Ever want to hear from the woman behind rock star kids?
In this episode, Helen Smallbone, mother of 7 grown children including Christian music stars Joel and Luke Smallbone (For King & Country) and Rebecca St. James, shares stories of motherhood and practical advice she’s learned along the way. She and her husband moved their family from Australia to America more than 25 years ago. It was a faith-building journey that changed their family forever.
“Sometimes when you face life crises what God’s doing is setting a new foundation. In this time, he took everything away from us,” Smallbone said. “We had no money, no resources, no family and no friends. But in that refining process, he gave everything back to us, but with a new foundation where he was the provider. He showed himself to be faithful for providing all our needs.”
What we chat about:
- Stories of living by faith and God providing for the Smallbone family when they moved from Australia to America
- Homeschooling a large family and fostering responsibility and work skills in your kids
- Teaching family values while dealing with bad attitudes and behaviors in your kids
- Taking a “time out” as a mom to pray for your children and waiting on the Lord for breakthrough for specific ways to resolve behavior problems
- Focusing on the eternal value of building relationships with our kids versus the temporary focus on everyday tasks
- Spending time with children who may be acting out because they need more attention
- How quantity time often becomes quality time with our families
- Taking a traditional naptime or quiet time after lunch with fill yourself up to finish the day strong as a mom
- Keeping the communication line open with your children no matter their age.
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How to listen to the podcast:
1.Listen on the blog. Click through to GodCenteredMom.com and click the play button at the beginning of this post.
2. Listen on your smartphone, iPad or iPod Touch – There are a lot of great podcasting apps. Apple has a free one (that I mentioned) in the app store, there is also one called Downcast. It allows you to search for shows, subscribe to them and even speed up the audio. If you don’t have an iDevice, you can listen via Stitcher.
3. Subscribe to the Podcast – access the podcast in iTunes (Click here to access via iTunes). You can also search for it on your smartphone app (like the ones listed above) and subscribe.
I listened to this the other day. This was the first podcast I’ve listened to on your site. It was excellent! I really appreciated Helen’s practical, God-centered approach. Thank you so much!
Thank you so much for sharing your conversation with Helen Smallbone. I remember meeting Helen and her family back around 1998 when my husband was also playing for a Christian music band. He and Rebekah St. James would often be scheduled to play shows on the same night, stage or event. On occasion, we were able to sit and chat with this family, and they were always very genuine and sweet. Now, almost 20 years later, and 2 kids later, I wish I would have had more extensive conversations with Helen back then, but I can tell you that they still left their mark. Rebekah St. James was very much known among other artists for standing strong, believing strong, and not compromising. I admired that about her and her family and still do, as it is definitely a desired achievement in my own family.
Thank you, Heather, for sharing your podcasting talents with us. You have been a great and ongoing inspiration to us in starting our own podcast. Good luck in your upcoming homeschooling journey.