That’s me flat out this morning — “I resolve to know nothing”…except our Risen Savior. And I am thankful my faith and the faith of my children rest on God’s power and the Spirit’s power. I am depending on the truth that He gently leads those that have young.
As a family, we had a meaningful and fun spring break and Easter celebration, and I’ll be sharing that in a post soon. However, it was also a challenging week for me as a mom. I found myself thinking and saying too often, “Parenting is hard work”. One day I even said to my husband, “Motherhood is the hardest job, and I don’t like my job right now.” He replied quickly, “Well, it may be hard, but you are good at it”. While that didn’t make me feel better at that particularly difficult moment, his sweet words have encouraged me since and they continue to linger in my heart. Thank you, Honey!
In reality, it’s not the “job” that I don’t like. It’s when I feel like I am failing miserably at the job. I don’t like that…because I love our children with my whole heart. With all of my heart, I want to be a mother as unto the Lord. A friend of mine from years ago once said to me, “Motherhood is the hardest job you’ll ever love.” I think of that every day. I love being a mom to our children. I love the privilege of having this “job”. I don’t like when my actions or words don’t reflect the Lord. Motherhood exposes my “uglies” each day. And while I am thankful for that faithful exposure by the Light of the World between He and I, it is bittersweet since it seen and felt by my children. A few things I humbly make very clear to our children are: Mommy needs our perfect Savior, Mommy is very imperfect, and Mommy will always ask for forgiveness when I need to (which seems to be daily!). I am deeply thankful for His grace and mercy moment by moment. I am thankful He is strong through my weaknesses.
Training up a child in the Way he should go is hard indeed. There is no greater joy — I believe that with all of my heart! Yet training our children to walk in the Truth takes unceasing prayer, resolve, commitment, His strength and COMPLETE DEPENDENCE ON THE LORD.
We receive e-mails regularly from The National Center for Biblical Parenting (click here) with parenting tips and resource suggestions. This morning, I read one that was sent last evening — Easter night. The timing was perfect.
Last evening on the way home from visiting Jim’s parents in the Pocono Mountains, I quietly asked the Lord to bless and bring fruit from our labors of love in parenting…for all of our lifetimes. To continually fill our cherubs with His Holy Spirit so they will always abide in Him and stay on the narrow road. To give them His joy and peace that accompanies obedience. To give Jim and me His wisdom, grace and love to raise our precious children according to His truth.
This morning, God sweetly changed my almost-whining chant of “Parenting is hard work” to a renewed phrase of “Parenting Is Heart Work” (click here or on picture below) when I read the latest e-mail from NCBP. Praise the Lord! He is faithful!
The “Heart Work” of parenting will continue to be hard work, I know. But I continue to depend on His power and strength, not my own. I am looking to Him and trusting Him. He loves the apples of our eyes even more than we do!
I hear the pitter-patter of our handsome eight-year old, and I am sure our cute almost-seven-year old will be following soon! The cherubs are arising for another day! Time to run…
As a child of God and as a parent, I love this verse from Deuteronomy: