New eBook! The Heart of Simplicity: Foundations for Christian Homemaking

Today I’m excited to announce the launch of the new eBook, The Heart of Simplicity: Foundations for Christian Homemaking! I’m one of 13 authors in this collaborative project and I’m eager to share with you why I think that this book needs to get into as many hands and homes as possible…

Have you ever wondered how other moms hold it all together?

They keep up with the cleaning and laundry, making healthy meals from scratch, maintaing a strong marriage, discipling and training their children, and even showing hospitality and generosity as they serve others.

If many of us are being truthful, it feels unattainable to us.

Either these women are some sort of superhero, who can teach algebra while churning butter with one hand and refinishing a distressed antique yard-sale dresser with the other, or they’re making it all up and their houses are actually disasters and their children are unkempt wild creatures or perhaps WE are the ones who are completely inadequate and altogether failures as homemakers. 

Most of us tend to believe the latter. When we realize that some women are managing their marriages, their mothering and their homemaking more gracefully than we are, we imagine that the problem must lie with us.

Let me ask this… did anyone ever really teach you how to do these things? I mean, really teach you. Sit down and have a heart to heart with you about being a good mother, about showing hospitality to others, about loving your husband, even about how to keep your home clean. Did they?

Where are all the mentors?

It is a common cry on this blog and on many others that today’s women have never been taught, and there’s no one out there that is willing to take the time to teach them. We long for mentors and older, godly women that we can admire and learn from, but they’re not easy to find.

Kat recently shared some profound thoughts recently on what to do when you can’t find a mentor. One of the things she talked about was the need to create a “mentor environment”. Essentially, you surround yourself with things that reflect who you want to be.

That’s the point of this book, The Heart of Simplicity: Foundations for Christian Homemaking. It is 13 women (some younger, some older), coming together to teach and encourage and mentor you through their writing.

We wanted to create a unified resource that any wife, mother or homemaker could read to glean a better understanding of how to do and and be and balance all of these things, and most importantly, how to simplify their lives and build on the foundation of Christ at the center of it all.

I didn’t know all 12 of the other women when I agreed to join in this collaborative book project 6 months ago (and in case you’re wondering, I wrote the family health chapter- are you surprised?). We’ve spent a delightful half-year getting to know each other through a Facebook page, celebrating new babies born, pregnancy announcements, books published and more, as well as prayed for missions trips, for illness and for grieving neighbours, and for bad days in general.

In other words, they’ve become friends, and along with that, women that I trust and admire.

I know that their heart for this book isn’t to make a ton of money (because when you split it 13 ways, that’s probably not going to happen). But rather, their desire (and mine as well) is that we could inspire and equip and encourage a new generation of women to manage their homes and their families with an eternal perspective, as we build an eternal legacy, and walk it out one simple day at a time. 

What you’ll find in the book

With 13 chapters (each written by a different author), you’ll find everything from the practical topics of organization, time-management and house cleaning, to family finances and health, to nurturing our marriages and delighting in our children, loving and serving others, and doing it all surrendered to the Lord and for His glory.

Chapter 1: The Foundation: Surrendering our Homes to the Creator

Chapter 2: Marriage: Nurturing a Love that Lasts a Lifetime

Chapter 3: Motherhood: Delighting in our Children

Chapter 4: Missions: A Home-Based Vision for God’s Great Commission

Chapter 5: Family Economy: Embracing the Simple Power and Peace of Contentment

Chapter 6: Education: Growing Hearts and Minds for God’s Glory

Chapter 7: Health: Bringing God Glory by Caring for our Bodies

Chapter 8: Cleaning: Tending the Gardens of Our Homes to the Glory of God

Chapter 9: Organizing: Reflecting our Orderly God by Keeping an Orderly Home

Chapter 10: Time Management: Managing our Hearts to Use Time Wisely

Chapter 11: Hospitality: Welcoming Others into our Homes

Chapter 12: Giving: Showing the Love of Christ through Simple, Intentional Generosity

Chapter 13: A Mother’s Legacy: Storing Up Treasures in Heaven

The book is $9.99, and can be purchased either in PDF or in Kindle versions.

Do you feel that you went into marriage, mothering and homemaking equipped and ready, or has it been a struggle for you to learn these roles?