Lynn Joshua's Reviews > Mere Motherhood: Morning Times, Nursery Rhymes, and My Journey toward Sanctification
Mere Motherhood: Morning Times, Nursery Rhymes, and My Journey toward Sanctification
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I am giving this book 5 stars simply because reading it was a "What, you too?" experience for me.
I am a lifelong home schooling mom with 7 children, 6 grandchildren and have had 11 miscarriages. Cindy and I love all the same books, have the same philosophy and methods, and have tried and discarded some of the same ideologies. Even the Ordo of my Amoris has been off in much the same ways she describes. :)
Some reviewers have said this book makes them sad. Yes, there is a certain sadness, because while motherhood is full of joy, it is also filled with the sort of sorrow that comes right along with genuine love, since "to love at all is to be vulnerable".
It is strengthening to have someone walk this path with us, and speak truth and encouragement to our fainting hearts, as Cindy does. She knows what it's like to love homeschooling and have a lofty vision for beauty; to think that one day we'll have the resources, energy, and support to do it all just right...and then suddenly we have only one last week with our child...suddenly, one by one, they start to leave, and we realize we never did get it right.
Then gradually we realize that this is how it was meant to be. Our labor isn't useless because it is flawed. Amazingly, the flaws themselves are part of the story God has written for us and for our children.
So much advice for moms is honest but fails to give us courage, or is full of encouragement without real honesty. Cindy communicates both, because she knows both. I feel like she and I are clasping hands as we press on toward the mark for the prize of the high calling we have in Christ Jesus.
"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh."
I am a lifelong home schooling mom with 7 children, 6 grandchildren and have had 11 miscarriages. Cindy and I love all the same books, have the same philosophy and methods, and have tried and discarded some of the same ideologies. Even the Ordo of my Amoris has been off in much the same ways she describes. :)
Some reviewers have said this book makes them sad. Yes, there is a certain sadness, because while motherhood is full of joy, it is also filled with the sort of sorrow that comes right along with genuine love, since "to love at all is to be vulnerable".
It is strengthening to have someone walk this path with us, and speak truth and encouragement to our fainting hearts, as Cindy does. She knows what it's like to love homeschooling and have a lofty vision for beauty; to think that one day we'll have the resources, energy, and support to do it all just right...and then suddenly we have only one last week with our child...suddenly, one by one, they start to leave, and we realize we never did get it right.
Then gradually we realize that this is how it was meant to be. Our labor isn't useless because it is flawed. Amazingly, the flaws themselves are part of the story God has written for us and for our children.
So much advice for moms is honest but fails to give us courage, or is full of encouragement without real honesty. Cindy communicates both, because she knows both. I feel like she and I are clasping hands as we press on toward the mark for the prize of the high calling we have in Christ Jesus.
"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh."
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Quotes Lynn Liked
“I quote much scripture in this book. I do so intentionally, without references, because that is how I believe scripture should fit into the fabric of our lives. It is not tacked on; it is woven in.”
― Mere Motherhood: Morning Times, Nursery Rhymes, and My Journey toward Sanctification
― Mere Motherhood: Morning Times, Nursery Rhymes, and My Journey toward Sanctification
“We will always have Narnia.”
― Mere Motherhood: Morning Times, Nursery Rhymes, and My Journey toward Sanctification
― Mere Motherhood: Morning Times, Nursery Rhymes, and My Journey toward Sanctification
“It seemed that I had worked passionately for nineteen years on a beautiful product and, in the end, he had become something entirely different than I intended. I did not recognize him at all. How could I go on creating beautiful pottery pieces if they weren't going to turn out as I had intended or hoped? Until one day I had an epiphany. I was not the potter. A potter was shaping my children, but it was not me. . .My son was not my product. He was the work of a great artist: the Creator of all”
― Mere Motherhood: Morning Times, Nursery Rhymes, & My Journey Toward Sanctification
― Mere Motherhood: Morning Times, Nursery Rhymes, & My Journey Toward Sanctification
Reading Progress
July 17, 2016
– Shelved
July 17, 2016
– Shelved as:
to-read
Started Reading
July, 2018
–
Finished Reading
I love it when you read a book and then want to immediately find out more about the characters, setting and themes. I did the same after reading learned by heart and the pull of stars. Looking forward to reading this one.