Bending the Twig

i'm at the point in my "parenting" journey where i'm starting to "look for" things to help me be a better mom... i did a TON of reading on pregnancy...and a pretty equal amount on the wee baby stage... but now, i have an almost 2 1/2 year old... :) and, well, if there's one thing i'm learning, it's that being a momma to a 2 1/2 year old toddler is a humbling experience... there are days where i'm guilty of NOT being an exemplary mom... i am not always proud of how i "mom" my sweet K... and i want to be as good as i can be to her...no, i want nothing but the best for her... she deserves that, more than anything in the world... and, i hate the feeling of embarrassment and disappointment that i feel when i know i didn't handle a situation in an appropriate way... this soul searching has me acting like that inch worm "reaching" for anything in the air...waving around and trying to see what i can find to "fill my soul" properly to be a better mom... before katherine was born, my mother-in-law gave me a book... she didn't make a big deal out of it either, but she told me, "this is probably the best book on parenting i have ever read..." and kind of walked on... :) i still remember how non-challant she was about it...and not in a bad way, either... well, the book inadvertently got put on Katherine's book shelf... and i found it mixed in with Clifford and "Brown Bear, Brown Bear..." :) i took it off the shelf last week...and have been filling my soul with some fabulous reading... "Bending the Twig" is a book written by a "grandmama" (as she calls herself :)), Bernadine Bigner Cantrell, and it's a guide to biblical parenting. she raised 4 children of her own, and she has lots and lots of grandbabies... :) (this is not the same cover to my book...i see it's been revised :)) i love it... and i love what she has to say and how she says it. she doesn't talk down to you...but she does present some thought-provoking insight on how to raise a Godly child... i love that she said, in the beginning, that you didn't have to agree on everything she presents (and so far, i have agreed on what she's said :)), but instead, she hoped that it would at least make you THINK about things or reassess your stances on topics... i am hungry to read it... i want to know more...and i feel like i can't get the information fast enough... i plan on posting about things i read in this book... not only to help me digest and think about what i'm reading, but also, in hopes of also hitting a chord with you, the reader... stay tuned as i journey through this book so that i adjust my actions and thoughts, perhaps, so that i can be the best Momma to my sweet girls... after all, they are my world and heart...