Give Away with Susanne Scheppmann

*Give Away has Ended*

Well everyone..it is time for another Spring Has Sprung Give Away. This one is with my friend and fellow Proverbs 31 speaker Susanne Scheppmann. I knew the moment I met Susanne that she is the real deal. Her face and life just radiate Jesus in an authentic and contagious way. Now, this week, you can meet her too!

Susanne is an author and speaker with Proverbs 31 Ministries.  She believes in Heart-Print faith—faith that is fun, fearless and fulfilled.  She has resides in Las Vegas, Nevada with her husband, Mark.  They have three grown children and three very adorable grandchildren.  She loves to travel, read and fish.  Her “babies” at home are two little Shih Tzus, Jasmine and Taffy.

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Susanne’s books include, Divine Prayers for Despairing Parents:  What to Pray When You Don’t Know What to Say, a devotional for parents of wayward children.  She has written two Bible studies, Birds in My Mustard Tree: How to Grow Your Faith and Perplexing Proverbs. Susanne’s book Embraced by the Father: Finding Grace in the Arms of God will release March of 2010.

Here is our interview:

Susanne, tell us what life is like at your house these days.

Oh goodness, it’s like a daycare center! Honestly, I went from three teens—to empty nest—to three grandchildren all under the age of three.  So, my house is baby-proofed for safety.  My “home accessories” include diapers, wipes, high-chair, crib–am sure you get the picture.  And I love every moment of it!

You have recently written a book on prayer for parents. What is it about and what lead you to write it?

Karen, I was a rebellious teen.  I know that my step-mother prayed for me and those prayers brought me back to faith.  I raised three teens and had to rely on the Lord for wisdom and guidance every day.   At times, especially if you have a wayward child, you become discouraged.  I wrote Divine Prayers for Despairing Parents after meeting a girlfriend for five years to pray for our children.  The stories are anecdotal, (to protect the innocent and the guilty), but the originated out of our true parental struggles.  When my prayer partner and I began to pray Scripture over our children, our spirits lifted and we were able to release our concerns to the Father.

What do you find hardest about raising children today?

Our children are exposed to adult information early in life.  Things that I didn’t learn about until I was in my late teens are now discussed in commercials, sitcoms, and music.  Protecting our children from this exposure is almost an impossible task.  We need to be as vigilant as possible and concentrate on open communication with our children to what is God’s truth.

 What verse or verses have become meaningful to you in your parenting years?

 One of my favorite practical verses is Proverbs 15:1, “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”  After many times of blowing up at my children, I found a more effective was to use a gentle answer.  It diffused a potential argument, better than my yelling and threatening.”   Plus, I didn’t have to ask my children’s’ forgiveness, quite as much.

Karen, parenting wasn’t always easy for me.  In addition, we were a blended family which added complications.  There were certainly days when I wanted to shut-up, throw-up and give- up.  Psalms 27 is my “life” passage.   But verses 13-14, especially helped when all I could see was piles of loads of laundry, sniping siblings, and ungrateful urchins.  It gave me hope with these words, “I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”

Any advice for those moms who feel like throwing in the towel and giving up?

Find a girlfriend to pray with once or twice a month.  Attempt to commit to an hour of prayer together.  Stay on task, don’t chitchat, but pray in for earnest each of your children. Honor you children, by not sharing too much, but share enough information that you both can pray specifically for the needs of each individual child.

If you have younger children join some type of Moms group.  It will help you not to feel so isolated.  The relationships with these other moms will be invaluable on those days when you feel that no one can understand what you are going through every day.  Also, check out the D6 Conference that is being held in Dallas this September.  It is a special ministry designed to reconnect parents with kids.  Check it out at   http://www.d6conference.com

You are offering giveaways to the readers this week, what is it?

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One copy of my book devotional book, Divine Prayers for Despairing Parents: What to Pray When You Don’t Know What to Say. Also, one copy of Birds in My Mustard Tree: How to Grow Your Faith.  It’s a six week Bible study written for individual or group study.  

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Thanks so much, Susanne, for visiting with us!!

Here is how you can have a chance to win one of Susanne’s books. Leave a comment sharing your greatest parenting challenge or current desperate prayer for your child. Or, if time is short, just type “I’m in!” You can also tell us which book you’d prefer to win. The winners will be announced mid-week.

Well…I’m off to work on making and freezing food for Mackenzie’s graduation open house which is coming up in eleven short days!!!! Have a great week and I’ll be back  Wednesday or Thursday—after I’ve baked 300 cookies and browned a ton of ground beef for sloppy joes. YIKES!!!!

Sweet Blessings,

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15 Comments

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  2. I’d love “Birds in My Mustard Tree”! My biggest parenting challenge is holding onto patience with my girls, especially when I am tired and frustrated with other things.

  3. I would like either book. My biggest parenting challenge is not yelling when I am exhausted and my little ones have decided to not listen to anything I say.

  4. I am in for Birds in my tree.
    biggest parenting struggle right now : learning to allow natural consequences

  5. My biggest challenge as a parent is losing my patience too quickly. I am getting better at controlling myself. I would love to receive the “Birds in my Mustard Tree”

  6. I can’t wait for the D6 Conference! Sounds like I need to get your book. As a step-mom to a 13 year old boy, I try to throw in the towel daily. I would but my hubby won’t let me. This is harder than I ever imagined.

  7. My biggest challenge … having patience and wisdom to handle each one of my children’s needs, physical or emotional. Sometimes all five of them need their “needs” met at the same time!

  8. My daughter has entered the tween years. She can go from happy to sad and back again in about 30 seconds. This is a whole new ball game for me.

  9. My biggest challenge is to remember that each of my three daughters are their own special little person and that they are very much different. They each have different strengths and weaknesses and each know a different button of mom’s to push!

  10. I could use either of these books! I think the prayer book would work great with the MITI group I’m getting started. And the study would be great to do with neighbors. So, I’m in!

  11. I think our biggest parenting challenge right now is that our kids seem to respond to my husband and me differently, and that has really been weighing heavily on him. He is struggling with being as consistent as possible, but still being ‘fun’. It’s hard for him. My girlfriends and I all go to different churches and attend different Bible studies, but we are going to do a summer study together which will bring a different element to our friendship and our worship. I would love to win the “Birds In My Mustard Tree” book! Thank you for this contest!

  12. We have an almost 5 year old daughter. She is so sweet, kind and caring (most of the time). Our biggest parenting struggle is getting her to obey her parents. I know this is a struggle for everyone but we have a hard time with this. She is in Pre-Kindergarten and is an amazing student. We are having a time trying to figure out how to get her listen to us. Parenting is the best, most fulfilling job in the world yet it is the hardest. Any suggestions would be appreciated even if I win the book.

  13. Every stage of parenting has brought its challenges. We are now facing the 20’s: all of our children are adults. Yet this stage is one of the more difficult for me. Now that they are adults, we have no say in their lives. They make their own decisions. It is very difficult when they make foolish ones not to jump in and “fix” it.

    Yet at the same time, we often are left with helping them or at least supporting them to get out of the mess they have made. Very frustrating at times.

    I guess you are never done with parenting. We have two of four of ours living back at home– which has its blessings and its challenges. They are all great kids, for which my husband and I are thankful.

  14. Greatest parenting challenge…hmmm…let me count the ways. Probably what I am struggling with the most right now is how to help my pre-teen navigate the joys and sorrows of hormones, friends, enemies, teams, school and siblings…sometimes all in the span of 30 seconds.

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