Sigh!

I have been bubbling or simmering lately (imagine a boiling pot of water where the lid is teetering up and down)...feeling like if I don't do everything right and miss something my kids are going to miss something important and I will have failed and then everything that I have worked for in raising the kids is for not. That sounds like a bunch of craziness but John will tell you that I have had an immediate sense of need to teach them everything about the Bible, how to act, how to be, etc all at once almost. I feel like I need to make every day count, every minute count. I went to bed last night mentally exhausted because I had just been thinking about it so much. I want for them to know and love Jesus so much! So I had kinda been"poopy" to John before he left for work, mostly because he didn't feel my urgency...it was stupid, I know. I mean the man was standing there trying to shave and get ready for work and I am standing behind him talking about Bible timelines and the essence of God and wanting him to jump on my train that minute! Anyways, later that night, I had just talked to John and told him I was sorry for being "poopy" and told him goodnight. I laid my weary head in the bed and started reading my book "parenting in the pew" again ready to soak up more ideas and to get my marching orders so to speak....God (as he almost always does) put me back in place after the first sentence I read. I called John back (10 minutes later) just to tell him how God had spoke to me through the words in the book....(he said in the last ten minutes all has changed?) I am a woman for goodness sake, my mood and mind can change in a minute! I am going to just write the paragraph down, because I can't say it any better.

The section was titled: Praying for Patience

As we parent our children to love God, we need to guard against charging every situation with a deeply spiritual lesson. Don't judge October apples in June. It is a mark of our own maturing faith in God NOT to try to play the Holy Spirit in the lives of our children. True repentance, genuine spiritual insight and real faith are the fruits of the Holy Spirit's work in our lives and the lives of our children. The apostle Paul reminds us, "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" Ephesians 2:10. The longing in our hearts for our kids to "turn out right" can cause us to make a mountain out of a molehill in our child's life. Every little scratch, milk spill, childish sin is not an occasion for a sermon or spiritual lesson. Sometimes it is hard to relax with our own kids. It can be difficult to see the humor in their antics, even though we laugh about the same things done by other people's kids. Parenting can be stressful especially if we try to take on God's job as well as our own. It is God's job to be working in the lives of our children. God's work is lasting, wise, patient, and all knowing. We parents, no matter how well we succeed at times, fall short in all four areas. He alone is the perfect parent who loves our children perfectly! We must trust Him to be at work in the lives of our children, even when this is hard to do. We need to trust the Lord with the spiritual growth of our children. I believe that God is writing a testimony in the lives of our children. It is HIS story. He alone sees the end from the beginning. He alone sees the "October apples" when it is only June.

PHEW....I guess I can relax a little! DUH! I'm still glad that I have a game plan but so glad I am not the head coach!