This week has been all about the words we use in our parenting. And you know what?

• Motherhood is ridiculously hard – it is tremendously sanctifying.
• In moments of exasperation we can use the sword of our words and leave wounds that will seep for years.
• It pulls out our pride and insecurities, it is easier to gloss over our children’s faults than to say hard things in love.
• We are constantly teaching our children, whether intentional or not- and our job is enormous!

Moms, are you feeling overwhelmed? Are you feeling unable to do it?

You can’t do this on your own! Remember – our words start in our hearts, and God is the only one who can change us from the inside out. God is also the only one who can change our children from inside out.

That’s why I’m thrilled to tell you about a phenomenal resource available from my friend Brooke – Warrior Prayers: Praying the Word for Boys in the Areas they Need it Most.

This little ebook is a delight to read. Full of Scripture, full of truth, full of practical encouragement to overwhelmed women in the grueling trenches of motherhood. Brooke hits the nail on the head: we can’t do this! The job is too big!

In Brooke’s words:

I don’t pray because I can. I pray because I can’t.

Prayer is the coming to the end of myself, the letting go, and placing my hope in the God who can. It’s putting none of my hope in what I can do, and all of my hope in what He has already done. It’s taking comfort in a God who loved deeply enough to save me and resting in the knowledge that He can do the same for my sons. It’s choosing to believe the truth of His Word–praying for its completion in the hearts of my sons–washing it over my tired heart and keeping my eyes on the One who straightens my path. It is enough for me and enough for my sons.

Wearing a posture of prayer as lifeline, hope, desperate plea to the God Who can.

Brooke walks the reader through crucial aspects of a boy’s heart and life, giving Biblical background and personal insights into the areas where our boys are especially vulnerable and in need of God’s clear hand in their lives. She gives beautiful lists of Scripture, inviting us to insert the names of our sons and pray the powerful Word of God over their hearts and lives.

If you are a mother of boys, a grandmother of boys, a mother of girls who wants to pray seriously and intentionally for the men who will someday become your sons… this book will be a tremendous gift in your prayer life. {Download for your kindle here, or purchase in ebook form here!}

And here’s some really good news – Brooke is providing a free copy of this valuable resource to TWO KristiStephens.com readers! Interested in winning a copy for yourself or a boy-mom you know who would love some encouragement? Just leave a comment below and let us know why you are interested in a copy of this ebook, what has been encouraging to you this week in One Small Spark, anything that’s on your mind! {Reading via email? Click here to come to the blog and leave a comment below the post!}

This giveaway will close at 10pm EST on Sunday, May 22nd. Winners will be chosen from numbered comments using random.org.

When we started this Scripture Dig series on the local church, I wondered how these posts would hit those of you walking around with deep wounds from sinful actions of those around you in local churches.

It’s inevitable that there are some of you who fit that description.

And as we mentioned from the beginning, we understand. It is impossible to invest deeply in the local church and avoid being wounded. Sometimes we are wounded in a good way, as our pride and sin are cut open and exposed… sometimes we are wounded when those around us sin against us and leave deep scars on our hearts.

There is so much I would love to say to you if we had coffee in person. I would love to hear your story. And I would love to give you a book to read.

Whether you are a new believer in Jesus Christ and just learning the “ropes” of  investing in a local church, or a person who has grown up in churches and has battle wounds to show for it, or a person who is actively in ministry as a staff member, pastor’s wife, or other integral role… I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

You see, the church is a beautiful thing. It is full of broken people. It desperately needs the grace of God. And it is a gift from God to you.

In The Gift of Church, Jim Samra does a fantastic job of presenting the Biblical and practical reasons why we should treasure and value the church as a beautiful gift to us from God Himself. Samra never glosses over the very real issues that have plagued church life since the time of Paul… and oh, the stories that each of us could share to back up the fact that sin plagues our local churches still today.

But the church is a gift.

“We love the church because it is a gift from God. We participate in the church because God does. We do not give up on the church, because God refuses to.” – Jim Samra

To read the rest of this post and also enter to win a copy of this wonderful book, join us over at Scripture Dig!

“Experiencing God in the midst of an assembly, the gathered people of God – His church – is like hearing God in concert. We all, in different ways, experience God throughout our day as individuals: in our private devotional life, in the beauty of nature, and in our acts of service to the poor. But as wonderful and necessary as these experiences are, they do not replace the experience of God in concert. Like an iPod or portable music player, they replicate the music of the concert experience, but they cannot replace the concert itself. God is a master musician, and He is best experienced live in concert.

I’d like you to think about heaven for a moment. When the curtain is pulled back and we get a glimpse into the world of heaven in the book of Revelation, we see an enormous assembly-  a concert of living creatures, elders, and people of every tribe, nation, and tongue gathered together around the throne of God (Rev. 4-5; 7; 14). Heaven is not presented as a private recital of God’s glory. It’s not an individualistic experience. When the Bible speaks about the end-time return of Jesus Christ, we are told it is the marriage supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19) – a giant, celebratory, communal feast, not a series of private picnics. It’s a community experience…

When we assemble together as the church, we re-create the concert of heaven here on earth. Hebrews 12:18-29 teaches us that the gathering of God’s people is a re-creation of this heavenly experience. Just as Israel gathered around the temple and the tabernacle to re-create their foundational assembly at Mount Sinai, we do something similar when we gather as an assembled church. Instead of re-creating the assembly on Mount Sinai, we join our worship to the eternal worship of the assembled in heaven (Heb. 12:22-29). Because we have come near to God in this heavenly assembly, we should ‘worship God with reverence and awe.’ (v. 28)” [Samra, 32-33]

This quote comes from an excellent book written by my parents’ pastor and friend, pastor Jim Samra from Calvary Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His book, The Gift of Church, is an excellent read – highly recommend it! And *pssst* – tomorrow on Scripture Dig we’ll be announcing a giveaway of this book, if you’d like to try to win a copy for yourself! You might also want to consider purchasing a copy as a gift – this is pastor appreciation month, after all! :)

Some of you have already stopped in for a preview, but it’s official!  Welcome to my new digs!

There are still a few fussy little things we’re working on, but overall I think we’re good to go!  Katie from FlibbyPie Design has done a spectacular job!  Thank you, thank you Katie!

I’m hoping to be back to a normal posting schedule tomorrow, and I’m excited to get back to that.  I’ve missed all of you – this process has definitely reminded me that I am a teacher/writer, NOT a specialist with technical gobbledygook.

So, if you’re in a reader or reading this on email, please click through and check out the new site!

There are still some more links that I need to discover and fix, and my husband had a great suggestion.  If you browse around the site and find links that aren’t working, please compile the URLs of pages that redirected you to blogger or gave you a “not found” message and email me.

Please send them all in one email!  On Saturday night (10pm EST), the person who has emailed me the largest number of broken link URLs will receive a $10 Borders gift card for your help in “remodeling” my new home! :)