In Peace Pirates, Ashley Willis introduces mothers to the four Peace Pirates while sharing truth and encouragement to face each day. She uses scripture alongside relatable stories of her own life as a busy mother in a way that shows us that we are not alone, and we don't have to live a miserable defeated life. Instead, we can live full enjoyable lives in the knowledge that Christ is walking beside us in our journeys, giving us the strength to make it through each day, each moment.

I really appreciated the sweet prayers at the end of each chapter, as well as the way Ashley kept it real without sugar coating the hard truths.

Every Christian mother needs to have this book in their library! It is one I will definitely be reading over and over again, as well as sharing with my friends.

*I received a complimentary copy of Peace Pirates through the publisher and NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own. My positive review is not required.

Ashley Willis' premise with this book is to fight the "pirates," or anything that steals the peace from motherhood, by using biblical truth. It's such a simple concept but so powerful, because every day, all of us face choices, confront thought patterns, and deal with situations that can potentially rob the peace of God from our hearts.

After her confessions of a pirate mom (which are both hilarious and more than likely common misadventures shared by many moms), Ashley identifies four peace pirates that often plague mothers: mommy martyrdom, comparison chaos, clenching control, and excessive expectations. She breaks down each one by showing how these pitfalls can steal joy and then provides practical teaching from the Bible to combat each one.

One of my favorite points that she makes is that there are no perfect parents. This is such a liberating thought, right? She uses the example of Mary and Joseph in the Bible. The mother of Jesus and His earthly father actually lost Jesus for three days (Luke 2:43-47). Although I've read this story many times, I'd never considered it in terms of parenting. If the parents of the Son of God made mistakes, then parents today need to give themselves some grace, too, when best-laid plans turn into pure chaos.

As someone who isn't a mother yet, I really appreciated this perspective. Not only are there no perfect parents, but they also can't control everything their child does. Instead of judging parents in public when we have little-to-no knowledge of the situation's background, Willis offers this suggestion: "When we see a stressed-out mom at her wit's end, why can't our first inclination be to offer her some help or an encouraging word?"

I love that. Assume the best, not the worst. Offer an encouraging word or to get more napkins from the dispenser. Willis' practical, biblical style will bless and encourage the young mommas who read this book.
I received a complimentary copy of Peace Pirates but was not required to give a positive review. All ideas contained in my review are my own.

In Peace Pirates, Ashley Willis explored the confessions from a mother on raising children, four peace pirates that steal our joy, and the treasure we can discover in Biblical mothers. She begins every chapter by revealing key principles and a personal story from a mother. She ends each chapter with a prayer for mothers. Ashley has a total of four boys and explains throughout the book the joys and struggles she has gone through in parenting. She goes into detail about how she feels like a pirate and some days she feels like she is being toss around in the sea. She explains that the weapons are harsh words, eye rolls, frustration, and acting out events. She admits that sometimes she feels guilty in not being the perfect mother and she is transparent about comparing herself to other mothers. In the second part of the book, she tackled four peace pirates that steal our time and our joy. One of these included, comparison and she looks at different types of mothers that influenced her positively to try and become a better mother. Some of these included, “the planner, free-spirit, all-natural, creative, handy, fit, and much more. She does this to show mothers that all mothers have something unique to bring to parenting their kids and we all have a collection of strengths. We don’t have to waste time comparing ourselves to others.

One of my favorite stories, she opened up about was a story about her third son, Chandler and how he is a screamer and is a loud person. One day, the teacher was very vocal about how frustrated she was with him and how he wasn’t doing well in school. He was acting out making noises in class. Eventually, she decided to observe him and that same day he got in trouble for being too rough, not painting in the lines, and how he got angry about not being called on to answer questions. She talked to her son later and he shared how he never got any good stars and how he felt his teacher never saw him doing good things. Ashley finally found some help when she took him to an occupational therapist and he was taught how to behave in different setting and this immensely helped him. The teacher still didn’t give him any stars and he was still feeling discouraged. Ashley revealed how she struggled with having peace in this and she felt like a failure for not helping to change the teachers perceptive of him. She explained how she felt the teacher couldn’t see past his past and how she struggled with how to take his personality. She shared how she had to surrender her hurts and give it to God and release things she couldn’t control.

I would recommend this awesome book to any mother that is feeling overwhelmed, struggling with comparison, losing their peace, and feeling they aren’t being a good enough mother. I especially like how open Ashley was in the book and how she shared personal stories that mothers could relate to. Parenting isn’t easy and there are always opportunities for us to lose our peace when our kids are acting out. I truly believe this book contains the tools to help mothers to learn how to become better moms and it will help navigate the rough raging waters of parenting. I also appreciated how she looked at Mary’s life of motherhood and the treasures we can learn from her life. I immensely believe this book would be an incredible blessing to mother’s on Mother’s Day.


"I received this book free from the publisher, Faithwords for my honest review.”

"Sweet Mama, God didn't call us to live in defeat. Being a mom is hard, especially when you are navigating the rip-roaring seas of raising kds. This journey is difficult, but it is equally breathtaking in its finer moments. However, it's rarely smooth sailing."

Being a mom is the most special and rewarding experience in my life. At times, it can also be the most difficult and draining experience. That is why I appreciated reading the book Peace Pirates. Ashley Willis shared the things that can steal your peace and joy during this journey of motherhood and how to combat them: mommy martyrdom, comparison, control, and excessive expectations.

I found this book to be comforting and encouraging. I enjoyed reading Willis' personal stories about her life as a mom of four young boys, and even though I only have one daughter, I was able to easily relate to many of her stories and emotions. It made me realize that I am not the only one who ever feels this way or has these stressful experiences, while still loving being a mother and enjoying many amazing times. I could identify all of the "peace pirates" in my own life, and it really made me think twice about how I could push those peace pirates out in favor of more positive thinking. 

Some of my favorite quotes from this book included:

"The enemy wants to throw us off our game. He'd love nothing more than to make us feel like we are ill equipped for the task of motherhood...But we don't have to live in fear or throw up a white flag of surrender. We just have to stay alert and make sure that God is at the helm of our mothership. He is our captain who will lovingly guide us to where we need to go."

"Motherhood is a big part of who we are, but it is not the whole of who we are. First and foremost, we are daughters of the Living God - loved, cherished, forgiven."

"Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 1:7 that God doesn't give us a spirit of fear, and yet many, if not most, of us worry about our children and our effectiveness as a mother. It keeps us up at night, and it's paralyzing. We tell ourselves that worrying about our children is okay because it's a way of loving them and showing concern, but Jesus tells us otherwise." 1 John 4:18 says, 'There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.' "

"Just as the horse choose to surrender its bridle and the person leading it, we must choose to surrender our hearts to the Lord's bridle and trust Him to lead us where we need to go."

"What we can do is pause and treasure it up - the happy moments and the sad ones. We need to acknowledge what has passed so we can truly embrace what's ahead."

I would highly recommend this book for any mother with children still living at home. It is an encouraging and insightful read. I received a copy of this book from the FaithWords Blogger Program.

Willis' book is a revelation to this senior citizen raised in an era when spanking was still considered an appropriate way to develop character in children. The stories she shares of her sons actions are amazing. Temper tantrums, misbehaving, arguing, and more. As a past bookstore owner, I cringed at her story of her son's behavior in a Dollar Tree store. Willis herself was disappointed, flabbergasted, and enraged by the “out of control” behavior. (518/2421)

This book is definitely one for young mothers, especially those with rambunctious sons. Willis writes about her own four year battle with anxiety and depression, finally healing with the help of a Christian counselor. After a teacher complained, she took one of her sons to see an occupational therapist specializing in behavior to get professional help in improving his behavior.(1445/2421) Her son learned how to behave in an appropriate way in school situations. (1453/2421) Nobody even heard of those kinds of ways to change behavior when I was young. Parents themselves took on the difficult task of character development and raising responsible adults.

Along with sharing many of her own parenting experiences are lessons from those experiences and from the Bible. Willis helps readers deal with peace stealing issues like the comparison trap, having a martyr syndrome, desiring control, expectations, and more. My favorite aspect of the book was her idea of helping a distraught mother, being a burden lifter rather than a burden builder. I'll keep that in mind the next time I am out shopping.

Reading this book has given me a new sense of compassion for young mothers, especially those of unruly boys. I have a new appreciation of the difficulty of raising active boys when corporeal discipline is no longer considered appropriate. No wonder young moms feel like they are going crazy. Reading this book will help young mothers realize they are not alone in their struggles and will give them some good encouragement for their hectic days.

Food for thought: “Our children are one of the greatest gifts God has given us, but God never intended for us to raise them at the expense of our own peace and relationship with Him.” (980/2421)

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

This book is just what this momma needed! This book discusses things in our lives that tend to steal our joy & peace in motherhood. This wasn’t just another self help book. I was able to relate to the author’s own stories from motherhood. It helped me realize that as a mother, I am not the only one who feels or thinks a certain way, and that peace can be found in the midst of it all.

There were so many light bulb moments in this book for me but one really stuck out:
“If you’ve been a mom for any length of time, you know that control is really a big stinkin’ illusion. However, most of us still try to convince ourselves that we just need to hold on tighter to our loved ones, and we will somehow have control over them. We’re convinced that this longing for total control is a motherly and even Godly quest. Friends, control is the biggest peace pirate of them all, and it greatly damages our relationships. When we try to clench control, and realize that we’re losing our grasp, it causes us a lot of worry and anxiety. However, when we think that we’ve totally got our kids and home under control, we can become prideful and judgmental. Both of these dynamics will deplete us of peace, and both result in worry. And worry is deeply rooted in fear.”-excerpt from the book

I highly encourage this book, mommas!