{"id":181,"date":"2014-05-10T23:40:00","date_gmt":"2014-05-10T15:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifestinymiracles.com\/2014\/05\/10\/happy-mothers-day-2014\/"},"modified":"2014-10-03T18:18:47","modified_gmt":"2014-10-03T10:18:47","slug":"happy-mothers-day-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifestinymiracles.com\/2014\/05\/happy-mothers-day-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy Mothers’ Day 2014!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Motherhood is an awesome privilege…one which I am immensely thankful for. But mothering is hard work, some days, I feel stretched at all sides till I am losing it…This Mothers’ Day, I am reminded that I have the best job in the world but I need to set my priorities right in order to be the Godly mother that God intended me to be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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 Can’t be more grateful than to be a Mom…<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

One of my favourite Christian Pastors, Ted Tripp (author of Shepherding a Child’s Heart<\/a>) once said: \u201cParenting will mean that you can\u2019t do all the things that you could otherwise do. It may mean your home doesn\u2019t look like a picture from Better Homes and Gardens. It will impact your career and ascent on the corporate ladder. It will alter the kinds of friendships you will be able to pursue. It will modify the amount of time you have for your hobbies, your television time, or how many books you read. It will mean that you can\u2019t develop every interest that comes along. The costs are high\u2026 God calls you to invest yourself in this way with your children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another renowned Christian author, Elisabeth Elliot wrote in her book: “There is no such thing as quality time. All quantity time is quality time. Raising a family means that we just can\u2019t do everything. Squeezing in \u2018quality time\u2019, amongst our busy lives, is short changing our children. They don\u2019t need to be doing loads of activities, or going to playgroup or preschool every day. They need us. They need our time. Of course, there are times in our lives when we need to make very difficult choices, that may impact our children. But we also need to make sure that we are not pursuing ourselves, our work, our ministry at the expense of our children.”<\/p>\n

As Moms, we should not sacrifice so much of our lives for our children, such that we become worshippers of our children. Sometimes we get so caught up in doing the best for our children, that we lose out on relationships with those around us \u2013 our husbands, our extended family, and our friends. When we find time for those around us, we are modelling to our children how to have healthy relationships, while maintaining a solid family life.<\/p>\n

We Moms need to avoid the trap of worshipping our house. We can\u2019t make our houses so important, that they come before the family, or our friends. If we don\u2019t invite people around, because we are concerned that our house might get messed up or if we don\u2019t allow our children to play in the house because we don\u2019t want it messed up; if we can\u2019t reach out to others for fear of them encroaching on our house; if we can\u2019t bear to stick up our children\u2019s precious art work for fear of having things on the wall, if we spend every moment of the day scrubbing and cleaning after our children; if we don\u2019t have time to spend with our children because we are too busy keeping the house clean; if our children are anxious about making a mess; if we are buying items of furniture that aren\u2019t allowed to be used for fear of getting them dirty\u2026we need to rethink our attitude.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome houses try to hide the fact that children shelter there,<\/span><\/div>\n

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Ours boasts of it quite openly, the signs are everywhere.<\/span><\/div>\n

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For smears are on the windows, little smudges on the doors.<\/span><\/div>\n

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I should apologise, I guess, for toys strewn on the floor.<\/span><\/div>\n

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But I sat down with the children, and we played and laughed and read.<\/span><\/div>\n

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And if the doorbell doesn\u2019t shine, their eyes will shine instead.<\/span><\/div>\n

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For when at times I\u2019m forced to choose the one job or the other,<\/span><\/div>\n

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I\u2019d like to cook and clean and scrub, but first I\u2019ll be a mother.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
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(anon)<\/div>\n

Don\u2019t fall into the mothering trip of smothering our children and not allowing them to fail. As they grow, there are going to be times when they need to be allowed to make some choices that end in difficult situations, from which they learn valuable life lessons. There are going to be times when they are hurt, or see the negative side of others. They are going to need to understand the consequences of their actions. We cannot protect them from everything, and we need to, at some point, allow them to grow up. We cannot protect them for ever. Things are easier when they are young \u2013 we have much more control over their environment. But keeping control for too long will be frustrating to them, and possibly not helpful in the long term.<\/p>\n

Finally, let’s enjoy every stage! Train them diligently, love them, cuddle them, savour every precious moment with them.<\/p>\n

The ultimate goal is not to raise perfect children. They won\u2019t ever be perfect \u2013 after all, they don\u2019t have perfect parents! We want to spend eternity with them in Heaven. We can have beautifully trained, obedient children in beautiful tidy homes, but if they don\u2019t know Jesus as their Lord and Saviour, then we may have focused on the wrong things. Of course, we cannot determine all their choices, including spiritual, and they will need to make their own decision to follow Christ, but we can be mindful that we haven\u2019t focused on all the outward things, at the expense of their hearts.<\/p>\n

This Mothers’ Day, let us be reminded that what an awesome privilege it is to raise these children that God has given us. And what an awesome responsibility that God has placed on the shoulders of those He has appointed Mothers.  <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are little feet that follow in my footsteps every day,<\/span><\/div>\n

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Their little voices echo so much of what I say.<\/span><\/div>\n

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Sometimes I\u2019m not too happy with all the things I see,<\/span><\/div>\n

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Then I begin to realize that they\u2019re imitating me.<\/span><\/div>\n

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My patience seems to falter and I speak with too much haste \u2013<\/span><\/div>\n

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\u2018Til I hear my Saviour speaking when I look into each face.<\/span><\/div>\n

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\u201cOh God, please grant me wisdom as I train each little one,<\/span><\/div>\n

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Help me set a good example, as You Yourself have done.<\/span><\/div>\n

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I would not ask for riches, or that they famous be,<\/span><\/div>\n

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But may each find Christ as Saviour and live each day for Thee.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
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(anon)<\/div>\n
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\u201cLet us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.\u201d Galatians 6:9<\/b><\/div>\n

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 Source: Motherly Mutterings<\/a><\/div>\n
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May I take this chance to wish all my readers, near and far, a most Blessed Happy Mothers’ Day. <\/div>\n
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Motherhood is an awesome privilege…one which I am immensely thankful for. But mothering is hard work, some days, I feel stretched at all sides till I am losing it…This Mothers’ Day, I am reminded that I have the best job in the world but I need to set my priorities right in order to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,115],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p59hHF-2V","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifestinymiracles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifestinymiracles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifestinymiracles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifestinymiracles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifestinymiracles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifestinymiracles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifestinymiracles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifestinymiracles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifestinymiracles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}