Welcome to my Literacy Musing Mondays Party where we share about our growth in reading, writing, blogging, literacy, and learning.

My weekend filled itself with busyness as I traveled with my daughter to watch her play on her softball travel ball team. I returned Sunday at 7:34 p.m., very late for my Literacy Musing Mondays party. I hate being late for my own party.

I underestimated the amount of time we’d spend at the ballfield Sunday. Our team lost early one in the last tournaments in which we played. We lost yesterday too, but managed to place in the Silver Bracket. We won the first game and then had a play off for the bracket championship. The whole team played so well during the second game, coming so close to winning, but lost 4 to 2. They finished in second place illustrating growth in their skills since the beginning of the season.

For healthy plant growth all the right ingredients combine to produce beautiful blooms. For ballplayers, bloggers, writers, or readers, we need to nourish and enrich ourselves to grow and flourish.

Kate Motaung’s word this week at Five Minute Friday is “grow.”  The performance of my daughter’s team inspired these quick five minute thoughts:

Life’s Growth Periods

Grow, growth and growing. We all move forward in our lives with many periods of growth.

As I watched my daughter and her teammates in their celebration, I begin to think about growth achievements for my own life.

Motivated by love and desire to spread God’s word, I aim to grow this blog to spread His good News.

I desire to grow my writing skills to motivate and inspire women everywhere to know Him better.

Most importantly, however, I want to grow close to Him. I hope to grow as His daughter, His disciple, and His follower.

Growth brings need for pruning, watering, and weeding. I love all the steps except the pruning, ouch. It is so necessary though so my life grows in the fullness of Him.

What are your goals for growth in your life. Is it to read more? To write more? To spend more time with family. To grow spiritually? Please share in the comments.

I am joining Kate’s Five Minute Friday link up. I wanted to introduce my readers to this great linkup which takes place each Friday. I hope you will consider joining it too.

Now on to our weekly Literacy Musing Monday’s linkup. First let’s

Now let’s celebrate reading and learning by reviewing:

Last Week’s Top Clicked Post!

WHAT ELISABETH ELLIOT TAUGHT ME ABOUT MOTHERHOOD

BY JOY KINCAID at Artful Homemaking

In her post, Joy shares the mothering insights that she gleaned from reading Elisabeth Elliot The Shaping of a Christian Family. Her post encouraged me to check out this book. I loved the simple lessons that she shares.  The most thought provoking lesson she shares is:  “The process of shaping the child shapes the mother.”

“The process of shaping the child…shapes also the mother herself. Reverence for her sacred burden calls her to all that is pure and good, that she may teach primarily by her own humble, daily example.”

 My Favorite Post of the Week:

My Mess, His Order

By Bethany of FIRSTandSECONDblog

Bethany linked us to her blog, but this post is actually a guest post for Christine Duncan’s Precepts And Life Preservers blog. Bethany shares an uplifting message. Our days are filled with calamity and disappointments sometimes. Bethany reminds us:

“Our whole lives –every bit of them- are ordered according to God’s great plans because His will is the top priority.”

I needed this message this week as I watched my blog numbers decline a little bit, my pain increase, and other issues hit me. I am so glad my life is ordered by God. I hope you will read the rest of this post! I know it will encourage your heart.

Remember to check out other hosts’  blogs to see which posts from last week were their favorites.

Want to be the next to be featured! Just link up a post and if you are read the most, we will feature you. Also please make sure you link back to us so  others will know about our link up and join in. We try to make it worth your while to linkup with us by promoting your posts across our social media networks. We also pin our most clicked and featured posts to our Pinterest Board each week!

Now, it is time to link up to the Literacy Musing Mondays hop! You will have until Saturdays at 12 p.m. now to link up! So come back often.

Linkup Rules:

1. Include a link back or the blog hop button linked to this hop on your posts.
2. Link up the urls to your posts not to your blog.
3. Please remember this is a family-friendly linkup.  Although we believe in the right for adults to read whatever they want to read, we prefer to read wholesome posts that feature literature that edify and uplift families. We reserve the right to delete any posts that are not family friendly. We love all kinds of literature and genres including family-friendly inspirational romances, fantasy, or science fiction. We do not welcome posts featuring books or writing with excessive violence, sexual content, or cursing. These posts will be deleted.
4. We also want to be loving community by supporting one another. Please make a point to do this this week! Visit the two posts before yours and at least one other blogger’s post of your choice! I want to see lots of clicks on everyone’s posts. Remember it is also nice to follow them on their social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
5. Follow your hosts and co-hosts on their social media.
6. Tweet about the link up too.

[tweetthis]Come join the fun! Link up your family-friendly, book- or literacy-related posts at #LMMLinkup ![/tweetthis]

Let’s Celebrate Reading and Learning together this week at Literacy Musing Mondays!

Joining several of the hops listed on my Link-up Parties page.

o