The first months and years of motherhood can be the most challenging and disorienting of your life---and faith. When you're surrounded by the happy chaos of children, how do you spend quiet time with God if the only quiet time you get is while you sleep? How can you demonstrate a solid spiritual life to your children if you don't have time to pursue one yourself?
When Julia Roller discovered that her spiritual growth had been stunted by the busyness of life with her toddler, she embarked on a yearlong journey through ten spiritual disciplines: prayer, fellowship, submission, study, simplicity, silence, worship, fasting, service, and celebration. As she focused on each discipline, she discovered practical ways to observe them---even in the chaos of her every day.
My thoughts-
When I was younger, I couldn't wait to grow up, get married and have tons of babies! When those things became a reality in my 20's, I found out while extremely blessed and exactly where I wanted to be, marriage and motherhood were not the easiest things in the world to adjust to. Especially juggling marriage, which already takes a lot of time, energy and commitment, with being a mother...it leaves little time for one's self or to do other important things outside of those two huge commitments. I think a huge thing a lot of Christian mother's find themselves struggling with is their walk with God. Mom Seeks God is a glimpse inside of one mother's journey to strengthen her faith. I think the best thing about this book is seeing that another mom, a mom who writes devotionals and publicly speaks, also struggles to balance motherhood with her quest to get closer to God. The book is set up into chapters about different spiritual disciplines. The chapters I related to the most were the ones about fellowship, simplicity, and fasting. I think many mothers struggle with fellowship because it is hard to find time to participate in fellowship when we have so much to do at home. It is easy to flake out or not commit, but I think most of us would find that we feel much better when we connect with others. Simplicity is something I struggle with which causes a ton of chaos in my life. I am a multi-tasker, but it will get to a point where the multi-tasking will cause me a ton of stress. Reading the chapter on simplicity makes me realize that I need to focus on doing on thing at a time. Finally, fasting is something that I have always meant to get around to doing, but just never had. I know I need to work on all of these things. This book was a great blessing. It opened my eyes to some things I know I need to work on and the way it was written felt like I was having a direct, candid conversation with the author. I would recommend this book to any mother wanting to grow in their relationship with God.
About the Author-
Julia Roller is an author and editor. Her books include Mom Seeks God (Abingdon Press), A Year with God (with Richard J. Foster), A Year with Aslan, and 25 Books Every Christian Should Read. Working with Renovaré, she has also co-authored four spiritual formation guides. She has written study guides for authors such as Desmond Tutu, Richard J. Foster, Henri Nouwen, Jenna Bush, and Rob Bell. Her articles have appeared in The San Francisco Chronicle, Street Spirit, Group, Rev.!, and Children's Ministry. She and her family live in San Diego, California.
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Purchase a copy and find out more about Julia at: http://www.juliaroller.com
*******************Enter to Win*********************
Mom Seeks God by Julia Roller offers a highly relatable story and useful advice to help new moms grow in their faith as they address life changes with grace, patience, and prayer. As readers discover ten essential faith practices, they’ll learn that motherhood itself is a spiritual discipline and can be God’s most effective technique for forming a more Christ-like life.*******************Enter to Win*********************
Julia is celebrating the book's release with a fun giveaway and connecting with moms during a live Facebook author chat.
- A Kindle HDX
- Mom Seeks God by Julia Roller
So grab your copy of Mom Seeks God and join Julia on the evening of May 1st for a chance to connect and make some new friends. (If you haven't read the book, don't let that stop you from coming!)
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