• 05.05.2011 I’m Not Sorry
    I’m Not Sorry
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    “Six days old?! Awww…how sweet. So…1, 2, 3, 4…5 boys?!?” “Yes…” I respond, to the good looking couple on their way to a workout. “I’m sorry,” interjects the husband, not even cracking a smile. “We’re so blessed,” I offer. I’ve grown accustomed to the general public reacting with exhaustion, pity, sympathy, and bafflement when they discover I have five boys 2 years apart. As worn out as I feel at times, I would never want anyone to feel sorry for me in what God has planned for us. He makes no mistakes; He never gives second best. Even when our hearts’ longings are not met with the answers we would choose for ourselves, God is faithful to replace doubt with truth, disappointment with gratitude. What circumstance or reality in your life may incite another’s pity or bewilderment? Rather than allow discouragement or bruised pride to set in and affect your […]

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  • 05.03.2011 Letters To My Sons
    Letters To My Sons
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    Each of my boys have a journal filled with letters I’ve written to them from the day they were born. I suppose it’s my solution to being hostile towards scrapbooking. It’s also a way for me to record my most heartfelt thoughts toward each son, the realities of my struggles, and the prayers I pray for them. I write when I can; I write when my thoughts are lucid. I write because I know that I will not always remember. Someday, I hope to send each boy off with their own book of letters from me, so that they may know how greatly they were loved, how much they were worth the sacrifices, how often they were prayed for, and how many everyday moments were remembered. I hope they will know their mother more one day. They will know that she’s a sinner, that she’s human, that she laughed more […]

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  • 02.25.2011 Raising Boys {Who Have Worthy Heroes}
    Raising Boys {Who Have Worthy Heroes}
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    Who do your boys admire? emulate? talk about constantly? want to be when they grow up? What a blessing it is when our little men seek to be like their fathers, grandfathers, pastors, and teachers. Sometimes my boys’ heroes are men they’ve only met in words on a page: Jesus, Martin Luther, David Livingstone, King Tirian, George Mueller, Odysseus, the Apostle Paul. The books our boys read shape their idea of heroism. It forms who they become. If this is true for our children, it is true for us, as their parents. We are formed by the books we read and the people of honor we encounter. Clearly this begs the question: What are our kids reading? What are we reading? What are they most captured by? What are we most enraptured by? If time spent is any indication, it would prove that books and literature do not serve as […]

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  • 02.24.2011 Raising Boys {Who Love To Craft}
    Raising Boys {Who Love To Craft}
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    Today I have the privilege of introducing my guest Ashley Campbell, of Under The Sycamore. Ashley is a Christian, mother to 3 boys and 1 girl, a talented photographer, avid do-it-yourself-er, and a blogger extraordinaire! She was so gracious to agree to write a guest post for this week’s Raising Boys theme. I hope you are blessed by her creativity, and are inspired to spend time making and creating with your boys today. ********************************************* Guest Post by Ashley, of Under The Sycamore The title of the post Ruth gave me, “Raising Boys…who love to craft” made me laugh a little bit. I love to craft, but it is not on the top 5 list of things my boys love to do. Over the years I have attempted all kinds of crafts with them always hoping they will enjoy it as much as I do. Sometimes they do really get excited about […]

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  • 02.23.2011 Raising Boys {Who Love To Eat At Home}
    Raising Boys {Who Love To Eat At Home}
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    How could a mom of boys not stop in her tracks to read these taglines to a cookbook: “Feeding Men & Boys” and “Recipes, Strategies & Survival Techniques–Bringing Back The Family Meal.” Lucinda Scala Quinn, author of Mad Hungry, had me at “Feeding Men & Boys.” Men eat differently from women–they eat more, they eat constantly, and they eat passionately…but feeding them well is what many of us love to do and few jobs feel as satisfying. It’s what keeps them healthy, keeps them happy, gives them some of their fondest memories, and teaches them to cook. More than a collection of recipes, Mad Hungry gives inspiration and instruction (to new and seasoned cooks) to the art of cooking for family. As a mother of boys, Lucinda lovingly gives insight to both the logistics and the rewards of including boys in a family-centered culture of cooking. Boys and men who […]

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  • 02.22.2011 Raising Boys {Who Know When To Cry}
    Raising Boys {Who Know When To Cry}
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    I always love having The Preacher stop by my little blog. His gentle but deliberate leadership in our home makes all the difference as we raise a houseful of cubs. This post is a direct result of something I witnessed just the other day, and asked him to write about for our encouragement. ********************************************************* Guest post by The Preacher Everyone knows that big boys don’t cry, right? That’s funny…. At our house, we have a hard time going more than thirty minutes at a time without someone bawling their eyes out over one thing or another.  Is that the case in your house?  Well, as a father, it is my job to set things right and let the man-cubs know that crying just isn’t the manly thing to do.  Or is it?  I usually pull out the “man up” speech when I am tired, and struggling with patience.  But in […]

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  • 02.21.2011 Raising Boys {Who Use Their Imagination}
    Raising Boys {Who Use Their Imagination}
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    It’s “Raising Boys” Week at GraceLaced! As you know, this particular theme is dear and significant in my daily life. I hope you will check in all week as we will visit a different aspect of raising boys every day, including a special guest post by The Preacher tomorrow, and a much anticipated guest post from the wonderful Ashley Ann from Under the Sycamore on Thursday! Endless hours could be dedicated to the topic of Raising Boys, and surely, we will only scratch the surface, but I pray this week will be an encouragement to you, whoever the little boys are that you call special in your life. All boys have imaginations. Not all boys foster the ability to use them. Sometimes what appears to be an imagination is not really what the dictionary defines as: “the faculty or action of forming new ideas, or images or concepts of external objects […]

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