Miss Teacher Mom

On this week's episode, the final episode of the Miss Teacher Mom podcast, our host Katlynne Mirabal shares how the Lord has used the podcast over this past year to shape her understanding of what it means to be a Christian mom. She reminds us that the call of the Christian is to take up our cross and follow Christ. For a mother, that may not look like martyrdom for God's Kingdom but rather a thousand deaths for His Glory and the good of her children. She exhorts us to be the best mothers we can be and gives practical examples of Christ's sanctifying work in her own life as a mom. She closes by sharing her desire for sister-moms, to surpass many excellent women by fearing God, loving your husband and children, and taking care of your home. This is missional motherhood. 

On this week's episode of the Miss Teacher Mom podcast Dr. Mohler sheds light on the fight that we're in for the souls of our children. He portrays our culture as a cloud that we're living in and describes its unprecedented influence on our generation and all of those who will come after us. But there is hope for the Christian mother! Dr. Mohler describes the purpose behind our calling to nurture and admonish our children in the Lord. He shares lessons from his own childhood, his wife, children, and grandchildren, and even his mother's recent passing. Dr. Mohler reminds us that God has thoughtfully tasked us with the most important job in the world and he blesses us for our unwavering commitment to raise our children with eternity in mind.

Dr. R. Albert Mohler Jr. serves as president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. He also hosts two programs: “The Briefing,” a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview; and “Thinking in Public,” a series of conversations with the day’s leading thinkers. He is married to Mary, and they have two children and three grandchildren.

On this week's episode I get to talk to Aimee Gould about training our children to love who and how the Lord has made them. It's so important that we intentionally raise children to love the skin they're in before they enter a world that will tear them down, cast them out, and make them question God's good design. 

Aimee graciously shares wisdom from over two decades of parenting and shows us how we can point our kids to God's Word to help them fight envy and pride while celebrating their strengths, recognizing their weaknesses and rejoicing in how the Lord has made them and others. 

In this episode you'll be encouraged and equipped to think through what it looks like to truly love the skin you're in even as you teach your children to do the same.

Aimee Gould is the mother of four amazing (young adult) children and wife of a hardworking man.  She loves to teach and this final year of homeschooling is certainly bittersweet.  On the horizon is an encore year of directing Challenge III with Classical Conversations and looking forward to how God will continue to guide her steps.

The temptation to control every aspect of our children’s lives is strong especially when it comes to their salvation. We long for nothing more than that they would begin walking with God at a young age and mature in their faith from that day forward, but the path is not always that smooth. So, how do we entrust them to the Lord despite our fears?

My guest today, Pastor Robert Krumrey, offers us the sweet reassurance that saving sinners is what our God is most concerned with! Robert’s own children, one of whom was especially resistant and skeptical, came to faith at different times and in different ways and he will share how to avoid comparison with other parents as well as how to resist the temptations to either give up on a child or clamp down with more control. I know you’ll be encouraged by Robert’s reminder that God is working on multiple fronts in parenting - the child’s heart and our own.

Robert has a Master of Divinity from Southwestern Seminary and is the church planter and pastor of MERCYhouse in Amherst, MA. He has been married to his wife Melanie for twenty-eight years and they have three grown kids: Kory, Cooper, and Kayla.

Growing up, my church taught me all about God’s love and mercy, but neglected to teach me about the sin that separated me from God and which required Jesus’s death on my behalf. It resulted in me falsely believing I was a Christian while actively engaging in sin at age 19. I’m so thankful for my best friend who helped me understand the true gospel which includes the bad news of our sin that separates us from a holy God and the good news of Jesus’s forgiveness.

My guest this week, Joanne Parks, will help us get the gospel right as we seek to share it with our kids. In this episode, Joanne will share the gospel beautifully and honestly as well as caution us against four potentially harmful tendencies as we shape our children’s lives toward God. 

Joanne Parks is married to Brian, who serves as senior pastor of Covenant Hope Church in Dubai.  She and her family have enjoyed living in the Middle East for the last 19 years.  Joanne has four daughters, four great sons-in-law, and three grandchildren. 

Jesus, in his Great Commission, tells us to "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." (Matthew 28:19-20) Making disciples of our own kids is our first priority, of course, but how do we raise them with a vision for making disciples of others? How do we cultivate an understanding of God's missionary heart into the hearts of our children?

My guest this week, Betsy Baglow, has a great love for and devotion to the Great Commision. Sharing the gospel with people near and far has been her life-long passion - instilled in her heart by the Lord as a young woman, and currently overflowing into the lives of her five adult children. I hope you'll be inspired as you listen to the practical ways Betsy cultivated a love for the nations in her children. From helpful books and prayer guides, to the encouragement to courageously load up your young kids to help out with local mission opportunities, Betsy has so much wisdom and insight to share.

Operation World Website

Operation World Book

Missionary Biographies for Kids

Want to change your family history forever? Implement family worship! My guest this week, William Boekestein, heartily recommends the practice of family worship in our homes, encouraging parents to take the bulk of responsibility for the spiritual shepherding of their children. In this episode William will share what he sees as the great benefits of family worship - things like making your way through the Bible together, having time to talk about the important things in life, the preparation of children for corporate worship, and learning to pray aloud.

Worried you'll just get eye rolls from kids who might think family worship time is silly or a waste of time? William speaks to that as well, reminding parents that resistance is normal, but that faithfulness to worship together as a family, even for a few minutes a day, will create a routine with a lasting and significant impact on the hearts of your children.  Take it from Elisabeth Elliot who wrote in her book, The Shaping of a Christian Family, "How thankful I have been in the dark hours that my parents saw to it that hymns became fixed in our minds and hearts through what was to us at the time merely a family routine." What will we as parents see to it that our children have fixed in their hearts? Family worship is a simple way to fix biblical truth, real hope, and gospel grace into the hearts of our children.

William Boekestein is pastor of Immanuel Fellowship Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He received his B.A. at Kuyper College and his M.Div. at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary. He is also the author of several books and he writes for various publications such as Ligonier and TGC. William and his wife, Amy, have four children.

Resources:

The Shaping of a Christian Family by Elisabeth Elliot

Family Worship by Joel  R. Beeke

The Neglected Grace by Jason Helopoiulos

Tell God How You Feel by Christina Fox

Forms and Prayers

Hymnary.org

Reformation Heritage Books

Titus 2:11-14 (emphasis on grace over severity!)

What's the right age for a smartphone? It's a question all parents will wrestle with while raising children with eternity in mind. We're already seeing a decline in joy and resilience among children and teens, and research shows that this generation is facing a social and emotional crisis with direct links to the online world. My guest this week, Krista Boan, says "We're swimming upstream against a cultural tsumani," in regard to parenting in the digital age. How do we fight the wave of technology's negative side effects while enjoying and appreciating its benefits? Krista offers an important follow up to last week's episode by Drew Dyck and encourages parents to be proactive about expectations and rhythms regarding phones and screens at home. Her organization, START, is a non-profit that offers parents all sorts of tools, resources, and tips that will help equip parents to navigate our current digital culture. I especially loved Krista's words about showering our children with scriptural truth and grounding them in their identities as they enter the online world.

Krista is the co-founder of Start: Stand Together and Rethink Technology, where her team endeavors to help families pursue digital health so that kids grow up captivated by life, not screens. She lives in Kansas City with her husband and four children.  

Resources: 

Good Pictures Bad Pictures: Porn-Proofing Today's Young Kids

Good Pictures Bad Pictures Jr.: A Simple Plan to Protect Young Minds

Modern day technology poses challenges unique to parents of our generation. From portable computers (think ipads, cell phones, laptops, etc.) to unlimited shows (think netflix, disney+, etc.) and social media, the fight for our attention abounds. Add to that the easy distraction that technology is for feisty toddlers and frustrated teenagers and you have the perfect recipe for tech-obsessed families. In today's episode, Drew provides warnings, wisdom, and words of encouragement for moms seeking to raise their kids in the digital age with eternity in mind.

Drew Dyck is the author of several books including Your Future Self Will Thank You and Generation Ex-Christian. He's also an acquisitions editor at Moody Publishers. Drew and his wife Grace have two children.

Personal time management is such a common struggle. Adding a spouse and children to the mix only heightens the challenge. How can we steward the time God has given us well as we parent our children and establish family life? What things should have priority? How do we decide what to put on the calendar and what to leave off? My guest this week, Kara Miller, will help us take a step back and evaluate God's gift of time. She'll point us to its original intention, its challenges due to sin, and remind us of the hope of the gospel in redeeming our time. Kara will also share a gospel perspective on the stewardship of our children as they interact with their peers, coaches, and instructors in extra-curricular activities. Rather than shelter our children from all worldly influences, Kara will encourage us to equip our children with gospel truths as they encounter them.

Kara Miller has been married for twenty-two years and they have three kids who are 19, 16 and 8 years old. Kara devotes herself to serving her family, their church community and neighbors, as well as a local Christian school. She loves studying apologetics and finding gospel principles in all areas of life.