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December 5, 2023 by Tricia Goyer Leave a Comment

There is No Shortcut to Parenting

If there was a shortcut to parenting, I thought I would have found it by now. I haven’t . . . not even close. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t tried. And it doesn’t mean I haven’t failed. Still, we all keep looking and hoping, don’t we?

Baby music classes do not give our kids a fast track to music scholarships in college. T-ball at age four doesn’t mean the pros at twenty. Reading a Bible story at bedtime every night won’t lead us to growing a godly teen. There are no quick fixes, perfect extracurricular activities, or even the right methods of spiritual guidance that will result in perfect kids. We cannot skip the rough stuff in life and move directly to GO to collect our rewards of growing godly adults. Don’t we wish it was all that simple?

There are a few things we can cut out that will benefit our kids: the latest gadgets, pricey fashion, electronic games, and social interaction that cuts out face-to-face social life. But we parents often pile on those things when we can’t be there with time, attention, and connection. I’ve been guilty of it. “Here, play with my tablet for a while so I can finish this quick task.”

There are things we might think will help, but they are actually hurting our kids

The right preschool will not make up for time with parents, learning about life, relationships, and caring for God.
The right moral stories will not make up for serving as a family, discovering there are real people behind the “issues” who need a helping hand, and who need hope.
Even great biographies of heroes of the Christian faith cannot fill in for models of godliness. Instead, children need to see parents on their knees, crying out to God and discussing how God’s truth overcomes the world’s lies.

Yes, it’s important to share stories of the Christian faith (I’ve even written a book for that!), but Mom and Dad—your story is the most important one your child will read… and they read it in real, living, breathing flesh.

To teach your children patience, compassion, self-control, and wisdom, you have to have those things.

To teach your kids to be content with who God makes them to be, you need to be content.

To teach your kids to trust God and follow His dreams for you, you must do it.

To teach your children how to pray, you must know how to pray . . . and do it.

I wrote a book to inspire children called Prayers that Changed History. I highlighted 25 historical people and shared how prayer transformed their lives and impacted the world. I would LOVE for you to buy this book for your children. But first, I’d love you to read it for yourself. Some of these historical figures will be known to you. Others will be new, but my hope is that you will take time to read these stories and let them impact your heart first. Then I hope you will consider how to ask God to revive your own prayer life.

There is no shortcut or fast track to raising godly kids. Instead, you must be a model of day-in and day-out love and service to God. The way you live is the most important way to determine the type of life your child will live, too. Put yourself on the right path and guide your children to follow. And the best way to do that is to spend your time in God’s Word and on your knees, living the life God called you to. You never know how that will change your family’s history . . . no shortcuts needed.

Be sure to check out the free printable you can download below!

Hope and Refreshment for Homeschooling Parents

Need more ideas and advice on homeschooling? Pick up a copy of Homeschool Basics. Receive tried-and-true homeschool advice from veteran homeschooling moms Tricia Goyer and Kristi Clover. We dish out practical help on getting started and staying the course. Homeschool Basics will remind you that the best homeschooling starts with the heart. Packed with ideas to help you push aside your fears and raise kids who will grow to be life-long learners.

Kristi and I believe that homeschooling can transform your life, your home, and your family. Mostly, we believe homeschooling can truly prepare your children for the life God’s called them to live.

Don’t let doubts hold you back any longer.

Get Homeschool Basics on Amazon Now!

May 1, 2023 by Tricia Goyer 12 Comments

6 Ways to Find Joy in Your Day {Printable!}

6 Ways to Find Joy in Your Day {Printable!}

As a homeschooling mom, I’ve had kids at home for 32 years. This means noisy days, busy days, and these kids-are-giving-me-a-headache days.

I’ve been homeschooling for 28 years and still have another seven years to go! Does that seem overwhelming? It would have been if I hadn’t discovered something amazing: JOY!

Over the last year, God has spoken to my heart and encouraged me to find joy in everyday living.

Joy, even though the laundry is piled high.

Joy, even though the kids are cranky.

Joy when work deadlines are pressed.

Joy when I have a headache when my feet hurt, and when I just want a nap. (Which happens often!)

But how do you find joy in your day?

Here are 6 ways … and a Scripture verse for each!

1. Thank God for each new morning.

A thankful heart goes a long way. Daily when I wake God, instead of looking at everything I have to do, I thank him for who I am and what I have.

Thank you, God, that I’m your daughter, and I have a place in your eternal home.

Thank you, God, that I’m a wife and mother.

Thank you, God, for the pile of laundry and all the clothes you’ve provided for us.

Thank you, God, for the dishes still in the sink from last night. We went to bed with full bellies.

2. Turn on worship music.

I love listening to worship music as I read my Bible and journal in the morning. I put on popular Christian songs as we homeschool. I also listen to Christian music as I write. I love using apps like Spotify or Amazon Prime Music to help me find great music. I also sing along! Singing songs of joy helps sorrows (and frustrations) to disappear!

3. Ask God to remind me what His kingdom is all about.

In life, I want to be comfortable. I want my house to be Pinterest-worthy. I want my kids to shine. But when I think about God’s kingdom, He helps me understand Kingdom Work. Opening my door to neighbors. Sharing God’s truth with young moms. Calling a friend who’s going through a hard time. Playing a board game with my kids instead of putting away the laundry. The Kingdom is about people and hearts–not tasks!

4. Seek the Holy Spirit.

When did I ever start thinking that I have to handle life alone? God has given us His Holy Spirit to fill, work through, and give us peace. Stopping to pray and ask for God’s Holy Spirit to help me makes a huge difference. The Holy Spirit gives me joy when I have none.

The Holy Spirit gives me joy when I have none. @TriciaGoyer

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5. Join the kids in praising God.

The best thing about having three little kids is that they LOVE to praise God. We have “Jesus dance parties” often. We put on kids praise song, clap our hands and dance and sing. They love it, and seeing their joy makes me more joyful.

6. Thank God for troubles.

The honest truth is that without troubles, I wouldn’t need God. If everything went smoothly in life I wouldn’t pray or praise as often. When I thank God for troubles, I remind myself that He has everything in control. As the Scriptures say, troubles are an opportunity for joy!

I hope you print and use these Scriptures in your day. I’ve found them very helpful.

Download here.

How about you? What do you do to find joy in your day? What’s your favorite Scripture about joy?

Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father, today I pray for my friend. I pray that she may find joy in you. I pray that Your Word will draw her heart to you. I thank you for your Holy Spirit that can plant joy deep in our hearts, even when there are struggles all around.

More Resources

14 Ways to Create a Joyful Family
How to Joyfully Share a Life
3 Ways to Lose Guilt and Find Joy
Heart Happy by Tricia Goyer
When I Don’t Desire God: How to Fight for Joy by John Piper
A Faith That Will Not Fail by Dan Lord

August 18, 2016 by Tricia Goyer 24 Comments

9 Important Things God Asks Us To Do

Do you want to know what God asks of you? Sometimes it can be confusing, but I have found by focusing on the main things, it all falls into place. Here are 9 important things God asks each of us to do.

So many times, we want God to reveal Himself to us. We question if He is real. And if we believe in Him, we expect Him to put Himself on display in big ways.

In the 31 years since I’ve become a Christian, I’ve learned more about God by focusing on the priorities—the main things He asks us to do—in the Bible than any other way.

It seems the Bible is made up of many rules, but when we focus on the few most important things, the rest is taken care of.

When we do what God has already asked us to do, He will reveal so much more about Himself and His ways. I learn about Him by turning to Him, depending on Him, thanking Him, and loving others.

What does He reveal? His loving heart. His willingness to provide for us. And His concern for people in this world. As I follow Him in these ways I am changed and the world is impacted for God.

What are the main things God asks us to do?

1. Believe in Jesus.

“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household,” Acts 16:31.

Understand because of your sin you deserve to be separated from God for eternity, but through the sacrifice of Jesus, you can be saved from punishment and can spend eternity with Him. All you need to pray is, “Jesus, I believe in you. Please take my sin and give me eternity with you instead.” It’s that easy.

2. Put living for Jesus first in your life.

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well,” Matthew 6:33.

This means daily seeking Jesus, reading the Bible, loving others as Jesus did, and trusting He will care for your needs.

3. Read the Bible.

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work,” 2 Timothy 3:16-17.

Reading the Bible teaches us more about God and His ways. We learn how to live life more effectively. When you sit down to read the Bible, pray, “Lord, help me to understand.” Also, ask someone who has been reading the Bible for a while to help you to understand better.

4. Become involved in a local Bible-believing church and seek friendships with Christ-followers.

“And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near,” Hebrews 10:25.

We are not meant to follow Jesus alone, but we gain help and encouragement from other believers. When you regularly join other Christ-followers, they will be there to help and support you, and you can do the same for them.

5. Forgive others.

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven,” Luke 6:37.

People will hurt us … a lot. Forgiving doesn’t mean forgetting. It means turning it over to God and allowing Him to handle the situation. God doesn’t take sin lightly; trust that.

6. Live your life with thankfulness, not complaining.

“Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, ‘children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation,” Philippians 2:14.

When we spend our day thanking God for all we have instead of complaining about what we don’t have, everything changes, starting with our attitude and view of life. We will notice the difference in our attitude during the day and others will.

7. Pray all the time.

“Rejoice at all times. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in every circumstance, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus,” 1 Thessalonians 5:17.

Pray without ceasing just means when you’re thinking about something over and over, it’s a good sign that it’s something you can pray about. Ask God to help the situation and give you wisdom on handling it.

8. Love others.

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails,” 1 Corinthians 13:4-8.

When we love others as God asks us to, they benefit, and we do too.

9. Care for the widows and orphans.

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world,” James 1:27.

A symbol of being a Christian is not doing all you can to take care of yourself but doing all you can to care for others.

These things don’t sound easy, do they? The truth is that everything God asks us to do is impossible unless we turn to Him and ask Him for help and strength. If you want to obey God in these ways, ask Him to help you. We cannot live as Christ-follower in our own strength.

The first step is to pray this prayer:

Jesus, I want to follow you in these ways. Please help me and bring people in my life to show me Your ways.

Now, I want to pray for you:

Dear Jesus, you see my friend and his/her desire to live as you ask. Please help him/her today to draw closer to you and desire to do these things. And as he/she does I pray you will reveal yourself in amazing ways. Amen.

I can’t wait to hear how God will reveal Himself to you! Please let me know.

Download the printable here!

You might also like Overcoming the Fear In Your Past.

October 1, 2014 by Tricia Goyer 3 Comments

Staying Sexually Pure (Printable!)

Staying Sexually Pure

I had a young woman recently write me through my website. She’s eighteen and a university student and wanted to know how to stay pure. She said that people give advice to guys, but they’re not the only ones who struggle with sexual desires. I’m glad she pointed that out. I agree! This is what I wrote her. Maybe it will help you, too:

Dear Casey,*

Thank you so much for your note. I love that you’re asking this question. The first thing that popped into my head was … stay away from boys. Don’t go on any single dates. Ask friends to keep you accountable! 🙂 All those things are good things, but there’s a deeper issue and that’s the desires of our hearts.

You’re so right, girls do have sexual desire. We want to be held and kissed and be intimate. It’s not just the guys who are thinking about those things. Girls also want to be loved, appreciated, and made to feel they’re attractive. We want to see a sparkle in a guy’s eye when he looks at us.

The truth is… that never stops. Ideally when we get married all our desire is to be toward our husbands, but I’ve even struggled with wanting to feel attractive to other men too … we all want to be adored!

The thing is, what we do with our bodies starts with our minds and hearts. We think it. Then we dwell on it. Then we want to act it out. When I struggle with something, it’s because my heart isn’t where it should be. My first priority is to love Jesus with everything in me–to ask Him to satisfy me. To realize that I may be “missing out” but in the end I’ll get the best. Those rules are good boundaries, but too many times we set them and then we like to dance on the line. We like to stick our toes across and see how far we can get.

Instead, it’s better to ask Jesus to show us His way. After Bible reading, prayer, and counseling with adults you respect (and who live righteous lives) your decisions will be just that… your decisions and boundaries.

Pray and ask God to change you from the inside out. Pray Psalm 139:23-24 and ask God to search your heart. If you find your mind wandering where it shouldn’t be, pray 1 Corinthians 2:14-16. Ask for God to give you the mind of Christ.

Also, remember the God who created the universe can strengthen you (Isaiah 40:28-31). He can help you through this! Finally, pray for your future husband.

Pray for his purity, his strength, and his desires to be saved for you. I guarantee that if you’re praying for him to be strong it will encourage you to do the same. I have a book I co-wrote with Robin Jones Gunn, Praying for Your Future Husband. Hopefully it will be a good guide to help you until you marry “The One.”

Praying for you,

Tricia

(*name has been changed)

Print These Out!

(as many times as you want! Right-click on the image to download the .pdf)

Printable Prayer Journal for Your Future Husband

Download – Praying For Your Future Husband Printable – TriciaGoyer.com

Printable Scriptures for Praying for Your Future Husband

Download – Printable Scriptures for Praying for Your Future Husband – TriciaGoyer.com

More Resources

Praying for Your Future Husband by Robin Jones Gunn and Tricia Goyer

Lady in Waiting: Becoming God’s Best While Waiting For Mr. Right by Jackie Kendall and Debby Jones

When God Writes Your Love Story by Eric Ludy and Leslie Ludy

To celebrate launch of The Lulu Tree Boutique, I’m doing a giveaway!

Ten winners will receive a copy of my book“Life Interrupted.” One grand prize winner will receive “Life Interrupted” and a Lulu Doll! Only those in the U.S. are eligible to win. Winners will receive an email and be announced next week! a Rafflecopter giveaway

Are you new here? You might want to subscribe to my email updates, or follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, or Instagram.

September 16, 2014 by Tricia Goyer 13 Comments

Free Printables for Writing Your Novel

I’ve pulled together a ton of Free Printables for Writing Your Novel. A few are mine, but most of them are awesome resources that I’ve found around the Internet.

Free Printables for Writing your Novel

Are you interested in writing a novel but you don’t want to start? Do you learn by doing? Do you want easy-to-use worksheets to help novel writing made sense? These printables and resources are just what you need!

Yay! FREE Printables for your next novel, collected by @TriciaGoyer!

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Story Ideas

Create a Writer’s Notebook! This worksheet will inspire story seeds and concepts. Click here to download and print.

Character Creation

This series of worksheets will help you get to know your character’s personality, what they want, and how they might try to overcome challenges. Click here to download and print.

More of my Favorite Printables…

TheWritersCraft.com has a great set of worksheets.

Elizabeth Span Craig has collected a long list of wonderful tools and worksheets made by and for novelists!

Annie Neugbauer’s Plotting Worksheet is for writers who have scattered ideas that need to be worked into a basic plot structure. It’s one page, bare-bones, & easy to view at a glance.

Writer’s Digest has a wonderful index of worksheets to help you write your novel in 30 days.

Story Tracker (Act I, Act II, Act III): These worksheets help you outline before you start writing, and/or keep track of your story’s progression as you go.

Story Idea Map: This worksheet is especially critical for writers who will be working without any kind of outline. During the first few days of your 30-day effort, you should complete this worksheet.

Scene Card: Scene cards can be used as an outlining tool before you begin your 30-day effort, or as a daily writing and brainstorming technique. Scene cards can also play a critical role in revision. Index cards can be used instead of the worksheet if preferred.

At-A-Glance Outline: Offers a quick way to fill in the blanks of your story. It guides you to answer the right questions for each area of your story, the questions that will come up fast when writing.

Character Sketch: Keep track of the qualities of each major character using these sketches. As you become more experienced as a writer, you may want to create your own character profile worksheets.

Character-Revealing Scenes: This more advanced outlining worksheet helps you identify where and how you will reveal important aspects of each major character.

Climax: This worksheet helps you consider your novel’s climax, the point where the protagonist faces the conflict directly, with his goal on the line.

Closing & Denouement: Questions on this worksheet analyze the novel’s post-climax scenes with an eye toward tying up unresolved arcs and the novel as a whole.

Reversal Brainstorm: Plan ahead for characters’ changes of heart, new situations, unexpected betrayals and more.

Write That Book!

Are you ready to write your novel but just need a little help?

Imagine if you were friends with a successful author willing to show you the ropes. Tricia Goyer is that friend. The author of more than 75 books, she’s the writing coach you’ve been looking for, and she’s ready to help you:

learn from her expertise
network with experts so you can cash in on what they know
discover the community who needs to hear your message of hope

“Want to know how to write? You can learn while you sit in the carpool line!” Tricia Goyer

Join Write that Book here!

Making your writing dreams become a reality is tough. You have ideas but you wonder if any of them are good. You have no idea how to connect with agents and editors, and what in the world is book proposal anyway?

I’m here to help. And I’ve invited some of my friends to help you too. They are professional agents, editors, authors, and marketing and publicity team members. They’re the best of the best in the Christian publishing industry. Together we want to help you reach your dreams.

To help you do this, I’ve created Write That Book. This premier group provides education, inspiration, and connection with other writers and experts. Learn all the tricks of the trade while getting your personal questions answered.

Over thirty experts will be available throughout the month to answer your questions. Their decades of experience will be at your fingertips. They not only want to help you, they also want to get to know you better. After all, your words might just be the ones they’re looking for!

August 15, 2014 by Tricia Goyer 5 Comments

Guided Prayer Cards for MOPS Leaders

I don’t know about you, but sometimes it’s hard to pray. It’s even harder when I’m asked to pray out loud with others. Sometimes I don’t know what to say. Or sometimes someone else says what I was going to.

Much of the time when it comes to praying out loud I’m so concerned about my words, that I forget to pray in agreement with others. Have you ever felt that way?

I’ve very excited because today I’m heading out to a MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) planning retreat for our Teen MOPS group. This is our 5th year of having a Teen MOPS group in Little Rock. I’ve loved getting to know the young moms, and I’ve loved working with some amazing co-leaders.

I created these Guided Prayer Cards for our MOPS leadership team to use. Here are ways you can use them:

Use the Guided Prayer Cards during prayer time at your steering meetings. Pass them out and ask each person to pray over their request. Mix them up and use them again at the next meeting.
Use the Guided Prayer Cards as prompts, posting them around your house.
Give these prayer cards to friends or church members, asking them to pray for your group.

Download your Guided Prayer Cards and use them with your leadership team! (I’m going to laminate mine so we can use them over and over again.)

The very best thing we can do for our MOPS groups is to take them to God in prayer!

Now how about you? What do you pray for your MOPS group?