Who’s Leading Who?

Who is leading who?

I’m the Mom right? I should have my act together. I should “be perfect.”

I mean “I totally have my act together!”

Um, I think I can make that believable?

As parents, shouldn’t we have it all together? I mean we are here raising the next generation. If we don’t teach our children right from wrong, how to be good people and good Christ followers who will?

So in my life of teaching my kids to be awesome, I often have to remind them to turn their shirts right side out.

Yup, I know I’m the only mother on the planet with this problem. Here I am, alone, holding the torch of getting my kids to wear clothes properly. Can you taste the sarcasm?

Anyhow, so I might not be alone in my kids clothing fight, I might be alone in my own. You’re wondering what I meant. Aren’t you?

So the long convicting story is; pretty much every morning I tell my 7 year old to switch his shirt around. It gets tiring, I get really frustrated having to tell him every day, but I do it with the hope that someday his wife won’t have to. Well, then I was out on a date with my husband, we were sitting in a very packed restaurant, and he said “Is your sweater inside out?”

I did one of those deep inhale kinda things and said, ”Nooo” before I even looked. Then I saw it. I saw that my sweater sleeve had an inside out seam! He, being the thorough hunk he is, proceeded to look for the tag. Sure enough it was on backward. Luckily enough, my hair is long enough to cover the tag and I changed my sweater right side out in the bathroom. Ugh!

In the middle of all this, yes, I was convicted straight through the heart. I thought about the famous verse in Matthew 7:3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” A sucker punch right to me.

Now I’m not saying that in this particular situation that I cannot keep correcting my son, I most certainly think I can and that I’m supposed to. I think this verse came to my mind to remind me that I have no right getting angry at my son for messing up, when I am still messing up.

It’s easy as parents to lose perspective that for our kids these little things are big deals. I imagine that God handles it better when we as adults struggle with the same stumbling blocks over and over, than we do as parents seeing our child struggle with the same thing over and over.

Grace is the biggest lesson that I learned through this humbling moment. I need to give more grace. God has blessed me with so much grace and I need to spread it around.

Blessings

Wonderfully Made

Psalm139:13 For you formed my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

As a kid this verse kinda freaked me out. The thought of a gooey baby being formed was something I really didn’t want to think about.

As an adult though I prayed for those moments of being pregnant and for God’s hands to form life. It didn’t exactly happen that way for me. The children I prayed for were formed in another women’s womb. Yet I know that God had His hand on every moment.

This verse has come up several times to me this week. I’m not entirely sure why.

I love it because the verse to me talks about God loving us even before we were born. Psalm 139 talks about God knowing us and how he is with us. How we are wonderfully made.

As a kid the thought of God being with us made me feel better about certain situations, and scared me about others. I remember telling my mom I didn’t want Him in the bathroom when I was taking a shower. Looking back, I’m not sure how she didn’t laugh hysterically at me. I was genuinely concerned of God seeing me naked. I can’t remember my mom’s exact words but it was something like “God doesn’t want to see you naked sweetie, he’s with you protecting you, but not staring at you.”

My kids have the opposite problem that I had though – I have a hard time to get them to stop streaking down the hall from the bathroom. My four year old is the worst. If Bella has trouble getting part of her outfit on she just comes down to the kitchen to ask for help. She doesn’t care how many people are in the kitchen or if they are even related.

We are constantly trying to teach her modesty but it hasn’t quite kicked in yet. I know modesty has to start at a young age. Sometimes though it is so hard not to laugh. Like when my two year old manages to get out of his towel after a shower and he just loves to run! Nico thinks streaking around it the best thing since sliced bread.

Anyway bringing it back to a point. The God of the universe knit us together. He has loved you and your children since before your birthdays. We need to remember this. We need to remember that we were beautifully made and God loves us. Even through all our sticky parenting moments. And He loves our children through all of their sticky (or streaking) moments.

Serving Who?

“As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15

Powerful huh! It is a declaration. We have a sign that has this scripture in our house. I haven’t gotten around to hanging it up yet. But we have it. My husband and I believe it.

This scripture sums up what every Christian house should do, right? Right.

I confess some days I lose sight that serving the Lord can look very different than what my imagination says.

When I’ve had a diaper blow-out and am tearing through the house with a poop covered baby to get to the tub STAT.

When a child gets a hold of the baby powder and empties it in the piano keys.

When I’ve woken up every hour that night because of one child or another.

When the kids are mad at me for not letting them do something.

When they decided to play in the toilet…again.

Or when my exhaustion and patience are at all the wrong levels.

I forget. I forget that I am raising children. I am raising God’s children. They were made in His image. Not in mine. God wove them together. God gave them to me.

So how do I let myself forget that we are serving the Lord?

Frankly, because it can be gross. I always thought serving the Lord was dignified. I thought doing the Lords work would be well… less poopy.

Maybe I’m the only one, I’m not sure. I find myself today with a splitting headache because the baby decided to head-butt me so hard I saw stars. In this pain I have to remind myself that this IS serving the Lord. I am where God wants me to be. Nowhere in the bible does it say that if you serve the Lord you will not have to change diapers.

So I encourage any of you have a midweek slump, know that you are serving the Lord. Take joy in this.