there are days....

There are days when being a mom is the best thing in the whole world, you realize what a blessing and gift it is to have children and you realize why God made it such a high calling. You thank Him for for your kids as you do crafts with them and go on nature walks, as you bake in the kitchen and they tell you funny stories and sloppy kisses before they go down for blissful two hour naps.

and then there are days.....

When you are a snarling, nagging fishwife,still in pajamas at noon, swamped in piles of laundry and cleaning throw up off your bedspread. You clean the billion goldfish crackers and dried play dough off the kitchen floor while the children cry for food because they're "staaaaaaarrrvvvviiiinnnggg" and then you smell whiffs of poo. The Milk carton is empty and your nerves are raw. Something down the hallway crashes....
The youngest one cries at your pant leg all afternoon and the older one screams for candy or cartoons and ignores you when you ask her to do something. The baby is pulling hair and ripping books and the big sister won't share her toys and oh my gosh if you step on one more truck left lying around YOU ARE GOING TO LOSE IT!!!!!!!!!

You finally put them to bed and collapse on the couch, only to hear.... "mama.... I need another drink of water".

You start to realize that being a mom is a high calling not because of it's perks but because of it's trenches.

You start to realize the gravity of :

suffering  produces perserverance
perseverance character
And character hope

and hope does not disappoint us. *

You start to realize that the only through the piles of diapers, dishes and tantrums is straight through them because :

God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom He has given us.*

Often our contemporary culture wants to explain away people's faith and beliefs as something imaginary to help them get through the difficult parts of their lives.
I am just so thankful I don't have to go through this parenting thing alone. I may not have really confronted anything that can be called "suffering" in it's real meaning, and my heart goes out to those parents who have, but I am really thankful that there in the trenches of day to day struggle with my own will and selfishness (let alone that of my childrens) that I am a child of God and that He is a perfect parent.

I start to take a deep breath, and then another and another the impulse to throw a sippy cup against the wall and burst into tears begins to subside. I find I'm on my knees already picking up the days mess so, while I'm here, why not pray?


"Lord Jesus, grant me the patience to deal with my blessings."

It makes me smile.... and then laugh ... and then cry.

cause in the midst of perseverance there is patience
and in the midst of chaos there is peace and in the midst of mental breakdowns
there is humor and surrender  and an awful lot to still be thankful for.

*Romans 5:3 (paraphrased)