Being a Mom is Tough - Proverbs 31 OBS - Blog Hop WEDNESDAY!!

This week starts a new Bible study with Proverbs 31 OBS.  We are reading Am I Messing Up My Kids by Lysa TerKeurst and this is a great book! 

 I have read this book before and am so excited to be doing this study.  Because honestly just because I’ve read this book before…I still feel like I’m a failure at this Mothering gig.

This week’s topic is “Being a Mom is Tough!”

I love how things line up because this week at church we talked about Parenting…and it fits perfectly with this study.

Being a Mom is tough…and there are days when it is so exhausting that I just want to curl up in my bed and hide.  Like today…the kids are building tents and one is stealing the others things causing them to fight.  I keep telling myself to stay out of it and let them handle it but it’s wearing on me. 

I do know that there are more rewarding days than hard and I find that on those harder days I am trying to do it all on my own. 

  

“He restores my soul…”  Psalm 23:3

My Pastor said this weekend that,“You don’t have what it takes, but you do have WHO it takes.” He is so right.  I don’t have what it takes to be a Mother…I don’t have the patience, the wisdom, the strength to do it…but I do have WHO it takes.  When I am being fed by His word…when I am living on the Bread of Life…He becomes my power source.  If my heart is right and God is my center…then I can give to my kids.  I can pour love, light and Jesus into them.  But when He is not at my center…I depend on MY strength and it all fails.

“Anything I do right as a mom is because of my constant dialogs with God.  Anything I do wrong as a mom is because of trying to do things in my own strength.”
 ~Lysa TerKeurst

As I was preparing for this study my daughter came to me and asked what I was doing.  I showed her the book and told her that we were getting ready to do this book as a Bible study.  She read the title and said, “Mommy, I hope you don’t think you are messing us up because you are the best Mommy in the whole world.  This title is wrong and it should not be the title.  Can we call Ms. Lysa and let her know that she needs to change this title?”  

I thought…wow.  I view myself as a failing Mom and my 10 year old views me way differently.  Even though this Mommy…just earlier…yelled at her for not being nice to her younger brother.  I was still carrying the guilt of yelling at her when I pulled the book out and she came in delivering a message I so needed to hear.  

“You are exactly the mom God knew your children needed.” ~Lysa TerKeurst 

Being a Mom is tough!  But knowing that I am getting some things right is medicine for my heart.  We have to communicate with God on a daily basis in order to look like Jesus.  Jesus took time to go to his Father every single day.  He needed it.  We need it. 

“Change begins with a spark of recognition within one’s heart.” 
~Rachel Macy Stafford

 

Mom’s we are not perfect….and will we never be.  But let’s remember that “my flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Psalm 73:26  Let Him restore us because He is always with us.

“For You are with me.” ~Psalm 23:4

May I always remember that these two are gifts from God.  That they are my joy.  May I have an extra dose of patience from Him and more hugs for them when days get long and hard.  And when the fights begin – may I have a controlled tongue and the strength – His strength – to give them grace.  May I be the Mommy that shines Jesus to them in our messy lives.  May I remember to dance with them and ignore the to-do lists, laundry piles, dishes in the sink, social media blings, and whatever else takes me away…long enough to remember this moment.  This present moment.