Today, as Pastor Josh was talking to us before entering our weekly staff devotion, he talked about how if we don't keep our ministry jobs fun we loose our joy in doing them. He also talked about the scripture stating the "joy of the Lord is our strength." When we loose our Joy we are truly loosing our strength.
As we were standing there, my mind quickly went to the thought that it is the same way when being a parent. As the days drag on you may get in a rut with you children. It becomes so easy to look at parenting as a job instead of the blessing it really is. The larger your family the easier it becomes to fall into the mentality of parenting as something you have to do rather than opportunity you have been blessed with by God.
For those of you who do not know a lot about me, I am not your ordinary mom. For years, I begged and pleaded with the Lord for a baby. My heart broke watching those all around me with growing families and knowing that my husband and I had so much love to share with children, but seemed to be missing out on the blessing. We had our adopted daughter April, but longed for more children. You see April was 7 when she came into our lives, and we longed to enjoy the experience of a baby. After a night of desperate cries at the altar of a little church I felt a peace that God was at work and he was about to blow my mind! Little did I know just how insane his plan would be!
Nearly 24 hours later, I receive a placement call asking us to take a sibling group of 3! They were 4, 2 and 1...... all were developmentally behind and the one year old was truly at a 3-4 month developmentally level. We were finally going to have a chance to experience the 1st steps, words, etc.!! Talk about being careful what you pray for! Over night we went from a family of 3 to a family of 6! Then to our surprise the next week when we met the birth parents of the new additions, and the mom was pregnant!! 4 months later we brought home our baby girl. That was over 5 1/2 years ago.... tonight we sit and wait on a date for adoption finalization of all 4 littles!!
You can imagine how crazy life with that many little ones is, but imagine how much more chaos is involved with case workers, court dates, monthly paperwork, etc. After years of the same old same old and trying to keep up with all the requirements of fostering along with my job and then school at times it became so overwhelming. I didn't take the time to indulge in studying God's Word or worshiping as I should. I also began to see all the "nonsense" as pointless and interfering with life. When in reality, this "nonsense" is how I became such a blessed woman!
I have learned to find a little bit of JOY in every situation. Nothing lifts me up more than the giggles of my children or the sounds of them singing to K-Love as we drive down the street. So what I am trying to say is it takes strength and energy to endure the day to day activities of being a Godly active parent. We receive the Joy required to be an effective parent by staying close to the one who has given us this opportunity and treating our children as the blessings they are. If you have lost your Joy in the parenting process, please do not be discouraged. Draw close to the Lord and renew your Joy in HIM. When you are refreshed and in the right frame of mind you have the ability to affect your child's life in such a positive way!
As I draw this to a close I feel the need to say a prayer for anyone reading this.....
Dear God,
Please touch the heart of anyone who reads this post. So many times we loose ourselves in our "roles" in life and forget the Joy from the beginning of the journey. Lord, I pray that if anyone who is reading this has lost their Joy in walking with you, parenting the blessings you have bestowed upon them or even being that friend you want them to be to others, that they will draw close to YOU and also remember the Joy they once had in order to renew their strength and and help them be the best Christian, parent or friend they can be!
In Jesus' name AMEN.
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