Dannah Gresh - The 20 Hardest Questions Every Mom Faces: Praying Your Way to Realistic, Biblical Answers

While other schools spend their time and energy preparing students for college or for a job, we spend our resources preparing students for life. Prepare yourself for a pleasant surprisea school where students love to learn, where theyre encouraged to wonder out loud, challenged to question until they understand, and required to do more than learn. Prepare yourself for Grace Prep!

1. We believe that kids need a creative, cool, and challenging environment to spread their wings and to learn the disciplines of life.

2. We believe that helping your child discover his or her passion will fuel spectacular achievement.

3. We believe that developing an intelligent faith and intimate friendship with Jesus will create lifelong fulfillment.

4. We believe that families are too busy and that schools waste lots of time on busywork and homework and justify it in the name of academic rigor.

5. We believe in academic rigor.

6. We believe that schools should be efficient enough to teach your kids in the 30 to 40 hours per week of class time.

7. We believe that late afternoons in childhood are meant for riding bikes, playing ball, and hanging out with close friends.

8. We believe that evenings are for families and reading and rest.

9. We believe that history is more exciting and easier to remember when youre in Boston, Gettysburg, or Valley Forge.

10. We believe Spanish is easier to learn in Mexico than in a school classroom.

11. We believe that most students go to college with no idea of who they are and what they want to be.

12. We believe it is the schools privilege to help them discover their spiritual gifts and to show them who God meant them to be.

13. We believe that Why do we have to learn this stuff? is a very good question.

14. We believe that a school cannot teach the whole truth to students if it doesnt acknowledge Jesus Christ as the foundation for all truth.

15. We believe that parents are responsible for their children and have the right to control their educational experience and goals.

16. We believe that teachers are flooded with paperwork and bureaucracy instead of resources and support.

17. We believe parents would have a hard time sitting on those hard school chairs.

18. We believe students are capable of entrepreneurship and student-led businesses and not just selling hoagies.

19. We believe students should learn to avoid debt, pay cash, and read the fine print.

20. We think they should understand Gods view of sex so they can anticipate the blessing.

21. We think parents have the right to know what is going to be taught before its taught.

22. We believe not all kids are meant for college and that schools should value them as much as God does.

23. We believe that legalism is the easy way out and is employed by weak leaders.

24. We believe that no sin is too large to forgive and that no sin is too small to ignore.

25. We believe in extravagant grace and have known its beauty. We believe that its messy and wonderfully unjust. It gives us what we dont deserve.

26. We abhor internal politics, superficiality, unnecessary secrets, and constant spin.

27. We believe in truth that confronts, and were okay with being yelled at behind closed doors.

28. We believe that transparency sets us free and helps us love others more, not less.

29. We believe that on nice days it might be better to have class outside.

30. We believe in leadership that is subjective and considers the uniqueness of kids.

31. We believe in fighting every battle that needs to be fought and leaving no one behind, no matter how broken.

32. We believe there is at least one kid in every class that needs special attention and love in spite of his behavior.

33. We believe that same kid will be transformed by the teacher who finds his passion.

34. We believe teachers work hard during the year but have a great deal in the summer.

35. We believe modesty is a matter of the girls heart and the guys mind, and were committed to protecting both.

36. We believe great schools can afford great sports programs.

37. We believe money follows excellence, excellence follows vision, and visionaries must follow God.

38. We believe that families that cant afford Christian education sometimes need it most.

39. We believe one of the greatest joys in life is finding out that its a snow day.

40. We believe in God-sized tasks, and Grace Prep is one of them.

Someone already knows the right answers to the deepest insecurities and complaints of your soul.

I once lobbed a meatloaf at my husbands head in front of my children.

Having just returned home after a few days away, I found the laundry looming over my head like Mount Everest and my family having existed primarily on Fruit Loops for the extended weekend. It was one of those emotionally wealthy times of the month for me. And my family was emotionally needy. The answer to this dilemma came to me with certaintyone cheese-stuffed, bacon-wrapped, barbecue-laden meatloaf coming up!

We were sitting at the quintessential dinner table with mashed potatoes steaming and warm blueberry muffins melting the real butter. The first bite of that mouthwatering meatloaf was almost to my mouth when my husband did the unthinkablehe mentioned the laundry. My next moment was not a stable one. While I will fall short of confessing that I outright threw my plate at him, Ill admit that I sort of flicked it toward his face.

Sadly, I missed.

Thats when I noticed the fear in my childrens sweet eyes, which were as large as the saucer Id just thrown. (Proof to you, I hope, that I dont often throw meatloaf or any other itemsfood or otherwise.) So I did what any emotionally wealthy woman would do. I ran to the bathroom.

Thats when my husband became my hero. He followed me, calmly opened the door, and held his hand out to me as if he were asking me to dance.

Our kids are going to remember this as one of the worst moments of their childhood or one of the funniest, depending on how we react, he explained lovingly. Im up for making it the second. How about you?

He led me back to the dining room, where he commenced a comedy routine that to this day I say belongs on The Tonight Show .

Our kids laughed. And so did I.

Im not a perfect mom.

If youre looking for a mom who appears to have it all together, head on over to goop.com , where you can read about founder and CEO Gwyneth Paltrow creating her kids supposedly delicious and picture-perfect meals out of quinoa and kale immediately following a workout that centers her spirit and flattens her abs. (Of course, Gwyneth might admit to you that she is blessed with a little extra support in the form of nannies and blog writers compared to many of us.)

This book doesnt really contain all the right answers.

Just some of the hardest questions.

And a four-step process in which you can find custom-made answers just for you .

If ever a mom needed answers, its on the backdrop of being a millennial, where Pinterest-perfect domestication meets career-minded savvy. A mom is expected to craft, bake, sew, decorate, and blog about it with hipster style, all while generating income in some ultra-creative fashion, whether its a new Shark Tank worthy start-up company or the worlds most SEO-friendly Etsy store. (Did I mention that when you bake it needs to be with ingredients that are local, organic, grass-fed, and dairy-free?)