What makes a highly encouraged mom?

I’m not talking about a mom who is encouraged one day and down on the next, but a mom who, no matter what keeps her hopes up and is full of faith and encouragement to face her days always with the best in mind.

As I closed my eyes in bed last night thinking about this, I started to see the simple things I do that keep me highly encouraged and motivated in life. I thought precisely of 10 habits I want to share with you today. So mama, be encouraged! You can start implementing these in your life right now!

1. A Highly Encouraged Mom Is grateful

Yes! Count your blessings mama! I have developed the habit of writing down at least one thing I’m grateful for every morning in my gratitude journal. Sometimes my grateful list looks like this: Lord, thank you for LIFE! That’s it, and that’s enough to be grateful for.

I’m so grateful for life! As a cancer survivor, I take no days for granted. Every day is a gift – a precious one. I found that the more grateful I am, the happier I become.

There are a million things to be grateful for. I’m sure if you start a list it will just keep growing every day. What are you grateful for?

2. A Highly Encouraged Mom Speaks Life Intentionally

Our words are powerful! They have the power to create, the power to build people up and tear them down. Words are like seeds and will a harvest in your life. I have the same list of daily declarations I do for 5 years now and two of my daily declarations are “My prayers are powerful and effective” and “I set the course of my life with my words”.

What comes out of our mouth is so important! The Bible tells us that “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” Proverbs 18:21

What does that mean?

If words are like seeds, they will always produce fruits: good or bad. Once you said it, is out there and you can’t take back. Whatever it was sent to accomplish will accomplish, either to encourage someone or to hurt someone.

A highly encouraged mom measure her words and speaks good things over her life, her husband, her marriage, her work, her children and over every other area or situation in her life. She always speaks life!

3. A Highly Encouraged Mom Reads Encouraging Books

Tell me what you are reading and I can tell you a few things about you and where you are in life! No, seriously. If you look at my stack of books beside my bed table you will immediately pick up a few things about me and what am I interested in. Books are amazing! They teach us so much. They give us new perspectives on things, new ideas to try, they inspire us to be better persons and motivate us to what we want and need to do better, etc.  A highly encouraged mom reads books that are encouraging, inspirational to feed her soul and mind. I love beginning my days in the Word of God for encouragement, then read a few pages from one of the books in my stack. What are you reading now? Here is a list of books that have encouraged me a lot!

On my bedside table:

• The Lifegiving Home: Creating a Place of Belonging and Becoming by Sally and Sarah Clarkson
• The Lifegiving Home Experience: A 12-Month Guided Journey
• Hoodwinked: Ten Myths Moms Believe and Why We All Need To Knock It Off by Karen Ehman and Ruth Schwenk
• Rest Assured: A Recovery Plan for Weary Souls by Vicki Courtney
• No More Perfect Moms: Learn to Love Your Real Life by Jill Savage

On my Audible: (I love listening to my audio books while cooking, doing laundry and even taking a bath!)

• Hands-Free Mama: A Guide to Putting Down the Phone, Burning the To-Do List, and Letting Go of Perfection to Grasp What Really Matters! by Rachel Macy Stafford (This book is brilliant!!)

• The Best Yes: Making Wisest Decisions in the Midst of Endless Demands by Lysa TerKeurst (Perfect to get your priorities back in order.)

On my wishlist:

• You’re Already Amazing  by Holley Gerth
• What Your Heart Needs by Holley Gerth
• Choose Joy by Sara Frankl and Mary Carver
• The Fringe Hours by Jessica N. Turner

4. A Highly Encouraged Mom Constantly Encourage Others

Here is where 21 Days of Encouragement from DaySpring got me! I love to encourage others! In fact, that is precisely a big focus and goal of this blog! Moms need encouragement – a lot of encouragement – every single day because our job as a mom is very tough, very challenging and very demanding, yet, it is absolutely amazing and we have tons of reasons to celebrate motherhood.

I love the tools that DaySpring provide us to encourage others with. This week I’ve been daily sending out one or more beautiful cards (2 boxes for only $10 or buy 2 and get 1 free) and e-cards using their free eCard studio to dear friends. Think about who can you encourage today and click on them to encourage a friend by sending it now.

I also created a printable list to help us keep track of who we would like to encourage and how.

Download the printable now.

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5. A Highly Encouraged Mom Looks For Positive Lessons in Every Situation

If you read Pollyanna when you were little you learned from her that we can always look for the positive side in every situation. There is always a lesson to be learned if we only pay attention and focus in the positive. A highly encouraged mom will always look for good and not let things pull her down easily. I love this verse from the Bible:

[Tweet “”She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.” Prov. 31: 25″]

Dear friend, you and me can laugh at the days to come too, even at the darkest days, if we choose to look for the positive in every situation. I have grown and matured so much through the hardest days of my life and I have to confess that it is much easier to go through a difficult time when I refuse to focus on the problem and keep my eyes and my hope on the only One that has the solution for my problems: God!

6. A Highly Encouraged Mom Practices Quiet Time

Life is busy and noisy on its own. We need quiet times to rest, to pray, to meditate, to consider important matters, observe and above all to recharge our batteries!

We need time for ourselves to get ready for the day and sometimes to rest from the day. We need time to take good care of ourselves. There is nothing more relaxing to me than making time to be quiet, have some soft music on perhaps, read a book or simply take a nap. Resting is encouraging! Resting is refreshing!

Are you adding any quiet time to your days v? If not, commit now to begin, even if it is just for 10 minutes a day. I use my 10 minutes to do my devotional, do some Bible journaling or write on my Mom’s “Food” Journal.

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7. A Highly Encouraged Mom Hangs Around Encouraging People & Cultivates Positive Friendships 

[Tweet ““You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”― Jim Rohn”]

Who you choose to spend time with is very important! If I’m around negative people I start feeling down and thinking negative thoughts and eventually I start to believe in their negative talk. It is so unhealthy!

“He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.”Proverbs 13:20

We need to surround ourselves with encouraging friends if we want to be encouraged. We need to choose carefully our friendships and cultivate the ones that build us up and make us better persons. I love my friends! Even just a 2 minutes phone call with them would brighten my day.

I also love our Facebook moms’ group, we are always connecting and encouraging each other on Facebook, Periscope, Instagram and also privately through email. What a blessing!

• Do you have unhealthy relationships in your life that are extremely negative and only puts you down?
• Do you have inspiring people around you that you could spend more time with?

Cultivate positive friendships and you will be highly encouraged!

8. A Highly Encouraged Mom Knows Her Whys

I’ve been homeschooling for 3 years and some days are not as easy and joyful than the others, so I turn to my homeschool mission statement and my homeschool vision board for encouragement by reminding myself my whys:

• Why am I homeschooling my children?
• What are my goals?
• Why do I need to endure the not so joyful days?
• What am I trying to accomplish?

These whys keep me encouraged and motivated to do the things I need to do.

In January this year, my husband and I spent a weekend away figuring out our goals and whys for every are of our lives. It was an amazing experience, just the two of us, a vision retreat guide, our Bibles, notepads and pens in a hotel room.

• Have you ever consider writing down your goals and your whys?
• Have you ever thought about creating a vision board? Vision boards are a fun visual way to keep your eyes on your whys.

9. A Highly Encouraged Mom Listens To Encouraging and Uplifting Music

Music works wonders for me! I get up in the morning, have my quiet time with my Bible and listen to my favorite prayer app called Abide, then as I start to get dressed and ready for the day I put some worship music on! We love fun upbeat music around here!

Our favorite CD to play in the mornings now is the new Come Alive from Bethel Music Kids – so encouraging! We have the DVD too and my kids love singing and dancing along. So pump up the volume and be encouraged!

Here is my kids’ favorite song on this CD (they can sing this all day long!):

And here is one of my favorite worship song from Bethel Music We Will Not Be Shaken album:

10. A Highly Encouraged Mom Does More What She Loves

God created each and every one of us with passions, gifts, and talents to be used for His glory and our own fulfillment, let me explain this to you: I know I’m passionate about spending time on and teaching the Word of God and I am passionate about encouraging, empowering and inspiring others in any ways I can. So doing these things, what I am created and called to do, brings God glory and is encouraging and fulfilling to me because this is my purpose in life!

I recently found amazing joy and fulfillment in teaching Sunday School to 3-5-year-old. I never thought I could be a good fit for children’s ministry but I’m doing what I love to do: teaching the Word of God!

These passions, gifts, and talents also can be used in hobbies as well. I’m not very gifted artistically, but I feel so encouraged when I spend a few minutes a day doodling, writing or simply drawing the Word of God in my journal or on a notebook and sharing the pictures with a little devotional or an encouraging message on my social media channels. Not only I love doing this but it is also an opportunity to let it minister to others as much as it ministered to me while doing it.

I love Bible journaling and we even do Bible journaling in our homeschool. DaySpring has amazing resources for Bible Journaling called Illustrated Faith and I would love for you to join me and 400+ other moms at our Mom’s Bible Journaling Club today!

• Do you have things you love to do and wish you could spend more time doing it?
• Think of ways you could use your passions, gifts, and talents more often?
• Or perhaps you are passionate about hiking, dancing, boating, painting, cake decorating?
• What would you love to spend more time doing, that will encourage you? Make time for it!

PRINTABLE: Habits of a Highly Encouraged Mom Checklist

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Download the 10 Habits of a Highly Encouraged Mom GuideHere are some of my favorite Bible journaling resources:

 NEW! Bella Blvd Illustrated Faith Bible Journaling Starter Kit SRM Bible Journaling Clear Stamps – The Lord Is SRM Bible Journaling Clear Stamps – Trust In The Lord Bella Blvd Illustrated Faith Whatever Is Lovely You Rule Journaling Bible Mat 7 Bella Blvd Illustrated Faith Book – Basics – Praise NEW! Bella Blvd Illustrated Faith Paint Set – Basics – Shanna’s Favorite NEW! Bella Blvd Illustrated Faith Watercolors – Basics – Shanna’s Favorite NEW! Bella Blvd Illustrated Faith Clear Stamps – Basics – Homespun Alphabet NEW Bella Blvd Illustrated Faith Basics Stickers – Homespun Mrs. Blueberry Numbers Bella Blvd Illustrated Faith Stickers – Basics – Bible Tabs #1 Bella Blvd Illustrated Faith Stickers – Basics – Bible Tabs #2 NEW! Bella Blvd Illustrated Faith Clear Stamps – Basics – Names Of God Bella Blvd Illustrated Faith Clear Acrylic Block – Basics NEW! Bella Blvd Illustrated Faith Value Pack Precision Pens – Basics – Black Documented Faith Clear Stickers – Faith Big Words Complete Guide to Bible Journaling: Creative Techniques to Express Your Faith (Including 270 Full-Color Stickers, 150 Designs on Perforated Pages, & 60 Designs on Translucent Sheets of Vellum) Bible Journaling – Everlasting Hope The Art of Bible Journaling: More Than 60 Step-by-Step Techniques for Expressing Your Faith Creatively Inspire Bible NLT: The Bible for Creative Journaling Faber-Castell Bible Journaling Kit Accu-Gel Bible Highlighter Study Kit (Pack of 6) ESV Single Column Journaling Bible (Black) My Creative Bible KJV: Silken Flexcover Bible for Creative Journaling Bible Journaling – Trusting in God NIV, Beautiful Word Coloring Bible, Hardcover: Hundreds of Verses to Color Praise: A Creative Journaling Bible Foundations Bible Journaling Kit Faith Journaling for the Inspired Artist: Inspiring Bible art journaling projects and ideas to affirm your faith through creative expression and meditative reflection My Creative Bible KJV: Pink Hardcover Bible for Creative Journaling NIV, Journal the Word Bible, Cloth over Board, Pink Floral: Reflect, Journal, or Create Art Next to Your Favorite Verses My Creative Bible For Journaling And Coloring Bible Journaling Rub-Ons Bible Journaling: A Life-Changing Journey Along the Pages of God’s Word NIV, Beautiful Word Bible, Cloth over Board, Multi-color Floral: 500 Full-Color Illustrated Verses Illustrated Faith – Bible Book Tabs Trace and Transfer Bible Journaling Kit Illustrated Faith – Bible Journaling Kit Illustrated Faith – Bible Mat – Be Bold Illustrated Faith Basics Books of the Bible Clear Stamp Set Illustrated Faith – Date Stamp 2018 Agenda Planner – Illustrated Faith Illustrated Faith Kangaroo Pouch-Created To Create-Zipper Closure (9.25 x 7) Illustrated Faith – Advent December Devotional Kit Illustrated Faith Gratitude Documented Bible Journaling Kit- Illustrated Faith – Ink Pad – Black Eyed Pea Illustrated Faith – Bible Journaling Starter Kit Bella Blvd Illustrated Faith Get it Together Cotton Zippered Pouch, 12.5 Illustrated Faith – Die Cut Paper Pieces – Go! – 31 Count Illustrated Faith – Die Cut Paper Pieces – Friendship – 31 Count 10 Ways to Fall in Love with Your Bible by Shanna Noel – Devotional Book

YOUR TURN: How do you keep yourself encouraged? From these 10 habits, which ones will you intentionally start doing today?

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About Ana Willis

Ana is the unhurried homeschool mom of 3, wife, and homeschool blogger. She loves to encourage, inspire and empower moms to go from stressed to blessed by providing them with the tips, strategies, and resources they need to succeed. Ana is the founder of They Call Me Blessed and the creator of: Hebrew for Homeschoolers, Charlotte Mason Online Conference, The Homeschool Sisterhood, and the Beyond Blessed Life Planner. She leads a vibrant free community for homeschool moms on Facebook and you can connect with her at www.facebook.com/theycallmeblessedblog.