Nov
2
52home
Filed under Biblical Womanhood | 52home
For years we’ve received notes from husbands of our readers who have sheepishly confessed to reading girltalk and wondered if there would ever be an alternative for the guys. Well, the day has finally come. The two male members of the Mahaney family have started a website, all about sports. Chad and Dad Sports Talk features a weekly podcast and articles which seek to bring a unique, gospel-driven discernment to sports.
As Chad wrote in the debut article:
“My dad and I have always shared a unique love for sports. I am one of four children in our family, and I am his only son; so my dad and I have talked a lot of sports while patiently waiting for the girls to finish shopping. Those talks, though they seemed inconsequential at the time, have dramatically influenced the way I watch, talk about, and play sports.”
Dad and Chad want to help parents and children, athletes and coaches, and sports fans everywhere to not waste their sports.
So tell the guys in your life to tune in, and if you are sports fans like we are (kinda!) you may enjoy it too!
So often, we moms evaluate our own mothering by our worst days and compare ourselves to other moms on their best days. But both measurements are wrong and can result in a whole lot of unnecessary (not to mention ungodly) anxiety, false guilt, and self-pity.
When we get back from that awful trip to the grocery store with three small fussy children, or endure an entire day of teenage sullenness we conclude that this “worst day ever” is the measure of our mothering: total failure.
But then we go online—where a whole lot of mothering “best days” are to be found—and assume other moms have it altogether.
We read a mom-blog with gorgeous photographs of a creatively decorated, perfectly clean and organized children’s room and we assume this must be what this woman’s entire house looks like all the time.
Or our Facebook feed is full of parental reports of children’s latest sibling-loving, super-adorable, mature-beyond-their-years comments and we assume that this is what conversations in those homes must sound like all the time.
Or we pop over to Pinterest only to conclude that every other woman must serve fresh, delicious, beautiful, organic meals to her family all the time.
What we can’t see online are the ten messy-house, fussy-children, cereal-for-dinner days for every one Pinterest-perfect moment. So we must be alert to our temptation to compare ourselves to a false standard—a picture that someone else is trying to portray, or that we have filled out in our own minds based on a single snapshot.
And if browsing routinely leaves us prone to compare, overwhelmed, and guilt-ridden, then it may be a sign we need to cut back online and return regularly and ruthlessly to Scripture: to remind us that each day (for every mom!) has enough trouble of its own (Matt 6:34), but also that “as your days, so shall your strength be” (Deut. 33:25) and that if we do not grow weary in doing good, in due season we will reap if we do not give up (Gal 6:9).
Kathy Keller provides an important and insightful critique of a new book by Rachel Held Evans entitled A Year of Biblical Womanhood. Your discernment will be sharpened by reading this review:
Rachel, I can and do agree with much of what you say in your book regarding the ways in which either poor biblical interpretation or patriarchal customs have sinfully oppressed women. I would join you in exposing churches, books, teachers, and leaders who have imposed a human agenda on the Bible. However, you have become what you claim to despise; you have imposed your own agenda on Scripture in order to advance your own goals. In doing so, you have further muddied the waters of biblical interpretation instead of bringing any clarity to the task.
As a woman also engaged in trying to understand the Bible as it relates to gender, I had hoped for better.
It’s that time of year when Christmas begins to creep up on me faster than I expect—only eight more weeks!. And while I haven’t even begun to think about shopping and baking and decorating, things are already looking very Christmasy over at 52home. Janelle has rolled out a bunch of new products that make fun and creative Christmas gifts for family and friends. She’ll be featuring some of her new products this week on the blog, and I will be adding them to my personal Christmas wish-list!
Mike and I have a new best friend. It’s the man that drives this truck. He just crawled under our house and removed a dead and decomposing opossum. Unpleasant thought, I know. And while that is a terribly unpleasant thought, let me just tell you, “unpleasant” doesn’t even begin to describe the smell. By this morning, the odor had spread through the entire house, making it impossible to even stay there anymore.Thank you Lord for Chik-fil-A and a mom and two sisters who let your crazy family crash at their houses. Our new best friend did give us some good news as he was leaving- the smell should only last a couple more days. Seriously?!?!
