Hope Unfolding by Becky Thompson

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Product Details

Grace-filled Truth for the Momma's Heart

This is a book for moms who need grace, for moms who need assurance that they are a good mom. Some of Becky's subtitles to her chapters are: "God Hasn't Forgotten About You", "God is Good Even When Life Isn't", "You Are Not Alone", "Let God Be Your Strength", and "Have Grace for Who You Are".

This was a good book. I have only been a mom to a living child for a 13.5 months and I have discovered that it is hard and it can be lonely. Life isn't about just me anymore or even just me and my husband. There is a little person who demands my attention 24 hours a day and 23 hours of the day I love to give it, but there are times when I am tired and ready to just walk away for a little and not worry that the baby is going to wake up or be tired of her current toys, etc. I run out of patience and can get a little snappish and that is not good, but there were a couple things that Becky said in this book that I would like to share with you.  She shared more than a couple things, but I want to whet your appetite not satisfy it.

One is you don't know everyone's story. When you see the mom in the store who is yelling at her kid and your heart cringes and you feel bad for the awful environment that that poor kid is needing to grow up in, you don't know. You don't know what else is going on in life for that mom. You don't know if that is the first time she has ever yelled at her kid like that. You don't know. Maybe she just lost her job or her husband left or some of the other kids have been sick for weeks and she is feeling drained and exhausted. These are my words, but the fact remains, let's not judge the other mom in the store. Let's give grace to the other mom we see and try to help and encourage each other. Because after all, if we happened to lose it in the store and lash out more than we intended, we would want grace extended to us.

The other thing that Becky shared is this: "You are a good mom". The Devil wants you to believe you aren't, that you are a failure and that your kids will turn out to be juvenile delinquents, and that you should just give up. But that's not true. We make mistakes, we blunder and our kids may make some serious mistakes, but we can still be a good mom. If we love our kids and do the best we can, we are good moms. Most of all, if we rely on God and let His grace wash over us, we can then through His love and grace extend love and grace to our children. I want to share part of a paragraph with you from Becky's book:

"We cannot care for little hearts on our own without letting Him love through us. We cannot expect to be good moms in our own strength. But when we allow ourselves to be washed in His simple whispers of grace, when we choose to hear the Lord say, 'We can do this together! I've got you and I've got them, and I'm going to help you,' that is the moment that we step out of the shadows."

And then these questions: "What would it look like if our generation of moms stopped living in insecurity? What would it look like if we accepted the truth that we don't have to be perfect to be the best moms to our kids? What would it look like if we started a movement of women who didn't focus on their failures, but instead celebrated each success?"

This book was given me to me by Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest review.

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