I love the Christmas season. And growing up, we always enjoyed the classic holiday animated films. So, every year I carry that same tradition from my childhood and play those same classics for my family. 

You know what I’m talking about. The classic “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”, and “Santa Clause is Coming to Town” stop-animation movies. 

But this year, as I was excitedly putting in Christmas movies for our family to watch, specifically for our kids, I noticed that just about all of them were focused around Santa!

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love a good Santa movie. I think they’re cute and fun. But as a Christian household that strongly values teaching our kids Truth, I do not teach my kids that Santa Clause is real. 

However, this year, I discovered that my 4-year-old was indeed believing that Santa was real. And yes, he is only 4. But since we never overtly told him he was real, the only conclusion that made sense was that all the Christmas films he was watching about Santa were confusing him!

So, I promptly explained to him that Santa is a fun character that we can have fun with for the holidays, but that he is not real. 

Since then, I’ve been paying very close attention to the holiday movies I’ve been playing. And probably every single one with the exception of a few centers around Santa.

That’s a problem.

So, while I will still include some of the classic Christmas movies every year, I have a new goal to increase the amount of Christ-centered Christmas movies in our collection. In fact, I’d like the Christ-centered films to outnumber the Santa ones.

In this post, I will be listing 15 Christian Christmas movies for kids that either focus on the true meaning of Christmas, or have elements that point to the true meaning, which is Jesus Christ, our Lord, and Savior.

This post may contain affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. 

Best Christian Christmas Movies for Kids

1. The Star
2. The Little Drummer Boy
3. Veggie Tales: The Best Christmas Gift
4. A Charlie Brown Christmas
5. Angela’s Christmas
6. The Three Wise Men
7. The Very First Noel
8. Nestor the Long Eared Donkey
9. A Wowiebozowee Christmas DVD 2007
10. Read & Share DVD Bible: The Jesus Series
11. The Small One, Classic Cartoon Favorites
12. The Crippled Lamb
13. Buck Never Asks: Why Do We Call it Christmas
14. Super Books the First Christmas
15. Legend of Candy Cane

I hope you enjoyed this list. Updates coming soon with descriptions of each movie. But I wanted to get this post up as soon as possible for those looking for Christ-centered movie options for their children during the holiday season.

God bless!

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How do we biblically raise our young Christian children in this rapidly growing secular culture? And how do we do it well, in a way that actually produces fruit in our kids when they are older? 

In this post, I’m going to share some helpful Christian parenting tips for moms of toddlers and young children. These tips are for moms who are looking for ways to get prepared for that day when their little ones become teenagers and start asking challenging questions about their faith.

I am a mom of a toddler and an infant. My son is 3 and my daughter is 10 months. And I have to admit, I often worry about my kid’s Christian future in America. I try not to worry, but how can I not when Christianity is being attacked more than I think we’ve ever seen in this country? 

But since they are so young, it can seem like there really isn’t much I can teach them. What can I do now to start them on the right path when they are too young to understand everything (or anything at 10 months)?

Well, there are definitely some things we can do NOW, even at these young ages, to start our kids off on the right path. 

And there are things we can do NOW to start preparing ourselves for when they are older.

Some Important Biblical Parenting Principles 

So, what is a Biblical parent? I mean, the Bible doesn’t exactly have a chapter on Parenting. 

However, there are scriptures on parenting, as well as stories about both good and bad parents in the Bible whose examples we can follow (or avoid). I usually like to start by finding scriptures on any topic. So let’s take a look at what the Word says about parenting according to God’s instruction.

1. Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. ~ Proverbs 22:6
2. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. ~ Ephesians 6:4
3. Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. ~ Colossians 3:21
4. Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him. ~ Proverbs 13:24
5. Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. ~ Psalm 127:3
6. Discipline your son, and he will give you rest; he will give delight to your heart. ~ Proverb 29:17
7. Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck. ~ Proverbs 1:8-9

Here are seven verses on Christian parenting, seven very important ones I might add. But there are more, not to mention the many mothers and fathers in the Bible who God used to teach us how to be good parents. 

The Bible is the ultimate book on Christian parenting tips, and although sometimes we wish there were verses that dealt with our struggles specifically, the Bible is sufficient for us as is. 

Just from these seven verses, some Biblical parenting principles we can take away are:

• Intentionally train your children
• Discipline your children
• Instruct them in the Lord’s ways
• Do not provoke them
• Love them for they are a heritage and a reward
• Both fathers and mothers are to instruct and teach
• Children are to heed their parents’ teachings

And if we dive further into scripture, we’ll find that there is actually more parenting instruction than we realize. 

Christian Parenting Tips for Moms of Young Children

I’ve been a mom now for four years (my son is almost 4). So not a super long time. But it’s been enough time to learn that time flies by, and kids pick things up quicker than you think. In the beginning, I just didn’t think it mattered to start training up my child so early, as the Bible instructs us to. I didn’t think it would stick.

However, let me tell you. My son fell in love with prayer at the age of 2 and now will remind me that it’s time to pray when I forget. He loves his prayer books and his children’s Bibles and will sing worship songs right alongside me (or try to lol). 

I was extremely surprised at how quickly he grasped these things. He may not fully understand what it all means and what it’s for, but he is involved and loving it. And that’s a great place to start.

If you’re looking for some ways to start teaching your young kids about God, here are a couple of posts that will inspire you with ideas on where to begin:

How to Teach Toddlers About God

How to Train Up a Child in a Godly Way

The tips in these posts range from monitoring what your children watch on TV to teaching them about prayer as early as possible. 

In today’s climate, it’s so important that we are diligent, even from the very beginning when we aren’t seeing much fruit for our labor. Because that time will go by at some point, and your kids will be asking all sorts of questions. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be left scratching my head all the time. I want to be a good Christian mom who takes her role very seriously as it relates to teaching my kids about God. 

Being a good Christian mom doesn’t have to be difficult. But it does mean you have to put in some work and be intentional. Here are a few posts that touch on being a good Christian mother.

How to Be a Good Christian Mother

How to Walk with God in Your Season of Motherhood

Call on God When Parenting Gets Hard

One of the best things we can do as mothers is to remember to lean into God. We can’t do it all. And I know it sometimes feels like we should. But God intentionally designed us to need him in all seasons of our lives. 

It’s natural to be worried about our kids’ spiritual futures. The world is rapidly changing, and we can’t just wrap them in bubble wrap and hide them from the evil of the world until judgment day. But, we can make intentional parenting decisions as Christian moms that guide them and make sure to partner with God. Here are a few posts if you’re worried about your child’s spiritual future, especially given how things are now.

Are You Worried About Your Kids’ Salvation?

4 Ways Apologetics Can Help You and Your Family Grow Spiritually

8 Christian Apologetics Books for Kids

Ultimately, one of the best things you can do for your toddlers at this stage is to start getting ready now. Start teaching them now, and start teaching yourself now. 

Courageous Parenting

Raising a godly child in an ungodly world can be very challenging. There is pressure all around us as parents to make certain choices for our kids. From whether or not to vaccinate, to choosing the right schools. It can be overwhelming and stressful to have to make so many important decisions for our little ones. 

As moms of toddlers, we’ve already been bombarded with a lot of decisions. And looking ahead into our kids’ future, we know there are many more decisions to be made. 

With the world becoming increasingly more hostile toward true Christianity, we should expect our parenting decisions to often look a little differently from other families. We might have to say no to some things that everyone else is saying yes to. We might have to pull our kids out of activities that leave others scratching their heads. 

As Christian mothers living in a secular parenting world, these challenges will come our way often. And we need to work on becoming courageous parents now, while our kids are still little. We need to exercise our courageous parenting muscles and start mapping out now what things we will and will not allow with our kids as they grow.

Over the few years that I’ve been a mom, I’ve noticed people automatically assume that you will make certain choices for your kids. Some things have become so normalized that they’re just not questioned. 

But as a Christian, this can and will be troublesome. It can make saying no to certain things difficult because you know you’ll get some crazy looks from family and friends. It means not participating in certain events and getting questioned and maybe even made fun of for your choice. It means standing your ground on certain convictions on behalf of your children and family, and maybe receiving backlash and pressure because of it.

But the Bible calls us to be courageous.

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” ~ Joshua 1:9

And that includes being courageous parents. Our courageous choices may make us look weird in the world’s eyes at times, but it’s really God’s eyes that we should care more about. How does God want me to proceed with these decisions? That should be the first governing factor when faced with a difficult parenting decision. 

Godly parenting in the 21st century requires us to start being courageous, and exercise that courage now while our children are young so that we set them on the right track.

3 Christian Parenting Tips That Will Help You Stay Courageous

Standing for what we believe as Christian mothers can and will be challenging. The world does not always see things the way God does. The world will think the choices we make are excessive, limiting, and even oppressive. But we have to know our why and keep that at the forefront of our minds. Below are three very important parenting tips for Christian moms wanting to make more courageous parenting decisions for their kids.

• Reference the Bible on parenting decisions and use that as your starting guide
• Stay focused on your vision for your kids and family
• Surround yourself with like-minded mothers for support

Our toddlers will grow up to be grown men and women one day. Who do we hope they’ll become? It’s such a privilege to play a part in the shaping of these men and women of God. And although we should never want to control our kids, or pressure them to live life our way, we do want them to know what is right, good, and God-pleasing. If our kids see us being bold and courageous now, they will hopefully one day remember that and it will encourage them to be the same.

How to be a Good Christian Mom to a Toddler

So, we’ve talked about being a courageous parent and some positive ways we can be bold in our decisions. But what else can we do to strive to be good Christian moms to our little growing toddlers?

One thing I’ve learned with my son is not to underestimate his capacity to understand things. When they are this little, it’s easy to assume they won’t understand, and so we tend to put off teaching certain things. But as I introduce more and more concepts to my son, I am so surprised at how quickly he actually picks it up.

Toddlers love to learn. Their faces just light up when they are learning something new. In my experience, they find learning to be fun. They can quickly get bored with toys, but showing them something new and different, no matter how small, is always a win. 

So I think when it comes to being a good mom to a toddler, especially as it relates to teaching them the Word of God, one of the biggest tips is not to underestimate what they might understand. Introduce God early, teach them about Jesus early, show them the Bible early, pray with them early, and worship with them early. 

Let’s look at some more Christian parenting tips for toddlers below.

Tips for Parents of Toddlers from a Christian Toddler Mom

Here are a few more tips for parents of toddlers:

1. Don’t underestimate their capacity to learn. Don’t wait until they’re older.
2. Remember the entire day can be an opportunity to teach about God, playtime included.
3. Find ways to simplify complex Biblical concepts into basic, fun activities.
4. Introduce Biblical terms and names to them; Bible, Jesus, Angel, Prayer, etc.
5. Ask them to lead prayer, even if it’s just jibber jabber at first.
6. Buy them a kiddie Bible to familiarize them with our Biblical history. My son uses The Beginner’s Bible.
7. Read to them from an adult Bible. They don’t have to get everything for God’s living word to penetrate their heart.
8. Play them worship music; it’s so adorable when they start singing the lyrics.
9. Teach them to give thanks to God.
10. This last one is for us moms: Be sure to regularly feed yourself spiritually so that you are prepared to teach, correct, and encourage them along their Christian walk as they grow. 

Number 10 in this list is so important. It’s so easy to focus all of our energy and attention on our children, that we often neglect ourselves as moms. It’s a common challenge for mothers, and this is with all aspects so motherhood. We feed our kids first, bathe them first, make sure they’re entertained, and just are constantly looking after their well-being all around.

However, as they say, we cannot be our best selves for our families if we are neglecting ourselves. And this applies to our spiritual lives as well. And if you look at the list above, most of these things can be translated to apply to us moms as well. 

• Don’t underestimate your capacity to learn new things; Christian Apologetics, for example. Apologetics can be intimidating but is a great way to build deeper faith.
• Use your entire day as an opportunity to spend time with God. I know how difficult it can be to find “extra” time to devote to God when you have toddlers.
• Find fun ways to simplify concepts you are struggling to understand. Join a Book club or Bible study. Take a course, or make a challenge for yourself.
• Don’t neglect your Bible reading and prayer life in the name of parenting. Find the time, even if it’s not the exact same time every day. Commit to your spiritual growth.

More Helpful Tips for Christian Parents

The more we do in the beginning to prepare for when our kiddos are older, the more ready we will be when the questions begin. Here are a few other ideas you can implement now while your babies are still little to get ready for those older years.

1. Keep a journal of ready-to-go tough questions & answers.
2. Take a free course. Biblicaltraining.org has some free Apologetics courses that you can take.
3. Join a book club that focuses on topics that will excel your growth. Girl Talk Apologetics is a great group of women who meet once a week to discuss a book.
4. Listen to fruitful podcasts. Alisa Childer’s podcast is a great one. 
5. Join a community of other parents also seeking answers and ideas on how to prepare. Apologetics for Parents is a great Facebook Group led by Natasha Crain, the author of Talking with Your Kids about God: 30 Conversations Every Christian Parent Must Have. I haven’t read her book yet, but it’s on my list.

In Conclusion

The challenges of parenting in the 21st century can be overwhelming. However, by using some of the tips in this post, leaning on our Christian community, and certainly relying on God’s Word, we can persevere.

And with younger kids, especially toddlers, it’s easy to let this time slip by and not utilize it to teach them about the Gospel. But we should work with our toddler’s creativity, activeness, and curiosity to really start engaging them with the Word of God.

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The spoken language is a powerful tool. It amazes me that there are so many languages in the world with the ability to convey the same message. We open our mouths and we speak words that can be understood by thousands. A voice can choreograph full sentences, give instruction and express emotions that otherwise would be difficult to understand.

The tongue gives us the power of communication. And with the right words, we can share a powerful message that can change lives.

By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea into jars, he puts the deep into storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the people of the world revere him. For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.

Psalm 33:6-9

With words, God created life. He used the power of His tongue to speak forth all that’s before us. That is truly powerful! And then he tells us in Proverb 18:21 that “Death and life are in the power of the tongue. And those who love it will eat its fruit.”

Huh? Say what now? That is a strong statement. 

So because we have the knowledge that the things we speak can have such a monumental impact, we all should be very selective and careful with what we allow to come out of our mouths. Especially as parents!

Aside from the simple fact that kids repeat everything (and you don’t want them repeating the wrong thing), according to God’s Word, what we say to our kids or even about our kids holds a lot of weight. If death and life are somehow impacted by my words, I need to be extremely delicate with how I use my words with anyone, especially with the babies. What we say to them now can impact them years later in ways we least expect.

What Does the Bible Say About the Power of the Tongue

What does the Bible say about the power of the tongue? Well, both Proverbs 18:31 (death and life are in the tongue) and Psalm 33:6-9 (God spoke life into existence) speak volumes without the help from any other verses. 

Language is powerful. Language is so powerful that God used words to create life. God used words to bring existence into existence; to build worlds and people and animals; to design order in the chaos. God spoke, and it was.

So, knowing this, how can we not see how careful we need to be with how we speak to one another. 

Let’s look at another verse. The Bible says:

Have faith in God. Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Mark 11:22-24

Now granted, the above scripture is more about having faith than it is about the power of words. However, if we have faith, we can use our tongue to ask, pray, and petition for some pretty incredible things from the Lord. 

However, too often we use the gift of speech to put ourselves and others down; to complain and speak negatively about ourselves and our situations. We’re all guilty of it. I know I am. I’m a natural complainer. And it takes effort not to complain and grumble about the smallest things.

But that effort is so important. Because if what comes out of our mouths is as powerful  as the Bible says, who knows how much damage we are doing to ourselves spiritually? Who knows how much negative speech impacts the spiritual world that we cannot see. And the spiritual affects the natural world around us as well.

14 Bible Verses About the Power of the Tongue

Below I have shared 14 Bible verses about the power of the tongue. These verses are God telling us just how important it is to be very careful with what we say. Let’s take a look.

1. Evil words destroy one’s friends; wise discernment rescues the godly. ~ Proverbs 11:9
2. A gentle answer turns away wrath, but hard words stir up anger. ~ Proverbs 15:1
3. Gentle words bring life and health; a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit. ~ Proverbs 15:4
4. A person’s words can be life-giving water; words of true wisdom are as refreshing as a bubbling brook. ~ Proverbs 18:4
5. Wise speech is rarer and more valuable than gold and rubies. ~ Proverbs 20:15
6. Telling lies about others is as harmful as hitting them with an ax, wounding them with a sword, or shooting them with a sharp arrow.” ~  Proverbs 25:18
7. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer. ~ Psalm 19:14
8. Then keep your tongue from speaking evil and your lips from telling lies! ~ Psalm 34:13
9. Set a guard over my mouth, Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips. ~ Psalm 141:3
10. Too much talk leads to sin. Be sensible and keep your mouth shut ~ Proverbs 10:19
11. The one who guards his mouth preserves his life; the one who opens wide his lips comes to ruin. ~ Proverbs 13:3
12. The heart of the godly thinks carefully before speaking. ~ Proverbs 15:28
13. It’s not what goes into your mouth that defiles you; you are defiled by the words that come out of your mouth. ~ Matthew 15:11
14. Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. ~ Ephesians 4:29

These verses on the tongue say it all. They warn us what bad-mouthing can lead to, and how speaking good things can have positive outcomes. Let’s keep these scriptures close to our hearts because we use our voices every day. And every day is an opportunity to use the power of the tongue for good or evil.

The Power of  Life and Death lies in the Tongue

As God’s word says, the power of life and death lies in the tongue. But what exactly does that mean?

Well, the words we choose to speak over ourselves and those around us impact us in real ways that I don’t think we fully understand. If God used words to bring forth life, and we are made in the image of God and have received His Holy Spirit, our words must hold some serious weight.

No, I’m not talking about in a “wave your wand, say a magical spell” and things will happen kind of way. But God has given humans some authority. He gave Adam the authority to name the animals. And told both Adam and Even to subdue and take dominion over the earth.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

Genesis 1:26

He has given our spoken words some authority; a borrowed authority only God can provide.

Additionally, God’s word is called the living word. Why is it living? Because it has life, and when spoken can change things.

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Hebrews 4:12

The right words said at the right time can encourage, edify, and influence. And the wrong word said at the wrong time can do the exact opposite. A word given at the wrong time can really hurt someone and influence them to make a wrong decision. 

I’m willing to bet that if we start using our tongues to say good things every day, we would see amazing, maybe even miraculous, things happen in our life.

The Bible says for us to meditate on what is good, pure, and true. Well, what if we take that same idea and apply it to not just our thinking, but how we speak.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Philippians 4:8

As I sit here, I’m wondering how many conversations I’ve had in my lifetime; how many opportunities I’ve been given to use my voice to speak some good. How many times my words have affected people, in small or big ways. I think about the conversations that I overhear in the supermarket or quick chats I hear in passing.

How many of those conversations did I use to complain about something or someone? How many of those conversations did I use to say something negative about a situation, or worse, make fun of someone? Did I encourage that upset friend, or did I join in and start fussing right along with her?

I think you get my point. We must do better. We are human, so we cannot be perfect. But we can be self-aware, intentional, and positive as often as possible.

I like how Tony Evans put it :

Only then, with the tongue submitted to the perfect will of God, can we hope to master this great power we have been given to bless Him and bless others with our loving and empowering words. Read more of his post here.

The Bible says in Mathew 16:19 that what we bind on earth is already bound in heaven. So the choices we make here in the natural world impact what goes on spiritually.

The choices we make based on words that have influenced us can lead us to life or death, spiritually or naturally. And the enemy is waiting for us to slip up because of our ignorance. The enemy is waiting for us to say just the thing to destroy someone’s confidence, relationship, or spiritual growth.

The Bible says in Hosea 4:6 that “my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge”. Well, we have been given the knowledge that words have major power and influence. That’s one spiritual truth that God has revealed to us. But unfortunately, most of us do not take it seriously enough.

Let’s not give the enemy an opportunity to use our God-given tongues for the enemy’s purpose.

 How to Tame the Tongue

Given all that we’ve discussed, we can see just how crucial it is to learn how to tame the tongue. Our words can impact us in several ways. Not to mention, the enemy is constantly seeking opportunities to steal our joy, deceive us, and harm us. And by listening to what we say, the enemy can use that to strategize against us.

But, how do we tame the tongue?  Especially when the Bible says this:

But no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

James 3:8

Gosh, that’s another really powerful verse. Our tongue is a restless evil, full of poison. And if no human can tame it, how can we even hope to control what we say? 

Well, we can’t do it ourselves, that’s for sure. We need help with taming our tongues. And Jesus is our answer.

The Bible tells us that with God, all things are possible. And that in our weakness, He is strong. So asking God to help us with taming our tongues is what will help us make the change.

But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.

Mathew 19:26

If we can change our speech, even a little each day, to allow only the positive to come from our mouths, what changes would we see? If we stopped all the trash talking and profanity, and use our tongues ONLY for good, I wonder how that would change the world. 

God gave us our voices. He didn’t bless us with the ability to speak so that we’d blaspheme and use our words to harm others.

But thankfully, the work that Jesus did on the cross left us the Holy Spirit. And we can call on the Holy Spirit to help us in our weakest moments when we just want to spit out the worst things. And we can use scripture to speak against the temptation to speak evil.

Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble.

Proverbs 21:23

Don’t forget to visit the free resources page!

Teaching Kids that the Tongue is Powerful

So, how do we teach our kids about the power of the tongue, especially little kids? Well, I’m still learning a lot about being a mom, so I can’t say that I’ve started really teaching my son this yet. He is really only just now starting to string full sentences together!

However, one easy thing we can do is simply correct them when they say something wrong. Just like we correct them when they use the wrong pronoun, or mispronounce a word, we can correct them when they say something mean or a bad word.

Now, you might be thinking…duh. Of course, that’s what we should do.

But we’ve all witnessed parents who laugh at their kids when they say something bad. The child will say a curse word, and the parents think it’s funny or cute. And instead of correcting it they just laugh and even record it for all of YouTube to see! You might even be that parent.

I’m sure these parents are thinking it’s harmless. I mean, they are too young to truly understand what they are saying, right? Well, as I’ve learned, kids understand more than we think. And, habits start when they are young. If you allow them to speak a certain way now, they will think it’s okay. And laughing only reinforces their behavior.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m guilty of doing this myself on some level. My son went through a phase where he couldn’t say the word shark, his favorite animal. His SH’s sounded like F’s,  and his A’s turned into U’s. So it always sounded like he was yelling out F-bombs every time he asked for his toy shark.  

I had to keep explaining to people that he was not meaning to. But we laughed every single time! And even though this is slightly different because he wasn’t trying to say the actual curse word, even in instances like this we need to be careful. 

I know we think everything our kids do is so cute. And sometimes (depending on the situation), it’s probably harmless to chuckle a little. I mean, we don’t want to be humorless duds. But we just have to remember that the enemy is seeking any and every opportunity to lead us and our children to sin against God. 

My mom told me that when me and my siblings would say something unkind to each other as kids, she would make it a point to explain how it hurt the other person’s feelings. That’s another really great way to show our kids that our words can impact others.

So, even though our little ones will likely not understand the verse “there is power in the tongue”, we can still teach them the concept that what we say matters.

Conclusion

Words are powerful my friend. Clearly, as we’ve investigated, the Bible says there is power in the tongue. The things we say hold weight, according to God’s Word. The power of the tongue, although small, can cause great damage or bring about beautiful change. The Bible tells us that life and death are in the power of what we let come out of our mouths. Let’s take that word seriously, especially as parents raising babies who listen to us daily. What we say affects them in more ways than one.

I hope you will use the power of the tongue Bible verses in this post to help remind you to be careful with how you use the gift of voice God has given you. Use the prayers to help tame your tongue, and let’s try to use our tongues for good.

Here is a wonderful sermon by Jackie Hill Perry that sums up what this post is about beautifully: Watch Your Mouth.

You might also like:

8 Ways to Carve Out Time to Spend with God

Arguments to Defend Christianity: Part One

Why Risk Your Eternity?

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I am a mom of a toddler. My son is 2 and will be 3 in just a couple of weeks at this point. And I have to admit, I often worry about my son’s Christian future. I try not to worry, but how can I not when Christianity is coming under attack in so many ways.

And since he is so young, it can seem like there really isn’t much I can teach him right now. What can I do now to start him on the right path when he is too young to understand?

Well, there are definitely some things you can do NOW, even at this age, to start your kids off on the right path. And equally, as important, there are things you can do now to start preparing yourself for when they are older.

Christian Parenting Tips for Moms of Young Children

I’ve been a mom now for three years. So not a super long time. But it’s been enough time to learn that time flies by, and kids pick things up quicker than you think. And in the early days, I didn’t think teaching him about God and his faith so early would stick.

However, let me tell you! My son fell in love with prayer at the age of 2 and now reminds me that it’s time to pray. He loves his prayer books and will sing worship songs right alongside me (or tries to lol).

I was extremely surprised at how quickly he grasped these things. He may not fully understand what it all means and what it’s for, but he is involved and loving it. And that’s a great place to start.

So if you’re looking for some ways to start teaching your young kids about God, here are a couple of posts that will inspire you with ideas on where to begin:

How to Teach Toddlers About God

How to Train Up a Child in a Godly Way

The tips in these posts range from monitoring what your children watch on TV to teaching them about prayer as early as possible. 

In today’s climate, it’s so important that we are diligent, even from the very beginning when we aren’t seeing much fruit for our labor. Because that time will fly by, and your kids will be asking all sorts of questions soon enough. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be left scratching my head every time my kid asks me tough faith questions. I want to be a Christian mom who takes her role very seriously as it relates to teaching my kids about God.

Being a good Christian mom doesn’t have to be difficult. But it does mean you have to put in some work and be intentional. Here are a few posts that touch on being a good Christian mother.

How to Be a Good Christian Mother

How to Walk with God in Your Season of Motherhood

Call on God When Parenting Gets Hard

One of the best things we can do as mothers is to remember to lean into God. We can’t do it all. And I know it sometimes feels like we should. But God intentionally designed us to need Him in all seasons of our lives. 

It’s natural to be worried about our kids’ spiritual futures. The world is rapidly changing, and we can’t just wrap them in bubble wrap and hide them from the evil of the world until judgment day. But, we can make intentional parenting decisions that guide them and make sure to partner with God along the way. Here are a couple of posts if you’re worried about your child’s spiritual future and your ability to be a good Christian mom.

Are You Worried About Your Kids Salvation?

4 Ways Apologetics Can Help You and Your Family Grow Spiritually

8 Christian Apologetics Books for Kids

Call on God When Parenting Gets Hard

Ultimately, one of the best things you can do for your toddlers at this stage is to start getting ready now. Start teaching them now, and start teaching yourself now as well.

Courageous Parenting

There is pressure all around us as parents to make the best decisions for our kids. From whether or not to vaccinate, to choosing the right schools. It can be overwhelming and stressful to have to make so many important decisions for our little ones. 

As moms of toddlers, we’ve already been bombarded with a lot of decisions. And looking ahead into our kids’ future, we know there are many more decisions to be made.

With the world becoming increasingly more hostile to true Christianity, our parenting decisions might often look a little different to those not part of the Christian body. We might have to say no to some things that everyone else is saying yes to. We might have to pull our kids out of activities that leave others scratching their heads. 

As Christian mothers living in a secular parenting world, these challenges will come our way often. And we need to work on becoming courageous parents now, while our kids are still littles. We need to exercise our courageous parenting muscles and start mapping out now what things we will and will not allow as our kids grow.

Over the few years that I’ve been a mom, I’ve noticed that people automatically assume that you will make certain choices for your kids. Some things have become so normalized and expected that they’re just not questioned. And this can make saying no to certain things difficult because you know you’ll get some crazy looks from family and friends. It can mean not participating in certain events and getting questioned, and maybe even made fun of for your choice.

But it’s important that we stand our ground on certain convictions on behalf of our children and family, even if we receive backlash and pressure because of it.

The Bible calls us to be courageous. And that includes being courageous parents.

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

Joshua 1:9 (ESV)

Our courageous choices may make us look weird in the world’s eyes at times, but it’s really God’s eyes that we should care most about. How does God want me to proceed with these decisions? That should be the first governing factor when faced with a difficult parenting decision. 

And we need to start being courageous now, while our children are super young so that we set them on the right foot.

3 Positive Parenting Tips for Courageous Christian Moms

Standing for what we believe as Christian mothers can and will be challenging. The world does not always see things the way God does. Our choices might seem excessive, limiting, and even oppressive from a wordly perspective. But we have to know our why and keep that at the forefront of our minds.

Below are three positive parenting tips for Christian moms wanting to make more courageous parenting decisions for their kids.

• Reference the Bible on parenting decisions and use that as your guide
• Stay focused on your vision for your kids and family, not other people’s vision
• Surround yourself with likeminded mothers for support

Our toddlers will grow to be grown men and women one day. Who do we hope they’ll become? It’s such a privilege to play a part in the shaping of these men and women of God. And although we should never want to control our kids, or pressure them to live life our way, we do want them to know what is right, good, and God-pleasing. If our young tots see us being bold and courageous now, they will hopefully one day remember that and it will encourage them to be the same.

This post may contain affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small commission at no cost to you.

How to be a Good Mom to a Toddler

So, we’ve talked about being a courageous parent and some positive ways we can be bold in our decisions. But what else can we do to strive to be good moms to our little growing toddlers?

One thing I’ve learned with my son, who will be 3 in just a week, is not to underestimate his capacity to understand things. When they are this little, it’s easy to assume they won’t understand, and so we tend to put off teaching certain things. But as I introduce more and more concepts to my son, I am so surprised at how quickly he actually picks it up.

Toddlers love to learn. Their faces just light up when they are learning something new. In my experience, they find learning to be fun. They can quickly get bored with toys, but showing them something new and different, no matter how small, is always a win. I let my son help me wash the dishes the other day for the first time. He was so excited and so focused. Yes, he mostly played, made a mess, and slowed down the process. However, he was learning and he thoroughly enjoyed it.

So I think when it comes to being a good mom to a toddler, especially as it relates to teaching them the Word of God, one of the biggest tips is not to underestimate what they might understand. Introduce God early, teach them about Jesus early, show them the Bible early, pray with them early, worship with them early.

Let’s look at some more Christian parenting tips for toddlers below.

Tips for Parents of Toddlers from a Christian Toddler Mom

Here are a few more tips for parents of toddlers:

1. Don’t underestimate their capacity to learn. Don’t wait until they’re older to start teaching them about God.
2. Remember the entire day can be an opportunity to teach about God, playtime included.
3. Find ways to simplify complex Biblical concepts into basic, fun activities.
4. Introduce Biblical terms and names to them; Bible, Jesus, Angel, Prayer, etc.
5. Ask them to lead prayer, even if it’s just jibber jabber at first.
6. Buy them a kiddie Bible to familiarize them with God’s stories. I use this one: The Beginner’s Bible for Little Ones.
7. Read to them from an adult Bible. They don’t have to get everything for God’s living word to penetrate their heart.
8. Play them worship music; it’s so adorable when they start singing the lyrics.
9. Teach them to give thanks to God.
10. This last one is for you mom: be sure to regularly feed yourself spiritually so that you are prepared to teach, correct, and encourage them along their Christian walk as they grow.

Quick download these 10 tips below as a FREE printable!

Number 10 in this list is so important. It’s so easy to focus all of our energy and attention on our children, that we often neglect ourselves as moms. It’s a common challenge for mothers. We feed our kids first, bathe them first, make sure they’re entertained and are constantly looking after their well-being all around.

However, as they say, we cannot be our best selves for our families if we are neglecting ourselves. And this applies to our spiritual lives as well. If you look at the list above, most of those things can be transferred to apply to us moms as well.

• Don’t underestimate your capacity to branch out and learn new things; Apologetics for example. Apologetics can be intimidating, but God wants you to grow as well. So why not try learning how to better defend your faith?
• Use your entire day as an opportunity to spend time with God and grow spiritually. It can be difficult to find “extra” time to devote to God when you have toddlers. Here is a post with some tips on how to carve out time when you don’t seem to have time.
• Find fun ways to simplify concepts you are struggling to understand. Join a Book club or Bible study (if you’re the social type.) Take a course, make a challenge for yourself.
• Don’t neglect your Bible reading and prayer life in the name of parenting. Find the time, even if it’s not the exact same time every day. Commit to your spiritual growth.

More Helpful Tips for Parents of Toddlers

The more we do in the beginning to prepare for when our kiddos are older, the more ready we will be when the questions begin. Here are a few other ideas you can implement now while your babies are still little to get ready for those older years.

1. Keep a journal of ready-to-go tough questions & answers.
2. Take a free course. Biblicaltraining.org has some free Apologetics courses that you can take.
3. Join a book club that focuses on topics that will excel your growth. Girl Talk Apologetics  is a great group of women who meet once a week to discuss an Apologetics book.
4. Listen to fruitful podcasts. Alisa Childer’s podcast is a great one. 
5. Join a community of other parents also seeking answers and ideas on how to prepare. Apologetics for Parents is a great Facebook Group for this.

Conclusion

You can probably find a ton of helpful tips for moms of toddlers online. But I wanted this post to be specific to tips that centered around growing spiritually for both mom and kids. The toddler phase is a busy and fun phase. It’s easy to let this time slip by and not utilize it to teach them about the Gospel. But we should work with our toddler’s creativity, activeness, and curiosity to really start engaging them with the Word of God.

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God is for us, not against us. So surrendering to Him is for our good. True, it doesn’t always feel that way. Sometimes God allows certain things to happen in our lives that puzzle us. But everything He allows to happen is for pruning, teaching, and refining. There is always a good purpose behind the things that He does and allows.

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Romans 8:31

When we are not in a state of surrender, we might miss the opportunity to learn what He is trying to teach us. We might miss the opportunity to grow. 

When we choose not to surrender to God, we are essentially resisting Him and refusing to submit to His authority. And by doing this, we are doing ourselves a major disservice. We are basically telling God we don’t need Him, and that we can do a better job.

What Does it Mean to Surrender to God?

So, what does it mean to surrender to God? Well, the first thing we should probably do is look at some verses about surrendering to God.

Verse One:

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

James 4:7

In this verse, we are told to submit ourselves to God. The word  submit is a synonym for surrender. So by surrendering to God, you are submitting to Him; submitting to His will and power. Resisting Satan is another way we can submit or surrender to God. By choosing God over Satan or our own sinful nature, we are  choosing to submit to the Father.

Verse Two:

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

Romans 12:1

In this verse, Paul urges his brothers and sisters in Christ to offer their bodies as living sacrifices; to live in such a way that pleases God. To surrender and forfeit using our bodies for our own purposes, and to instead choose to do what is holy and acceptable to God.

Verse Three:

Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.

Mathew 26:39

Jesus surrendering to God is probably the most profound example we have of surrender. Completely acknowledging the power and authority of God, he fell before Him, petitioning to Him with hope that God would change the outcome of what was to come. Jesus knew that only God had the power to change what was to come. And even after Jesus finished His petition, He prayed for God’s will to prevail.

These are some powerful verses demonstrating what it means to surrender to God. But there are also some really good examples in the Bible of men and women surrendering to God.

This post may contain affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small commission at no cost to you.

Bible Stories About Surrendering to God

Let’s look at a couple of Biblical characters who surrendered to God and what happened as a result.

Jonah

The first example that pops in my head is actually Jonah, who we all know did not surrender to God immediately. Jonah Chapter 1 says “The word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amittai: ‘Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because their evil has come up before me’. Jonah got up to flee to Tashish from the Lord’s presence.” 

Jonah was like nope, not doing it! And instead of obeying God, he fled from God. Let’s not even talk about how silly it is to think you can flee from God’s presence.

Jonah is actually a great example of what refusing to surrender to God can look like. Because of Jonah’s rebellion and disobedience, God had him swallowed up by a big fish. Can you even imagine? God was not playing around.

So Jonah prayed from within the belly of this big fish, and God saved Him. So the second time God told Jonah what to do, he did it. He went and warned the people of Nineveh. And the best part is the people of Nineveh surrendered immediately. 

Jonah 3:5-6 says “Then the people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth — from the greatest to the least. When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself in sackcloth, and sat in ashes. Then he issued a decree in Nineveh.”

And essentially the decree called for all the people of Nineveah to call out earnestly to God and turn from their evil ways.

And you know what happened after they did this? Jonah 3:10 says “God saw their actions — that they had turned from their evil ways — so God relented from the disaster he had threatened them with. And he did not do it”.

That’s the power of surrender!

Hezekiah

The second Bible character worth noting who truly surrendered to God was King Hezekiah. After years of Israel being ruled by kings who led them to do evil in the sight of the Lord, Hezekiah gets on the throne and surrenders it all to the Lord.

In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the Lord’s temple and repaired them.

2 Chronicles 29:3

In his very first month, he sought out to repair God’s temple. 

It is in my heart now to make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel so that his burning anger may turn away from  us.

2 Chronicles 29:10

He was determined to make things right with God.

He restored the temple to the holy dwelling place it was intended to be, ordering the Levites to remove anything impure from God’s temple. He led his people to turn back to God, to bow down and worship the one and only God. He pleaded with the Israelites to return to God, telling them not to be like their ancestors who were unfaithful to God.

Don’t  become obstinate now like your ancestors did. Give your allegiance to the Lord, and come to his sanctuary that he has consecrated forever. Serve the Lord your God so that he may turn his burning anger away from  you, for when you return to the Lord, your brothers and your sons will receive mercy in the presence of their captors and will return to this land.

2 Chronicles 30:8-9

I can go on and on about King Hezekiah and how he led his people to truly turn back to God and surrender to Him. This story is a great example of how we are to surrender in our own lives. 

So, with all that being said, what does it mean to surrender to God?

• It means to obey God.
• It means to give up the impure things.
• It means to praise and worship only God (identify your idols and remove them).
• It means committing to learning His Word (Here is the Apologetics Study Bible that I use).
• It means to give your allegiance (loyalty and commitment) to God. 
• It means to acknowledge and honor Him for the holiness that He is.
• It means choosing a life that pleases the one who holds your breath in your lungs. 
• It means to submit to His will, and to resist your own selfish, sinful urges. 
• It means to always pray for God’s will, even when you desire something different. 
• It means fighting distractions hindering you from getting close to God.
• It means committing to knowing who God is, building that relationship, and leaning into the free love that He offers with no resistance.

Why is it So Hard to Surrender to God?

So, if we know that we should surrender, why is it so hard to surrender to God? Why do we often resist the will of God in our lives?

Most of us struggle to surrender to God at some point in our life. Sometimes we can tell God is trying to lead us in another direction, but we stubbornly try to stay our own course. Or, we know that certain choices in our lives are not pleasing to God, but for some reason we keep making those same choices regardless. 

And in most cases, I think it boils down to one thing: fear of sacrifice.

Fully surrendering to God oftentimes requires some sort of sacrifice. And if we’re honest, we are afraid to sacrifice things. It can be the sacrifice of certain pleasures in our lives. Or the sacrifice of certain traditions, or mindsets. The sacrifice of letting certain people go, even. 

But whatever “sacrifice” we are required to make, we have to believe that it’s not for nothing. God is for us, not against us. And that means He would only ask us to leave certain things behind for our good. In order to grow spiritually, we have to understand that our surrender to God is paramount to how far we want to go, and trust that God has our best interests at heart.

Benefits of surrendering to God

Although our main reason for surrendering to God shouldn’t be the benefits, there are some benefits of surrendering to God; some good things we can expect from our surrender.   

Now, I’m not going to sit here and say that submitting to God will make your life easier and suddenly God will rain down blessings from the sky. That’s just not exactly how it works. 

However, I think the biggest benefit of surrendering to God is the peace that comes along with it. When you finally learn how to surrender to God and let go, a weight lifts off of you. You know longer feel like it’s all up to you to figure it out. You’ve surrendered to the Most High, and He will help to shoulder your burdens. He will provide and bless you.

When we surrender to the Father, and allow Him to take lead, we can be confident that our life is in the best hands. God can see ahead the things that are to come. He leads us based on the future that He already sees before us. But every choice we make is based on our limited knowledge. 

Isn’t it better to let God lead you when He can see what’s coming your way?

Ultimately, when surrendering to God, you’re submitting to a God who loves you, wants the best for you, and will lead you down the path of righteousness. You can be assured that whatever happens in your life, His hand covers it. And that brings me so much peace.

How to Surrender to God?

Okay, so we’ve talked about what it means to surrender to God, the benefits of surrendering to God, and why it’s difficult to surrender to God. But we haven’t really talked about HOW to surrender to God. Maybe you’re asking yourself, how do I surrender to God practically?

How do we actually make the practical steps to surrender to Him? What does it look like to surrender to God in our daily lives?

The first and simplest way to surrender is really just to tell God that you surrender to His will. Go into prayer, and just lay it all out on the table. Tell God, “Father, I surrender to Your will. I surrender my anxieties, my fears, my problems. I invite you, my Heavenly Father, to take the lead in my life. Help me to be still as you guide me through life’s difficulties.” 

A heartfelt and serious prayer to God is definitely the first place to start. 

But, there are also some other practical things we can do on a daily basis to really surrender our lives to Him. Because it’s important to put action to our words, to show God that we are serious. It’s easy to say “God I surrender” but then continue with old habits that rebel against God.

9 Ways to Surrender to God

Below are 9 ways that we can surrender to God on a daily basis. These are things we can do to start allowing God to lead our lives and help us grow closer to Him.

1. Pray for God to replace your desires with His; to align your will with His will. 
2. Be ready to submit when the Spirit convicts and leads you to let go of certain choices and lifestyles. 
3. Stop fighting for sin to stay in your life! Admit to God that you are struggling to let go of sin and ask the Holy Spirit to strengthen you against the temptation.
4. Let go of what you think you know about everything! Ask God to fill you up with His wisdom and truth.
5. Hold nothing back from Him. Tell Him exactly how you feel, don’t hold back. 
6. Stop trying to fight all your battles alone. Release yourself from the burden of doing it all alone and hand it to God in prayer.
7. Acknowledge your lack of wisdom and knowledge, and completely believe that you know nothing in comparison to Him. 
8. Completely acknowledge and know that you can do nothing without Him. 
9. Let go of habits that are allowing sin to sneak into your life. Surrender your taste in movies, music, books, etc, to God.

Conclusion

Surrendering to God is such an important part to growing spiritually. God wants to pour into us, but if we are too busy resisting Him or holding on to things that He is telling us to let go, how can He fill us up? We have to learn to let go and let God take control of our lives, in both big and small ways. 

It is our surrender to Him that sparks the beginning of growth and closeness to God that we crave. 

It can be difficult to surrender to God at times, especially when you have your heart set on a certain way of doing things, or a certain perspective. However, if we truly trust that God knows what’s best for us, we will eventually take that leap, and just surrender knowing that we are in the best hands there are.

You might also like:

7 Ways to Fight Distractions Hindering Your Spiritual Growth

4 Ways Apologetics Can Help You and Your Family Grow Spiritually

How to Walk with God in Your Season of Motherhood

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But, it is not that simple. 

The truth is, all 66 books of the Bible were written and compiled over centuries by various different people. Although God ultimately inspired the Bible, He used several human hands to bring it to life.

As a Christian mom, I want to learn as much as possible about the scriptures so that I have a solid foundation to teach my kids. I want my kids to truly believe in God. And being able to their questions as they grow up is so important. Having some knowledge about Bible history can help provide our kids with the information they need to solidify their faith.

However, the biggest challenge I run into is that a lot of articles about Bible history are very lengthy and complex. I mean, that’s the reality of our Chrisitan history. However, as a busy mama, I sometimes just need some quick answers. I want to be able to confidently explain Bible history to my kids, and nonbelievers in my life, with simplicity.

But to be honest, sometimes studying the deep, involved history of how we got the Christian Bible can leave me scratching my head.

There are a lot of details that branch off when you start diving into the history of the Bible. But sometimes we just want the core facts.

There is an article I found that does a pretty good job giving a brief history of the Bible. It’s called “How it Came to Be: A Brief History of the Bible“. And when it says “brief history”, it means it. I love how simple it is. There is a time for deep, in-depth studying, and there is a time when we just need the basics.

So in this post, the goal was to seek out the basics. The quick information that we can easily quote and share without having to go into a long-drawn-out explanation.

This is a quick breakdown of the core information about the Bible and its history for us moms who, although we love learning the deeper details, want to be able to share bite-size pieces of information with our kids and unbelieving friends and family.

If you want further details on a particular topic, you can always dive deeper yourself! But for now, I hope this short list of information is useful.

What is the Origin of the Bible?

What is the Bible? Well, that’s a pretty big question. The Bible’s history is rich, complex, and lengthy. A lot of the questions we might ask like “who wrote the Bible”, “what is the origin of the Bible”, or “why were certain books left out of the Bible”, can’t always be answered in one pretty, little sentence wrapped in a bow. However, through the wonderful work of many Biblical scholars over the years, there are some things we can conclude with some level of certainty. So, let’s dive into some of these questions!

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

2 Timothy 3:16

What is the Bible? The Holy Bible is the historical text we Christians believe to be God-inspired and authoritative. It has about 40 different authors and was written over a span of 1,600 to 2,000 years.

How many books are in the Bible? The Bible contains 66 books made up of the Old and New Testaments. The Catholic version has 7 more Old Testament books because of their acceptance of some of the Apocrypha (see below). And the Hebrew Bible includes only the Old Testament because Judaism does not acknowledge the New Testament as the inspired word of God; Judaism does not believe that Jesus was the Messiah.

What is the Apocrypha? The Apocrypha are 15 books that have mostly been excluded from the standard, Western Bible because of questionable authority and authenticity. Not all Christians accept these books as holy, God-breathed books to be included in the Word of God. Catholics, however, do accept 7 of these books as scripture.

Why was the Apocrypha left out of the Christian Bible? Historically, Christians have rejected these books as not being in line with the rest of scripture. These books did not meet certain criteria. (More on the criteria later).

What is the origin of the Bible? Because the Bible is 66 different books written by several different authors, it does not have a “origin date”. Each book or section of the bible has its own origin, so to speak.

What is the Old Testament? The Old Testament is the first 39 books of the Bible. The books were written prior to the birth of Jesus.

When was the Old Testament Written? These 39 books were written at different times somewhere between 1200 BC and 165 BC.

When was the New Testament Written? The 27 New Testament books were written in the first century after Christ’s death.

So, how old is the Bible? The oldest Biblical text that we’ve discovered is about 2,700 years old. This discovery is called the Silver Scrolls, which contained only some of the Old Testament, dated somewhere between 700 BC and 650 BC. The more famous Dead Sea Scrolls, which contains most of the Old Testament, was discovered in 1611 and dates somewhere between 408 BC and 300 AD.

Is there an original Bible? Bible stories were originally passed down orally. Most scholars accept that the book of Genesis was the first book written, dated around 1450 BC to 1400 BC.

Related: 5 Reasons You Can Trust the Bible

How was the Bible Compiled?

The compilation of the Bible is not super straightforward. Surprised? lol. There have just been too many years and people involved in the process of writing, editing, scribing and assembling the Word of God to perfectly pin-point certain dates or individuals in every case. However, Biblical scholars have done their best! So let’s take a look!

When was the Bible compiled and by who? Around 400 AD, St. Jerome assembled the first widespread edition of the Bible, which was translated into Latin. He was the first to compile everything into a single volume.

Who selected the 66 books to be included in the Bible? Many argue that church councils gathered over the centuries to decide which books would be included. But in reality, there is no evidence that the fully assembled Bible was established by one council at one particular point in time. What we do know is that centuries of debate and scrutiny by Christian churches and their church fathers led to the eventual recognition of what we call the Bible.

How were the 66 books selected to be included in the Bible? By the time Jesus and His disciples arrived, the Old Testament had already been established and accepted as scripture, which is what Jesus often quotes from. Certain criteria were then developed over the centuries by churches that would determine which New Testament letters were authentic and worthy to include in the Bible.

What criteria determined whether something would make it into the Bible? New Testament documents had to generally pass the following criteria: 1) Written by one of the disciples, a witness of Jesus, or someone who interviewed witnesses, 2) written within the first decades of Jesus’ life, so anything written much longer after that wasn’t included, and 3) must be consistent with the Old Testament and not contradictory to what was already accepted as Scripture.

This post may contain affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small commission at no cost to you.

Who Wrote the Bible?

Christians know that the Bible is not one book written and compiled by one human person. And really, I think most people know that. However, many skeptics will speak about the Bible as if it’s one book written by one person. Instead of acknowledging the fact that the Bible holds many “books” within its pages, it’s easy to group it all together and say “we don’t know who wrote that book, so we can’t trust it”. Well, that’s just irrational.

True, the authors of the Bible do not always identify themselves in every book in the Bible. However, that doesn’t automatically discredit its pages as untrustworthy. And let’s not forget to mention the work of the Holy Spirit that guided these authors in their writing.

For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

2 Peter 1:21

Who wrote the Old Testament? For years, scholars believed Moses to be the author of the first 5 books of the Old Testament, although this has been challenged. But the Old Testament books were written over the centuries by many different prophets and leaders. (See list of authors of the Bible below)

Who wrote the New Testament? Jesus’ disciples and other individuals of the time wrote historical records of Jesus’ life and ministry. And church leaders wanted to help guide the newly established churches, so they wrote and circulated letters throughout congregations in various regions. We call these letters the Epistles. (See a list of authors of the Bible below)

How was the Bible written? Essentially, a variety of authors (about 40) from different places and times wrote the books of the Bible. The earliest writings were put on scrolls made from papyrus or parchment. And the many books of the Bible had to be copied over and over and over by scribes for other people to read them.

A list of authors of the Bible: In some cases, we cannot know with absolute certainty who wrote a particular book. But if you google search, you will find many lists detailing who the 40-ish authors of the Bible are. Here is such an example: Authors of the Bible List. However, just keep in mind that although these lists can be helpful, there is still a lot of debate surrounding who wrote some of the books. That’s one of the reasons I really like The Apologetics Study Bible, which is the Bible that I am currently reading. At the start of each book, there is a section titled “Author” which details who scholars and Biblical students generally agree the author is, why they believe this, and what challenges exist that might disprove that person to be the author. You can read my review of The Apologetics Study Bible here.

In Conclusion

Bible history is a bit complicated. So, as we’ve seen, it can be challenging to answer the question of “what is the origin of the Bible?”. There are thousands of years behind the evolution of the Bible. It can be very tricky to answer some of the questions in this post because there just isn’t always a straightforward answer. However, through years of research by well-educated scholars, ancient discoveries & evidence, and discernment from the Holy Spirit, we can know what the truth is through careful analysis and relying on God to lead us.

I hope this list of questions and answers was simplified enough for you as you continue to learn more about the Bible and the God we call Father.

External Sources Used in Writing this post:

• Why Were Some Books Excluded From the Bible?
• The Bible
• How Old Is The Bible?
• History of the Bible: Who Wrote it and When?
• The “Original” Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls
• How Old is the Bible?
• History of the Bible (Timeline)
• What is the Hebrew Bible?

You might also like these posts:

5 Contradictions in the Bible…That Are Not Contradictions

5 Reasons You Can Trust the Bible

Book Review: “The Apologetics Study Bible” (HCSB)

The post 18 Quick Answers About the Bible’s Origin appeared first on .

Life can be pretty challenging sometimes, don’t you think? There are so many life-things pulling us this way and that way. From commitments and relationships to managing a home and maintaining a job. Then all the little things in between, like remembering to take your car for maintenance every three months, or meal planning every week, or staying up to date on the latest news.

There seems to be a lot that is expected of us. A lot more than we can handle at times. And it honestly seems like most people aren’t able to juggle all that life tosses at them successfully. Some part of life always seems to be falling behind. 

And then…you become a mom. And 10,000 new responsibilities are added to your plate! Sometimes you just want to push the pause button on life and hit resume when you’ve had a chance to breathe.

This is why walking with God in the season of motherhood is so important. God can give us the peace and help we need to get through difficult parenting seasons. And yet, I don’t think enough of us truly lean on God in our season of motherhood like we could.

Additionally, what if when we sit back and actually look at all the different burdens we’ve allowed to pile up on our plate, we ask ourselves this question: What is the source of these burdens? Have we allowed the world to place burdens on us that God never intended for us to have?

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Mathew 11:28 (NIV)

In this verse, Jesus tells us to come to Him. That He will give us rest. That His burden is light. Christ will lighten our load if we just lean into Him. But I’m willing to bet that instead of allowing God to ease our burdens, most of us somehow have made walking with God a burden; an extra task, an extra thing to do every day that we just don’t have time for. 

Read the Bible? With what time? 

Pray? For how long?

God gets added to the burdensome, growing list of things to do. A list of things in which God probably never asked you to do in the first place. 

Motherhood is a special season in a woman’s life. A precious and miraculous time where the God of the universe blesses her with a little soul that she can love and take care of. This season is worth embracing, and holding on to, and cherishing for all that it is.

However, oftentimes, instead of embracing our season of motherhood, we rush it along, trying to fill every minute of our days with tasks, commitments, and people. We try to be supermoms and do all the things. We take on more than we should, and worry and stress over things that should not even have our attention at this time in our lives. 

And all of this not only distracts us from this wonderful season that goes by so fast. But it can keep us from walking with God.

What Does the Bible Say About Seasons in Your Life

As the season begins to change, and we start to make our way into Fall, the earth reminds us that shift is necessary and can be beautiful. Each time the season changes, there is a purpose. And each one of the four seasons fulfills a specific role in the overall flow. 

I think this can also be said about our personal transitions. Each season of life serves a purpose and plays a part in our growth.

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven. A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing.

Ecclesiastes 3:1

This verse tells us that for EVERY MATTER under heaven, there is a time and a season. So, this means we can apply this to our daily lives. Every matter that concerns us has a time and a season. 
What this tells us is that when you’re in season for a particular matter, then there are other matters that are off-season. So the off-season stuff should probably not be prioritized. Because if it’s not the right time for it, it probably won’t thrive anyway.

We can definitely apply this to our season of motherhood. Motherhood requires a lot. Tiny humans need a lot. And God has equipped moms to handle the task (with His help of course). But when we start to add additional burdens on top of our seasonal priorities, we get overwhelmed, begin to fall short, and forget to walk with God in the season.

This hurts our walk with God because He slowly begins to get pushed further down the list. And because we’ve become so busy, we forget to partner with Him in our parenting.

Walking with God in the Season of Motherhood

So, how do we walk with God in our season of motherhood? What does it mean to walk with God in this season? How do we prioritize the Father with so many other things going on? How can we put God first when there is so much to do?

Well, what I’ve learned is that successfully walking with God as a mom can be achieved by doing two things:

1. Embracing your season as a mom.
2. Inviting God to walk alongside you along the way.

By embracing your season of motherhood, you allow yourself to fall in love with this time in your life where you get to be a mom. You cherish this beautiful job God has bestowed upon you. Embracing it means to lean into it and to stop trying to rush it away. You embrace it when you stop overbooking yourself and just allow yourself to be mommy. 

By embracing the gift of motherhood, you are respecting God’s will for your life in that season. And that place of respect and gratefulness is where you begin to walk with God. With this proper mindset, you can then invite God alongside you as you parent your kids.

Then, inviting God alongside your parenting journey can look as simple as calling out to him when your days are tough. Sometimes it can feel silly to ask God for strength because your toddler just spilled his lunch all over the floor for the second time. Or ask God for guidance on how to potty train. Or cry to God because you aren’t getting enough sleep.

But these are the types of challenges we deal with as mothers. Do we think God doesn’t care? Well, of course, He does. The Bible tells us in 1 Peter 5:7 to, “Cast[ing] all your anxieties on him,  because he cares”. So God 100% cares about our anxieties and problems, no matter how silly and insignificant they seem.

List of Ways to Walk with God In Your Season of Motherhood

Motherhood provides unique opportunities for us to grow spiritually. We are challenged in different ways, and we learn new things about ourselves that we might need to work on. 

And these areas that need improvement can be revealed to us while repeating mundane tasks, or dealing with a tantrum, or cleaning up a mess for the fifth time. We’re working on things like patience, perseverance, grace, understanding, self-control, etc. 

So here is a list of specific, and simple, ways you can walk with God in your season of motherhood:

• Praying/Talking with God when you get frustrated instead of complaining
• Crying to God at night when your baby has woken up for the thousandth time
• Thanking God as you watch your beautiful babies play
• Asking God to help your patience
• Asking God to teach you how to manage it all
• Seeking God’s guidance on the small decisions, like how to prepare healthier meals on a budget
• Reading the Bible as you put your kids to sleep
• Playing worship music while you cook meals
• Stopping in the middle of a meltdown, and just asking Him for strength
• Getting some God-time in before the house wakes up, even if it’s only 10 minutes
• Converse with God constantly throughout the day
• Meditate on scripture while you move around the house
• Being present and undistracted with your kids pleases God as well

Walking with God in this season does not need to be complicated. It doesn’t have to look fancy or revolutionary. It’s simply embracing your season as a mom, and inviting in God’s presence every step of the way.

RELATED: “Call on God When Parenting Gets Hard”

How to Embrace the Season You’re In as Christian Mom

There was a time, a not so far away time, when I felt like being “just a mom” wasn’t enough. I wasn’t offering the world enough. I felt like I didn’t have enough friends to share the gospel with. I wasn’t active enough in my community. I wasn’t visiting friends and family enough. I was just feeling constant guilt from not doing more and being more. 

And I think that happens to a lot of us. We start feeling guilty that we are somehow not doing enough. 

Now obviously, everyone’s situation is a little different. Maybe you should be contacting family more. Maybe you should be checking in on friends more.

However, specifically speaking to mothers, our first ministry is our husband and children. But how can we prioritize them if we are trying to prioritize everyone else? How can we be our best selves for them if we are unable to shake the guilt of not being more for everyone else?

This is not to say we should kick everyone else to the curb and just selfishly focus on our own family unit. But what seems to happen is that we start to harbor guilt for things that God never told us we had to do in the first place, or at least not to the degree that we think we have to.

For example, the Bible talks about how important friendships are. But it doesn’t say we have to have a million different friends in order to be a good friend and value friendship. What if we paired down our friendship group so that we can fully value those few friends, instead of spreading thin for a million?

Another example? Okay. The Bible values helping those less fortunate than us. But that doesn’t mean we have to over-commit ourselves to volunteer three times a week if we don’t have the capacity. If doing that is significantly eating into time with our family or preventing us from getting food on the table, it might be time to cut that down or even completely out for the season.

I had a lady in my neighborhood make the comment to me that because I was a stay-at-home mom, I should volunteer to be on the HOA board. She tried to convince me that it wouldn’t take much time, literally telling me I have the time since I’m home. And I started to allow myself to feel guilty for not doing it. But then I thought, nowhere in the Bible does God put this extra burden on me. I stay home to devote my time to my family. And at this current time in my motherhood season, I do not have the capacity to add extra responsibility. My son is 2, and I’m pregnant. And that was that. I let the guilt disappear. 

Motherhood is already a huge job. And we cannot let the enemy guilt us into taking on so many outside projects and things that we forget about being moms.

How do we embrace our season of motherhood? By resisting the lie from the enemy that we should be doing more than being just moms at any given point. God will direct us if there is something extra He wants us to take on. And God’s direction comes with clarity, not confusion. Peace, not turmoil. And conviction, not burdensome guilt.

How to Know What Season You’re In as a Mom

So, how do we know what season we’re in? How do we know it’s the season to slow down, or the season to take on more commitments? 

There are definitely different seasons of motherhood. There is the newborn stage right after the baby comes home where you get zero sleep and spend all your time changing diapers, feeding, and comforting a crying baby. Then the kids get a little older, maybe they start going to school. That frees up some time. Then they become independent teenagers and you hardly see them.

So, all seasons of motherhood do not look exactly the same. So how do you know what God wants you to prioritize in your current season? Here are a few things that can help you figure out what season you’re in:

1. Seek clarity from God. God is the ultimate source to all our answers. Ask Him to make your path clear.
2. Pay attention to how you feel in your life as it is right now. How are things going for you? Are you constantly feeling stressed, overwhelmed, spread thin? Well, that could be an indication that you’re not operating within your season.
3. Observe your family. How are your choices affecting your husband and kids?

In Conclusion

Walking with God in our season of motherhood is crucial to our sanity and spiritual growth. We cannot do it all alone, and we cannot grow spiritually without inviting Him into our daily lives. 

God’s not waiting for us to have it all together before we come to Him. He wants us to come to Him now, holding a dirty diaper, with a baby on one hip and a toddler pulling at the other. He wants to partner with us in raising our kids. So let’s remember to take His offer, and accept the peace and help that can only He can provide.

The post How to Walk with God in Your Season of Motherhood appeared first on .

I recently went on the hunt for Christian Apologetics books for kids and was pleasantly surprised that there are more options than I expected! In this post, I want to share a few of the books I found that seemed like good options. 

Even though my son is only two at the moment, as we all know kids grow up quickly. And it’s important that we start preparing for that day when their simple questions turn into deeper Theological questions.

If you don’t know what Christian Apologetics is, you can read my post “What is Apologetics”. But in a nutshell, Apologetics is all about learning to defend the Christian faith with evidence and reason. Apologetics demonstrates how Christianity is not just some feel-good worldview. But it’s a worldview that is backed by actual, reasonable evidence. 

Studying Apologetics as a Christian can really help ground our faith in something that is not dependent upon how we feel. But real solid, scholarly supported evidence that in turn can help us share the gospel a little easier. In my post, “4 Ways Apologetics Can Help You and Your Family Grow Spiritually“, I go more in detail on just how studying Apologetics can help strengthen your entire family spiritually.

When I was younger, I was not introduced to anything close to Apologetics. Like a lot of believers I know, I was simply handed the Bible, went to church, and told God was real. And as I got older, this didn’t change. So when questions starting coming up from either myself or others around me, I had no idea how to answer. And we do not want that to be the experience of our children in today’s world. They will get chewed up by the progressive Christian, and destroyed by the “woke” young culture that is developing.

So that is what sparked my interest in procuring this list. I even found a couple of options for the preschool age group, which is pretty awesome.

Let’s take a look!

This post may contain affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small commission at no cost to you. Thank you!

How to Help Your Child Grow Spiritually

As Christian moms, one of our goals is to help our children grow in their faith. There are a ton of different things we can do. And reading good, solid Christian books to them is one way. Teaching kids to defend Christianity at a young age could be a game-changer in our culture.

Take a look below at the 8 different books I found that could be great additions to a child’s collection or even make great Christian gifts for children in your life.

1. Why God?: Big Answers About God and Why We Believe in Him (Ages  4-8)

“Thomas loves to think about silly questions. (Are bats really mice with wings?) But other questions are humdingers . . . like when Thomas wonders, Why God? Why do we believe in Him? That’s when he and his sister, Hope, must go in search of a humdinger of an answer. Come along as they discover the clues God has given us to help us know how real and wonderful He truly is.  

Written by Dan DeWitt, an apologetics professor with a love for stories, Why God? takes apologetics and makes it accessible for children, not only answering their questions but also opening their hearts to the wonders of God.” 

2. Picture Book Apologetics with James and Ruth Book Series (3 Book Series)

“While James and Ruth are playing outside, they meet a grumpy wild pig that challenges their understanding of the universe and God’s creative work. Join them as they learn to think carefully about what they believe and why they believe it as their father teaches them how to defend what they know to be true. This colorful story will encourage deep conversations, help you equip your children with faith-strengthening tools, and embolden them to defend their Christian beliefs from an early age.”

3. Fact or Fantasy (Children’s Bible Study) (Ages 4-9)

“Apologetics for kids! Learn why you believe what you do, and what evidence there is to back it up.”

4. Cold-Case Christianity for Kids: Investigate Jesus with a Real Detective (Ages 8-12)

“Drawing tweens into the thrill of high-stakes investigating, respected cold-case detective Wallace trains them how to think rather than telling them what to think. Showing kids how to test witnesses, examine the evidence, and more, he gives them the investigative skills they need to understand and defend the truth about Jesus.” 

5. The Awesome Book of Bible Answers for Kids! (Ages 8-12)

“Keep this practical guide handy for the next time your preteens ask “Who’s God?” Filled with key Scriptures and topical explorations of forgiveness, right and wrong, making choices, different beliefs and religions, the Trinity, church, prayer, and more, it’s a great way to build a foundation of truth in 8- to 12-year-old hearts. 192 pages, softcover from Harvest.”

6. If I Could Ask God Anything: Awesome Bible Answers for Curious Kids (Ages 6 – 10)

“Does God ever sleep? Did Jesus live before or after the dinosaurs? Kids ask the darndest things about God—and Slattery tackles some of the “toughies”! Using simple language and bright illustrations, she offers fresh answers to questions about faith, prayer, Christianity, and more to help children articulate what they believe and why. Ages 6 to 10. 224 pages, softcover from Nelson.”

7. Young Defenders (4 part book series) (Ages 6 – 11)

“Almost every night Thomas and his father watch the night sky. One night, Thomas has a question: “Dad, how do we know God is out there?” Together, Thomas and his father begin to examine the cosmological evidence for God’s existence as seen through the expansion of the universe. This fun picture book is designed to introduce kids to an important question of the Christian faith in terms even pre-readers can understand. NIV Scripture. 9.25″ x 7.25″. Hardcover.”

8. The Case for Christ for Kids (8 – 12)

“Equip your 8- to 12-year-olds to defend their faith in an unbelieving world! This revised kid-friendly edition of Strobel’s bestseller presents historic evidence, up-to-date scientific research, and true stories taken from Off My Case that provide compelling support for Jesus’ life, ministry, and miracles. Reliable answers for inquiring young minds and hearts! 128 pages, softcover from Zonderva.”

I hope this list of books will help get you started with teaching Apologetics to your kids!

Apologetics Programs for Kids

In addition to the books listed above, I found a couple of really neat Apologetics programs for kids. If you’re looking for a unique way to help your child grow spiritually and teach them Apologetics, one of these programs could be it.

1. The First is foundationworldview.com.

Foundation has two different course options: 1) Comparative Worldview for ages 8 – 12, and 2) Careful Thinking for ages 10 – 14. So if you’re a mom of kids these ages, this might be a good place for your kids to get some Apologetics training. The pricing is affordable, in my opinion, at $175 for each curriculum. Details below.

The Comparative Worldview Curriculum Summary:

“Foundation Comparative Worldview Curriculum equips 8-to-12-year-olds with a biblical worldview and exposes them to the basic beliefs of competing worldviews. This Curriculum sets the stage for critical worldview analysis and biblical worldview integration in every area of life. As children begin to learn the basic tenets of competing worldviews, they quickly will begin to recognize these philosophies in novels, textbooks, television shows, movies, music, and daily conversations.”

The Careful Thinking Curriculum Summary:

Foundation Careful Thinking Curriculum equips 10-14-year-olds with the basic skills they need to evaluate the truthfulness of ideas. This Curriculum sets the stage for critical thinking in every area of life. As children begin to learn the basic skills in careful thinking, they quickly begin to recognize faulty ideas in the world around them.

2. The Second is Kids 4 Truth Clubs

The Kids 4 Truth Clubs teaches “Systematic theology for kids that teaches Bible doctrine. Apologetics for kids!“

“Kids4Truth Clubs helps to fulfill this mission by equipping local churches, families, or ministry-minded individuals to reach kids worldwide through creatively and memorably taught doctrinal truth.”

And one of their goals is to “Define and refine the minimum standard of Christian knowledge that boys and girls ought to have in order to avoid confusion, discourage hypocrisy, and promote authentic faith.”

This program sounds amazing. It seems to be specifically designed for churches versus homeschooling or individual learning. But if you’re open to finding a local club or starting one at your church for your kids, this could be a great program.

Well, that’s the last of it. I hope this list of resources will help you on your journey to help your child grow spiritually. Let’s make a real effort to teach our kids sound doctrine, strong faith, and evidential Christianity.

You might also like:

6 Tips to Make Studying Apologetics Less Intimidating

Apologetics Gift Ideas for the Holidays

“Mama Bear Apologetics” Is a Must-Read for Christian Mothers

The post 8 Christian Apologetics Books for Kids appeared first on .

But as followers of Christ, there is another element. Our motherhood journey should include God. So, it will look a little bit differently.

I’ve said it in other posts, and I’ll say it again here. Christian mothers of this next generation have some challenging work ahead. The Truth is being attacked in new ways. And unfortunately, our kids seem to be the main targets.

Being intentional about incorporating Godly principles and values into our children’s daily lives is so important. And demonstrating a life led by Christ is crucial.

It’s not enough to just do the surface level tasks of parenthood. But we should start seeing ourselves as kingdom parents. We should be prioritizing the Kingdom over the world in our daily choices as mothers.

This is one of the reasons I wanted to be a stay at home mom. I figured I could best serve my children and truly focus on their spiritual needs if I was more present in their lives. 

Looking around at the state of the world, I just knew that I had to do something drastic. If I wanted to be my best self as a mother, splitting my time and focus between full-time work and raising my kids would just be too difficult for me.

This isn’t to judge anyone who chooses to work full time as a mom. In fact, I write on this topic in  “What Does the Bible Say About Being a Stay at Home Mom”, if you’re interested. 

My point, however, is that sometimes as Christian mothers, our choices will and should look a little different than the world would expect.

Characteristics of a Good Mother in the Bible

The Bible has a lot of examples of both good and bad mothers. But one scripture speaks volumes to what the biblical principles of motherhood should be. And that is Proverbs 31. A lot of women turn to this chapter in Proverbs for guidance on how to conduct themselves as daughters of Christ and how to fulfil the role of mother in the family. And there is definitely a lot to unpack from a motherhood perspective. Let’s take a look.

First, the chapter starts off with King Lemeul sharing an oracle that his mom taught him. And in it, we can see just what kind of mother she was.

This mother valued wisdom and gave wise advice to her son.

Do not give your strength to women, your ways to those who destroy kings. It is not for kings,  O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to take strong drink, lest they drink and forget what has been decreed and pervert the rights of all the afflicted.

Proverbs 31:3-5

This mother encouraged righteousness and good works. She taught her son kindness and to care for those less fortunate.

Give strong drink to the one who is perishing, and wine to those in bitter distress; let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more. Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all  who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights  of the poor and needy.

Proverbs 31:6-9

It’s good stuff! And then, let’s continue on down to Proverbs 31:10-31. The ESV Bible titles this section as “The Woman who Fears the Lord”. And this Proverbs 31 mother is:

• Hard working with WILLING hands. She is ready to do hard work. (13)
• Sacrificial. She rises early and stays up late to do what she has to do. Her lamp does not go out at night. (15 & 18)
• Smart and financially disciplined. She CONSIDERS a field before buying it; she perceives her merchandise is profitable before selling it. (16 & 18)
• Physically strong to take on the many duties of her home and family. (17)
• Giving, giving to the poor and needy.
• Prepared. She doesn’t fear disaster because she carefully and wisely prepares for the things to come. (21 &27)
• God-fearing. The most important attribute of all. (30)

These are all amazing characteristics to strive for. But I want to also point out another attribute that seriously matters in motherhood. Look at this.

When you read 2 Timothy 1, Paul writes to Peter:

I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.

It was the strong, sincere, evidential faith of these mothers in Timothy’s life that helped to shape his faith, which Paul recognized in Peter. These spiritual mothers in the Bible, Lois and Eunice, not only had sincere faith, they practiced and demonstrated this faith to Peter, so that it now lived in him also.

Powerful stuff.

So what does this tell us? Let our kids see us practice in good faith all the amazing duties God has called us to do. Let them see what that obedience looks like and what good fruit it will produce.

Christian Motherhood Should Look a Little Different from Secular Motherhood

Now, if you look at the list above of characteristics of a good Christian mother, you might be thinking, what really sets us apart from any other mother? These are all the typical attributes that most moms, Christian or not, try to aspire to, right?

You would think so.

I think most moms desire to be these things, but unfortunately aren’t actively pursuing these characteristics. We as moms can be habitually lazy, habitually ungiving, habitually non sacrificial. Everyone wants to be a good mom, but are we really pursuing it? Are we in active pursuit of this call that God has put on our lives?

Instead of hard-working, we can do the bare minimum for our kids. Maybe instead of cooking healthy dinners, we just order take-out everyday. Cooking healthy, home cooked meals all the time is hard work. But the alternative is unhealthy, overweight children who won’t know how to make healthy food choices when they are older.

Maybe instead of being willing to get our hands dirty, we grumble and complain through our work. We drag our feet and fuss because we don’t feel like doing the house cleaning. Or maybe we complain about our full-time jobs all the time. Our children can witness these moments and potentially pick up the same habits. Instead of valuing hard work, they look at it as something to hate and avoid as they grow up.

Maybe we don’t sacrifice enough for our family or others. Maybe your husband never gets to see you, or your kids have been begging you to take them to the park, but you keep putting it off because you’re too busy doing whatever. If this is a regular issue, that’s the opposite of sacrificial.

The list can go on and on. And this isn’t to make anyone feel like a bad mom. We all have lazy days, moments, or even lazy seasons. We are not perfect.

But the difference between a Christian mom and a non-Christian mom is that we should be actively and diligently pursuing these attributes. We should be asking God to shine a light on those areas that need to be more in alignment with his purpose for us as moms.

The secular world applauds the working mom with a suitcase taking the world on by storm. The mom who does not let her family hold her back from her dreams. But is that worldly vision holding you back from God’s plan for motherhood in your life?

We can pursue our passions and interests, we can find meaningful work outside of home if we feel called to. However, if our children don’t walk away knowing what these attributes look like in you, we are missing the mark.

And obviously, the most important one of all is God-fearing. A woman who does not believe in God cannot be God-fearing. Seeking God is the key to being able to pursue the characteristics that He calls us to strive for in the Bible.

The Impact of a Godly Mother

Amidst the many respectable mothers in the Bible, there are some not-so-respectable ones as well. Let’s take a quick look at King Ahaziah’s mom in 2 Chronicles 22:2-4.

Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem one year. His mother’s name was Athalia, a grandaughter of Omri. He too followed the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother encouraged him to act wickedly. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord…

As we see, we can have such a strong influence on our children. In a lot of cases, our kids end up spending more day-to-day time with us than their fathers. They pick up our habits and attitudes. They watch us and soak up how we act and how we treat others.

What a blessing it is to be able to have such a strong influence on our children. So it’s our job to make sure our influence is Christ-like. No, there’s no way we can be perfect. Our kids will see us fail. They will see us angry. They will see us frustrated. But how we handle those imperfect moments can make a huge impact. Are we making those imperfect moments habitual? Are they constantly seeing us angry, yelling, gossiping, etc? Or, are they processing those moments as mistakes that we are trying to work on as Christians.

How to Be a Godly Mother in an Ungodly World

With all that being said, what are some practical ways we can apply some of these characteristics that should accompany Christian mothers? It’s easy to simply say we need to be strong, giving, sacrificial, and prepared. But how do we actually put this in practice?

Let’s look at 8 different ways we can practice Godly motherhood so that we can not only be good Christian mothers, but mothers who are serious about our kid’s spiritual future.

Related:  “How to Train up a Child in a Godly Way”

1. Pray like crazy. Become an intense prayer warrior for your kids. Pray often. Pray over their spiritual growth, their faith, their trust in God, their future spouse, etc. Just pray over every aspect of their life. 
2. Teach Truth. Opinions and perspectives are now being taught as “my truth”. But we need to be teaching our children what the Truth is, and what the difference is between truth and emotions. 
3. Teach them to love themselves as God created them. The enemy is after the God-given identity of our kids. It breaks my heart to see parents who should be protecting their kids instead allow them to believe they were mistakenly created to be the opposite sex, for example. As parents, we are supposed to tell them the truth and help them love who God made them, not affirm their lie. 
4. Guard their ear and eye gates. Another practical thing we can do is be careful what we allow them to watch and listen to. I’m not necessarily one to think that evil spirits jump from the TV screen into our souls. However, certain visuals and messages can definitely influence children, leading to opportunities for the enemy to deceive them and lead them astray. 
5. Show them unconditional love while speaking truth and not affirming sin. Too many parents are confusing love with affirmation these days. If our kids do wrong, we should love them fiercely, but we cannot pat them on the back and tell them their sin is okay. Tell them the truth about their sin while loving them. When my toddler hits or throws something he isn’t supposed to, I don’t praise him with,  “Good job! I support you anytime you want to do that.” That’s ludicrous. 
6. Get prepared, stay in God’s word and study diligently. Another thing we can do is stay studied up and in the Word (this is the Bible I’m using). We can’t teach God’s ways if we don’t know them. Be a mom who is serious about your own spiritual growth. And then you’ll have more than “milk” to feed your children as they grow up. I encourage you to download my free Mommy Apologist Bundle to learn more about how you can start preparing now.
7. Have tough conversations about faith. My son is too young for this one. But as he grows, I plan to have the tough talks with him about culture, sin, and hell. If we don’t do this, others will. And others may fill their heads with lies from the enemy. 
8. Demonstrate a godly walk. Let’s make sure our children actually see us walk the talk. Don’t just talk about God but then live habitually sinful lives. If they see us walk it out, this will solidify just how important it is.

I hope that you were able to take something away from this post. And my guess is, if you’re reading this post, you are as determined as I am to not allow today’s progressive culture to take hold of your kids.

I am determined to do everything I can to make sure they know their Creator. I am committed to doing all I can and more as a mom to ensure my children’s fear of the Lord surpasses the fear of the world. 

God bless!

You might also like:

Are You Worried About Your Kid’s Salvation?

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The post How to Be a Good Christian Mother appeared first on .

If we are to spread the good news, we cannot do that without being at least somewhat prepared for some of the not-so-fun questions that come along with it. Furthermore, we need to have thought through some of the tough things ourselves and tackled those things internally. Otherwise, we might run into someone that shakes our faith and causes us to truly doubt God.

This is definitely important as mothers. Our kids turn to us for answers most of their younger years. And when they reach that age of “why”, or when they reach those teenage years and start really thinking things through, we want to be ready.

Dealing with our doubts and questions can be scary and even make us feel like we’re not true believers, or that we are somehow disrespecting God. But it’s necessary that we tackle these questions head-on instead of suppressing them and pretending they’re not there. Because the truth is, if you do have doubt or untackled questions that you haven’t come to peace with, those things can resurface and cause you to stumble later.

It’s so much better to get those things out on the table and discuss them with God immediately. You can even discuss these things with a pastor, or a mature Christian in your life for help. But we cannot pretend they are not there because that is very dangerous.

5 Faith Questions to Ask Yourself

Below are 5 reflection questions to ask yourself about faith. The Christian faith is under threat. And unless we begin to stand firm and be ready to fire back (with love) and Truth, it will only continue to get worse. The point of these questions is to force us to look inwardly and really make sure our foundation is strong.

1. Are you ready to give a defense for your faith?

The Bible tells us to always be ready to give a defense.

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man who asketh you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.

1 Peter 3:15

But are we realistically ready? I’ll be honest, although I know in my heart why I believe, it can be very difficult to articulate to someone else who just either doesn’t get it, thinks your belief is complete bologna, or is super combative and resistant.

It can be difficult and even intimidating. And what I’ve discovered is that it takes practice. It takes courage. It takes studying and spending time in prayer asking God to allow the Holy Spirit to give you boldness.

And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the Word of God with boldness.

Acts 4:31

Unfortunately, what we seem to be witnessing today is a weak body of Christ. A body of Christians who lack the skills to tackle this new generation’s questions and objections. 

In general, we are just not prepared.

There is an element of relying on the Holy Spirit, but we also have to do the work. In order for God to use us, we have to act.

Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

Mathew 7:24

I use the word WE intentionally because I’m guilty of it too. I’m guilty of getting lazy when it comes to defending the faith. But we have to stop being lazy and be intentional about learning to defend the Bible and our faith.

For example, do you have friends or family that don’t believe in the validity of the Bible? Start there. Study your butt off to learn as much as you can about Bible history and origin so that the next time it comes up in conversation, you’re ready.

If you have a friend who doesn’t believe Jesus died and was risen, go out and get some facts on why his existence is supported. A good book for this, by the way, is “The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus“. I haven’t completely finished the book yet, but it has a lot of really good information. It outlines a lot of the common and not-so-common objections to the truth of Jesus and gives the reader actual answers they can use in discussion.

We don’t have to have all the answers, or memorize lengthy paragraphs of complicated, uninteresting Biblical facts. But, we should be at least making a genuine effort to growing our knowledge base so when asked a question, we know a little something about something.

You can read my post “6 Tips to Make Studying Apologetics Less Intimidating” about how to study Apologetics if you’re a bit nervous to start that journey. 

2. What areas of faith do you struggle with?

This is a really good question to ask yourself. Because if you’re struggling with certain aspects of your faith but yet trying to tell others about the Gospel, you might be susceptible to getting shaken when someone tackles that area.

It’s totally fine to have questions and struggle with a particular faith question. However, we have to be honest with ourselves about it and go into prayer about it.

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

Mathew 7:7

We should be diligently and proactively seeking answers. Not passively waiting for God to download the answer into our brains. If we have questions about why something happened the way it did in the Bible, fast and pray until God answers or gives you peace about it.

But ignoring the struggle can create a weak spot in your faith. I know in the past this has happened to me. And as soon as someone hits that button, I started questioning everything I believed. Not good.

3. Do you have any doubts about your faith?

This question piggybacks off of the last question. But if there are areas of doubt, tackle them ASAP. Talk to a trusted, mature Christian, a pastor, and most importantly, pray and fast to God. Doubts can turn into disbelief.

The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!

Mark 9:24

Let’s all strive to have a strong, unshakable faith. A faith that makes unbelievers uncomfortable, but in a good way. The type of unshakable faith that has them questioning their worldview, not the other way around. Questions about faith and doubt should be embraced and addressed, not suppressed.

Don’t be afraid to disappoint God with doubts. My guess is He would be overjoyed to help you overcome these doubts so that you can have stronger faith in Him.

4. Are you prepared to tackle contradictions in the Bible?

Oh, the world famous Bible contradictions conundrum. Are there contradictions in the Bible? Do you know the answer to that question? Are you aware of any specific examples, and can you point out why they are not contradictions?

Atheists have a full list of “contradictions” in the Bible. And there is no way that we can or should be expected to know or memorize them all. You can practically make a contradiction out of anything if you try hard enough. But, it doesn’t hurt to be aware of a handful. And even more importantly, be in the Bible enough to know how to recognize the error in a contradiction if it’s brought up to us.

In my post “5 Contradictions in the Bible…That Are Not Contradictions“, I tackle 5 Biblical “contradictions” that atheists try to use to debunk the validity of the Bible.

5. Do you know how to address the issue of suffering under a good God?

This is perhaps one of the toughest questions to tackle in Christianity. And one that keeps a lot of people from believing in God. But it’s important that we as Christians know how to address it, even if we don’t know the full answer. With so much suffering in the world, we cannot afford to simply ignore this one or brush it off.

It can be hard to have this particular conversation with someone, but being at least somewhat prepared to address this if asked could make a world of difference for someone.

Here is an article from crossexamined.org that outlines how evil and suffering are actually evidence that God exists. This could be a good starting point for how to tackle this question. Crossexamined.org also has tons of other excellent posts dealing with the topic of evil and suffering. If this topic interests you, I highly suggest you browse their site.

In Conclusion

It’s crucial that we ask ourselves deep questions about Christianity. If we want the secular world to understand our faith and why we believe, we first have to understand it ourselves. It can be very uncomfortable to tackle our own doubts or questions.

But God already knows your heart and He knows if you’re experiencing doubts or are struggling. Why try to hide that from Him? Be open with God and ask Him to help you work through those things so that you can come out on the other side with stronger faith.

You might also like:

Are You Worried About Your Kid’s Salvation?

5 Contradictions in the Bible…That Are Not Contradictions

6 Tips to Make Studying Apologetics Less Intimidating

The post 5 Challenging Questions to Ask Yourself About Your Faith appeared first on .