Category: Parenting

Parenting is like weather in the northwest. It can be sunny and beautiful one second and rainy and gloomy the next. I had one of those moments this morning. 

It’s our day off. Let me rephrase that. It’s as “off” as it gets when at home with a one year old. Our oldest boys were at school and I decided to say no to the housework staring me in the face and embrace a little rest. I grabbed my cup of hot tea, turned on a podcast and plopped down on a bean bag in my kids’ room so our youngest could play. I started getting sentimental knowing that these days are fleeting and our last baby isn’t such a baby anymore. I picked him up, snuggled him, lavished him with kisses and put him back down to play. He kept returning for more. “I love this kid so much,” I thought. 

Almost simultaneously with my thought, he looked at me and hit me in the face. When I corrected him, he used his new found and favorite word, “No.” And just like that, ladies and gentlemen, our sweet moment was hijacked by stubbornness and disobedience. 

Parenting is no joke. The emotions of joy, frustration, excitement, sadness, hope and fear (possibly all in the same day) can sometimes leave us frazzled and overwhelmed. But we are not alone. We may feel alone. And often times, in the natural sense, there are situations where a parent is physically alone. But when we understand that parenting is a gift, we can also understand that the Giver of our precious gift/gifts is with us teaching us how to parent.  

I want to encourage all of us today to look to Jesus, the giver of all good things. He knows the strengths and weaknesses of our children, just like He knows our own. And He has handpicked us to help them find their way. Today, let’s allow Jesus to shepherd our hearts and teach us how to shepherd the hearts of our little ones. 

Happy Monday.

In honor of Mother’s Day, and proof that as a mother it’s hard to get anything accomplished in a timely manner, here are some thoughts on motherhood from this momma to all of you mommas out there.

Motherhood is a state of constant learning. Just when I think I have it together, our kids get a year older and there are new challenges. Or child number two comes along and whoa….we are right back at the beginning. Ok, not the very start but boy isn’t each child different? 

It’s also a state of constant selflessness. “And what does that look like?” you may ask. It’s having my quiet moments interrupted by sweet voices saying, “Where are you?” It’s warming my teacup 3 times before drinking it. It’s holding tiny hands and letting the waves crash on our feet rather than swimming in the deep end. It’s doing chores with a baby bouncing on my hip. It’s having food disappear because it’s always better off of mommy’s plate. It’s praying and letting God show me what each child needs.  

It’s exhaustion, patience, frustration and complete joy. Every possible emotion you can imagine could be listed. Nights are long – yet very short – and days are filled with questions and messes and giggles and teaching.

There are moments of snuggles and moments of discipline. There are bedtime stories, play dates, park adventures and, if you have boys, lots of wrestle time. 

As moms, we all have a special job. Every day we get to look into eyes that adore us. We are their world. We get to provide, kiss boo boos, wipe away tears and nurture little humans who are quickly growing into their own person. We are the recipients of their creativity seen through colored pages and crafts made at school. We hold a responsibility that has eternal impact.

I often feel overwhelmed by the nonstop, “mommy, mommy, mommy” that I hear all day but I remind myself that one day that will end and my heart will be broken. They grow quickly and while the love will remain, I know that I will not always be the first one they run to, the first one they need. So, I cherish these moments. I linger in their hugs. I play with them. I put my phone down and look into their eyes.   

Moms, when you feel tired or overwhelmed or question if you’re doing it right, remember you are not alone. God has handpicked you for your children and He knows you both inside and out. Lean on Him and let Jesus guide you as you guide them. 

For all my readers – Happy (late) Mother’s Day

Ok, so let’s talk real life as a mom. It’s busy, fun, messy, hard and absolutely wonderful! 

In my last post, I gave you a look into some of my hectic moments of motherhood and a peek into what God has been showing me through it. Today I want to show you the other side. 

If you walk around my house, you’ll find a leaf on our shelf above the sink, a pine cone in one of our baskets, a heart that shows up on the bathroom mirror after hot showers and random dying flowers at any given time. I wish you could see our four year old’s smile every time he picks little flowers and holds them up to me at the door. Or hear our little one say, “Hold you, mommy,” as he looks up with expectant eyes. I love our special songs, handshakes and memory making traditions. 

But you have your own. 

As mothers, I think we all have tendencies to fall into the comparison trap but it’s important to remember that each family is a unique unit with its own traditions and ways of doing things. And that is so awesome. With that said, when we allow God to guide us as we guide our children, then we can glean from each other and share ideas of what works and what doesn’t. 

My litmus test for a successful day of mothering has much more to do with my attitudes and reactions than the kiddos’. And truth be told, when my heart is in the right place, it usually flows over into their responses as well. But along with this I have a mental list, now an actual one because of this post, that I aim for each day. When I accomplish these things, I go to bed feeling satisfied with another day under my belt as a mom.

Every day I strive for…

1. Time alone in prayer and Bible reading
2. Gentle responses with my kids
3. Limited screen time for the kids (except for special “game days”)
4. Getting the kids active (park, trampoline, sports, etc)
5. Spending time with them

It’s a full time job but one I would say yes to over and over. 

So to all you moms out there, remember that no matter how many bad days you’ve had, each day is a new day to try again. We can never be perfect on our own but we can be so much more than ourselves with the help of Jesus. (So spend time with Him.) And we need help because we have little eyes looking at us to be their heroes. 

On this Mother’s Day weekend, I hope we will all enjoy time with our kids and remember how blessed we are to own the title “Mom.”

Some days I have it together if I must say so myself. Other days, well, not so much. In this post I’m going to deal with the latter. Stay tuned for part two, which is a much prettier display of motherhood packaged with a little more sanity. 

Oh and spoiler alert…I’m now 2 days past the writing of this post and…I survived.

This morning my alarm went off more times than I’d like to admit and my quiet time was shortened significantly. Why do I do this to myself first thing in the morning?

I rushed around getting all three kids ready because it was a full day and Jake and I were going in different directions. I sent him off with our youngest while I wrapped up the last few morning routines with our two older boys before taking our oldest son to school.

We are in the middle of moving houses and I hadn’t been to the grocery store so my son’s packed lunch options were limited and he was less than thrilled about those options. I informed the boys that we were eating breakfast in the car because not only were we out of time but the bag of pop-tarts and cereal (don’t judge our well balanced menu) was left outside in the moving process. Only then did I realize that my keys were missing and breakfast was locked in the car. My thoughts, “If I don’t find these keys in 7 minutes, our son will be late for school.” I started a frantic search. Nothing. My panic started segueing into ideas of what we could do together if we couldn’t find them. Then we found them, well, Jake did. He accidentally took them and he wasn’t coming home for at least an hour. I called a friend who graciously came, picked up our son and took him to school. 

Problem solved. Now on to the next one. It was 8:15 and I found myself looking at our middle son who was smiling up at me, waiting for me to tell him what we were going to do. The only thing is that I had nothing for him to do (all of their toys and games were packed) and breakfast was still locked in the car. So I went into mommy mode of how I could make this an adventure. 

And so my day started…

In the midst of errands, packing, ministry, moving, meetings and office work, I’m “mostly” a stay at home mom. And with that comes a lot of refereeing, playing judge and teaching. Currently, we are teaching our youngest son not to hit and bite, our middle son to have patience with our youngest and our oldest son that he has to pay attention when we are talking to him. Sometimes I think I’m going to go crazy. I’m not sure how many times I’ve prayed, “Jesus, help me” in the past few days. 

I’ve had a kaleidoscope of emotions from anger to love to frustrations to “I’ve gotta have a moment of silence.” Just one, please! 

And then came that still, sweet voice of Jesus that always teaches me things in the chaos. 

Yesterday I was talking to the boys and wondering if they were even following me or if their stares indicated they were in another world all together. I wanted them to get along. To be kind to each other. To help each other out. 

In that moment, God reminded me that He wants that too. He wants them to know Him personally and while they, ultimately, have to choose for themselves, God has given these children to us to reflect His character to them. 

My patience, my gentleness and my kindness is what they are learning. This season is their classroom and no matter what I say, my actions are teaching them something. It’s a sober thought, but it leads me to pray, “Lord, mold my character to reflect Yours!” 

In the heat of the moment when everyone is calling my name at once, asking questions, telling stories, pulling on my shirt, I don’t usually feel patient and gentle.

Philippians 4:5 says, “Let your gentleness be evident to all…” It’s not too difficult to let my gentleness be evident in public, but “to all” includes my family. This is the class I’m currently taking. 

Now that you know what I’ve been ruminating on, back to my adventure. While, internally, I wrestled with my emotions for the next 12 hours, the day actually ended with sweet memories made. My middle son and I took a walk that ended with breakfast at a bagel shop, the afternoon was filled with more packing and responsibilities and that evening the boys and I had reading time while we ate chocolate drizzled popcorn. 

At the end of the day, these are the moments we will remember.

Stress is so normal in motherhood but we can’t get stuck in the attitudes it naturally produces. May we allow God to stretch us beyond our own abilities into the best moms we can be. And in the process, let’s enjoy every moment we have with our kids, come good or bad.