Even though the list of books I long to read keeps growing longer and things unfinished stress me out, it’s bad not to have a goal, right?  I constantly add books to my list, so I’m sure it will change frequently.  I mainly read non-fiction as I am constantly searching for wisdom and at the risk of repeating myself so much you may want to puke- ways to be intentional.  However, I can’t pass up a good fiction book that transports me to another place!  Words are beautiful to me, that’s probably why I can’t get enough.  So here it is, a list of the books I aim to read in 2012:

Currently Reading:

Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child by Anthony Esolen

The Underground History of American Education by James Taylor Gatto

Parenting/Education:

A Landscape with Dragons: The Battle for Your Child’s Mind by Michael D. O’Brien

The Mysteries of Life in Children’s Literature by Dr. Mitchell Kalpakgian

Created For Work: Practical Insights for Young Men by Bob Schultz (ignore the insanely terrible cover)

Rite of Passage by Jim McBride

Raising Real Men: Surviving, Teaching, and Appreciating Boys by Hal and Melanie Young

Wild Things: The Art of Nurturing Boys by Stephen James and David S. Thomas

Faith:

Of course, more of the Bible!

Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence by Sarah Young

Escape from Reason by Francis A. Schaeffer

Beyond Ourselves by Catherine Marshall

Fiction:

The Hunger Games trilogy By Suzanne Collins

So there you have it.  For one reason or another, I have come across these books and they have piqued my interest.  I’ll let you know how they are.  Please send me your recommendations of books I HAVE to read!

Image by Daniel Y. Go

Today, I’m going to share encouragement from the Author:

“It’s day twenty-one.
The LAST day of your prayer challenge. Are you a mixture of relieved and sad all at the same time? What an accomplishment! (What an amazing amount of work!) If you’re finishing today you deserve a pat on the back!

Think of all the work that has been done on behalf of your sons! Congrats mom!

You might’ve noticed that there are actually twenty-two prayers in the Warrior Prayers eBook. I chose humility as our last day’s topic because it is such an amazing posture of the heart. Scripture just seems to scream God’s favor over those who are humble in heart.
• James 4:10 says that if we’re humble before the Lord, He will lift us up.
• 1 Peter 5:6 says that if we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God He will exalt us.
• Most importantly, in Psalm 149:4 we find that it is the humble who are adorned with salvation.

Do you see that? A humble heart is required for salvation. Just as Jesus humbled Himself unto the cross, we must admit that we’re sinners, admit that our own way isn’t the right way, and humbly ask for forgiveness before salvation comes.

Do you show humility before your sons? Do you always have to be right? Always have to win? Pray and ask the Lord for specific ways you can show humility today so that when the time comes, your sons will know how to show it too.”

“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” ~Ephesians 4:2

Mommy Prayer Day 21: As this challenge comes to an end, I pray that we have started a habit of praying for our boys that won’t stop!  I pray that we will continue to pray for heart change in our boys, that they will grow to be men who live for and have hearts for God!

“Day after day you will parent, intentionally seeking the heart of your son. But until the King of kings and Lord of lords turns his heart of stone to a heart of flesh, your son’s actions will be motivated by what is pleasing to him, rather than what is pleasing to the Lord.” p. 15

Everything hinges on this. Oh, we can pray for protection, good friends and influences and positive, fruit-bearing experiences for our sons along the way. But until their hearts submit to Jesus they will continue to choose themselves and their own way.

Take a moment today to look long and hard at your parenting. Is it Gospel-centered, or have you allowed the world’s “stinking thinking” to creep into your home?”

“Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” ~Romans 10:9

Mommy Prayer Day 20:  I pray for each of you as you pray for your sons’ salvation, as nothing is more important than this!  I pray for strength and perseverance to finish this challenge strong!

“So much of the Christian life is a choice. Every day (multiple times a day) we’re presented with a choice to choose God or choose ourselves. Anger is a perfect example.
You can just feel it coming, can’t you? Anger is an almost total body experience. Muscles get tight. Temples throb. Jaw clenches. Explosion feels imminent … wooing us into believing we have no choice but to react.
But it’s not true. We almost always have a choice when it comes to anger. We can choose to embrace it and sin. Or choose to put it away, and instead choose kindness, self-control, compassion, and love.

“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.” ~Ephesians 4:31

Mommy Prayer day 19:  “Man! It seems like every single thing we’ve prayed for so far starts with what’s in our own hearts! I’m afraid anger is no different. Today,  I pray that when you’re tempted to sin in anger, the Lord will show you the way out (He promises He will) and you will choose grace and love instead.”

Let’s pray for wisdom for how to instill this character trait in our boys!

Mommy Prayer Day 18: I pray for wisdom as to how to help our boys learn self control.  I pray that we can be good models of self control.  Whatever it is we are tempted to “give in to”, or place above Christ, I pray that He makes it clear to us and gives us the tools to fight it.

Aggression in men is commonplace. It may not manifest itself the same way for all of them, but it’s there nonetheless. For the physical boys, it shows up in their need to be on the top of the wrestling pile. For the intellectuals, it shows up in their need to score the highest on the exam or be at the top of the class. Personally, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with aggression. I don’t want to break my sons of their aggressive streak and I’m learning not to be afraid of it. But I do want to teach them how and when to use it. I’m beginning to think that gentleness is more of an approach to life than a specific characteristic to develop.

Since they were born, we’ve whispered these words into our sons’ ears:

God made men to protect women and care for them. God made you a big brother! Your job is to protect your little brother, not hurt him. There’s a time to play and a time to listen.  God wants you to use your strength to protect, not to hurt. Superhero’s don’t look for fights, but they will fight to protect others. It’s OK to want to be the best, but the best people in life are the ones who serve others. A gentle word turns away wrath …

“But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits,
impartial and sincere.” ~James 3:17

Mommy Prayer Day 17:  I pray that our boys are strong, but know when to be gentle!

We need to pray that our boys learn to be faithful to their future spouses, yes, but most importantly, we need to pray that they will be faithful to God.

“Doesn’t this one prayer bring with it the solution to everything else we could talk about? A man whose first love is Jesus, will be faithful in all of the areas above. He won’t be perfect, but he will possess the ability to be empowered by the Holy Spirit to be faithful. It is something worth praying for.”

Mommy Prayer Day 16:  I pray that we moms remain faithful to God and model for our boys to follow in our footsteps.  I continue to pray for the hearts of our boys, that they would be completely His.

Oh, the link here is so good!  Please take a second to read this post on goodness in our boys!

Don’t forget to keep praying!  We are in the home stretch!

Mommy Prayer Day 15- I pray that we all realize that we are not good apart from Christ.  No matter how many “good” things we do, we are only made clean through our Lord.  So most importantly, I pray that our boys hearts will completely belong to God!

I can tell you that an act of kindness can change your whole day or your perspective on a situation.  I know because I was a recipient of an act of kindness today: something unexpected and uplifting, encouraging and thoughtful.  My dear friend, Michelle, who is also doing this challenge :), had 2 books sent to my house from my Amazon wish list….gold to me!  I pray that my boys do such things to turn others’ days around, to be joyfully contagious to others!

Mommy Prayer Day 14:  I pray that we show our boys how to treat others with kindness, how they can get to the heart of someone else by being kind to them.

I wanted to share a link with you guys to a post by Sally Clarkson, whom I love, (seriously, and I don’t even know her) about showing kindness to our boys.   It was shared in the leader’s guide and I want to share it with you.  There are 2 parts : That boy needs a strong hand! and That boy needs a strong hand part 2.

Sometimes the hardest thing to be patient for in our lives is waiting on God to reveal His will to us, His purpose for our life, His peace when we are making decisions. And we don’t want our boys to rush into these things!  (The first example that comes to mind to me is in picking a spouse!)

However, I have found that being faithful in the “little things” and trusting God’s Word through it all gives new perspective and draws me close to Him and allows me to hear His voice even louder.  Some times we get antsy to hear from God so we just jump and make the choices that WE want to make, and end up getting in the way of ourselves.  Has this ever happened to you?  I believe the waiting builds our character, gives us a chance to be obedient in the little things, and gives us opportunities to trust God.

Mommy Prayer Day 13:  I pray that each of us draws close to God in times of waiting.  I pray in those times we can be obedient in the little things and grow in character in the process.  I pray that this will grow our patience.   I pray the same thing for our boys, that they don’t rush to make decisions or determine God’s will, that instead they take time to hear His voice.