leading littles into faith + the Tiny Truths Illustrated Bible review & GIVEAWAY.

March 26, 2019 marykatemckinney

Our goal as parents, as mothers and fathers, is to help our children uncover who they are in Christ and to lead them into a life of glorifying God. Our children will pursue their own paths, make their own mistakes, and accomplish huge victories, but my hope and prayer is that through it all, they are rooted in the One who made them and loves them more than I ever could.

So how do we lead our little ones into faith? I wanted to share some simple things that we love doing in our home, not only as parents, but also that our kids ask for and really enjoy. Plus I will review the new Tiny Truths Illustrated Bible and give you the opportunity to win your own copy!

discipline.

April 3, 2017 marykatemckinney

Discipline is one of the hardest areas of parenting in my opinion. There are several times a day that I just don't know what to do. It is so easy to let my own emotions and selfishness dictate how I respond to my children when they misbehave. If I am tired, or preoccupied, or upset about a different situation, it often comes out in bad parenting. I will always be the first to admit that I am not a phenomenal parent. I struggle so hard (especially with my 3 year olds!). There are behaviors that I see in my children that I know have come from my quick reactions to them. So how do we parent more effectively?

keys to our marriage.

March 30, 2017 marykatemckinney

When Greg and I were in pre-marital counseling, we were asked to come up with 4 keys to our marriage. The four things that we thought would be the most important, yet not naturally easy, that would keep our marriage strong. I think this is a great exercise for couples. We look at our keys every anniversary and evaluate how well or poorly we used them that year.

Here are our four…

learning my name.

March 30, 2017 marykatemckinney

Not too long ago, my husband and I were meeting with a spiritual mentor about some spiritual warfare issues that had been going on in our lives. We were seeking direction on how to handle a few different situations, and also asking for prayer and support during this time. The meeting changed course and was very surprising to me. During his prayer for us, our mentor began to focus on me. He said that he felt deeply that I needed to learn my name. Have you ever had someone speak truth and life into you? Has someone ever encouraged you so deeply that you just honestly didn't know what to think or how to respond?…

defeating the Amalekites in marriage and ministry.

March 16, 2017 marykatemckinney

This past weekend, we had our annual youth retreat at our church. My husband serves as the Youth Pastor, and I am honored to work along side him. The week leading up to the event was STRESSFUL. We had leaders backing out left and right, not enough servers for food, anticipated rain for our outside portion of the weekend. Things were just not coming together. And to top it off, we also had personal and family things going on. Our water heater busted the morning of the day the event would start. My husband and I just kept looking at each other all day that Friday thinking, this is just not going to work. We were exhausted and defeated before we kicked off the weekend where we would just get more tired and stretched thin.

I actually walked into the church that Friday evening and told my husband I did not want to be there, and I wanted to go home and cry. But I was only staying because I knew he needed me…

Love languages.

August 20, 2016 marykatemckinney

I'm realizing these days that I kind of suck at love languages. Especially with my kids.

Here's the thing: they are physical touch people, and I am not...like at all. I actually get really frustrated when the kids try to cuddle with me because it is weird. They want to sit on me and bury their faces in me and dig their toes into me. And most of the time I just can't take it. I usually get up and move or make them get down. It sincerely causes me stress…