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October 10, 2006
Mini Me--God's Mouthpiece
I'm reading a mothers' devotional book called Just Give Me a Little Piece of Quiet. It's so wonderfully encouraging and down-to-earth. One of my best shower gifts. Anyway, today's entry totally rang true. It was entitled "Don't get too big for your britches" and talked about how kids can quickly humble us and expose our weaknesses. Even at her tender age, and unbeknownst to her, Natalie makes me acutely aware of my sin nature like nothing before. The things that frustrate me the most about her are totally my frustrating qualities (and Peter has realized the same about himself). So, in God's master plan, in order to help her I've got to work on myself first--tricky, tricky, Lord :) But on the road to that goal there are many "Mom guilt" moments when I've lost my cool or haven't been as gentle and loving with her as I should. Argh. I'm amazed at how selfish I am and how angry I can become in my own strength. And it's not as though my child is a horrible child! (Could also have to do with lack of sleep :)). Really forces me to seek the Lord often. The book puts it well:
Our Father uses our kids to bring us down a notch or two, preferably to our knees, where we have no choice but to seek divine insight, wisdom, and courage. That's where God wants us, softhearted, pliable, open to his instruction and guidance. We may think we can complete our work, maintain our closest relationships, and fulfill our calling as parents on our own. Clearly though, we can't--we have our kids to give us timely reminders of that!--and the sooner we learn that the smoother our journeys will be.So here I've gone again, waxing philosophical. I promise the next entry will be fun with cute new pictures. Thanks to my buddy Jennie for a great phone call today. Our commiseration partly inspired this post. Love you and good luck with your almost 3-year-old!
Posted by Shannon at October 10, 2006 09:08 PM