Last night, Monday night, was such a blessing to me. I just love it when God reveals something to me that I wasn't looking for or even expecting at the time. You know how sometimes you pray and pray about something and you wait as patiently as you can for God to show you the answers. Then, as you pray and ponder about it, He leads you down a path for you to understand what He wants you to do. Sometimes, He speaks to you as you read scripture and sometimes He speaks as you listen to godly mentors...
Yesterday, after I participated in a Bible Study on raising sons, God revealed something to me that felt huge...The blessings I'm experiencing today are the blessings that I began praying for many, many years ago! He showed me that many of the things that are being taught in the study were things that He had shown me when I was a young mom and our family has been living out, in many ways, ever since that time. He has been leading me every step along the way. I'm so thankful to the Lord for reminding me that I am now experiencing the answers to many of the prayers that my husband and I prayed for my boys when they were much younger. I know that the process of praying for my sons is not over, but the blessing of realizing where we were when they were younger and where we are now in our walk with the Lord was a huge revelation to me. Years of feeling overwhelmed with the responsibility of raising them against the tide of the mainstream world was definitely exhausting, but was, and still is, well worth the cost.
Years of letting my children be children and play for hours on end has paid off with sons and daughters that love "family" and the joy that comes from being all together. It has also contributed to having children who realize that people are more important than schedules. I am now getting to live in the presence of some of my children who are all grown up or are close to being all grown up who are stronger and wiser than I ever was...who deal with adversity in a more Godly way than I ever did and who bless me daily with spiritual conversations.
Why do I want you to know of the blessings that God has been giving to me...It is simple...I know that many of the mothers that will be reading this are young and have young children and I just want to say at the top of my lungs...
Don't give up!!! Don't think, for a minute, that your love, prayers and sacrifices for the sake of your children's spiritual growth are all a waste of time. There will hopefully come a day when you will be able to look back and proclaim, "Praise you, Lord, for blessing me with young men and women who love YOU more than anything."
Even when you see darkness instead of light...Even when you think you are the only one who feels the way you do about raising children...Even when you think that there is nobody who can fix the things that you think you have made a mess of...Don't give up!!!
There is HOPE! Look to the Word of God...Look for Godly guidance to become the parent that God wants you to be... Keep using tools like good, solid Bible studies on parenting. Don't think that you are supposed to know everything already for every stage of parenting. Realize that you will make mistakes along the way. Be willing to learn and change the direction you are going if it isn't the path God wants you on and keep praying for God's wisdom!!!
My hope for you is that God will shower you with blessings today and every day to come and that you will recognize each and every blessing!!!
