And I do. I do it anyway.
Enter the blanket of guilt. Why did I do that again??? I'm ruining my children. They will grow up to resent me and their childhood. I'm a terrible mother! Why did God even entrust me with these precious souls? I can't get it right!
In His goodness, He has shown me that I'm striving. I'm trying to "be a good mom" and not resting in grace and love.
"Freedom from the stain of sin. Rest from our strivings to be worthy in ourselves. Love that never changes. Mercy for all our failures. Grace that saves eternally. These are things that Christ lived, died, and rose again in order to give us - precisely because we can't get them any other way. We can't achieve them and we can't earn them. No matter how strong or how good we are. No matter how hard we try. They are gifts and everyone knows a gift is to be received, not earned." - Christ in the Chaos by Kimm CrandallIf you ask my husband, he will tell you that one major area I've been working on is my tone of voice - with him as well as towards my girls. I know it's not honoring to the Lord when I speak harshly towards my husband or my children. I want to change. And I have been striving to do so in my own power.
"But our works are simply a means of living out the standing God has granted us, by grace, through Christ's sacrifice. The worlds flow from the grace, they don't produce the grace." - Christ in the ChaosI'll never get it right. And He already has. And even when I do choose the right response, it's not me! It's Him!
So the key is, for me, to not beat myself up when I get angry and respond incorrectly over and over. The key is to continue to show my family that I am weak and He is strong; to ask for their forgiveness and point them to the Savior. And those times when I do get it "right", I cannot bask in my own glory of success - but praise the One who gave me the power to overcome my sin!
The Lord gave me Proverbs 15 after dwelling on my guilt. That chapter speaks a lot on how you use your words. I picked out a verse and the girls and I made collages with magazines to serve as a visual for everyone how our words and even tones can affect others.
"Hot tempers cause arguments but patience brings peace" - Proverbs 15:18
I hope to improve on these areas more and more. I know I'll never be perfect. And now I'm at the place where I'm okay with that. :)
1 comment:
I think it's important to also remember that there is no condemnation in Christ. It's so easy to fall into the trap of condemning ourselves over and over again. It's a hard, uphill battle and almost daily here. Some nights I go to bed racked with guilt, even over something small. I cried to my husband a few weeks ago that I didn't know what the heck I was doing. There are so many more rewards with motherhood but to many of us we see the bad moments more clearly and let them cancel out all the wonderful gems throughout the day. My kids leave me a sweet note about how much they love me and tell me I'm THE best mom in the world and I feel this twinge in my heart and want to be like, "If I'm such a good mom then why do I snap if you spill yogurt all over the floor?" But I don't. I smile and say thank you and try to believe what they believe. I vow to do better in my heart. Love keeps no record of wrong. How precious, innocent and sweet children are.
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