Parenting is not easy.
There are days when you are exhausted and hungry and frustrated. You wonder why the world isn't bending down to meet your immediate needs at the sound of your screaming voice. Demanding your own way is at the tip of your tongue. Patience and self-control are the furthest things from your mind.
Why should it surprise us when our children act that way?
Everything in our human nature puts self first. We don't want to wait on God's timing until he explains the big picture. We desire to have every earthly comfort. Our happiness is the measure of our quality of life.
Sometimes purposing to be a godly parent is choosing to do the hard thing. It is dying to self. It is admitting your failures and showing your children their need for a Savior. It is making them wait. It is teaching them to deal with disappointments. It is experiencing discomfort together. It is allowing them to feel unhappy once in awhile. It is giving consequences for disobedience. It is staying consistent. It is loving without conditions. It is giving grace in the unexpected. It is modeling thankfulness even when you are tired.
Parenting is not easy, but it is so worth choosing to do the hard thing.
For how can I deny the same patience and selfless love my Heavenly Father put into parenting me? The sooner my children learn to look to Jesus the better. I choose to do the hard thing. To bend down in humility and acknowledge my need for a Savior. When I kneel down low enough my children will be able to see Him clearer.
4 comments:
I have nothing to add to that.
Praying for you day.
Often times it is when WE, as mom's, begin to right our walk with God that our parenting skills seem to improve.
Patience at the "accidental" spill (even though we warned him/her about the cup sitting at the edge of the table four or five times now). Letting them know we all make mistakes, even Mom and Dad!
Showing Jesus to our kids, and them modeling the behaviors, is so much easier when we seek him ourselves.
Keep YOUR eyes on Jesus (as you have been doing) and His light will shine through to your kiddos!
Love you!
What a beautifully painted picture! God intends for us to model our need for a Savior to our children through our own mistakes and sins. How else, as you so eloquently said, would our children see their (and our) need for a savior! I love this post Alexis!
I remember reading these words in a book as I was lying on my couch (bed rest) pregnant with Luke. I remember feeling a bit overwhelmed, but ready for the challenge! Yeas later it is so easy to see and feel the fruit of our labor. We are by no means finished, but I can say that the bulk of the hard EVERY day work is behind us. That day will come for you and Adam and you will be SO grateful that you put in these long hard days.
This mama will keep you in my prayers... :)
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