Yesterday a friend reached out to me on Facebook asking me to pray for her. She was discouraged, frustrated by both her children’s disrespectful behavior and her own negative response to it.
I was quick to type back an encouraging note, beginning with the words “PARENTING IS SO HARD!”
It’s true. Being a parent is not for the faint of heart! Being a good parent is even more difficult. Add in trying to mold and shape your kids’ hearts into the likeness of Jesus and you can quickly become an overwhelmed mama!
Just last week I was ready to raise the proverbial white flag of surrender, ready to give up my “mother” job.
My thoughts before that Facebook status update went a bit like this:
Seriously?! These kids refuse to eat anything I make for them, even if they declared it their favorite yesterday. Why do I even try to get them to eat veggies and a meat other than chicken nuggets?
OUCH, why am I stepping on alphabet magnets in the kitchen floor AGAIN? And what in the world is that sticky stuff on the counter that is now all over my arm…and in the baby’s hair?
YES, you have to brush your teeth and go to bed. It is already past your bedtime and no, I will not read three MORE stories to you tonight. (closing bedroom doors…) “I looooooove you!”
But actually I’m just glad the house is now quiet and I can THINK for a moment. Shew, time to crawl in my bed. Those dishes and everything else I had on my to-do list for tonight will just have to wait, again.
I have determined parenting’s purpose in my life sometimes is to get me to rely on Jesus instead of myself. It’s working!
As you seek to be the mama God’s called you to be to your children, I will leave you with this reminder from scripture.
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen.
For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
Be encouraged! Let’s remember to keep our focus on the unseen as we seek to parent with purpose and create homes centered around God’s truths.
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Have you had one of these “raise the white flag of surrender…I’m DONE with being a mama” kind of days lately? How’d you feel in that moment? What encouragement can you give the rest of us? Share in a comment below or in the Parenting with Purpose private Facebook page!