There is a treasure at the end of this trail :)
OK, so I'm just going to admit it: I sometimes just "lose it".
Phew, it feels so good to get that off my chest! ;) Obviously I do not suffer under the delusion that you thought, for even one moment, that I have gone my entire life without "losing it". But there is something strangely freeing about admitting it. And, this weekend was one of those moments. I'm talking could've given my 4 year old a run for his money with the fit I threw! And as with the majority of adult fits, it was for pretty good reason. I'm pretty sure my last comment was something like "How in the world am I supposed to be responsible for teaching someone else patience, kindness and self-control when I haven't even learned them myself?!". I'm sure by now many of you are smiling and nodding.
This little episode was still with me this morning when I picked up the book Sacred Parenting by Gary Thomas. I had put this book down a few months ago and finally this morning picked it up again. And wouldn't you know it the first chapter I came to was "Walking on the Wild Side of Parenting: The Gift of Extremely Demanding Children. How Raising Kids Teaches Patience, Long-suffering, and Perseverance". What an amazing God we serve, ladies! Just when I had all but given up hope I was reminded, yet again, that God has a purpose for me and that He knew what He was doing when He made me a Mom. So I am going to share just a few quotes from this chapter and forgive me for not citing them correctly, I have a 4 year old who is practicing patience and I want to honor my time with him! :) I hope you enjoy and I pray that the Lord would speak to you through these words.
"Godly children are a tremendous blessing: this is a precious biblical truth. But Scripture is honest, and we should be as well. Wayward children can, at the very least, feel like a fierce curse."
"How sobering to face the vulnerability that someone could make our lives absolutely miserable-and yet we would lay down our lives on his or her behalf without thinking about it. Just such an amazing spiritual transformation takes place in the journey of parenting. Once again, Paul models our call to this ministry when he writes, "Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?" (2 Corinthians 11:29) For many of us, however, the difficulty of parenting comes not in facing betrayal but in enduring a very tiring occupation."
"And it's really no single issue that drags us down or sends us over the edge. We blanch at the ever-present weight of all the issues put together-day in, day out, morning, noon, and night. A 2:00 a.m. wakeup call is as much of a reality as trying to wake up an adolescent who seems addicted to his bed. Eventually, we can feel crushed under an exhausting profession, but it's also a complex calling-one that can have a profound impact on our spiritual development."
"There is only one way to develop perseverance: We have to surrender to God as we feel pushed past the human breaking point. We have to reach the threshold of exhaustion, and then get pushed even further. One trial can help us deal with fear. Two trials can lead to wisdom. But perseverance? That takes a bundle of difficulties. All of which means that parenting extremely demanding children feeds a spiritual need in our soul-to participate in the crucial discipline of perseverance on which our fruitfulness as believers depends."
"The crux of the issue is this: Our first and natural inclination in any trial is to pray for God to remove the difficulty. But God's first priority is often to strengthen us in the midst of the difficulty rather than to take us out of the difficulty. That's because he can see the treasure that lies at the end of the trail."
My favorite quote from Elton Trueblood: "[Family life] has no magic about it. The family can be the scene of wonderful affection and it can also be the scene of debasing friction. The family...is our fairest ideal, but it does not come without effort. Family solidarity takes hard work, much imagination, and constant self-criticism on the part of all the members of the sacred circle. A successful marriage is not one in which two people, beautifully matched, find each other and get along happily ever after because of this initial matching. It is, instead, a system by means of which persons who are sinful and contentious are so caught by a dream bigger than themselves that they work throughout the years, in spite of repeated disappointment, to make the dream come true."
"What our children ask of us pales in comparison to what we ask of God. In our struggles and our weariness, may we never get to the place of self-righteousness, forgetting that God has forgiven us, is patient with us, and endures our own failings to an even greater extent than we do for our children...He doesn't ask anything of us as parents that he hasn't delivered a hundred times over himself." (AMEN!!!)"Without difficult children, we might take this patience and mercy and forgiveness for granted. That's where difficult children become a rare gift-they show us a side of God we might otherwise miss."
And lastly but most importantly: "Here indeed is the treasure at the end of the trail. No matter how difficult our children may be, God can and will use them to shape our souls into his Son's image. No matter how many bumps we may hit or bends we may have to negotiate along the road to raising our children, God promises to guide our steps, strengthen our stride, and refresh our souls (thank-you Lord!!). He knows we are insufficient, but he points us to his Son's provision and his Spirit's comfort, guidance, and power, all of which more than meet our needs. (praise the Lord!!) Even if we don't see all the results we'd like to see, at least we're getting steady reminders of God's patience and long-suffering towards us. Parenting may not be an easy journey, but in this it is truly a sacred one."
Loving and praying for you all today!
Phew, it feels so good to get that off my chest! ;) Obviously I do not suffer under the delusion that you thought, for even one moment, that I have gone my entire life without "losing it". But there is something strangely freeing about admitting it. And, this weekend was one of those moments. I'm talking could've given my 4 year old a run for his money with the fit I threw! And as with the majority of adult fits, it was for pretty good reason. I'm pretty sure my last comment was something like "How in the world am I supposed to be responsible for teaching someone else patience, kindness and self-control when I haven't even learned them myself?!". I'm sure by now many of you are smiling and nodding.
This little episode was still with me this morning when I picked up the book Sacred Parenting by Gary Thomas. I had put this book down a few months ago and finally this morning picked it up again. And wouldn't you know it the first chapter I came to was "Walking on the Wild Side of Parenting: The Gift of Extremely Demanding Children. How Raising Kids Teaches Patience, Long-suffering, and Perseverance". What an amazing God we serve, ladies! Just when I had all but given up hope I was reminded, yet again, that God has a purpose for me and that He knew what He was doing when He made me a Mom. So I am going to share just a few quotes from this chapter and forgive me for not citing them correctly, I have a 4 year old who is practicing patience and I want to honor my time with him! :) I hope you enjoy and I pray that the Lord would speak to you through these words.
"Godly children are a tremendous blessing: this is a precious biblical truth. But Scripture is honest, and we should be as well. Wayward children can, at the very least, feel like a fierce curse."
"How sobering to face the vulnerability that someone could make our lives absolutely miserable-and yet we would lay down our lives on his or her behalf without thinking about it. Just such an amazing spiritual transformation takes place in the journey of parenting. Once again, Paul models our call to this ministry when he writes, "Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?" (2 Corinthians 11:29) For many of us, however, the difficulty of parenting comes not in facing betrayal but in enduring a very tiring occupation."
"And it's really no single issue that drags us down or sends us over the edge. We blanch at the ever-present weight of all the issues put together-day in, day out, morning, noon, and night. A 2:00 a.m. wakeup call is as much of a reality as trying to wake up an adolescent who seems addicted to his bed. Eventually, we can feel crushed under an exhausting profession, but it's also a complex calling-one that can have a profound impact on our spiritual development."
"There is only one way to develop perseverance: We have to surrender to God as we feel pushed past the human breaking point. We have to reach the threshold of exhaustion, and then get pushed even further. One trial can help us deal with fear. Two trials can lead to wisdom. But perseverance? That takes a bundle of difficulties. All of which means that parenting extremely demanding children feeds a spiritual need in our soul-to participate in the crucial discipline of perseverance on which our fruitfulness as believers depends."
"The crux of the issue is this: Our first and natural inclination in any trial is to pray for God to remove the difficulty. But God's first priority is often to strengthen us in the midst of the difficulty rather than to take us out of the difficulty. That's because he can see the treasure that lies at the end of the trail."
My favorite quote from Elton Trueblood: "[Family life] has no magic about it. The family can be the scene of wonderful affection and it can also be the scene of debasing friction. The family...is our fairest ideal, but it does not come without effort. Family solidarity takes hard work, much imagination, and constant self-criticism on the part of all the members of the sacred circle. A successful marriage is not one in which two people, beautifully matched, find each other and get along happily ever after because of this initial matching. It is, instead, a system by means of which persons who are sinful and contentious are so caught by a dream bigger than themselves that they work throughout the years, in spite of repeated disappointment, to make the dream come true."
"What our children ask of us pales in comparison to what we ask of God. In our struggles and our weariness, may we never get to the place of self-righteousness, forgetting that God has forgiven us, is patient with us, and endures our own failings to an even greater extent than we do for our children...He doesn't ask anything of us as parents that he hasn't delivered a hundred times over himself." (AMEN!!!)"Without difficult children, we might take this patience and mercy and forgiveness for granted. That's where difficult children become a rare gift-they show us a side of God we might otherwise miss."
And lastly but most importantly: "Here indeed is the treasure at the end of the trail. No matter how difficult our children may be, God can and will use them to shape our souls into his Son's image. No matter how many bumps we may hit or bends we may have to negotiate along the road to raising our children, God promises to guide our steps, strengthen our stride, and refresh our souls (thank-you Lord!!). He knows we are insufficient, but he points us to his Son's provision and his Spirit's comfort, guidance, and power, all of which more than meet our needs. (praise the Lord!!) Even if we don't see all the results we'd like to see, at least we're getting steady reminders of God's patience and long-suffering towards us. Parenting may not be an easy journey, but in this it is truly a sacred one."
Loving and praying for you all today!
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