It’s New Year’s Eve– the time for self-evaluation, promises, and resolutions. The problem? Most of those goals go unmet & forgotten. 25% of New Year’s resolutions are abandoned within a WEEK. I’m convinced that a large part of that “failure” rate is that we aren’t honest with ourselves about our real life limitations BEFORE we set…

Ever wondered– What does the Bible say about women? I thought it would be helpful for us to see how women are described in the Bible, positively and negatively, as we strive to be godly women. This is a fairly exhaustive study of the word “woman” in the Bible, with all of its uses and descriptions (from […]

Parenting can be such a challenge. Sin outside our home… sin inside our hearts… the stresses and strains of life in a family… These things swirl together and threaten to knock us off-kilter.  As my husband and I go about life with our seven children (currently, ages 13, 11, 9, 7, 5, 2, and 7 months),… […]

There are some things I can’t say without first referring you to this passage (Ephesians 5:17-33). Please read it in its entirety:  Do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. …be filled with the Spirit, …giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting…

Last summer, we hiked the Wonderland Trail with our 7 kids (ages 14 down to 18 months). The Wonderland is a 93-mile loop trail around Mount Rainier, with 22,000 feet of elevation gain. People have taken anywhere from 20 hours to 15 days to hike the entire thing. We did it in 12 days. Here’s… […]

Over the last year, I didn’t realize what was happening, but looking back, I was fighting a combination of fatigue and laziness. Though I still cared immensely about how our kids turn out, getting off the couch very often felt like too great a burden to ask. Being mentally engaged and physically active throughout each day with my […]

I was recently at an event where I was, for days, in a stationary vantage point of watching a wide swath of parents interact with their children amidst stressful circumstances. One mother stands out to me. Unfortunately, not for good reasons. She stood by watching as two of her young children destroyed part of the building. She feigned […]

The early part of this summer was a hurricane in our lives. I won’t recount all the details, but we were poised to buy a family business. Instead, the carpet was yanked out from beneath our feet. Had we been on our own, we would’ve gone scrambling, but God placed solid paver stones under our […]

Last week, I noticed I was feeling anxious. I’d been running the budget numbers again, trying to do accurate projections for what would happen when. We’re trying to sort out what we should do with our house, and when/if we should list it. Normal things to think through in a time of transition. But I […]

Being Mom means embracing a previously-unexperienced level of chaos, and yet, important questions wait for us in the middle of the messes and noise: where is my identity, what are my responsibilities, and how can I find joy? Listen as Jess talks with Emily Jensen (mom of 4 kids, ages 3 and under), about the “discomfort factor” of […]

 “Proclaim the message; persist in it whether convenient or not; rebuke, correct, and encourage with great patience and teaching. For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear something new.” (2 Tim. 4:2-3) The…

Wanna know what one thing has made the difference in becoming a better mother to my children? I made this 4-minute video to tell the answer to that question, and why I write at jessconnell.com. One of the lies moms have been fed in this past decade or so is that “you’re the expert” and that “you innately possess all the mothering… […]

#1– WHAT TO DO WITH THE PRESCHOOLER WHILE HOMESCHOOLING? Q: I feel at a loss with what to do with my 2-1/2-year-old daughter while we’re homeschooling, or even just throughout the day as I’m trying to get things done. What do you do with your 2-1/2-year-old? A: Well, Theo’s my current 2-year-old, and he’s a…

 “Proclaim the message; persist in it whether convenient or not; rebuke, correct, and encourage with great patience and teaching. For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear something new.” (2 Tim. 4:2-3) The… […]