ask believe do

Parenting is exhausting.

If you are a parent, you already know this.  I certainly don't need to tell you.

If you are a pet owner and not a parent, let me save you from looking like a complete and utter moron:  No, you do not know what we mean.  Your dog or cat or pot bellied pig isn't even a fraction of what a real, live, living, breathing, emotion-weilding, sinful nature-filled human is.  There is no shame in admitting that you have no clue.  In fact, you'll be much more respected and admired for not trying to compare your pug to someone else's three year old.

Done with the rant.  For now.

I have no idea why God would bless me with four children.  Four.  Four or more children are for women who are those super-mom types.  You know them - they never raise their voice at any of their 16 children.  They homeschool them all.  The daughters all have their hair done in cute braids or curls or something sweet and pretty, and the boys all have clean fingernails.  All the kids are polite and well spoken - they look you in the eye, smile a real smile, say sir or ma'am…. all that nauseatingly nice stuff that we not-so-super parents wish our kids would do.

I yell way to much (I'm not even saying that I "raise my voice", because that would be a little too mild!).  My kids would be the biggest idiots if I tried to homeschool them.  I don't even try any more to help them with their homework.  That has always been a disaster, right from Kindergarten.  We won't even talk about braids, nails and please do not bring up manners.  At least that part I at least try to teach, most of the time.

It seems that at the end of almost every day I flop into bed and wonder what to do about ______ child because of __________.  They just take turns.  Often they don't even do that - they have the nerve to double up on issues in one day.  Do they have sibling meetings?  "Hey, lets all have issues today!  Forget this taking turns business."

Sigh.

I love all four of them so stinking much and I feel like I do them a disservice every day.  I want to be a good mother to them all and yet I keep messing up.  And I can't possibly be wise enough, strong enough, patient enough, knowledgeable enough….. you get the picture….. to raise them in the way I know is best.

But God does.

There is more comfort than you can ever imagine in that truth.  He not just invites, but longs for me to go to Him for all of those things: wisdom, strength, patience, knowledge and so much more.  He has it in abundance - more than humanly possible - and He is ready, willing and able to equip me with them for the task of raising these four amazingly beautiful kids that He has blessed me with.

Ask.  Believe.  Do.