I once heard being a mom described in this way and it has forever stuck with me:

“…It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body” ~ Elizabeth Stone

Being is mom is exhilarating, fulfilling and comforting…
but at the same time it can be nerve-wracking, frustrating and downright scary!

Never has that been more true than in our world today.

Long gone are the days of our grandparents, where unlocked doors and bare feet were the norm in most of their stories.

Instead, today’s parenting tales are replaced with cell phone monitoring, screen time limits, school metal detectors and social media warnings.

And don’t even get me started on the natural disasters and terrorist attacks I’ve had to explain to my children over the past decade.

Yet amidst it all, we’re supposed to not only maintain a sense of peace but also somehow convey that same sense of love and stability to our offspring.

Not an easy job, is it?

While we will never be able to explain any of these circumstances away, we can parent through them.

After all, we were not made for this world, nor are we to conform to the pattern of this world! (Romans 12) When we place our hope and faith in Christ, He equips us with the confidence necessary to traverse anything that could possibly come up against us, regardless of whether that’s having to explain why terrorists put bombs in garbage cans or why we can’t buy candy in the grocery store check-out line (both of which can be equally monumental to a child…)

Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans. ~ Proverbs 16:3

Being a mom doesn’t mean having all the answers, but it does mean knowing who to turn to when we don’t.
Being a mom doesn’t mean always saying yes, but it does mean acting in love regardless of how we feel.
Being a mom doesn’t mean settling for satisfactory; it means pursuing with passion!

While I love reading (both for myself and to my children), I don’t often recommend parenting books. However a new book I would strongly suggest you check out is The Passionate Mom by Susan Merrill.

This book is far from a manual, but instead a thoughtful roadmap for how a passionate mom can parent almost any child…confidently.

Of course if you’re looking for that delightful book to read to your younger children this Mother’s Day, one of our favorite children’s authors, Amy Parker, wrote “Thank You God for Mommy” which has quickly become a family favorite for its simple yet poignant way it conveys the sweet relationship between a mother and child.

I would challenge you in this month that we celebrate mothers to spend more time on cherishing each other on every day other than Mother’s Day, rather than focusing all your efforts on a single day than neglecting the rest.

After all, none of us are guaranteed any moment past the one we’re living, so we better make that one count.

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With a passion for teaching and mentoring others as her inspiration, Sami Cone began blogging in 2009 to encourage others to live their dream life and pursue their passions. A published author and seminar speaker, she draws on her experiences as a writer, editor, university professor, performer, professional athlete, and pageant winner to help women realize their full potential in life. Sami appears regularly on TV & Radio as a Frugal Expert and has been blogging for Tommy Nelson since 2010. Sami and her husband of seven years, Rick, thrive in Nashville with their two children.

Did you know April 30 is National Honesty Day? I didn’t either until recently! So this month, I wanted to give you 30 tips to help keep your kids honest; consider it a countdown of sorts.

As parents, once of the most difficult tasks we’re charged with is teaching our kids the importance and value of honesty. But in order to accomplish that, we need to show them practical ways to live it out, instead of just listening to it!

So to help you in your plight, here are 30 ways to encourage your kids to walk in the ways of honesty and truth:
1. Keep them accountable for their actions
2. Listen as they speak to friends & siblings
3. Have them put a penny in a jar every time they don’t tell the ‘whole’ truth
4. Share the difference between manipulation & persuasion
5. Set a good example before them
6. Encourage them when they tell the truth in a difficult situation
7. Ask little ones if they know the difference between right and wrong
8. Explain the difference between ‘telling the truth’ and ‘being honest’
9. Talk about what it means to live an ‘honest life’
10. Discourage telling ‘fibs’
11. Role play
12. Tell them why the ‘Finders Keepers’ rule can be hurtful and dishonest
13. Praise them if they turn in a lost object
14. Pray honestly – even if that means confessing hurt or dishonesty
15. Remind them lying comes with consequences, but confession is met with forgiveness
16. Remind them there is less to ‘remember’ when they tell the truth than when they lie
17. Ask them to come up with words that contradict ‘truth’
18. As a family, search the Bible for how many times you can find the word ‘truth’
19. Draw a picture of a time when you told the truth
20. Make an acrostic using the word “TRUTH”
21. Tell a story of when you ‘did the right thing’
22. Talk about how truth is encouraged at school
23. Think of a time when a friend told you the truth, even though it may have hurt to hear
24. Explain the difference between ‘fantasy’ & ‘lying’
25. Teach the character of grace, love & mercy
26. Work on self-discipline
27. Keep encouraging Bible verses on the fridge
28. Write truth scripture on kids’ bathroom mirror
29. Memorize a verse about ‘honesty’ as a family
30. Above all, teach kids to be courageous and triumphant in their pursuit of the Truth of God!

If you really want a helpful tool to help your kids live our the principles of being honest and doing the right thing, then check out this DVD resource from Tommy Nelson:

Featuring the voice talents of my Nashville ‘neighbors’, Amy Grant & Vince Gill’, this DVD will not only engage pre-school and elementary aged children alike, but also teaches a great message, including behaving well even when nobody is watching, and the biblical lessons from the Parables of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.

How have you taught your kids about the importance of telling the truth?

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With a passion for teaching and mentoring others as her inspiration, Sami Cone began blogging in 2009 to encourage others to live their dream life and pursue their passions. A published author and seminar speaker, she draws on her experiences as a writer, editor, university professor, performer, professional athlete, and pageant winner to help women realize their full potential in life. Sami appears regularly on TV & Radio as a Frugal Expert and has been blogging for Tommy Nelson since 2010. Sami and her husband of seven years, Rick, thrive in Nashville with their two children.

My Easter story is a bit unorthodox…out of the ordinary, you might say.

As an only child who grew up with parents of different religions (a Jewish father and an Anglican mother from England – neither of whom regularly practiced their faith, mind you…), you could say I was a bit confused.

After all, on one side of the coin you have someone who believes the Messiah has yet to come; on the other, you have someone who believes He’s not only come, but died and rose again! Either story comes of as a bit ‘unbelievable’ to a young mind, but when neither is even explained to you, it makes you want to throw it all up in the air.

Perhaps that’s why I remember, after my parents divorced when I was seven, telling my father I wanted to be Christian (so I wouldn’t have to go to temple) and my mother I wanted to be Jewish (so I wouldn’t have to go to church).

I really didn’t give religion much of a chance…let alone a relationship with Christ.

Perhaps that is why Easter marks such a milestone in my heart each year. Not only does it remind me that God was able to touch a cynic’s heart like mine, but that if He could get a hold of my heart, no-one is out of reach.

Take it from someone who came to know Christ later in life, Easter represents a time when people are seeking to know more about Jesus…or at least are much more open to hearing about Him because of the way the world celebrates. This fact alone makes the road easier to invite others to listen to your Christ story.

And that’s all you need to share with people who ask: your story. Not a million verses. Not someone else’s story. Simply your journey.

So what does that mean to me as a parent? It reminds me that these aforementioned points should not be lost on my kids. I don’t want them to have to struggle with the self-doubt and self-esteem issues I did because I didn’t know where true love came from. But just because they’re growing up hearing about Christ does not make them immune to the struggles we all faced as kids.

What I can teach them is that their happiness will never stem from what grade they get, how beautiful they are, or how many trophies they earn. All I can hope to teach them is simple: People will disappoint you; God will not.

Regardless of whether He does what you want when you want, you can know that HIS promises are true because of the most simple and most powerful truth I know:
God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. ~ 1 John 4:9-10

You may think your child knows all about Jesus already, or you may have stumbled upon this post ‘on accident’, having never taught your child one thing about Christianity. Regardless of what side of the spectrum you sit on, may this moment in time not pass you by to make an impact for eternity.

It may be as simple as showing young ones how God loves them through a story like “An Easter Prayer” or changing the daily course of a young girl’s life with Sheila Walsh’s “Shine Your Light” devotional. Regardless of how you choose to present the message to your children, make it authentic.

After all, they don’t expect you to have all the answers, but simply to admit when you don’t and be willing to walk along side them as they script the steps for their own journey of faith.

Will you walk in the status quo, or allow the Easter story to challenge you and your family in a new way this year?

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With a passion for teaching and mentoring others as her inspiration, Sami Cone began blogging in 2009 to encourage others to live their dream life and pursue their passions. A published author and seminar speaker, she draws on her experiences as a writer, editor, university professor, performer, professional athlete, and pageant winner to help women realize their full potential in life. Sami appears regularly on TV & Radio as a Frugal Expert and has been blogging for Tommy Nelson since 2010. Sami and her husband of seven years, Rick, thrive in Nashville with their two children.

It doesn’t take much to see that Pinterest is all the rage these days. But what to do if you’re an un-crafty mom like me?

Don’t worry.

I discovered a Pinterest-worthy kids card craft for Valentine’s Day that is sure to be a hit that is just as easy for those of us who are not craft masters!

Essentially, all you have to do is take a picture of your child holding their arm outstretched at an angle towards you, leaving blank space to the side so you can go in later and overlay text onto it (I like using the free photo editing tool, PicMonkey.com).

Once that’s done, print the pictures, use a box cutter or similar blade to cut a small slit in the picture where your child’s fist is, then insert a small lollipop. The final product should look like this:

(For a full tutorial, read my Valentine’s Day Kids Card Pinterest Craft post).

If you have girls, I’ve also seen a lot of great (& easy!) hair crafts you can do too! Who ever thought to make hearts out of pigtails?

Regardless of what you make this Valentine’s Day, there should be a simple goal in whatever you do with your kids: make them feel loved! One book I absolutely love for doing that is “I Love You To God and Back“.

A game my kids love playing at bedtime is telling each other we love each other from one place to another, like, “I love you from the earth to the moon and back”. Well this precious bedtime prayer book, which is also illustrated beautifully, takes our bedtime ritual a step further and teaches kid not only about bedtime routines and prayer, but most importantly, the Father’s love for them!

Have you found a Valentine’s Day craft worth sharing? I’d love to hear about it below!

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With a passion for teaching and mentoring others as her inspiration, Sami Cone began blogging in 2009 to encourage others to live their dream life and pursue their passions. A published author and seminar speaker, she draws on her experiences as a writer, editor, university professor, performer, professional athlete, and pageant winner to help women realize their full potential in life. Sami appears regularly on TV & Radio as a Frugal Expert and has been blogging for Tommy Nelson since 2010. Sami and her husband of seven years, Rick, thrive in Nashville with their two children.

Every New Year is a chance for us to re-evaluate: our goals, our dreams, our habits, our health, our lifestyle… I could go on.

But for some reason, I feel like those goals need to be even more relevant to my day to day living, especially when it comes to my kids.

In light of the tragic events at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, I’m reminded even more how fleeting life can be.

It is a stark warning to me in this New Year that not one minute of our lives is guaranteed. Not only do we need to hold our own lives out to God with open hands, but even more so the lives of our children.

I can’t help but think of Matthew 6:34, which says:
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

This was one of my first favorite verses after coming to know Christ because it reminded me that I was not in control. Today, this verse is just as poignant, but in its own way.

God’s promise is that He will never give us more than we can handle and that He will be there with us through it all (Hebrews 13:5).

I don’t have any good answers as to why the Sandy Hook shootings happened or why God allowed them to be. But I do know that our God is sovereign and omnipotent.

As you begin this New Year, perhaps more cautious and guarded then you have begun any other since you have become a parent, I would suggest you consider these two things:

1. Start each morning renewing God’s promises
As much as is possible, start each day by renewing your mind in the promises God has given us in His Word. Let go of what has happened the day before and focus your energy on the day to come. Do not let any member of your family walk out the door without knowing how much they are loved by you and by God.

One way we do this in our family is by reading Jesus Calling each morning: I read the Jesus Calling Women’s Edition in the morning before getting ready, and then my kids’ read the Jesus Calling for Kids aloud in the car on the way to school. Not only does it help us set our minds on higher things, but it helps unify our thoughts for the day as well.

2. Teach your children to stand up for themselves
As much as we may hate to admit it, there will be a day that our children will live apart from us, both literally on this earth and in heaven. It is imperative that they know who they are, whose they are, and why they believe what they believe.

1 Peter 3:15 tells us to, “…always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect…”

It’s one thing for your children to understand your beliefs as a parent, but it is certainly another to have them make them their own. If your children are younger, this can be a difficult concept to grasp. Start by reminding them God’s essential truths and promises through resources like God’s Promises for Girls:

There is also a counterpart for the young men in your life: God’s Promises for Boys.

Regardless of what resolutions you make in 2013, promise to God, yourself and your children that “above all, (you will) love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins”. (1 Peter 4:8)

What have the recent tragedies made you reflect on for this New Year? How will it affect how you raise your children day to day?

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With a passion for teaching and mentoring others as her inspiration, Sami Cone began blogging in 2009 to encourage others to live their dream life and pursue their passions. A published author and seminar speaker, she draws on her experiences as a writer, editor, university professor, performer, professional athlete, and pageant winner to help women realize their full potential in life. Sami appears regularly on TV & Radio as a Frugal Expert and has been blogging for Tommy Nelson since 2010. Sami and her husband of seven years, Rick, thrive in Nashville with their two children.