Angela Thomas - 52 Things Kids Need from a Mom. What Mothers Can Do to Make a Lifelong Difference

HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS

EUGENE, OREGON

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New International VersionNIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Verses marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

Verses marked MSG are taken from The Message. Copyright by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

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Cover design by Koechel Peterson & Associates, Inc., Minneapolis, Minnesota

Published in association with BrandWaves LLC, Brentwood, TN 37027. www.brandwavesllc.com

52 THINGS KIDS NEED FROM A MOM

Copyright 2011 by Angela Thomas

Published by Harvest House Publishers

Eugene, Oregon 97402

www.harvesthousepublishers.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Thomas, Angela

52 things kids need from a mom / Angela Thomas.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-7369-4391-8 (pbk.)

ISBN 978-0-7369-4392-5 (eBook)

1. Mother and childReligious aspectsChristianity. I. Title.

BV4529.18.T449 2011

248.8'431dc22

2011014612

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Printed in the United States of America

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 / VP-SK / 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For
Taylor, Grayson, William, and AnnaGrace.

More than all these things, I give you my love.
I will adore you forever and ever.
Mom

A very special thanks to my husband, Scott Pharr. Because you are by my side, loving these beautiful children with me, I am learning more about what it means to be their mom. You have given strength and stability to our home. You make every day fun and set the tone of our home with your consistent good attitude and humor. Your selfless spirit and compassionate heart challenge me to become more like you. Because you lead us with godliness, I too want to keep growing, taking every next step toward greater maturity in Christ. The children and I love you deeply. So much of this book, I have learned from you.

Thank you to LaRae Weikert for thinking of me to write this book. What a privilege to partner with Harvest House for this message! Thank you to Bob Hawkins and Terry Glaspey for your encouragement and work alongside me.

And mostly, to my Savior, Jesus. You have carried this broken mom. Healed my broken kids. Restored my broken home. Mended my broken heart. If I could only give one thing to my kids, it would be You. Thank You for everlasting love.

Kids Need Their Mom

D ear mom like me,

Tonight as I write to you, I am praying for you and for your children. Oh, how you have such a tender place in my heart. Being a mom is the greatest privilege that has come to me, and I know you feel the same way. It is such an honor to meet you here in these pages and share a bit of our journey together.

I want you to know that I have written these 52 things as prompts. Ideas. Creative reminders. Two of my girlfriends read the contents page for this book, and both of them called me to say, I havent done even half of them. I hope theres still time left. So I want to tell you what I told them: There is no guilt in these pages. They have not been written as a checklist for women who want to be impressive moms. Each of these chapters was written out of longing, desire, and love.

Some of you could write 1052 other things kids need from a mom. My friend with an autistic son could help us all learn so much more about patience and championing your child. My friend with adopted children would be able to give us lists of things kids need to adapt to a new culture and make the transition from orphanage to family. Another one of my friends spends almost every moment caring for her baby, who has had life-threatening issues and too many stays in the hospital. Oh, the things she could tell us.

The point is that we are each on a different journey, but we all long to love our children well, to be great moms, and to become even better along the way. I am praying that in these pages you find encouragement, renewed inspiration, and hope. I pray that you can laugh at yourself, and your kids, when necessary. I pray for you and for myself that when we know better, well do better. I am not done yet. I still want to become the mom God had in mind when He entrusted four beautiful children to me.

Before you jump into the chapters, I just want to give you the pre-thing before the 52 things. This is the biggie that matters more than all the rest: Love.

Love those kids with all your heart, soul, and might. Love them through their mistakes. Love them in their changes. Love them when theyre dorky. Love them when they are accomplished. Just open your heart and dont hold backever. Our children need one person on this earth who will love them fiercely, no matter what this life holds. That task has been assigned to you and me. So let us learn to love with a healthy love. A godly love. A mushy love. A powerful, transforming love.

And so my friend, welcome to 52 Things Kids Need from a Mom. May God add His grace to these pages and His wisdom to our hearts. I have nothing to offer apart from Him.

Lets love those pumpkins like crazy and enjoy every single day we have been given.

Its a privilege to be a mom alongside you today,

I n my first years as a mom, I desperately wanted to keep a passionate spiritual life with God. I wanted to read the Bible. Sit quietly and pray. Maybe even write a few things in my journal. Its just that my little people would not cooperate. I had four babies in seven years, and not one of them was willing to go along with my plan. My heart kept longing to go back and have a spiritual life the way Id always had. Alone. It took me a while to realize that being a mom means you might never be alone again.

Frustrated. Probably even mad sometimes. I remember shaking my head and just fussing on the inside about my crazy, chaotic predicament. I am trying to be with God so that I can be a better mom. Anybody with me here? As you can imagine, being alone rarely happened. And Id feel guilty about my crumbling spiritual life. And the only ones I knew to blame were them, the ones I loved so dearly, who needed me every minute.

Id love to tell you that the answer for my struggle came to me in a moment of brilliance. But I was too tired to be brilliant. There was just an afternoon. I think I put on a video for the kids to watch and went upstairs to my bedroom. For some reason I kept the door open and sat down on the floor to read my Bible for a minute, and then I stretched out, facedown, on my carpet to pray. I guess I had been praying for one whole minute, and then they came.

I could hear them coming down the hall, but that day, instead of stopping what I was doing, I just kept lying there, praying. Of course, they walked right in, and Im sure you can guess what they did. They crawled on top of me. And they played with my hair. And they wiggled their little faces up to mine.