Each morning, after my shower, I climb back in bed for some quiet time before the small people wake up. This morning, I was reading through my blog roll, and several new posts hit my heart. Then at our first MOPS meeting, our speaker, Amy the women’s director at our church, spoke on the same theme I’d been reading earlier in the morning!

I want to share the links as well as some things that stood out to me:

What a cab driver taught me about excellence, Sarah Mae – I don’t want to just “get by” in life, I want to pursue excellence! “Does it intimidate you to think about becoming excellent in marriage and/or parenting? Me too. But that’s because I have considered excellence to be perfection, but they are not the same. Perfection is completion, no more work to be done. It’s finished. Not so with us. We are only complete in Christ, but in action, in life, not so much. But excellence, that’s different. Excellence is working hard at becoming the best you can at something, failures and all. It’s intention, and giving, and caring, and going for great.”

Giving yourself grace, Vanessa – “Truly giving yourself grace isn’t about giving yourself anything. It’s about being open to His grace and fully accepting it, not just for the big hurdles, but for the tiny every day stumbles.” I read this after Sarah Mae’s excellence post, and I thought they complemented each other so well!

Give your children the gift of a happy mama, Sally Clarkson – This is not a superficially happy mama, this is a mama whose joy comes from being intentional in faith, fun and thankfulness. “The grid through which you see life will determine how you behave in life. Children want a happy mama–that makes them feel acceptable, as though they belong, and filled up in their own little hearts because mamas are the compass that lead children to joy in life.”

Changing perspective and giving your family grace, Amy – I took notes on her message and posted the recap on the MOPS blog. “Pray for God to help you give your family your best.”

An interesting note, both Sarah Mae and Vanessa have personal blogs which I follow, but both their posts today were at (in)courage where Sarah Mae is a regular contributor and Vanessa was a guest poster.