Latest / 5–Minute Parenting: Tips to Help You Raise Competent, Godly Kids. / A Two-Pronged Approach to Common Struggles in Motherhood w/ Cara Blondo

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A Two-Pronged Approach to Common Struggles in Motherhood w/ Cara Blondo · 5–Minute Parenting: Tips to Help You Raise Competent, Godly Kids.

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to another episode of the Five Minute Parenting Podcast.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: I'm your host, Karen Ferguson, wife, mom, grandmom, and children's book author with a background in K-8 education and a passion for equipping parents to raise confident and God-confident kids.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: In this podcast, we'll cover parenting practices from both a practical view and a biblical view.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: Our goal is to help you raise kids with a positive, godly self-image so they can become all they were created to be.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: I know you're busy, so we'll keep it short.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: Let's take just five minutes and dive in.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome back to Five Minute Parenting.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: Today I have a special guest on the show bringing encouragement to moms.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: Cara Blondo is a writer, teacher, podcaster, and wife, and is passionate about helping women connect biblical truth to their everyday lives.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: Through her blog and podcast, she aims to help women shift their perspective and come to know him as their one thing desired.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: She also has the privilege of teaching for First Five, a Ministry of Proverbs 31 Ministries.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: She and her husband have been married for nearly 25 years and are blessed to have four children.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm so grateful to have her on the show today.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome, Kara.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, thank you, Karen.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's so good to be here with you.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so glad you're here.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: So you'll be sharing a two-pronged approach to our most common struggles as moms, particularly with discipling our kids.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: So it's about defeat and discouragement.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure we all can relate to that.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: So please just jump right in and share what's on your heart with listeners.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, thank you.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, I sure can relate to struggling with defeat and discouragement.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, especially as it pertains to raising our kids in the ways of the Lord so that they would know him and especially so that they would desire to be his disciples for themselves.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: And as I thought about this, you know, I realized the voice of defeat tells us that we've messed up too many times to make a difference in our kids' lives.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: We've blown it, we think, who are we to teach them the Bible and so on.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: But the voice of discouragement tells us we've tried so hard to do all the right things and we don't see any difference in our kids' lives.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: We think we've prayed with them, we've taught them God's word, we've tried to uh talk about Him along the way as we read in Deuteronomy 6 to no avail.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: But one fixates on our failures and the other on our faithfulness, and both leave us wondering if it's worth it, which is exactly where the enemy of our souls and our children's lives want us, right?
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: The enemy wants us to question if we're making a difference, if what we're doing matters, or if we've just blown it too much in our lives to even make that difference.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: So my encouragement to you, if you're listening and feeling defeated, is this shift your perspective from your perfection or your lack of perfection to your direction.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: And here's what I mean: Paul said to follow him as he followed Christ.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: And we can say that to our kids too.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I think we all long to be able to say, follow me as I follow Christ.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Now that speaks of a direction, not a perfection, because that includes us saying, we will admit when we're wrong, or to our kids.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: You can admit when you're wrong, just as I admit when I'm wrong.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: You can confess your sins just as I can confess my sins.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: You can receive the Lord's forgiveness just as I receive forgiveness, and you can trust in his unfailing love just as I trust in his unfailing love.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: Following Christ encompasses all of that.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what we can say to our children.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: This is what it looks like to be a follower of Christ, not perfection, but direction.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: And it's never too late to experience and exemplify that the mercies of God are new every morning.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's in our shortcomings that we have the opportunity to live out the gospel in front of our families.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: And my encouragement to you, if you're listening, if you're feeling discouraged, is to shift your perspective from the present to the future.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's to think like the farmer.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: You're called to be faithful, to sow the seed today, to plant the truth in your kids' hearts today, to be faithful today and trust the future growth of your children to the Lord.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know, Karen, many years ago when my oldest son was much younger, one day as I was encouraging him, well, I thought I was encouraging him with scripture and just building him up and so forth in the things of the Lord, he jokingly rolled his eyes and was like, Mom, I know, I know.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: And we laughed because I know that's his sense of humor.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: But I said, Hey, someday you're gonna be grateful for all of this.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: And he laughed and he said, someday, but not today.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I laughed with him because again, I know that's his humor, and he didn't mind me sharing truth with him.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: But that interaction shifted so much of my focus and effort and perspective.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: It was like the Lord just used that witty comment that he made as a young boy to just remind me that very seldom will I see the fruit of my efforts immediately when it comes to parenting.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: I may not see it for years and I may not even see it, depending upon when the Lord calls me home.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: But this is why moms must think like farmers.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: We are to faithfully plant truth in our kids' hearts during the opportune time, and we're to keep planting, whether or not we see the growth, the change, whatever.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: You're not doing what you're doing for today, although, yes, that would be very nice, I know, to see those signs of growth, but ultimately we're doing it for the someday.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: So we could sum up this encouragement with just two words.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I just want to leave these two words with you friends, just to make our aim and our prayer, and that's faithful follower.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: When I'm feeling defeated and like giving up, I'm going to remind myself I'm first and foremost a follower of Christ, its direction over perfection.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: And my kids are going to witness what that looks like to be a follower of Christ in real life through my life.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: And when I'm feeling discouraged and like giving up, I'm going to remind myself it's about being faithful.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's not about seeing results.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm first and foremost called to be faithful and to leave the rest in the hands of the one who is ever so faithful.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: And we can trust him.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: This is great encouragement, Kara.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for sharing with us.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: And when you're talking about the farmer, I don't know who who said it, but it reminds me of a quote.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: It was something like, the harvest begins underground, you know, where a lot of times you don't see, you don't see a change immediately, but don't give up, right?
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: Those seeds matter, those seeds planted in our kids' lives matter.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's that's a good word.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: I also really appreciate how you it's something easy to remember, shifting perspective from perfection to direction, from the present to the future.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: I love that because for me, especially as I listen to different things, sometimes uh I need something like that that will stick in my head.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel like that's something like that.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: So I believe that's gonna stick in a lot of moms' heads and be an encouragement to them today and in the future.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you so much for sharing.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: Now, before we close, I do want to highlight that you have a resource called Prayer Prompts for Moms that people can sign up for.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: Tell us a little bit about that and then the best place to find you online.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, thank you.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, you know, I think it can be so overwhelming to uh approach even prayer as moms, right?
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: Like, where do we begin?
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: There's so many needs, not only that I have, so many needs I see my children have, so many things I want to bring before the Lord.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes, especially talking about perfection, we can kind of get into that mentality.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: If I if I don't have an hour, or if I can't pray at all, uh I might as well not pray.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: Well, this so this resource is really, like you said, prompts just one topic or one thought a day for a month, 31 days, just kind of breaking down some of the needs that we have the privilege as moms to bring before the Lord in a way that's not overwhelming.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: And you can find that you can find that well in the show notes, like you said, but I would just love to connect online at the one thingdesired.com or on Instagram or Facebook at theonthingdesired.com.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we will link to all of that in the show notes.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: So, listeners, be sure to check that out.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: And thank you again for being here, Kara.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that is it for today.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: I pray this episode has been an encouragement to you.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: Be sure to like and subscribe so you never miss an episode and share this with another mom you want to encourage.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: Until next time, have a blessed week.