Hi, and welcome to the Five Word Prayers Daily, a five-day-a-week daily devotional where we share the word, prayers, in our heart.

I'm Lisa Whittle, and I welcome you to just five minutes with me, which I trust and pray will be five minutes well spent.

Some people know her by her blog name, Beauty and Bedlam.

I know her from way back in the day in the writer and blogger world, but then more recently as cheering sideline

moms when our boys actually played one year of college football together. So fun, right?

Jen Schmidt is a dear friend, a wife and mother of five great kids, a speaker and the author

of the newly released book, Just Open the Door. I thought about Jen and her wisdom a lot

when I hosted our senior

football boys for Bible study and dinner on Sunday nights this fall. She so inspires me to do just

that. Just open the door with everyday hospitality. She really does. She lives that, and she's

taught me a lot about that, even just by watching her life. I also really respect her as a mom. So I asked her to

come on here during our parenting month and share some of her wisdom in this space. It's all

yours, Jen. Welcome to the Five WordPers Daily.

Oh, friends, what a joy to journey with you as we point our children to Jesus amidst this fun,

bumpy rollercoaster ride of parenting, it never ceases to amaze me that I get to live out

his greatest commandment to love God fully and to love on my very closest neighbors. Yep,

those living right under my own roof and reality check.

Sometimes they're a bit too neighborly for my liking. But what an incredible honor and responsibility

to love to train and disciple a future generation of world changers. My desire is to point our

kids to their need for a savior to grasp that it all hinges on his redeeming

love. And I take that calling as the highest privilege. But wow, I'm pretty transparent about the

good, bad, and ugly of parenting, and it can be overwhelming in a nearly paralyzing concept of times.

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