52 Things Sons Need from Their Moms

Angela Thomas

Description

"He's 100 percent boy...and I just don't understand him!"Angela Thomas, bestselling author of 52 Things Kids Need from a Mom, gets it. The mother of four children, Angela brings wisdom, humor, and compassion to her new book for moms. Find encouragement and inspiration as she lays out 52 creative ways to help you connect with your son's heart. Discover how tocheer him on from the sidelineshear his heart when it hurtsteach him strength and leadershipmake memories that last a lifetimelead with God's loveOne week at a time, learn new ways to engage with your son and raise a godly young man. This fun, guilt-free resource will help you delight in the small moments that make for an abundant life.

Informations

• Publié par: Harvest House Publishers, Inc.
• Date de parution: 01 avril 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780736952224
• Langue: English

Extrait

HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS
EUGENE, OREGON
All Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Cover by Left Coast Design, Portland, Oregon
Cover photo Cultura / Inmagine
52 THINGS SONS NEED FROM THEIR MOMS
Copyright 2015 Angela Thomas
Published by Harvest House Publishers
Eugene, Oregon 97402
www.harvesthousepublishers.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Thomas, Angela, 1962-
52 things sons need from their moms / Angela Thomas.
pages cm
ISBN 978-0-7369-5221-7 (pbk.)
ISBN 978-0-7369-5222-4 (eBook)
1. Mothers and sons-Religious aspects-Christianity. I. Title. II. Title: Fifty-two things sons need from a mom.
BV4529.18.T4495 2015
248.8 431-dc23
2014042009
All rights reserved. No part of this electronic publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any other-without the prior written permission of the publisher. The authorized purchaser has been granted a nontransferable, nonexclusive, and noncommercial right to access and view this electronic publication, and purchaser agrees to do so only in accordance with the terms of use under which it was purchased or transmitted. Participation in or encouragement of piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of author s and publisher s rights is strictly prohibited.
Contents
A Son Needs His Mom to
1. Stay Close to Jesus
2. Be Filled with the Powerful, Everyday Grace of God
3. Build a Legacy of Grace
4. Pray
5. Teach Him About the Great Love of God
6. Remember She Must Release Him to Manhood
7. Try Sometimes
8. Pull the Car Over
9. Teach Him About Collared Shirts, Combed Hair, and Chores
10. Love His Friends and Make Them Welcome
11. Give Him One More Year
12. Pray for Great Men to Become His Influencers
13. Teach Him to Wait His Turn
14. Have a Godly Friend She Can Run Beside
15. Stop Waiting on Perfect and Do the Best She Can Now
16. Be Confident Enough to Lead, Humble Enough to Apologize
17. Be the Meanest Mom in the World (Sometimes)
18. Say No to Poker Nights
19. Teach Him How to Treat All Women
20. Teach Him How to Treat His Sister
21. Teach Him How to Treat His Wife
22. Help Him Recognize the Marrying Kind
23. Teach Him That Strong Men Are Compassionate
24. Believe He ll Come Through the Fog
25. Teach Him How to Ask a Girl to Prom
26. Lay His Sports on the Altar of God
27. Make Church Non-Negotiable
28. Stand at the Front Door
29. Be His Advocate
30. Make Him Do a Few Things He d Rather Not Do
31. Show Him the Truth About Superlatives
32. Know What to Do When He s Afraid
33. Bring a South African Home
34. Teach Him to Shine in the Dark
35. Take Him on a Ten Trip
36. Make Christmas a Really Big Deal
37. Take Him to Funerals and Visitations
38. Order Him into the Creek
39. Remain Steady When He Doubts
40. Buy Him a Rubik s Cube
41. Send Him Out for Adventure and Pray Him Home for Love
42. Stop Yelling
43. Make Home the Safest Place
44. Tell Him a Real Man Doesn t Fear a Room Full of Estrogen
45. Teach Him About Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Atheists, and Kindness
46. Move Heaven and Earth for All His Lasts
47. Count the Days
48. Teach Him to Be Hipster (In the Best Possible Way)
49. Prepare Him for Greater Things
50. Show Him How to Do the Hardest Thing First
51. Show Him It s Okay When Good Work Makes You Tired
52. Give His Nintendo 64 to the Homeless Shelter
53. Teach Him to Give a Little More Than Required
About the Author
More Books by Angela Thomas
About the Publisher
1
A Son Needs His Mom to
Stay Close to Jesus
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
John 3:16-17
H ello, new friend.
Today I wish we were meeting for coffee instead of this awkward first time meeting on a page. For months now, I ve tried to imagine what you look like. Where you live. The age and stage of your son. Is he fast asleep on your lap right this minute? This book propped on his blanket or toy? Did your boy just yell, I love you, Mom, and then run into the backyard to play? Are you grabbing this moment, having lunch in your office while your son is at school or day care? Are you in the car pool line? Sitting on the floor during nap time? Waiting outside the door of his music lesson?
Oh man, I really wish we were having coffee. I d love to hear all about him.
Words on a page feel like such a clumsy way for me to start because the very thing that could make all the difference is missing. Tone. Countenance. Laughter. A smirk. A wink. A tear. I long for you to know I m beside you. I m not writing to you from a soapbox. I m not typing from some academic, far-removed setting. Girl, I m on your team! The moms of boys are my people. Shoot, if you lived on my street, we d have to be friends.
Maybe this will help. I ve been trying to imagine where you are, so here s an honest picture of me, this very minute.
I work at home, so here I am. In my house, there s an office for me, but it s been torn up for months. Every office kind of thing I own is piled into boxes all over. A guy is in there today building bookshelves, so I m on the other side of the house in my bedroom. I have my laptop and a couple of books beside me; my feet are dangling over the side of the bed. For the past month I ve been wearing the same version of a writing uniform. Gym shorts, a T-shirt, and flip-flops. No makeup, of course. My kids are teenagers and there s no school today, so my door keeps going open, close, open, close, open, close. Every time it opens, I forget what I m writing because we start talking about nothing. Surely anyone could write faster than a mom with chatty teenagers, holed up in her bedroom while the sound of a nail gun pops the air.
I may be a few years ahead of you, but I hope you can still hear my heart. I m on your team. I am for you. These words about raising sons are written for you as encouragement, without judgment. Probably a lot like you, I arrived at this gigantic task completely unqualified, and I ve been in over my head ever since. As we begin these pages of encouragement together, I want to start with the most important things.
If I have done anything right as a mom, it is because of Jesus Christ. And if the things I ve done wrong don t completely ruin my sons forever, it is, again, only because of Jesus.
I have no idea about your faith tradition, so there is no way to know what the name of Jesus means to you. Here is what Jesus means to me:
I grew up around people who talked about Jesus and attended a church where people worshipped Him. Until I was older, most of what I knew about Him I had learned from my parents and my church.
Then a college education taught me to ask questions and eventually I began to ask questions about my faith. What about Jesus? Was He really who He said? Is He the Son of God? Did He die on a cross and then, three days later, walk from His tomb, alive?
So I searched and studied, read and researched, and asked all the questions until my soul was satisfied. Over and over, the answer was yes , Jesus truly is the Son of God. The Old Testament promised a Messiah and Jesus is the fulfillment of that promise. Jesus lived on this earth and died on a cross. Three days later, He was raised to life. Over five hundred people saw the resurrected Jesus. The Bible is the record of God s love and contains His wisdom for our lives.
If Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the only logical decision I could make was to follow Him. He had to become the center of my life. Today my faith is filled with emotion, but deciding to follow Jesus wasn t an emotional decision for me. Becoming a Christ follower was the logical result of an honest search.
I tell you my journey because I want you to understand the weight of my words. The first lesson in this book is not intended to be spiritual or emotional or holier-than-thou-sounding. I ve begun with this first thing because it s the most important thing I have to offer. Your son needs you to trust Christ and stay close to Him.
Trusting Christ is not about keeping a tradition. Or sitting in a church. Or doing good things with church people. If you don t know Jesus, it would be my honor to introduce you. He is the Lord of all, but more than that, the Bible says He loves you with an everlasting kind of love and He designed you to be in relationship with Him. The Bible says anyone who believes Jesus is Lord can run to Him.
He is the only One able to forgive you and make you clean.
His words are the only words with the power to change your life.
His way is the only way to find rest for your weary soul.
He is the One who wants to redeem your brokenness and heal your wounds.
He is faithful, the Protector of all you entrust to His care.
Maybe you ve heard someone say, I couldn t have made it without Jesus. That s exactly how I feel. There is no way to become the mom my son needs apart from an alive and growing relationship with Jesus Christ.
The most important thing you will ever do is become a follower of Jesus Christ. And you can make that decision wherever you are. The God who loves you is not far off; He s right there with you now. Becoming a follower is not about returning to an empty tradition. Becoming a follower means your whole life gets reorganized around Christ at the center.
My new mom friend, I pray you ll trust Jesus and stay close to Him. Truth is, you really don t need the rest of my words. I hope they mean something to you and I hope you ll be inspired. But i