Being a Mom Is Tough

Hello,


My name is Christy and I am a Mom of 3, Jake-19, Sarah-16, Mattie-13.  I also have an amazing husband, Allen of 22 years!  I almost didn't do this study because my kids are older and I felt like I had probably done my damage and I just have to accept it and move on!  Then, I started reading and I was so glad that I could relate to Lysa's stories!  Let me give you a little history of what my husband and I have been dealing with in the past 5 years.  My son Jake, whom we love very much, starting getting into some trouble when he turned 14.  He started hanging with the wrong crowd and it just went down hill from there.  He unfortunately got involved in marijuana and soon got in trouble with the law and has had to have many serious consequences besides what we were giving him.  My husband and I were many times at a loss as to what to do and it was getting out of our hands and in the hands of the law, but really, now that I look back, Jake and our whole family were and still are in God's hands!  God has a plan and it is perfect!   It is really hard to see that in the midst of the storms, but when you start to look back at all of the answered prayers and blessings God has done through those storms, you start to trust God more when another storm hits, and it will hit!  At first, of course I was embarrassed that my kind of nerdy, smart, cute son was making such bad choices, while his "good" friends were moving right along, no real problems.  Of course I was friends with his good friend's moms and they tried to give advice and comfort when they could, but unless you are going through it, you really don't understand.  Talk about feeling like a failure as a parent.  As we continued with our struggle though and went to many counseling sessions and continued to get Jake the help he needed, we learned, in our case, it really has nothing to do with us as parents.  Jake was the one making the bad choices and we were a stable family and concerned parents and we did everything we could to help him.  But, Jake had to learn all of this on his own in God's timing, not ours.  Jake continued to get into trouble and to add to it,  he had gotten his girlfriend pregnant.  This was about the only thing he hadn't done, so we really weren't surprised.  He was in jail at the time he found out, and called us from jail to tell us.  So, deep breaths everyone!  We cried, we prayed, we just were like, "wow, God, what now?"  Well, God is working it all out and we are seeing so many blessings.  Our granddaughter, Kinsley was born in May this year and she is the sweetest blessing for all of us, especially his girlfriend and Jake.  I got to be in the room when she was born, along with his girlfriend's mom and to see Jake watch her be born and break down and cry when she was, made me remember, God knows what He is doing.  Even though Jake is still dealing with the consequences of his past, he is stepping up as a father in an amazing way.  He told me that he knew he would love Kinsley but he didn't know how much he would be totally overwhelmed by her and only wants to give her all that we have given him!  Allen and I continue to support them in anyway we can. Our daughters are awesome girls and of course, now that they are both teenagers, we have some attitude problems, etc....but we continue to pray and parent the best we can.  They have seen from their brother that you will have to face consequences for your actions.
Thanks for reading my post.  I am praying for all of us Moms as each new day brings it's own challenges, but with God on our side, we can prevail and be the mom God intended us to be!!  My favorite verse when I don't think I can take anymore, is "Be still and know that I am God" Psalm 46:10. 

Wholly Committed

Wholly Committed:

Good morning ladies!  I am trying this blog thing again and hopefully I do it right!  God has really convicted me about being wholly committed to Him.  I have really been thinking about what that actually means.  It means that everything I say, do, watch, think about etc... should be with a heart like Jesus.  I have been known to just blurt out the first thing that comes to mind without thinking about how its going to effect the person I'm saying it to.  I am learning to take a deep breath (I call it my Jesus breath) and think about if what I am about to say will lift someone up or tear them down.  I'm not saying I do this every time, but the more I do it, the more peace I have and the people around me have....ie..my family!!  I also have been convicted on the amount of TV I watch and being more selective on what I watch.  This is a struggle for me, because I admit that I like to watch TV a lot.  Please pray for me!  Have an awesome day! 

Love, Christy

I love the Serenity Prayer mentioned in the 1st chapter of Stressed-Lessed Living!  I have been trying to live by that but it takes committment and resolve to do it.  My favorite version of the Serenity Prayer is:  "God grand me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change, the courage to change the only person I can, and the wisdom to know that person is me!"

Cant' wait to get started on the Blog Hop for Stressed-Less Living!