Parenting Archives - Living Above the Noise

My Struggle to Find Focus — Biblical Truth for a Blogger

April 8, 2019 By livingabovethenoise

I’ll be honest with you — I’ve been struggling with my blog focus this year. I’ve wondered if my content is relevant to your needs. Am I only adding to all the noise on this crazy internet! Should I make money doing this? Should I quit?!

Times Change –

A lot has changed since I began blogging eight years ago! It used to be that we simply blogged to share our hearts and lives when the mood struck. But current blogging advice tells us to post religiously, send newsletters weekly, add to that daily Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram — basically invade every bit of our followers’ world!

With 500 million blogs out there — really 😯 — it’s hard for a blogger to avoid these temptations just to be found.

Last year, I had this idea (yup, I got it on the internet) that I might actually make some money doing this blogging thing. But after much frustration, I found it was distracting me from my love of writing (and making my follow-the-rules personality a bit crazy!). So here’s where I’m at — even though it’s hard to gain readers — I just can’t bring myself to play their game! And I bet you’re glad! 😉

I find it super annoying when bloggers I follow won’t stay out of my inbox for more than a few days, and I’m guessing you do too. I get tired of being told I need some amazing, incredible, easy, fast – trick, gadget, schedule, book, or course – in order to be a better person, blogger, mom, wife, plus be instantly rich. I’m sure you get my drift! So I’m stopping all the racket and I’m going back to blogging the way I like it!

Ahhhh…. 😊

Biblical Truth for a Blogger –

While sorting through my conflicting thoughts, praying, reading, and seeking counsel, I read the book of Titus. I was again reminded that I am the “older woman” Paul speaks of. Now, I’m not completely thrilled to have earned this title 😊 but it’s where I am in life! And I do understand that because of my age and experience, I have a clear calling to meet the Titus 2 commands.

According to Scripture, older women are to encourage / teach / train younger women to:

– love their husbands (love isn’t always easy – we need ideas and help to do this well)
– love their children (it can be really hard being a momma)
– manage / keep their homes (it’s a tough job but it has to be done!)

All of this so “that the Word of God may not be dishonored.”

I’m accepting that God has called me to this journey. At least for now. I will use my gift of writing — and my decades spent journaling to capture and chew on thoughts and ideas — to help “younger” women love the life they’ve been given. And that includes all the emotional, spiritual, digging-in-the-dirt details of how that actually might look in real life.

I also want to make this a place where “older” women feel comfortable having conversations about life in middle age: menopause, empty nest, relationships in marriage after the kids are gone, finding purpose, and more. This season of life can be quite unsettling to navigate. We need friends to help smooth the bumps in the road.

Miscellany –

By the way, you’ll only hear from me a few times a month, more or less as the mood or Spirit strikes. And I will link to a few products I think you’ll find useful. But only things I use and value and possibly some I hope to create — but mostly — I’m offering you some hard-won wisdom and discernment in the realm of wife-dom, mothering, personal and spiritual encouragement, along with home management and care.

Please reach out if there’s anything I can help with. Anything you’d like to get a conversation started on. Shoot me an email with encouraging happenings in your life. I’d love to hear from you! Honestly, blogging can be lonely.

Another thing — my blog hasn’t grown in years, so I’d love it if you’d share my posts with women you care about.
PS – Check out a few of my favorite finds below!

Thanks for your time.
Blessings and prayers as you seek to do your life’s work!

Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, ⁵to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored. Titus 2:3-5

Encouragement from Emily Freeman!
If you haven’t discovered her podcasts, you’re in for a treat.
She’s calm and balanced and just what I need to center me in God’s will! Enjoy!

How To Organize A Brain Dump
Are you tired of holding your whole to-do list in your head!?
Well, here’s a great post on brainstorming I think you’ll find helpful.

Finding Love in a Storm

March 5, 2019 By livingabovethenoise

As I sit here, watching the storm blow in, I can’t help but remember my childhood at the lake. Sitting on the huge, padded porch swing tucked under the upper level of my grandparents’ cottage, my cousins and I would swing and talk and plan our next excursion for our summer vacation. We’d gather there in storms just like the one today, feeling oh, so safe amidst the pounding rain and the thundering bellow of the clouds. And I realize something.

There is nothing so wonderful and calming and peaceful as feeling safe. Of knowing we are loved.

Those days at the cottage were some of my siblings’ favorite memories of childhood. “Why?” I wonder. I imagine it’s because we gathered as families, loved by parents who cared about giving us little gifts like this — our yearly family vacation. Possibly it was because there, like the adults, we had no cares in the world. They, like us, had left the hustle of work and chores to get away and breathe.

The Gift of a Storm

Then God gives the gift of a storm. The quiet of the rain softly pattering on the roof. The mist brushing our cheeks as we swing on the porch. The slow rumble of the thunder echoing it’s way across the sky. And we have peace — peace amidst the storm.

As I pause and ponder, yes, for the first time in what feels like months, I realize how very important it is to give one another that sense of peace and love. That feeling of being wrapped in a parent’s arms in the storm, knowing we are safe. And loved.

Seek out your children or grandchildren today. Let them know they are loved and safe with you. Let them know you will be by their side. No. Matter. What.

Of course, remember this doesn’t pertain only to children. There are spouses who need that same affirmation. And friends. Even enemies.

If that makes you nervous, go to God, the source of all Love and Peace, and ask Him how to love like this. He’s the expert! His love never fails.

Love never fails. 1 Corinthians 13:8

This Is Definitely What Christmas Is All About, Charlie Brown!

December 1, 2018 By livingabovethenoise

Linus’s age-old adage rings as true now as it did 50 years ago! We remember with much nostalgia when he recites Luke 2, then concludes with the refrain, “That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown!”

Christmas is all about Jesus. It’s about celebrating God’s greatest gift to us — Jesus — our salvation through nothing else but faith in God’s Son.

Getting Sidetracked This Christmas?

It’s too easy to get sidetracked thinking it’s about decorations and gifts. Now, we love a decorated house this time of year! But it can get overwhelming. And you know about those hundred gifts on your list. “What?” you say. “I don’t have a hundred gifts on my list!” Umm, count again. Include teachers, bosses, neighbors, friends, greeting cards with pictures, stocking stuffers, cookies for the neighbors….yep, you’re getting close to a hundred! See what I mean about sidetracked?

Now don’t think I don’t understand. I’m right here with you….like forgetting about our Jesse tree and instead, getting started on my shopping trips. Reading the real Christmas story only because my daughters had a party for my ‘grandboys’! ‘Tis true…but get this — when I read to those wondering eyes, when I saw the intent on their faces, I remembered again.

This truly is the reason for the season. It is our job, our duty, to make sure we’re not quiet about what we believe and in Whom we believe!

Won’t you join me in relishing in the tinsel and holly and glitter, but not forgetting that simple, cold manger so many years ago? The sheer beauty of God’s gift of everlasting life, brought to us in the tiny frame of a babe, wrapped in swaddling clothes.

Keep Christ’s Love In Christmas

A bit of encouragement and some ideas to renew your sense of purpose this season:

– Our friend owns a thrift store in town, but it’s not just any thrift shop! This one uses the store’s proceeds to feed the hungry in our community. Check out your local ministries to discover how you can help the needy this year. People are cold, hungry, lonely, sick. What can we do to be Jesus’s hands of mercy to them?

– Tiny Tim is a name most people know. Learn how to share God’s love from his simple pronouncement to those around him.

– Here’s a great way to bless those in need this year! It’s so easy to pass by those in need along the road. What if we were prepared for those meetings by having a care bag of goodies to hand the homeless? We will never have an excuse to look the other way. (We have a homeless woman on the edge of town. We pass her most days and wonder how she does it with the cold weather approaching. Reading this post again has me excited to bring her a care package this week!)

– Some people ask the question, Should Christians Celebrate Christmas? It’s easy to see that it’s gotten out of hand with Santa, “Happy Holidays,” and compulsory gift-giving. Some proclaim Christmas is for pagans and just a copycat of idol worship. My post declares why it’s a good thing to celebrate. Choose for yourselves….but as for me and my house, we will celebrate the Lord!

– Visit a Fire or Police Station and bring goodies for these first responders! With a son-in-law who has this difficult job, we see first-hand how much we take our safety for granted. Give the gift of appreciation this year!

There are so many ways we can remember what Christmas is all about. Let’s share our ideas — with friends and family — and here. Leave a comment with ways your family celebrates or shares God’s love this time of year!

Happy Holy Day & Merry Christ-mas one and all!

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. Luke 2:16-20

Living Above the Noise – New Look, New Focus

November 13, 2015 By livingabovethenoise

I took a break from blogging this past six months. I needed to regroup and discover my focus. When I started blogging four years ago, I was still full swing into parenting and just getting my feet wet with grandparenting. This got me thinking. My old blog name and focus, A Mom’s Many Lessons, was feeling a bit boxed in. My life wasn’t just about the lessons learned from being a mom, but from all the avenues my life has taken.

I quickly discovered that planning a new blog layout is not for the faint of heart! I’ve put a lot of thought into my purpose for blogging and even into the details for my header design. I wanted my new design to reflect where God has me in life. I still have plenty of “lessons” to share about, but my heart is soaring like this bird in the header. I feel like weight has lifted off my heart and God has allowed me to see what life looks like without the noise and chatter of so many things around me.

So here I am, starting a new blog, with a new focus.

My new name was in the tagline of my old blog – “A Mom’s Many Lessons…in living above the noise and for the glory of God.” My focus for life is to seek to live above all the noise around us, that which vies for our attention and distracts us from our main goal, the one goal of glorifying God in and through all of life. This made it easy to choose my new name!

What’s this noise I speak of? Oh, there are too many to put into words, but here are a few:

Expectations – of myself and others, often unrealistic.
Perfectionism – seeking the “best” and what I think will make God and others happy.
Roles – being a “good” wife, a “good” mom, a “better” friend, etc., but by whose standards?
Church – trying to be and do what other Christians expect; pressure that comes from not believing in all that goes on in modern churches…
The World – balancing between being in the world but not of it.

My goal in life is be like David and Solomon, to have a heart of understanding and discernment, and to use my life to serve and follow God. I blog to encourage you to do the same. To live above the chatter beckoning us to veer from our main focus, to sidetrack us from following God’s best for us and our family. So please join me as I share ideas and lessons in my quest to stay focused.

If you follow me via email, my new blog will transfer over to your email. If you haven’t subscribed, please do, so you won’t miss a post! You can also follow me on Facebook and Pinterest.

Blessings as we share in this journey called life!

Solomon’s Prayer – “You have shown great lovingkindness to Your servant David, my father, according as he walked before You in truth and righteousness and uprightness of heart toward You…so give Your servant an understanding heart…to discern between good and evil.” 1 Kings 3:6-9