My Mothering Manifesto

 I want to share something near and dear to my heart (and my sanity!) I came across this beautiful guide for "Joyful Parenting" and it has become my Mothering Manifesto some months ago and it has been life changing. 

I taped this to my kitchen cabinet, in plain sight, for when my nerves are on the fritz and I feel ready to come unglued.

It has done wonders for my prayer life and when I read it out-loud, its truths have transformed my mothering.

I shared it with our Walking With Purpose (www.walkingwithpurpose.com) leadership team and I'm praying that it encourages and centers you during this sacred Lenten season.


10
Point Manifesto for Joyful Parenting
:
1. Today, I will make our home a house of prayer. I will pray at set times. And I will invite our children to come move into an interior space that lives with God.
2.Today, I will transfigure all things into beauty, and I will refuse to see anything else.
3. Today, I will not have any emergencies. There are no emergencies! Only amateurs hurry.
4. Today, when stress mounts, I pray to dismount it with gratitude. My stress management plan will be intervention with verbal thanks. I can only feel one feeling at a time, and I choose to give thanks at all times. Fight feeling with feeling!
5. Today, I will pray to speak words that are only STRONG words, words that make these children feel strong. Grace words. Grace is the only non-toxic air. All other words I breathe are death words.
6. Today, I will pray to be consistently consistent. I will create safe rhythms that our children can find security in. I will create daily ceremonies because everyday we are CELEBRATING the gift of now!
7. Today, the moment when I am most repelled by a child’s behavior, that is my sign to draw the very closest to that child.
8. Today, I will hug each of my children as many times as I serve them meals — because children’s hearts feed on touch. I’ll look for as many opportunities to touch my children today as possible — the taller they are, the more so.
9. Today, my priorities will be all Things Unseen.
10. Today, I will laugh! And I will let the little children laugh! I will create a culture of JOY!

(www.aholyexperience.com) Author: Ann Voskamp