Hi! I am Rene. I love Jesus, my husband, our seven kids, son 'n law, and studying the Bible. I was raised in a Christian home where my parents ensured I memorized verses and learned about Jesus. My dad was a pastor. He is "retired" now and coaches pastors and leads prayer retreats for pastors. He has mentored about 1,000 pastors now. My parents were an amazing example for me growing up and have continued to pour into my life.

​

Fun Facts About Me:

​

- I homeschool my kids

(18 years, and I still love it!)

​

- I am so thankful for my friends who point me to Jesus. They are priceless!

​

- I love public speaking

(You can contact me about speaking here.)

​

- I hate coffee

(I still ask people to have coffee because that is a "thing" to do, but I drink tea.)

​

- I love hiking

(Eric and I hiked in California for our 20th wedding anniversary and had the best time!)

​

- I have degrees in Biology, Education, Comprehensive Science, Nursing, and a couple other certifications

(I love learning, so I collected degrees I don't use. My husband teases me that he sent me to nursing school so I can put on bandaids.)

​

- I love writing

(This one is rather obvious with all the books and Bible studies I have written.)

​

- I know how to preserve pretty much anything from the homestead, but I don't make my own bread . . . yet. This is something I want to do but have never made time for.

​​​

Here are a few more details about Rene in the third person because otherwise it sounds braggy:

​

After giving birth to her third child, she desperately wanted to stay home with her children. Money was tight and she began blogging and couponing to make up the difference from the lost income. She ended up spending $5 a week on food and toiletries. "Budget Saving Mom" was born. Within a week she had 6,000 subscribers and within a year or so she had millions. During this time, she began writing a weekly Sunday devotion which she loved.

​

After working on this for about three years, she sold it to stay home full-time with her children. She never regretted it and thought she was done starting any businesses. 

​

And the most recent part of my story:

​

God had different plans which are always better. For about a year God started laying on my heart that I would be starting a new ministry. He gave me a name for it, Training Them Wisely.

 

Fast forward a year: After living in a blissful church, homeschool, family, and friend bubble for years I went to a homeschool conference. 

 

At the conference, I saw some stats that broke my heart. I hate math, but love statistics and making them understandable to others. The percentage of people in America who do not have a biblical worldview and don't know Jesus made my heart so heavy. The percentage of teens that believed other philosophies was shocking. My bubble was popped, and I became much more aware of what was going on in the church and community. 

​

I went out into the community. I went door to door and talked to over 400 people. Only two of them had heard of Jesus! I began serving kids from the community and talking with their parents. The more I saw and served, the more the needs became apparent.

 

Around this time a group from my church began providing afterschool snacks, Bible study, and games to children from a low-income area. I got close to those families and was exposed to so much more.

​

To reach kids, I needed to reach parents. I had about 200 women come up to me in a month and ask me to teach them how to read and study the Bible and pray. I said, "Okay God, you have my attention." 

​

Classes sprung up where I could talk to moms about the importance of being in God's Word. For the first time, many moms were reading an entire book in the Bible. Their excitement was contagious! These are still some of the most cherished emails I have received. I love hearing a mom tell me she has read a whole book in the Bible for the first time and how it has changed her!

​

I began mentoring several groups of women and studying books of the Bible with them. They told their friends and husbands who told their friends and husbands and all of a sudden hundreds of people were reading the same book of the Bible. At this point, it grew so quickly that I began a brief podcast just talking about what I had learned from each chapter as we went through Paul's letters because I was not sure how else to reach everyone. 

​

At the same time, I was getting many questions from parents, so I began teaching classes on family discipleship and began a weekly podcast, Training Them Wisely - Discipling Kids, with one of my friends, Rebekah Messer. This podcast still comes out weekly. 

​

I released my first book, Training Them Wisely - discipling kids. I had a $100 advertising budget, but it became a best-selling book on Amazon within six days of its release. That was completely God. Writing this book took a ton of time and research. I prayed and told God it would be worth it if even one person read it and it helped them, but I would love for at least 200 to read it. God is so faithful - 200 books sold the first day it came out. 

 

Since then I have been releasing Bible studies and resources to encourage family discipleship.

​

You can find all of the resources on this website, on Amazon, and in some Christian bookstores. 

 

The Bible studies are written so that the entire family can study the same book of the Bible at the same time. There are preschool, kids, teen, and parent studies.

​

​

​

​

​

Professional Bio:

 

For more than twenty years, Rene has worked with kids in the church as well as the community. She is very actively involved in her church. She has partnered with hundreds of companies, and as a public speaker has spoken at a large variety of groups including Behind the Blue Line, churches, professional women's groups, women's conferences, parenting conferences, and more. Her media appearances include newspapers, magazines, radio, podcasts, TV, and more. 

​

Rene is married to Eric, and they have seven kids from 6-26 whom she homeschools. In addition to writing, she loves playing games with her kids, being in the mountains, hiking, gardening, and doing anything outside.