Mini Book Review #7: Mere Motherhood: Morning Times, Nursery Rhymes, and My Journey toward Sanctification, by Cindy Rollins.
Mrs. Rollins is known best for her championship of “Morning Time,” a homeschooling practice of reading and memorizing together as a whole family each morning. Mere Motherhood is far more than a how-to of homeschooling, though. It is a humble and funny memoir of her experiences as a lover of learning and as a mom of 9 children. Reading it refreshed my heart and reminded me of truth.
Those of us who are moms may be wrapped around our children now. But in 18 short years they leave, start their own lives, and make their own choices. Therefore, Mrs. Rollins reminds us, we must hold our children loosely. We must find our identity in Christ, not in how much our children love us or how well they read and write. Her confession of regrets, especially in the area of using the Internet, is healthy for a younger generation to read, as we fight the ever-entangling snare of the Internet. And her retelling of family stories is sidesplittingly funny. (I laughed and laughed when she confessed that one of her sons turned 12 twice, because they had mistakenly told him he was 12 years old on his eleventh birthday.)
Even if you’re not a homeschooling mother, you will find Mere Motherhood an enjoyable friend for your evenings. Like all memoirs, it causes the reader to examine one’s own life for both humor and growth.
Favorite quotes from Mere Motherhood:
“You are never going to have a lot of time, but you do have a little time here and a little time there, and those little times all add up to a life” (79).
“Education is the ordering of our affections” (81).
“Part of the sanctification of motherhood is learning to trust God with our children. One day we will come to the end of what we can do for our children…God has entrusted us with a great treasure. It is our life lesson to hand it back” (161).
If you enjoyed this review, you may also want to read some of the other mini book reviews I have published this summer. Here is one on the power of reading aloud (The Enchanted Hour) and another on prayer (Alone with God). For infrequent updates on new posts and reading encouragement, drop your email into the signup box below.