Do you ever feel like things are
so out of control and you just can’t get a handle on life? You go through your daily routine feeling unaccomplished
and frustrated seeing the negative in every part of the day. I know I do and
yesterday was it for me.
Being a mom is one of the
greatest blessings yet challenging tasks God has given me. There are days I ask
myself what was God thinking when he made me a mom? At times I feel so
unequipped to be a parent, especially when I lose my patience, discipline in
anger instead of love, and allow my emotions to get the best of me. With so
many things needing our attention it's easy to get disconnected from our true source
of life and that's Jesus! We have to stay connected to the giver of life and
ask him daily to fill us with his grace and love because apart from him we can
do nothing, which leads me to my story.
So we have a rule in our home, no
more than 2 hours of TV time a week and my son does not have a TV in his room,
yes it’s true! My husband and I prayed about this before implementing it and
felt strongly TV was interfering with my son’s development of character. We had
noticed the talking back, being disrespectful towards us, disobeying, temper
tantrums, among others were severely disrupting our our home. My son, age 6,
is well aware of the TV rule but like any child his age he pushes the limits.
Last night, after watching his 30 minute allotted TV time he absolutely
threw a fit with all the dramatics, crocodile tears, screaming “it’s not fair”,
y’all are mean, etc. After a long exhausting day I was in no mood to make this
a debate. I reacted by yelling at him and telling him I was the boss and informed
him he had lost the remainder of his TV time this week.
After I’d tucked him into bed and
sat down beside him I thought to myself, “what if God reacted to our behaviors
or temper tantrums in the same way?” I had never been more thankful in
that moment of God’s unconditional love for us. We fail him daily yet he always
responds in truth, mercy grace and love. He listens to our prayers, comforts
us, and guides us with gentleness, yet a firm hand, (1 Corinthians
13:4-7, Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it
is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not
easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but
rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes,
always perseveres).
Yesterday God reminded me I’d been trying to
do everything in my own strength, not his. I’d forgotten to focus on him and
spend time with the one who brings life and allowed my busyness to overwhelm me
instead of allowing God’s presence to overwhelm me. God is with us every second
of the day waiting for us to reach out to him but we are so preoccupied checking
off our to-do list we neglect the one “TO-DO”
that matters most. Is Jesus on your to-do list today?
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