Walking with God in the Season of Motherhood

I'm a little nerdy in the sense that I really like going through Bible Study books during my quiet time in the morning. Left on my own, I'll just read a bunch of random Bible chapters and have a hard time digesting it or figuring out what it has to do with my life. I find study guides help keep me focused. (That being said, the older I've gotten, the more I get annoyed when I hear too much of the author's voice. For instance, I love going through Beth Moore studies but after a while her southern Texas syrupy sweet "hey dear" type language grates on my nerves.)

I was pleased to run across this book at the bookstore. It's called Walking with God in the Season of Motherhood by Melissa B. Kruger. The book walks through various character traits that we as mothers need to imbibe from Christ, and then exhibit to our kids. These traits are based on the fruit of the Spirit. The book is very heavy on guided scripture reading, which I appreciated. (And maybe I was positively disposed to her since she lives in Charlotte, where my brother and his family live, and in the state where I was born.)

Here are a couple of the things I appreciated in particular:

• The book itself has all the Bible verses written out. How awesome is that? It means that when you're out and about, you don't need to necessarily haul your Bible along or constantly look up verses on your phone. All you need is the book. It's a small, but practical, thing for a busy mom!
• I am a working mother. In some ways I face all the same things any mother does (dealing with cranky or sick kids, dealing with bickering children and discipline, working on dealing constructively with my own short fuse or exhaustion, asking my children for forgiveness when I blow up at them, etc.) but in other ways, my day to day life is a little different. For starters, my full time job is not to take care of my children. What this means is that (unfortunately) I don't have time for lots of things like playgroups and kids activities with other moms, so quite honestly, I don't deal with a lot of the feelings of insecurity that come with comparing your own parenting skills with others. (Let's be honest... I struggle with issues of comparison, it just happens to be in the arena of my professional job. I think whatever you're doing full time, you're going to question yourself when you look at how others do the same thing.) At any rate, some of the books for mothers seem to be written by stay at home moms so the "angle" of the book is as much about the day to day activities of parenting as about the heart issues. I appreciated that this book really dealt with issues that all mothers face, such as having a home that exhibits peace, a heart that is patient with our kids, a life that exhibits self control, etc.

Because the book is based so much on good scriptures, I feel like this is a book I could easily read through again in the future. I'm hoping that perhaps I can go through the book at some time with a group of moms, because I think there's lots of practical food for thought. I highly recommend this as a daily reading guide for any mom out there looking to Jesus, regardless of the age of her kids.