More Prayer. More Power.

Since we moved to our new house in September, my devotional time has been quite choppy. I'll have spurts of diligence and then they will be drowned out by the busy-ness of life. When I was still working,the one advantage to a 45 minute commute each morning was the literal QUIET time. (This is now one of the rare luxuries for me in life.) During those times I was able to turn off the music and talk to God. It was during those times that the Holy Spirit would speak so much truth to me through the way He would lead my thoughts during my monologue to God. It was the epitome of a therapeutic release of emotion. It was my journey to peace in that moment of confusion. Through those times of prayer, Jesus assumed His rightful place as my Lord before whom I was humbled, my mentor, my confidante, my closest friend. And I saw the blessings of answered prayer because I was actually praying those prayers myself.

But with the sheer collapse of LIFE on me, I have lost that and am struggling to regain it. It's one of those things I know I need to do, but I don't take advantage of the time I can use to do it. But today, I did it. I prayed for the usual folks on my prayer list....and I especially prayed for my kids.

My parenting devotion today was centered around a reminder that we need to believe in the power of prayer and model faith in God as we face the challenges of parenting. I was reminded not to try to overcome these challenges with my own strength, but to trust God to help me. (And trust me, I have many of those "Lord, HELP ME!" moments...)

Seven months ago I found myself overwhelmed by the burden of guilt rooted in my lack of presence and involvement in the lives of my little loves. And now, more than ever, I feel an even greater burden - but not one of guilt... but rather, one of obligation and responsibility. There is so much I've realized in the last two and a half months of being home full time that I want to and need to do and be for my kids. And that's the overwhelming part. And many times I feel either inadequate, ill-equipped or just too darn tired to be my very best at it all.

So thank God for reminding me to continually commit myself and my children to Him, especially in prayer... asking Him to empower me in my efforts to be a godly and effective mother, and trusting that, despite my failures, He will reward my faithfulness in those efforts by caring for my children better than my best ever could.

Focus.

The theme of my Parenting by Design devotion for today was to keep our focus on Jesus and His truths, in spite of the pressures of today's culture.This struck a chord with me because I'm typically conscious of other people's parenting styles and I often compare myself with other parents. One thing that usually comes up as I meet other parents is the amount of enrichment activities, or lack thereof, that parents provide or create for their children. And what I often find with other parents (which sometimes makes me feel guilty and/or inadequate as a parent) is their priority on and ability to integrate into their schedule multiple extracurricular activities and other outside the home enrichment activities (library trips, park visits, museum excursions, etc.). It's kind of amazing to me because I feel as though I don't have time to do everything I need to do at home and be able to spend hours out of my day outside the home helping my kids to be more well-rounded and cultured. Granted, I hardly know these type of parents personally... I've never seen the inside of their houses, I've never looked at their day planners, I don't know their household income... I just don't know.

So, maybe they have maids that do most of their cleaning and cooking. Maybe they are pretty well-off and can afford to put their kids in a sports program every season and pay for music lessons and art classes. Maybe they have a regular nanny or live-in grandparent that helps watch the kids while they do the housekeeping or take time away from the home to relieve the stresses that brings. Or maybe... these are just my own pitiful rationalizations for why I don't do those things for my kids.

But I feel that today, the Holy Spirit was speaking to my heart, my Mommy heart, and reminding me that today's culture puts such significance on molding our kids into people who will be "successful" in the world's eyes. But that's not what God has called us to do as parents. At the end of the day, at the end of this age... our kids will stand before the presence of a holy God. But He will not ask how many sports they played. He will not ask to see their transcripts. He will not ask what instruments they played, how many countries they visited or how greatly they were admired by their peers. 

Instead, He will remember their depth of faithfulness to His kingdom.
He will recall how much they trusted in Jesus.
He will recount the extent to which the Holy Spirit was able to release new life in them because of their willingness to choose Christ over the flesh.


This is what the Lord reminded me of today. And it's a reminder this overachiever truly needed. My kids may not always be the best at everything. I may not always be capable of providing for them the experiences I think they should have. We may not always be able to have the material things that this culture asserts as signs of success. But we have a richness in the Lord that we can always count on. We can be enriched by the Holy Spirit working in our lives and in our home. Our earthly lives may not be picture perfect; but living faithfully for the Lord will bring us fulfillment beyond our imagination... a fulfillment that only a life lived for the Lord can truly bring.

Still a Dream Come True.

It's 1:05pm on a Wednesday and I'm sitting in my minivan with my "posse" (2 toddlers) waiting for the rest of our posse to get out of school.

When we get home I'm gonna put the little ones down for a nap and help my 7 year old do his homework and get some housework done.

Life doesn't get much better than this...