Hello, friends!
I took a quick peek at how long it’s been since I’ve written a post here and saw, to my chagrin, that it’s been a good 8 months or so. And, boy howdy, has a lot happened in those 8 months!
For starters, we both completed and began another year of homeschooling (our 11/12th respectively), hosted a Soul Sisters weekend retreat of my Instagram besties at our home, traveled to Colorado, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Pennsylvania, hosted a family Olympics with 100+ attendees, and hosted (phew, that’s a theme) a doozy of a “quad” birthday for our 9-year-old girl twins, Evy and Nola, and our 1-year-old boy twins, Titus and Tobias. (They were all born on September 24, so that’s pretty dang special).
Not only that, but I wrapped up every last bit of editing for my 11th baby and first book–M is for Mama: a Rebellion Against Mediocre Motherhood. After an 18 month process of writing + editing + co-designing illustrations (can’t WAIT for you to see those) with my best friend and business partner, Lindsay Long, it feels surreal to be able to tell you that it’s all finito! Not only that, but you can pre-order M is for Mama right this very second and expect it to ship to your door on Februrary 1, which, with the holidays looming, is going to be here frighteningly quickly! (Anybody else feel like, not very long ago, the year 2022 sounded like something from a sci-fi futuristic film and that we would all surely be operating flying cars by then?)
In case you’re wondering about the subtitle (I’m assuming the main title is self-explanatory, yes?), the Lord has been impressing upon me the need to buck an ever-growing trend of victim-mindset mothering and “good enough” parenting that, honestly, makes a mockery of the finished work of Christ on the cross for our sins.
That may sound like a bold statement, but if so, so be it! It’s time to be bold about proclaiming that, while, yes, being a mama is hard, it is not bad or inconvenient or distracting us from something more important.
As the oft-repeated but spot-on C.S. Lewis quote goes: “Children are not a distraction from more important work. They are the most important work.”
To believe otherwise is to discount the incredible privilege it is to raise souls entrusted to us by a good God who knew exactly what he was doing and what he wanted to accomplish when he gave us that tow-headed, dimply-elbowed, steel-willed little guy or that curly-mopped, sassy-spirited, firecracker of a girl.
I’ll give you a hint: he uses everything/everyone he places in our path (yes, that includes our children) to draw us closer to him and to conform us more closely to his image so we can then proclaim his love to a world in desperate need of goodness.
That’s why I wrote M is for Mama. Because I wanted to remind myself and you and your friend and her sister and their grandma, even, that “children are a blessing from the Lord” is not just some tired old phrase beginning to wear smooth on a plaque at the local Cracker Barrel.
It’s a battle cry that invites each and every weary Christian mother to take up the Sword of the Spirit, jam that Helmet of Salvation down around her ears, and wade into a knot of bickering children on the crumb-infested living room rug, wearing the breastplate of Christ’s righteousness, brandishing the Shield of Faith, feet shod with the Gospel of the Truth of Jesus Christ. (Word on the street is it won’t protect your feet from the razor-sharp sting of a Lego block, but it can help you not to curse when it happens).
We do not have to merely “make it” through one more day with our kids. There is hope for Biblical excellence in motherhood through a grace-filled yet gritty commitment to casting our cares on him and digging deep into what his Word really has to say about mothering well. Regardless of the war of mediocrity that our current culture wages against our best intentions, we are more than conquerors in Christ! We can rebel against the pull to meet the worldly mothering status quo.
Ready to join the revolution?!
If so, you can find out more about the book, read snippets from it, and get info about pre-order bonuses at M is for Mama Book. And as the official launch date approaches, I’ll be sharing more regularly here on the blog with you about my heart behind M is for Mama and Biblical motherhood as a whole.
I can’t wait to fight for Christlike motherhood beside you, shoulder to shoulder, in HIS strength!
Your fellow rebel,
Abbie
Abbie