Every Wise Woman Builds

Teaching "I Can Do This" to Our Kids with Terrie Gatto, Part 2

"Should I work?

 

"Work from home?

 

"Or only work on my home?" 

 

In this conclusion of the interview with Terrie Gatto on teaching kids to clean, Terrie and I talk about this constant struggle for mothers. I know there's nothing as satisfying as focusing on my family, but sometimes my focus is needed elsewhere "to pay a bill or two." 

 

Terrie talks about how women in her life taught her she could do anything. Then she gives me much-needed advice about my own choices. 

 

As a famous homeschooled person once told me long ago, it's important for mothers to have their own interests. Without them, we can smother the very relationships we feel we're sacrificing our lives for. Our children need our love and attention. They also need our example.

 

We mamas need to know it's okay to take those steps of faith to try new things. We need to model living daring lives for our children. (We also need to model saying "No" to opportunities that threaten relationships, but that's another topic for another day.:) 

 

 

"The hope that we have in Jesus should make Christians some of the most fearless, wisest risk-takers when pursuing our callings."

 

- Jordan Raynor, Called to Create

 

 

I hope this interview blesses you as much as it did me. In the end, as Terrie says, everything depends on our dependence on the One who's really providing for our homes. If we can make prayer for our children the top to-do on our list, everything else will fall into place. 

 

"Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." Philippians 4:6-7, 13

 

"Turn Your Heart Toward Home" by Steve & Annie Chapman. Used with permission.

Teaching Kids to Love to Clean with Terrie Gatto, Part 1

Here it is! The interview that taught me how to teach my children to clean. I have to tell you, I recorded this interview in May, and our home has changed drastically - for the better - because of this conversation.

 

In this inspiring interview, my dear friend Terrie Gatto shares with me how she trained her young children to clean - and enjoy it! Seriously! She has her small children racing each other to do laundry! And they do it RIGHT. 

Here are a few of my favorite quotes from Terrie's experience training her children to work:

 

"If I make it tense, nothing will ever get done."

"Calmly say, 'What is wrong?' I let them point it out. They know if they skipped over something." 

 

"Claim God's promises in the Bible."

 

"Wherever you are as a mom, just say, 'I'm going to obey God.' It's me humbling myself and obeying God. He says to train, I'm just going to train. It's hard, and there are days when I feel I'm failing at everything." 

 

"We've just got to trust God with our children." 

 

"Don't forget that they're the future. I look at my kids like, 'Okay, they're future husbands. No woman wants a man who won't work. Even if they're single, they need to have a good work ethic.'"

 

"Their future starts at home."

 

"Ask God for wisdom. The Bible says He giveth to all men liberally. You don't have to be sixty years old. A young child can ask for wisdom and get it."

 

 

You can read more of Terrie's writing by visiting http://www.mycrazymessybeautiful.com. You can also check out her bakery at https://www.facebook.com/sweetaffairs.sa. 

 

"Turn Your Heart Toward Home" by Steve & Annie Chapman. Used with permission.

Sharing Wisdom When You're Still Young with Jolina Petersheim, Part 2

I can’t tell you how many times it happened. Morning after morning, year after year, I crawled out of bed way too late, feeling like a loser and convinced of it as the lateness kept me from productivity.

I’d been reading Jolina Petersheim’s blog for a while when I saw she’d started posting about how she got up early. Guiltily, but hungry to learn, I observed. I tried to imagine all the things I could do if I got up early enough to be productive at 6 in the morning.

Time passed, more babies came, and those dreams of rising with the chickens stayed dreams. Jolina’s example stuck with me, though, and – praise be – now I’ve finally learned it. You can read about that here. (The names are changed to protect the embarrassed. Me.)

What’s so funny is that, in this part 2 of Jolina’s interview, she shares with me how short-lived that “resolution” to get up early really was.

And you know what? I wonder if Jolina felt those blog posts about rising early were in vain.

They weren’t. Not for me.

Those accounts of her ambitious goals that she thought fell flat caught hold in my soul and eventually bore fruit. Even though, to her, they may have felt like a big fail.

Isn’t that cool?!

Who knows what new thing you’ve started, or I’ve started, that was just another flop sparked something lasting in someone on the sidelines?

God uses the weak. The foolish. The ones who feel so unworthy. Probably the biggest thing that keeps Him from using us is when we feel so qualified we’re unthankful He stoops to think on us at all!

Enjoy the podcast!

 

 

One note on a section of this episode when I misspoke: I said, “It’s so easy to get separated from that love.” That’s the opposite of the truth. Nothing can separate us from His love. 

 

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39

 

"Turn Your Heart Toward Home" by Steve & Annie Chapman. Used with permission.

Sharing Wisdom When You're Still Young with Jolina Petersheim, Part 1

"Cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after many days."

That's what I think about when I consider my old friend Jolina Petersheim. As a young college student, I'd give Jolina rides home from church and pepper her with well-intentioned advice with the air of a sage.

Looking back, I cringe at how I must've come across to this giddy little junior high girl who must've seen me as a major party pooper. I couldn't hold back, though. God had changed my life around her age, and I wanted SO BAD for her to taste and see how good He is.

Time passed, and we both went our different ways as life played out. She was in my wedding, and I heard through the grapevine as she headed off to college and then got married.

When I heard through our shook-up community grapevine that Jolina had not only published a book, but it was a best-seller, all of us were thrilled. For me, who'd always entertained secret crazy dreams like running in the Olympics, writing, and being a radio show host, a spark of "what if I could, too!" was secretly lit.

I began reading her blog, which was far different than it is today. In the following years I observed as this spunky dreamer mellowed into a wise woman who regularly offers insight that shapes my own thinking.

So if you've poured into younger women, praying for them, feeling like your words fall flat, just know that it isn't us that makes people wise.

It's Jesus.

He sometimes allows us to join in the process, and sometimes He removes us and puts others in our place.

He's the One doing the work.

And we will reap. If we don't faint.

 

 

"Turn Your Heart Toward Home" by Steve & Annie Chapman. Used with permission.

Brenda Gilley: Praying for the Next Generation (Part 2)

What a gift God gave me as I sat across from Mrs. Brenda Gilley as the choir practiced in the room across the hall that Sunday afternoon. She told me how as she worried over a problem she couldn't fix, "My doctor told me, 'Turn your head! You're not God!" In this rich conclusion to last week's interview, Mrs. Brenda provides comfort and instruction far beyond what I've heard before on the subject of prayer. There's something about one on one conversation that can't be matched in a large group setting. So pull up a chair, go pick up the kids, or grab some ironing, and listen in as Mrs. Brenda shares her seasoned insight. You won't be sorry. If you'd like to leave a message for Mrs. Brenda, you can email me at cryoutforwisdom@gmail.com.   "Turn Your Heart Toward Home" by Steve & Annie Chapman. Used with permission.

Brenda Gilley: Praying for the Next Generation (Part 1)

Monday morning I woke up at 2:00am with labor-type pains in my kidney. Yes. My kidney. I am so. Not. Interested in finding out if kidney stones hurt worse than childbirth. I remembered a friend telling me recently how her kidney stones got dissolved without trauma, but 2am was way too early to message her. The pain scared me. So I prayed. And like usual, prayer put me to sleep. (Isn’t that awful? God is so merciful to let my laziness work in my favor.) And yes, I did get her recipe for dissolving kidney stones, and I did follow it, and no, I haven’t had any more pain. I don’t know if I will. I don’t know if I would’ve if I hadn’t prayed. I think I’d still be suffering. Just like all the other times I’ve suffered way too long before I finally thought to pray. Prayer can’t be overemphasized. That’s why on today’s podcast, my dear friend, Mrs. Brenda Gilley, one of my Titus 2 “older women” who’s guided me many times, shares with me this most important of all things a younger woman needs to learn from the older generation.  No matter how dark our world becomes, if we can stay on our knees, and even more importantly, train our children to hit their knees and find mercy and grace to help in time of need, we can love rather than fear. Fear has torment,  but it’s the natural reaction when we have no hope. As long as we can pray, we can love. Because we can hope. So I hope you enjoy this first part of the interview with Brenda Gilley. Let’s take some extra time to pray this week. It’ll naturally grow if we’re praying, because prayer births prayer when we see how God answers! God bless! Have a great, prayer-filled week.   "Turn Your Heart Toward Home" by Steve & Annie Chapman. Used with permission.

Donna Otto: How Elisabeth Elliot Mentored Me - Part 2

In this concluding episode of the interview with Donna Otto, Mrs. Otto shares more about how Elisabeth Elliot's sometimes daunting ways didn't crush Donna, even when her words were hard to hear. Important lessons here for anyone who needs to share truth without damaging the hearers. 

 

For more than 25 years Donna Otto, home and life management expert, has shared inspiration and practical wisdom. She is an Author and founder of Modern Homemakers, formerly Homemakers By Choice, a national organization which offers weekly teaching for a new generation of “counter culture” women who are making a home in the 21st century. To hundreds of young homemakers, Donna has been the wise, fun, Godly Aunt every young woman wishes she had. Each teaching session encourages women in their role as a woman, wife, mother, and keeper of the home. She is also the founder of Mentors for the Next Generation, a program facilitating mentoring relationships between older and younger women.

Donna and her husband, David, have been married for more than 30 years and live in Arizona. They have one daughter and two grandchildren.

You can learn more about her by checking out her ministry website, www.modernhomemakers.org.

 

"Turn Your Heart Towards Home" words and music by Steve & Annie Chapman. Used with permission.

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Donna Otto: How Elisabeth Elliot Mentored Me - Part 1

"The common begin. The uncommon finish." So says Donna Otto, a mentor of mentors who was mentored herself by Elisabeth Elliot, wife of martyred missionary Jim Elliot, and missionary to the Waorani (Auca) tribe in the jungles of Ecuador. 

In this, the first part of an interview with Donna Otto, Mrs. Otto tells about her background as a child of a "black sheep" who grew up constantly shepherded by wise women, eventually including Elisabeth Elliot. 

Enjoy this precious interview, and make sure to tune in next week for the finale!

 

For more than 25 years Donna Otto, home and life management expert, has shared inspiration and practical wisdom. She is an Author and founder of Modern Homemakers, formerly Homemakers By Choice, a national organization which offers weekly teaching for a new generation of “counter culture” women who are making a home in the 21st century. To hundreds of young homemakers, Donna has been the wise, fun, Godly Aunt every young woman wishes she had. Each teaching session encourages women in their role as a woman, wife, mother, and keeper of the home. She is also the founder of Mentors for the Next Generation, a program facilitating mentoring relationships between older and younger women.

Donna and her husband, David, have been married for more than 30 years and live in Arizona. They have one daughter and two grandchildren.

You can learn more about her by checking out her ministry website, www.modernhomemakers.org.

 

"Turn Your Heart Towards Home" words and music by Steve & Annie Chapman. Used with permission.

Visit www.everywisewomanbuilds.com to subscribe for podcasts, blog posts, freebies, and more!

Also, connect on Facebook...

Instagram...

Or Twitter.

Introducing Every Wise Woman Builds

 Welcome to Every Wise Woman Builds! We want to build a bridge to connect younger women with the older women who've been there, so we can turn our hearts toward the homes that await us.