the mighty hand of God. I should be caring for the least of these and seeking to live a peaceful and quiet life.
My life today is delightfully simple in many ways. I’m a stay-at-home mom, a member of my church, and a happy neighbor. My days consist of phonics lessons, reading stories about raccoons, and trying to fix our broken drain with my amazing lawyer husband who it turns out is also handy with a plumers snake.
So leadership really doesn’t apply to me, does it?
Or actually, maybe it still does. Because in my ordinary everyday life with little kids, I actually do a lot of leading.
And in your life, whether you are a mother or not a mother, I think you probably have a lot of leading to do as well.
How do we think about leadership from a biblical perspective? What is Leadership Emergence Theory? And how can leading with conviction, vision casting, honest self-reflection, communicating with clarity, and resourcing from the Holy Spirit benefit our little families?
As a whole, we are a people obsessed with the Fall. We love all things pumpkins, spice and everything in between and sometimes it can seem silly.
But is our wonder at the changing seasons silly? Or is it actually a gift from God? What eternal lessons might the Lord teach us through marveling in azure skies, observing brisk windy days, or baking brightly colored squash?
Daniel 2:21 says: “He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding”
Fall ought to be a time of wonder and a time that we marvel at the Lord who holds the planets in motion, who causes the earth to orbit the sun to give us the distinctions of Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter.
Listen in for an incredibly delightful conversation with Kelly Havens about eternal truths that God has woven throughout the natural world and for simple fun ways to invite our families into deeper worship through celebrating all the lovely delights of fall –apples, leaves, sewing, baking, good read-out-louds, and yes, tasty hot beverages.
Check out Kelly's amazing Instagram HERE!
The effects of PMS impact almost all of us. The National Institutes of Health report that 90% of women of reproductive age experience several premenstrual symptoms varying from mild to severe and 20-40 percent experience Premenstrual syndrome (PMS scientifically).
These monthly hormonal changes can manifest in a variety of symptoms from mood shifts, headaches, body pains, depression, anxiety, bloating, and irritability to just name a few.
In essence, PMS is a pain.
For most of us, it's a time when we are not on our A-game and when we feel physically and emotionally weak and messy. And it can make motherhood extra hard. How are we supposed to love our children when our brains feel like they are going to snap?
What does the Bible say about hormones or a woman’s monthly cycle and how to deal with it? How does a faithful understanding of the salvation story change how we cope with PMS? Thankfully, the Word of God has lots to say on this topic and many others like it.
Listen in to a helpful conversation with Krista Hart --Biblical counselor and mom to two teenagers-- on a Christian framework for dealing with hormones and some very practical nitty gritty strategies for coping with the effects of our cycles.
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Helpful links from Krista:
On Seasons of Hormonal Change
When It's "That TIme of the Month"
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