About

Let me introduce myself and family

My name is Angie Tolpin and I am the founder and writer here at Courageous Mom. I’m Christ follower, a wife, and a homeschooling mom of eight.

I began writing on my previous blogs back in 2008 on marriage, motherhood, mentoring and faith, but felt challenged by the Lord to embrace the season of life I am in as a Titus 2 Woman of God and start this website, Courageous Mom, with the soul purpose of encouraging sisters in Christ to be intentional mothers.

Mothering is hard at times and biblical mothering is getting harder and harder in this culture. What is needed is bold women willing to speak truth and challenge one another to stay on the narrow road as we raise the next generation.

Who am I?

I’m an ordinary gal, living an adventure because of an extraordinary God whom I serve!

When I was younger I viewed myself as average Angie. Though I was good at many things, I never excelled at anything above the rest and had a hard time finding what I was good at or was made to do! When I turned my life over to Christ, He began a new work in me, and I stopped viewing myself in comparison to others, and instead found that He loved me just the way I am. You can read my full testimony here!

This truth about who I am in Jesus IS my bio! It is what I want to be identified by, not how many kids I have (or don’t have), not whether I am a stay at home mom or not, not even how many books I have written or what my spiritual gifts may be. I am a child of God, a co-heir with Christ, and I love Jesus.

My deepest desire is to fulfill the purposes that He has planned for me on this earth and in doing so enjoy the fruit of growing in my relationships with Him and others. Following Jesus in today’s culture is not easy, but my heart is to do my best and choose, in every moment to bring Him glory.

I like to write, but especially love speaking at women’s retreats and churches because that is when I really get to connect with my sisters in the Lord, you ladies! I have always had a heart for ministry to women, which was cultivated during my college years as I studied social sciences, psychology, minored in missions and served overseas counseling abused Muslim women in Turkey. God captured my heart all those years ago, and has since then grown a heart’s desire to make disciples, building treasures in Heaven, as I make Him known to the world.I believe that there is no

I believe that as an ambassador for Christ, my job is NOT to have to come up with catchy phrases that no one else has come up with, but instead, just be willing to be a vessel, ready to be used by God for His glory. So as I share what the Lord has revealed to me, or even just bear witness to the truth in His word, my heart is to present it to you as it is, sufficient in itself, without need for dress up or watering down for the cultures approval. Some of what I testify to may be hard to swallow, but the truth is that some of the gospel, much of the gospel message is hard to live by.

We need to remember that we are called to live by the Spirit in obedience to God’s Word, not under the approval of man. That takes courage and God calls us to be courageous and strong.

This little space of the internet is dedicated to the One and only Triune God. It’s not about me, but living out His word courageously as a woman of God and trying to encourage fellow sisters in Christ to do the same.

I hope you are encouraged by what you read and hear here at Courageous Mom!

Funny Fact:

When I was in college I was determined to stay celibate and to live a quiet missionary life overseas without biological children. God certainly has a sense of humor because I’ve been happily married to my husband Isaac, of nineteen years, and we have eight children ranging in ages from 5 months old to almost 18 years old.

Statement of Faith

I believe there is only One true God who eternally exists as the Trinity of equally divine persons: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I believe each member of the Trinity is equally God, sharing all the divine purposes. (Genesis 1:1, John 1-3)

I believe that the Bible is the inspired and infallible Word of God. It is the highest doctrinal authority for this ministry. I believe God has supremely revealed Himself through Jesus Christ, the Son of God and his incarnate Word. I believe that all of the divinely Holy Spirit inspired, inerrant, authoritative, sixty-six canonical books of the Bible reveal to us Jesus Christ(Matthew 5:17-18, Psalm 19:7, John 10:35).

I believe in the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and that He is the eternal Son of God, which was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary for the purpose of redeeming sinful people and restoring relationships between us and the Father.

I believe that in love God created the first human beings, Adam and Eve, as male and female, equal in dignity, value, and worth, in order to mirror and reflect God. I believe that Biblical marriage is a gift from God that is meant to be between one man and one woman as it was in the beginning and that He created sex only for married couples. I also believe that human beings, as God’s sole image bearers, are under God and over lower creation, not to be pulled up like gods or pushed down like animals.

I believe that human life begins at conception and that an unborn baby is an image-bearer of God.

I believe all human beings are sinners by both nature and choice, BUT that in Christ we are made a new creation and can daily live in the freedom of Christ. In and through Him, we are conquerers, but it is a daily dying unto ourselves and working out our faith with fear and trembling. Romans 3:23-24 says, that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. All fallen people are by nature sinners, children of wrath, and destined to death. Because we are sinners in need of a Savior and new nature, we trust in Jesus Christ alone for new and eternal life and believe in the reality of spiritual warfare with Satan and demons.

I believe that Jesus Christ lived a perfectly righteous and sinless life, died in the place of sinners, fully absorbing the wrath of God, paying the just penalty for their sins and reconciling them to God. As our substitute, on the cross Jesus Christ suffered and died in our place to forgive us, love us, cleanse us, and embrace us as the punishment for our sins was diverted from us to Jesus.²¹ Because Jesus died for our sins we seek to humbly confess our sins to Jesus Christ and one another, put sin to death in our life, forgive one another, and happily invite others to do the same.

I believe that Jesus Christ, after dying on the cross, arose bodily from the grave on the third day, appearing to many witnesses and proving that he was physically alive. Through faith we are united with the risen Christ, raised with Christ, and granted the same Holy Spirit power that raised Christ. The benefits of Jesus’ resurrection include the forgiveness of sins, justification, sanctification, and ultimately glorification. I believe that justification through the work of Jesus Christ is possible by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone.

I believe that Christians are to be stewards who gladly acknowledge that they belong to the Lord, that everything they have belongs to the Lord, and that everything ultimately belongs to the Lord.

I believe we are all called to the Great Commission (Matthew 28), to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and that this mission begins in our homes.

I believe that it is the responsibility of the believer, out of a love for Jesus and our brother or sister we are called to obey the greatest commandments, which are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves (Luke 10:27). I believe that one of the purposes for Jesus Christ coming and dieing was to bring us back into fellowship (reconciliation and restoration) with God and our brothers and sisters in Christ.

I believe we, as the Body of Christ were created RELATIONAL (1 Cor. 12:27): The Gospel makes us Family, Brothers and Sisters in Christ that have been adopted by a loving Father! As family, we seek to love one another, serve one another, encourage one another, and pursue God with one another. A Christian cannot thrive on their own apart from God’s people. In a reflection of the image of God, we were created for relationships and community. In the fellowship of believers, we are encouraged, exhorted, uplifted, edified, and held accountable as we together learn to walk with Christ. This is mainly accomplished through our Community Groups, which act as close-knit families, caring for one another.

My Husband

I have been married to an amazing man named Isaac for almost 21 years. Isaac was an entrepreneur for the first 19 years of our marriage and left it all to join me in ministry. 

We launched CourageousParenting.com which is a 3-fold ministry with a weekly PODCAST, which releases every Tuesday, a Parenting Mentor Program, and other resources. 

We greatly enjoy each other’s company and go on regular date nights to reconnect, dream together, set goals, and make action plans for intentional living. He is an inspiration to me and I count myself very blessed.

And we are goofballs. This was taken 5 years ago before Solomon was born.

I also home educate, which is really what we like to call curated education. And we are enjoying working together as a family to minister to families and be a light to the world.

So now that you know a little bit about me, I want to hear from you and share a little bit about the website!

I deeply desire to encourage you to live courageously as a woman, as a mom.

Do you know that though you may not feel like it most of the time, you are qualified and the best choice in raising your children!

God chose you to partner with Him in bringing forth life, both physically and eternally as he chose you to raise your child up in the way he/she should go.

So why Courageous Mom?

As I have been meditating on this name my eyes have become opened to just how many ways we need to be courageous in order to mother our children and raise the next generation for His glory. We live in a day in age where parents are proudly promoting not telling their children no, where leaving a legacy of faith is now looked at as brainwashing, and where protecting our children’s purity means we have to walk courageously battling parental peer pressure on a regular daily basis as we diligently and consistently train, teach, and mentor our children in the ways of the Lord.

Just having children today is courageous. Our world is messed up, but intentionally and excitedly welcoming children as a blessing from the Lord, fully aware of the challenge one is going to face in bringing them up to love the Lord our God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength… that takes courage. But courage by itself doesn’t meet the end goal, one needs purpose, in order to have the courage to stand for righteousness in a day and culture that mocks the very convictions and beliefs we are attempting to pass on to our children.

Purpose drives courage and proactive intentionality feeds the means to the end. So when I talk with other moms about any given topic, oftentimes it comes down to a few things.

1. 1. Are they confident in who they are in Christ? Is Jesus their source for strength, endurance, and wisdom on this journey of motherhood?
   2. Do they have a vision of a purpose? Do they truly realize the mission that motherhood truly is? Do they value it and the season they are in to it’s fullest capacity?
   3. Do they look to scripture alone as their guide for decision-making and intentional parenting? And do they seek out knowledge and understanding of those things they don’t know how to do as a mother, homemaker, wife, and woman?
   4. Do they have the courage to obey God in their mothering?

I want to call out the courage that God has placed in every one of us. God has empowered us with His Holy Spirit to guide us, heal us, strengthen and embolden us in doing good for the sake of the cross, the glory of the Father, and the advancement of the Kingdom! We just need encouragement amidst a culture that opposes God’s ways and word.