“A nail is driven out by another nail; habit is overcome by habit.” ~Erasmus.

The dirt stains cling under my fingernails.  The smells of sage and parsley are fresh in my nose even though we’ve come inside for the day.  The warm air brings bird-chirp songs in through the window and I breathe deeper.

Digging in the garden today, my children and I realized that each little garden plot is its own ecosystem.  One modest 8×4’ planting bed has its own worms; it has some spots that naturally get more light throughout the day than others; it even has little rivulets where water collects, where the ground we laid carefully is not quite level.

Just as the garden has highs and lows, light and dark – so has my family.  My little family of five, we are our own ecosystem.  Some of our hearts need extra care in certain seasons.  We have some relationships that need a little weeding now and then.  And some of our bonds simply need diligent watering and they’ll be just fine (for now, anyway.)

Before I could see my family as a garden that needed care, all I could see were the trouble spots.  The thorns.  The dry patches.  And most of all, the Fear.  The fear that I would repeat it all – that Jesus wouldn’t be able to redeem and reset someone like me – that I wasn’t equipped to be the mother they needed.  The fear that the woman in the house: the lifegiver, the nurturer – she just wasn’t up to the task.

But Jesus does redeem

He does reset

He does rescue.

No pain of mine surprises Him.  No fear of mine ashames Him.  No habit is too deeply rooted that He can’t find it and weed it out.

And words from wise mentors are like water on this garden of mine.  If He does the hard work, the tilling, the weeding, the bearing of my thorns and thistles, then wise women who’ve gone (and gone well) before must do the watering.

Sally Clarkson has been one of those women.  I’ve read enough of her books to know that she has had to find creative ways to tend the hearts of her own children.  The solutions she’s found have come through years of hard work, persistence, trial and error.  In my gardening days, I’ve successfully grown a squash or two.  Sally and her husband Clay have been at this so long that the little seedlings they tended are now sturdy as apple trees.

Through Scripture and story, through humor and a real-life window into the Clarkson family’s life, Sally and Clay have written their latest book, The Lifegiving Parent.  One of the best things about this book is that it’s been written by a husband/wife team, so it’s meant to be read by fathers and mothers together.  {Translation: Jeremy is excited to read it with me!!}  As a lucky launch team member, I’ve had the pleasure of an early peek at the first few chapters, and since you are one of my dear readers, that means that YOU get a little sneak preview, too:

“That’s what it means to be a lifegiving parent—to introduce our children to the living God of Scripture and to give them the life that we have found in Him.  We offer no special or secret formula that will make you a successful Christian parent, and we would counsel you to avoid any parenting book that does. We offer only our personal experiences and insights, and the promise that God’s grace will be in abundant supply for anything you decide to do by faith in order to become a lifegiving parent for your children. That will be the real story of this book—how God comes alive in your family.”

And I learned it from the Clarksons: to be a lifegiving parent doesn’t mean formula, and it doesn’t mean perfection.  To be a lifegiving parent simply means…

To give life.

To give them your life.

To beg and pray and cling to Jesus

So that “lifegiving” really means Christ-giving.

 

Does this sound hard?

Maybe it is.

For one nail to drive out another, it takes pounding, it takes perseverance, and for the wall, it might mean a little bit of pain.

But then you can hang up your beauty.

And my Jesus, my Savior… He’s the Nail-Pounder.  He’s the Beauty-Hanger.  He’s the Rescuer.

And I can give life… because He gave me His.

 

Friends: I’m excited to offer you the chance to win your own copy of The Lifegiving Parent by Clay and Sally Clarkson!  Their writing has blessed me and I know it will do the same for you.  So here is how you can enter the giveaway:

1. Share this post. {If you’re encouraged? Maybe someone else will be, too.}
2. Comment below and let me know why you would like to win a copy of this book. ***Please be sure to comment here, on the original post.  That’s the only way to make the giveaway “fair.”
3. That’s it!  One winner will be chosen at random this Saturday afternoon.

 

 

{And in case you like to plan ahead: you can buy an advance copy of the book here.}

 

Thank you, friends.  As always,

 

Cling to Jesus,

Laura