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#WalkItOut Podcast 083: Susan Merrill

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#WalkItOut Podcast 083: Susan Merrill

How well do your kids know you? I’m not talking about knowing which kind of coffee creamer you like (which my kids know which kind of creamer I like in my coffee). They may know what it means when you slip on jeans and put on make-up instead of your normal sweatpants. I’m talking about something deeper. I think sometimes it’s really hard to let our kids know our hearts—what’s going on inside and what really matters.

I’ll be talking about that today with my guest, Susan Merrill. She is the co-author with her husband Mark of the From Me to You journals. Susan is an author and speaker, and, with her husband, does so much to encourage parents to be active in their children’s lives.

It is so important to open our hearts to our kids, and what better way to do it then with in the pages of a journal? Not only will you be pouring out your heart and sharing with your child, but it also acts as a keepsake for your child to hold on to.

#WalkItOut Podcast 083: Susan Merrill I loved chatting with Susan Merrill about connecting with your kids through journaling! If you're a parents, you aren't going to want to miss this episode!
I loved chatting with Susan Merrill about connecting with your kids through journaling!

I know you are going to enjoy my conversation with Susan Merrill! You can listen above or on iTunes. I’d love it if you share this with your friends and leave a review here.

Links from the Show

Family First
All Pro Dad
iMom
Malachi 4:6
From Me to You: A Conversation Journal for You and Your Son
From Me to You: A Conversation Journal for You and Your Daughter

This week’s Walk It Out scripture

Deuteronomy 6:5-9
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

#WalkItOut Podcast 083: Susan Merrill I loved chatting with Susan Merrill about connecting with your kids through journaling! If you're a parents, you aren't going to want to miss this episode!

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3 Ways to Pursue Your Purpose as a Mom | Guest Post by Susan Merrill

I’m happy to welcome Susan Merrill today to my blog! I’ll be chatting with Susan (and Rod Olson) later today on Living Inspired! Click here for full details about Susan and Rod and their books, as well as a giveaway of their books! And tune in today at 3 CDT to listen to my interview with them!

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How can you pursue your purpose and passion as a mom? Susan Merrill shares her tips.

“If the size of the vision for your life is not intimidating to you, then there is a good chance it is insulting to God.”  —Pastor Steve Furtick

Sometimes it can be challenging to dream big when it comes to raising our children. There are so many little ways we can fail them—by setting a bad example, by going back on our word, by being selfish with our time. These small failures build up until we come to the point where we just want to survive parenting and hope our kids turn out alright in the end. But this is no way to live. That’s why setting grand goals for your kids and working to achieve them through parenting is so important.

How can you pursue your purpose as a mom? @susan_merrill shares with @TriciaGoyer:

Click To Tweet

With that in mind, here are three ways to pursue your purpose as a mom:

  1. Pursue Your Passion: We toss around the word “love” all too frequently. We say we love our job, love our house, or love our favorite restaurant. And while I think it’s fair to say that these things can all be desired, I don’t think we can ever truly love stuff. What you truly love are your passions—your family, your spouse, your children. Once you recognize that these other desires fade with time, you will be able to focus your gaze on the true passion of motherhood.
  2. Pursue Your Purpose: As a mom, your hope and vision should not be to just “get through” parenting. No, your purpose is to be with them every moment, every step of the way, and to encourage them as needed. Your purpose is to run into the front yard when they fall, kiss their scraped knee, and give them a Band-Aid. Your job is to stay up all night with your heart-broken daughter and cry alongside her, before reminding her of how wonderful her husband will one day be. Your job is to encourage your son to do well in school so that one day he can be a doctor, be a fireman, or even run for president!
  3. Pursue a Plan: Now, if your dreams for your kids seem incredibly impossible, you’re on the right track! Because once you’ve allowed your passion to form a fiery purpose, it’s time to carry it out with a solid plan. Here are some practical questions to ask yourself in creating a unique plan to fulfill your purpose as a mom.
    —What are your core beliefs?
    —What is your goal for your children?
    —As a mother, how will you work to reach this goal?

I believe every mother has passion for her child. Some moms have been distracted from their passion; some are sick or weary and their passion is drained low, but it is in there somewhere. But do we all have a vision of where that passion can carry us, a goal for our child that is so big and intimidating that it is impossible without God? I think we need more moms to ponder, to pray, to catch a vision for their children, to add in more passion and turn the vision into a purpose.

Your passion for your child is somewhere. You can find it with @susan_merrill’s help:

Click To Tweet

More about Susan: Susan Merrill, author of The Passionate Mom, is a wife, mother of five, director of iMOM.com, want-to-be blogger, and the “very imperfect” Merrill family manager. Susan lives in Tampa, Fla., with her husband, author and President of Family First, Mark Merrill, and two or, depending on the day, up to five of her children ages 16 to 22. On those days she happily forsakes all other responsibilities to run a bed and breakfast /laundromat for her college-aged children.

Connect with Susan: Website, Facebook, Twitter

 

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Podcast: Living Inspired: Susan Merrill | Rod Olson

Living Inspired ~ Thursday 3CT (10/24/13)

To listen to the interview: go here and click on the player in the upper right corner of the screen.

 This week on Living Inspired, please welcome Susan Merrill author of the book The Passionate Mom (Thomas Nelson, 2013) and Rod Olson author of The Legacy Builder (David C. Cook, 2013). 

If you’re reading this after 10/24/13 you’ll be able to find this show . . . and all my shows in the archive section.

For your chance to win a copy of Susan’s The Passionate Mom or Rod’s The Legacy Builder leave a comment below. Winner will be announced on Friday on the winner page.

**Due to shipping cost, giveaway open to US residents only**

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More about Susan: Susan Merrill, author of The Passionate Mom, is a wife, mother of five, director of iMOM.com, want-to-be blogger, and the “very imperfect” Merrill family manager. Susan lives in Tampa, Fla., with her husband, author and President of Family First, Mark Merrill, and two or, depending on the day, up to five of her children ages 16 to 22. On those days she happily forsakes all other responsibilities to run a bed and breakfast /laundromat for her college-aged children.

Connect with Susan: Website, Facebook, Twitter

More about The Passionate Mom: Motherhood is full of uncertainty. What do my children really need? Why are they doing that? Is this normal? What can I do to help them? How can I know for certain that I am doing this right?

The logistics are easy. Anybody can do laundry and carpool. But what makes a mother the best mom she can be?

It’s not better scheduling. Or more activities. Or less.

It is passion—the passion to teach, protect, study, and prepare her children for the future.

Great, but how?

Susan Merrill, the mother of five incredibly different children, has asked that question countless times. And she has read countless answers specific to a certain child’s temperament, age, or situation. But nothing she read offered an overall approach to parenting that would enable her to say with confidence, “I am doing this right.” She never guessed she would find a foundational plan—a reliable, universal parenting approach in the Old Testament book of Nehemiah.

In The Passionate Mom, Susan takes you on a journey through Nehemiah and into the heart of parenting. Her stories and confessions in every chapter reveal what she has learned: no mom can control her child’s future, but every mom can parent well. There is a plan—a roadmap for how a passionate mom can parent almost any child, confidently.

“…This book reaches mothers like me at both the heart level and the head level, showing us how to guide our children passionately and practically…”

–Shaunti Feldhahn, social researcher, national speaker and best-selling author of For Women Only

Purchase your copy here.

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More about Rod: Rod Olson, or Coach O, is the founder and CEO of the Coaches of Excellence Institute and the Coach O Consulting Group. Olson is a sought-after speaker and advisor on twenty-first-century coaching, leadership, and parenting. He lives with his wife and children in Denver, Colorado.

Connect with Rod: Website

More about The Legacy Builder:  A Leadership Parable for Today

“How can I control the pace of my life rather than having the pace control me?”

Lance Marshall has reached the peak of success most entrepreneurs only dream about. He’s the head of a profitable company, the husband to his beautiful high school sweetheart, and the dad of three terrific kids.
So why is he at odds with his employees and his family? Why does he often feel angry about the pressures of life and work?
In the tradition of great parable-based leadership books, Rod Olson tells a story about a man in over his head and the five principles that change his life forever.

“The Legacy Builder is a story that illustrates the wise insights Rod Olson has gained in his work with elite coaches and leaders. The engaging story will remind you of what’s really important and teach you the things you need to know if you desire to leave a powerful legacy.”

—Mark Sanborn, New York Times bestselling author of the Fred Factor

Purchase your copy here. 

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