The things I love

I’ve already written about the one thing I hate about being a mom. But there are so many things I love. So since Mother’s Day is approaching, I thought I would make a  simple list of some of those things.

I love:

• When Faith toddles across the room just to sit in my lap for a few seconds before she’s off exploring the world again.
• When Journey gives one of his concerts. What he lacks in pitch he makes up for in enthusiasm and gusto.
• When Faith twirls around to music. It may not be the most graceful, but it’s so cute.
• When the kids learn something new or master a skill. I especially love when I have played a part in the learning process.
• When the kids come running to the door to welcome me home whether I’ve been gone five minutes or five hours.
• When only my kisses and hugs will make it all better. Don’t tell my husband that this is one of my favorites.
• When the kids play together and the house is filled with their joy and laughter.
• Saturday mornings when the kids invade our bed.
• When Faith grabs onto my chin as I settle her for the night.
• Baking with Journey. I call him my little sous chef.
• And a million other little things!

Despite the numerous challenges that motherhood can bring, the joys far out weigh the stresses.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Someday…

It took my husband and me a while before we had children. And in those years of waiting, I spent a lot of time day-dreaming about the life we would have with our kids. I would imagine all the fun things we would do and wonderful memories we would make. After our kids came, I continued to dream about all the stuff I wanted to do. My thoughts would always start, “I can’t wait until the kids are old enough so we can…”

Recently, I’ve been really looking forward to Journey starting school so that I can have one-on-one time with Faith. I can just see all the fun, enriching activities she and I will get to do. Time can’t pass quickly enough so that I can be there. A few days ago, my husband took Journey for some special daddy-son time, leaving me and Faith together for some mommy-daughter time. At first, I was content to let Faith play by herself, while I caught up on Food Network. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for independent play. But I almost missed an opportunity to give Faith my undivided attention–something she rarely gets as the second child.

I’m realizing that I’ve spent so much time looking forward to the future that I’m missing all the special times we have now. So I’m trying to value those times together as a family, like sitting in the kids room, laughing and playing together. Simple moments like that I don’t want to take for granted anymore. And I’m not waiting for “someday” to have great adventures with my family. Don’t brashly announce what you’re going to do tomorrow; you don’t know the first thing about tomorrow” (Proverbs 27:1 MSG). I’m being intentional about making memories now. Even if the kids won’t remember every detail as they age, we’ll have great pictures to tell and retell the stories.

FROG (I need to die all over again today)

Do you remember those WWJD bracelets that were popular in the nineties? Several years ago, a friend of mine gave me a FROG bracelet. It was a joke because I loved frogs so much. But FROG stood for “Fully Relying on God.” I had forgotten about this silly little bracelet until recently. I was praying one morning and asking for God to help me with the day ahead and FROG came to my mind. But the thought that immediately followed was “I don’t think I know how to fully rely on God.”

I consider myself a pretty smart person. I can problem-solve with the best of them. I’m pretty self-reliant and I think that gets in the way of “fully relying on God.” I tend to go to God as a last resort. If I can’t figure it out on my own, then I consult God. Typing it out here, it sounds like a really stupid way to do things. But it’s my usual pattern. Guess I’m not as smart as I think I am. However, lately, I’ve been running into more and more challenges that have left me feeling completely out of my depth. I’ve shared my many challenges with potty training Journey. But beyond that, there are things that crop up daily that leave me scratching my head.

I need to die all over again today (Courtesy of @JimmyNeedham via Twitter). “Dying to self” has come up a lot recently “…I die daily [I face death every day and die to self]” 1 Corinthians 15:31 AMP. That’s a hard pill to swallow. Dying to myself, my rights, my way is not something that comes naturally. I like things my way. But for me to “fully rely on God” I need to let go of my way of doing things so that I can be open to God’s way. So my prayer recently has been: “Less of me, Lord. More of You!” It hasn’t been easy to break the pattern of self-reliance. I have to constantly “die all over again.” But I’m finding that the more that I rely less on me and more on God, the challenges are getting easier the manage.