Just in time for Mother's Day

A former teen mother who endured an abusive marriage and struggled to raise her two young sons on her own shares lessons learned from her devastation and her transformation in this intimate, inspiring guide.


The Ministry of Motherhood is now available on Black Expressions! A must have for mother's of all ages.

7 Steps to Building God Confidence in Children: Step 6

Step 6: Foster Responsibility and Independence

Learning to be responsible includes learning to:
• respect and show compassion for others;
• practice honesty as a matter of course;
• show courage in standing up for our principles;
• develop self-control in acting on our principles;
• maintain self-respect.
As parents we are always teaching our children with our words and our actions. Talk with your children about moral and ethical dilemmas to help them learn to stand up for their principles. Your child’s ability to reason through certain issues even reckless and selfish ones will improve as they mature. If you have taken the time to have meaningful discussions, it will help them in the deliberation process. Allow your children to work through problems on their own. Remind them that you are there to help if necessary, but give them the room to fail and help them to understand why. Help your children to learn that they should not allow others to bully them, but teach them that they should not handle conflicts or solve problems with violence. Teach your children to respect others and be tolerant of other peoples differences.

As parents, we can give our children the best in us by helping them acquire habits and character traits that they can rely on in their own lives. If we help them learn to take pleasure in thinking and behaving well, they will have the best chance to lead good lives as individuals and as citizens in the community

7 Steps to Building God Confidence in Children: Step 3

Step 3: Nurture the Gifts that God has given them

Matthew 25:24-30 "Then the man who had received the one talent came. 'Master,' he said, 'I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.”His master replied, 'you wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest. "Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more and he will have abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'


Every child is born with special gifts from God. Their gift may not be athletic like Michael Jordan’s or Tiger Woods. It may not be charismatic like Barack Obama’s or Oprah Winfrey’s. Instead, it may be that they have a gift for teaching or compassion. But whatever the gift, each one is important to their being able to walk in the destiny God has designed for their life,

Encourage your children to avoid comparing their abilities to those of others. Challenge them to develop their talent. Above all encourage them to use their talent in a way that is pleasing to God.

As a parent it is our responsibility to help our children enhance their gifts. When a child’s natural abilities are not allowed to grow, it will have an impact on their self esteem. Forcing a child into an area in which he or she has no interest or ability will cause them to have low self esteem and ultimately they won’t be able to live up to expectations

Resolve to build up your children and not tear them down. Be careful not to push them to fulfill your dreams than theirs. If you have been oppressive or harsh, seek forgiveness.
Make your home a home of love and encouragement.

7 Steps to Building God Confidence in Children: Step 2

Step 2: Accept Your Children for Who They Are: God Does

One of the greatest needs our children have is that of acceptance. Believe me, the world is full of instruction on how to achieve it. But the ways of the world are not the ways of God. God's way is not about conforming, it's about being transformed. The only way this transformation can happen is by studying His word and letting it renew our minds.

Our children need to know that they were fearfully and wonderfully made in God's own image, as such, when they see themselves as God sees them, they will develop a healthy sense of self worth.

They will better understand that the only one from whom they need acceptance is God.

As a parent, don't try to mold them into what you want them to be. Instead help them to look for and become what God wants them to be. Understand that we are just steward to whom God has entrusted these little souls. When they don’t meet your expectations, remember it’s not your expectations they must meet. Our job is to nurture them and guide them into the acceptance of Christ and His plan for their lives.

Mom's the Word

Marilynn Griffith stops by today to provide a peek into her world of motherhood and family. She's the author of eight novels, mother to seven children, wife to a deacon and proof of God’s enduring mercy. You can catch Marilynn sharing her family adventures all week on the Mom's the Word Blog Tour.

To a Thousand Generations

"Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he [is] God, the faithful God,
which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;" (Deuteronomy 7:9, KJV)

There is a lot of teaching available about generational curses, but
you rarely hear people teach on generational blessings. I always think about whoever that person was in my family line who prayed that first salvation prayer, not knowing that so many others would be blessed behind him. And blessed we have been. I was just talking to a friend
about my cousin Mike, who can put together an event on a dime (and with a dime!) and seems to know everyone on earth. Another person who knows many of my relatives commented to me lately,"Y'all are just blessed to know stuff. All of you!" I think that really is a thirst for knowledge that was imparted to all of us by my grandmother Goldie. She had what can best be explained as...a low tolerance for stupidity.

Now, here I am with a family of my own. I long to leave a legacy of faith in them. My husband and I pray for our children to out-believe us, out-give us, out-serve us and out-love us. We want them to take the next step in seeing God's glorious destiny come to pass, knowing
that Jesus might likely come in their generation. What would happen today if our children were separated from us and the Bible taken away from them? Would they know what we think they would know? I wonder.

The other thing my family has is a great business sense (I didn't quite get that so strong, I'm more of a creative type, but I get by). One of my daughters has it quite strongly and another has a great way with people and has a great mantle of grace on her. My sons range from music to prophecy to sports and back again, but some of them love business too. Before I wrote Made of Honor, my daughters and I had a seasonal soap company. They made many of the products all by themselves (lip balm, bath bombs, salts, salves, etc). Along with some other friends they sold their products at craft shows and holiday bazaars. I made the soap from scratch and they did the melt and pour type. We did candles too.

One thing I want to is to establish a business with them again. They are getting older and lately realized that in ten years, my oldest daughter will likely be married with children (or not, but still). Anyway, I want my girls to understand what I had to learn the hard way about the Proverbs 31 woman--she had skills. I also try to impart some writing skills to my kids. So far, I've got two possible future writers. We'll see what God will do. It's all for His glory anyway.

What do you want to impart to your family this year? What legacy of faith have you been given? Don't assume that your children know. Share it with them.

Father God,

I thank you for all the children You have blessed me with. Help my husband and I to impart to them a love for You and Your Word and a passion to do Your will in the earth. May each of our children change the world for You, right now at the age they are and in every place they are. Send good and godly friends who will sharpen them and lift them up when they need it into their lives and give us wisdom to guide them into your glorious destiny.

In Jesus' name,
Amen

About the Book

When her tall, dark, delicious husband joins their three kids in calling her “Mom,” Karol Simons has an identity crisis. Sure she loves the pint-size trio, but what’s happened to her dreams of writing a novel? Determined to have it all, she turns to her neighbor for help.

Dyanne Thornton is thrilled to stand in as Mom for three weeks so Karol can write. Bursting with baby fever, the career-woman trades her glamorous clothes and four-inch heels for the playground and potty training. She hopes to convince her reluctant husband they should start a family of their own, right away.

Everyone’s in for some big surprises…

Order your copy of Mom's the Word from Amazon.com.

Follow the blog tour at http://www.bit.ly/MomsTheWord.

Visit Marilynn online at http://www.marilynngriffith.com/.

Join Marilynn's social network at http://www.sistahfaith.ning.com.

The Ministry of Motherhood

Pre-order The Ministry of Motherhood
http://www.peaceinthestormpublishing.com

Ann Coulter Said What about SIngle Mother's

I have posted some of Ann Coulter's comments because I want to make sure that I don't misquote her idiotic comments when I respond. Listen first and then read what I have to say.

Ann Coulter hasn’t written New York Times bestselling books. She’s just had a hell of a publicity machine behind her. In fact, my writing this response further enhances her ultimate goal which is to sell books. It’s not lost on the publishing industry that even trash can sell if you have the right marketing and promotions to back you up. Such is the case with Coulter.

Obviously Coulter has done her research when it comes to single mothers, but, I would be hard pressed to believe she has ever spoken to a single mother one on one?

I was a single mother until my oldest son turned 10. Neither of my two sons ended up as strippers. I never utilized the welfare system and I worked hard to make sure that my boys stayed out of trouble. I had a wonderful support system and I trusted in the God that Coulter professes to know. I was not a victim and I did not respond as such. I took responsibility and held myself accountable for my choices; good or bad. To insinuate that because society wants to help single mothers means that we are glorifying not getting married and raising a full family is insane. Most single mothers would tell you they would love to have a warm, loving, responsible, husband and father in theirs and their children’s lives. In fact, many of them like me were married at one time, but due to domestic violence death and other misfortune, these marriages did not work. I guess next you’ll be telling us that’s our fault, too.

Let’s suffice it to say, if you were ever a victim of a crime, you don’t have this single mother to thank: "Victim of a Crime? Thank a Single Mother"

"It is a mark of how attractive it is to be a phony victim that divorcées will often claim to belong to the more disreputable category of "single mothers." [Page 36]

The audacity of Coulter to call single mothers disreputable! The dictionary defines disreputable as disgracing the reputation, lacking respectability in character. To the contrary, I brought honor to the reputation of motherhood. I was an integral part of my children’s academic career, I saw too it each of them were prepared for and attended college, I was PTA Vice president, Team Mom, and whatever else was necessary to make sure they became productive citizens in this society.

Coulter writes: "Single motherhood is like a farm team for future criminals and social outcasts." [Page 38]

Neither of my children are criminals or social outcasts. In fact, my oldest son graduated high school when he was 16 and is now teaching in the local school district.

My children are not alone, here is a list of other children who grew up in a single parent household.

Alexander Hamilton - President Gen. George Washington - President Thomas Jefferson - President James Monroe - President Andrew Jackson - President Andrew Johnson - President Rutherford B. Hayes - President Herbert Hoover - President Grover Cleveland - President Gerald Ford - President William Jefferson Clinton - President Barack Obama - U.S. Supreme Court Justice James Wilson - U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Rutledge - John Hancock - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Johnson Field - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thomas Todd - U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Davis - U.S. Supreme Court Justice John McKinley - U.S. Supreme Court Ch. Justice (and U.S. Treasury Secretary) Salmon P. Chase - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Melville Fuller - U.S. Supreme Court Ch. Justice Edward D. White - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo - U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas - U.S. Supreme Court Justice James F. Byrnes - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Arthur J. Goldberg - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas - Frederick Douglas - Gen. Robert E. Lee - Booker T. Washington - Benjamin Rush - Stephen Colbert - George Mason - Fr. Gen. Marquis de Lafayette - U.S. Senator Henry Clay - William Tecumseh Sherman - Meriwether Lewis - Eleanor Roosevelt - Jackie Robinson - Mark Twain - George Washington Carver - Nathanial Hawthorne - Eli Whitney Jr. - U.S. House Majority Leader Steny Hamilton Hoyer - Michael Phelps - Linus Carl Pauling - Aristotle - Nicolas Copernicus - Sir Isaac Newton - Mahatma Gandhi - Leonardo da Vinci - Confucius - Jesus of Nazareth - Queen Elizabeth I - Jean-Jacques Rousseau - William Blackstone - Annie Mansfield Sullivan - Alexander Fleming - Nelson Mandela - Catherine the Great of Russia - Robert Frost - Langston Hughes - Alexandre Dumas - Gen. Alexander Haig - Alabama Governor Bibb Graves - New York Governor Al Smith - Tennessee Governor Sam Houston - Indiana Supreme Court Justice William Allen Woods - U.S. Senator Al Sharpton - U.S. Senator Senator Robert C. "Bob" Smith - U.S. Senator John Ensign - U.S. Senator Bella Abzug - U.S. Senator William Warren "Bill" Bradley - U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan - Queen Victoria of Britain - Alan Greenspan - Plato - Alessandro Volta - Jim Clark - Ada Lovelace - Jane Austen - George Eastman - Rosa Parks - Roy Wilson Howard - Washington State Senator Paull Shin - Johann Sebastian Bach - Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz - Lance Armstrong - John Lennon - Hans Christian Andersen - Edward Jenner - Giacomo Puccini - Joseph John ("J.J.") Thomson - Bertrand Russell - Hermann Rorschach - Herman Melville - John Keats - Marian Anderson - Garry Kasparov - Sylvia Plath - Leo Tolstoy - Peyton Rous - Benjamin Carson - Raphael - David Hume - Hannah Arendt - Ralph Waldo Emerson - Stephen Crane - Friedrich Nietzsche - Agatha Christie - William Wordsworth - Max Weber - Cleopatra - Jesse Jackson - Audie Murphy - Gustav Theodor Fechner - Edgar Allen Poe - Emile Zola - William Smith - Gerald Bull - Willa Cather - Ritchie Valens - Daniel Dennett - Cass Gilbert - Mary Leakey - Joseph Stalin - Charlie Chaplin - Nelly Bly - Henry Morton Stanley - Max Born - Sarah Breedlove - Frederick Froebel - Steve Allen - Louis Armstrong - Warren Hastings - Allan Pinkerton - Billie Holiday - Hank Williams - Malcolm X - Carol Burnett - Thomas Green Clemson - John Irving - J.R.R. Tolkien - Charles Bronson - Tom Blake - Paulette Goddard - Gene Hackman - Robert Hooke - James Byron Dean - Halle Berry - Benjamin Bratt - Eddie Murphy - Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg - Deborah Sampson - Ralph Ellison - California Supreme Court Justice Rose Bird - Eric Clapton - Eamon de Valera - William Reddington Hewlett - J. Marvin Herndon - Mother Angelica - Karl Rove - Julius Caesar - Muhammed - Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick - F. Whitten Peters - Henry Talbot - Arthur C. Clarke - Jim Rogan - Frederick W. Alt - Emil J. Freireich - Willie Nelson - Charlotte Perkins Gilman - Victor - Herbert - Bessie Coleman - Dorothy Andersen - Chiang Kai-shek - Videl Sassoon - Coco Chanel - Anderson Hayes Cooper - James Brown - Kenneth Grahame - Hunter "Patch" Adams - Jack Nicholson - Roald Dahl - William Lloyd Garrison - Douglas Fairbanks - David Harker - Robert Fulton - Irving Berlin - Jonathan Swift - Peggy Drexler - Art Buchwald - Carolyn Jones - Doris Roberts - Loretta Young - Marilyn Monroe - Barbara Stanwick - Steve McQueen - Cher - Pierce Brosnan - Wayne Dyer - Francis Alice Kellor - Sophia Loren - Stephen King - Sir Charles Bell - Whoopi Goldberg - Richard Wright - Percy Spencer - Ward Connerly - Fatty Arbuckle - Katherine Burr Blodgett - Dorothea Lange - Frances Kellor - Gloria Steinem - Gloria Gaynor - Jon Stewart - Bette Davis - Audrey Hepburn - Tom Cruise - Bill Cosby - Barry White - Susanna Harding - Jodie Foster - Patsy Cline - Ed Bradley - Tom Monaghan - Rickey Henderson....

Ann, if you’re not going to be part of the solution then that makes you part of the problem. All you do is spew vile outrageous comments that create divisions among people rather than bringing them closer together.

You actually said in one of your interviews that the left had a plan for illegitimacy. Give me a break, who plans for illegitimacy? How crazy does that sound? Its comments like this one that reduce your credibility and take away from some of the truths that may lie dormant in your tirades.

For instance, I agree that mothers need to take responsibility and not live off welfare forever. I also believe that single motherhood should not be glamorized because it’s a tough job and anyone who believes otherwise in terribly mistaken. However, in many instances it’s not single motherhood alone that is directly at issue. It is more so certain family characteristics and lifestyle advantages (such as educational opportunities, financial opportunities, stability, attention, and so forth) or the lack thereof that are attributable to the less than acceptable outcomes that we see.

So Ann, don’t lump everyone in the same basket. Unless you’ve walked a mile in someone else’s shoes, it would be wise not to judge to harshly. Judge not that ye not be judged. Matthew 7:1. You know where you’ve been, you don’t know where you’re going.