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10 Ways to Untether and Tame the Crazy

ELI AND AUDREY AND RED BALLOON

Mothering takes a different skill set today than when I was a stay-at-home mom. The internet was brand new, Facebook and Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest were all future distractions. The world really was a bit simpler in a time when you thought nothing of going out for the day without a cell phone. Cell phones were expensive, way less common and we didn’t miss having one because you don’t miss what you don’t know you need.

I’m in a different season of life now and the things that matter stand out in stark perspective to the pull of the culture surrounding and saturating all of us. Those things are clear to me, condensed, like pinpoints of bright light in a vast, black sky.

Times have changed a lot for moms since I became one nearly 3 decades ago. Life is moving crazy-fast. Information is available at warp speed and voices everywhere are screaming for attention. Distractions abound, multiply and pull, tugging us away from the important and sacred. The tyranny of the urgent seduces and traps with flattering but empty promises.

And we find ourselves paying attention to everything but what matters.

It’s hard to resist the cultural pull but I truly believe it’s imperative we do what we can to find a simpler, less device-connected life. There are things you can do to tame the crazy.

Ten ways to help you tame the crazy and take your life back.

  1. Untether. Take time everyday to unplug from electronic devices. Prove you aren’t addicted to them. Have a ‘cell-phone free zone’ in your house. May I suggest the dinner table? Have ‘media-free’ days. Go outside and play with your children, leaving the phone in the house. Turn off your phone on movie nights. Go on a social networking fast. Commit to being fully present, fully untethered for one. whole. day. (I fully understand if you’re a mom working from home or needing to be online for your job. I get that. I’m talking about the times you’re with your kids and husband and can disconnect, even if only for a few hours.)
  2. Change your phone message to reflect your priorities. This would be a fun message: “Hi this is Kate. I can’t answer your call right now because I’m busy spending time with my family. We might be baking cookies or playing tag, having a picnic or reading stories. If it’s summer, we’re outside catching fireflies or eating ice cream cones on the porch. Leave me a message and I’ll get back to you.”
  3. Speak life to your children. You hold the key to their truth. Build them up. Speak future, destiny, holy possibility. They believe everything you believe and say about them so take great care with your words. Plant the seed of God’s word deep. Don’t compare one child with another.
  4. Love your husband well. You chose him first and he will be there when the children have gone. Make him a priority. Let the children witness affection and respect between the two of you. Model the marriage you pray they will have. Speak well of him at all times. 
  5. Take back time, don’t let it be stolen from you. You are in control of your day. The internet can be a huge time-suck. Set an alarm and stick to it. Take inventory of your day and the time you spend on electronic devices (other than for work) and see where you can eliminate distraction.
  6. Turn off the TV.
  7. Turn on good music. Expose them to all genres of music: Bluegrass, classic jazz, big bands, Sinatra, Mozart, R&B and Bach.
  8. Expose your children to culture. Symphonies, museums, the ballet, opera, live and professional theatre. Watch old movie musicals together. Get everyone library cards. Buy paints and paper, chalk and crayons. Get crafty even if, like me, you don’t have an artistic bone in your body!
  9. Under promise and over deliver. This is way better than the reverse. In other words, do what you say you’re going to do and more. Surprise them often.
  10. Love God. With all your heart, mind, soul and strength. It all starts here and springs from here. Press in, wake up early to seek Him. Go to Him before you go to Facebook. Only by knowing His love can you love well. Your children are following you as you follow Him.  When they see your relationship with God do they see something they want? Do they see a parent so in love with Jesus it spills into every inch of their lives? Do you model a life they want to follow?

“And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

The key to successful mothering? Love.

And if love drives you, you will teach and talk of Him, sitting around, lying around and walking around. You will bind His truth, and write it on your heart and when people come through your door, they will sense something different about your family. It will be in stark contrast to the world. And they will know and they will see…

…the way you live is the way you love.

What else would you add to this list? What works for your family?

Category: Devotional, Faith, Family, Marriage, Motherhood, Parenting, PonderingsTag: cell phone free zones, children and culture, Christian parenting, how to untether, loving God well, loving your husband well, media fast, mothering, Mothering in today's culture, removing distractions from your life, Removing the crazy, speaking destiny, speaking life to children, untethering

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  1. Sixty Things I've Learned in Sixty Years - Kate Battistelli says:
    April 22, 2015 at 9:31 am

    […] In that light, make meal times ‘cell-free zones’. […]

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New post up at @momtomompodcast!. So much about Go New post up at @momtomompodcast!. So much about God and His Word is still a mystery, even to the greatest theological minds down through the ages. Faith–simple, childlike #faith is what holds the whole thing up. But, do we just stop there?
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In 2 Timothy 2:15, we’re charged to rightly handle the Word of Truth and to study to show ourselves approved unto God. And in 1 Peter 3, we’re told to always be ready to give an account of the hope that we have in Christ.
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Should part of that readiness be Biblical literacy–not just being able to quote Scripture, but being able to use those Scriptures to better know God–His character and attributes–and to better know the doctrines of our faith and how those are to be lived out in our everyday lives? .

Today, we’re joined by @phyliciamasonheimer who is going to help answer that question and hopefully give us some tips for living in the tension of both a simple faith and practical theology.

#christianmom #momtomompodcast #stopcallingmebeautiful #phyliciamasonheimer
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In this day and age it’s a rare thing for most authors to pay back their advance to their publisher, especially within the first 6 months of a books release. So I’m standing here in awe of His goodness and the faithfulness of all of you who’ve read and shared my book. I’m honored and deeply humbled as He used this moment to remind me how good He’s been to me in this writing journey.
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My first book came out in 2012 and I’ve yet to pay back that advance. It can take time and for most of us it does, especially in the Christian book world. But if you’re a writer who’s got a book coming out soon or you’re thinking of writing some day, follow that dream. Dreams do come true...I promise 💖.
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#hopewriter #calledcreatives #writersofinstagram #writersofinsta #authorsofinstagram #honestlymothering #mothering #joyfullife
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Before your children were a glimmer in your eye, God knew them and set a plan for his or her life firmly in place. God ordered their steps and set the course of their lives with every twist and turn already mapped out. He dreamed a big dream and gave you the task, with His help, of finding out what that big dream is. He wants to guide you every step of the way and help you dig down deep and mine every ounce of greatness in your child. Because the dreams and desires we hold for our children and ourselves are important to God—more important than we can imagine. ⁠⠀
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Blessings!!. #hopewriter #authorsofig #mothering #joyfullife #motherwell #dreambigger #mothersofinstagram ⁠⠀
I’m absolutely loving this beautiful book from t I’m absolutely loving this beautiful book from the amazing @thekatieorr! It’s the perfect book to dive into right now with all the upheaval going on in the world and the temptation to sink into sadness & depression.
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There truly is a path to happiness, real, enduring happiness. In fact, Katie shares 6 ways to nurture the happy soul already within us.
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Let her words help you find the happy, fulfilled life you’ve always dreamed about!.
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These are unprecedented times. So many parents are These are unprecedented times. So many parents are being thrown into schooling-from-home with little to no direction. We’ve shared before in episode 30 some general ideas and suggestions for homeschooling, so we’re not going to unpack all of that today. But we would like to dive deeper into one part of homeschooling that we believe is the foundation for what all the rest of our child’s education and really their very lives is built upon.
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Today, we’re talking about Morning Time. Some folks prefer to call it Morning Basket, Morning Meeting, others who maybe choose to slot it at other times in the day instead of the morning have been known to call it Symposium or Power Hour. No matter what you call it, if you’ve been homeschooling for any length of time, you definitely know that it’s a current buzzword in homeschooling circles. It seems that everyone has caught the fever.
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