“If we are doing the Lord’s work, we can know our efforts are not in vain. Whether we are building a tent for the neighborhood children, cooking a tasty meal for a sick neighbor, or serving our own sick child with a tray of appealing goodies, we are teaching our children what it means to serve with hardworking hands.”

~ Sally Clarkson, Ministry of Motherhood, p. 200

I think of all things, my biggest frustration with service lies in one simple word ~ selfishness. It is so terribly simple to fall back into the mindset of ‘no one appreciates all that I am doing for them’. How often do I forget that I am called to serve not only those in my community, but especially those that are in my immediate surroundings.

Cheerfully.

Read more here…

“No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening ~ it is painful! But afterward there will be a quiet harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.”

~ Hebrews 12:11

This past week’s reading {chapters 15 and 16 in Ministry of Motherhood} talked about training our children in prayer and for difficult times. One of the questions for thought at the end of the section asked if we can think of areas/issues with our children where we tend to ‘back off’ from discipline because the process is uncomfortable.

Oh….yes. Yes. Yes.

Read more here…

Rarely do I find a non-fiction book {or author} that I actually finish and enjoy. I have a very poor track record of starting and re-shelving books.

Until Sally Clarkson. I enjoyed Seasons of a Mother’s Heart so much, dogearing pages and underlining so many parts of the book. It’s one that I will definitely read again. Then I took a little shopping trip on Amazon and bought almost every single one of her books.

I was SO excited to see that there is a Ministry of Motherhood Book Club starting up via Good Morning Girls. The book club starts Monday, May 23rd. I am starting up an ‘accountability’ group on my Blog Frog page if you would like to participate along in reading with us. Interested? Here is what you need to do to join!

1. Get your hands on Ministry of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson {also available on Kindle}! You still have time if you order it from Amazon. You can order the book here: http://amzn.to/mhRAuh

2. Print off the reading schedule, the first week of daily S.O.A.P notes from Good Morning Girls. There is also a fun book cover binder that you can slide into the front of a 1” binder to store all of your study notes. All downloads can be found here: http://bit.ly/koMvbr

The S.O.A.P. Method stands for:

1.  S– Write out the scripture passage for the day.

2. O– Write down 1 or 2 observations from the passage.

3. A– Write down 1-2 applications from the passage.

4. P– Pray over what you learned from today’s passage.

By the end of the 12 weeks, you will have written out and meditated on numerous verses all geared toward strengthening and growing us as mothers. Many days you will only see one verse listed to read….we do that for a reason! We want you to mediate, ponder, apply and eventually store these verses in our memory and hearts.

3. Join in my Blog Frog community and introduce yourself if you are planning to participate.

4. Keep an eye out for our book club accountability. I’ll be posting reminders and new conversations via Blog Frog during each week {don’t worry, I’ll also be sure to link via my Facebook page too}. There will not be a specific time for you to ‘check-in’ ~ you can chime in at any point during your day via the Blog Frog conversation. Our schedules are all different and I don’t want any of you to miss out.

5. Link up! I’ll be hosting a weekly link-up starting Friday, May 27th on my other blog, No Ordinary Moments. You can share a blog post that you’ve written during the week with something that impacted you from the book during the week. More info on that to follow soon!

6. 6. Fill in the answers to this quick survey ~ I just have a few questions for you about the Book Club: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Z99XY5G

You can read more about the S.O.A.P. method on Good Morning Girls. Good Morning Girls will also be providing the following support via their website:

On Monday’s, you’ll see Sally Clarkson’s exclusive videos pertaining to that week’s reading in Ministry of Motherhood.

On Wednesday’s, several bloggers will be guest posting on what they learned while reading Ministry of Motherhood!

On Friday’s, Courtney and Angela will close with a discussion on what we learned through that week’s reading as well as share our answers to some of the discussion questions.

Sound like something that you would like to do? I would LOVE for you to join me in reading along {and help keep ME accountable too!} in the next 12 weeks. Be sure to stop by my Blog Frog page and introduce yourself!! Leave a comment if you have any questions. :)