A Call to Motherhood

     From a young age I knew that my ministry in life would be to be a mother of how ever many children the Lord wanted to give me. My prayer was that I would be a good mom and that my kids would grow in the ways of the Lord. Well it is very easy to say what you want and to have big dreams of a big family but when that chapter of your life is upon you it is completely different. I have been bless with two beautiful children and both miracles in their own ways. Raising children is very different and much harder than what I ever thought it would be. Many woman have said that it is the hardest job you will have but it also the best job. How right they are.
     Being an only child most my life and never really got into the whole babysitting other peoples kids I didn't have much experience when it came to taking care of kids. I was very surprised at how easy I picked up on things when I had my first child. My husband and I had discussed a few things we knew for sure that we wanted to do when it came to raising children but there was still a lot we needed to learn. It has taken awhile to figure out routines but now that we have two children life is very interesting.
     We had a pretty calm life with just one but now that our second child is here and our first has entered the crazy two's life has taken a different turn. Many days I find myself getting so frustrated and usually over the smallest things. Neither one of my children are really bad they are usually just acting up at the same time and it is more then my laid back spirit can take sometimes. Over the past few weeks the Lord has been showing me different things that I have been doing when it comes to parenting and I thought I would pass it on to other moms in the same position as me.
     First would be that I am not lifting them up to Him enough. I do pray for them, usually about their futures, but I haven't been praying for them when there is a situation going on right now. So I have been trying to focus on this more when the tough times come. Lately my daughter has not wanted to take her naps and has started throwing more tantrums at random. It was these times that I would start to get so frustrated and raise my voice at her because I thought I had to be firm to get my point across. But lately I have been reminded of what the Lord has been teaching me and so when those times come I sit down with her and we pray out loud that she would sleep well or calm down. It is usually not long after that that she falls asleep or goes quietly and plays. Prayers work!
     The second thing would be the things I allow in the house, mainly through the TV. We don't watch bad things in fact it is usually set to cartoons but I found myself leaving them on longer and longer each day so that she would be happy. Who am I letting teach my children?! It should be me spending one on one time with them not some made up thing on the TV.  The TV is being turned off and we are spending more time playing even if it means that I am more worn out at the end of the day.
     The third thing would be to cherish even the tough times. I have a four month old who doesn't like to sleep all the way through the night yet and that means not much sleep for me. At first it is always easy to do the early morning feeding because you are still excited about this new little baby in your arms. But after night after night of getting up and not much sleep you start to get drained of that excitement. So I had to start thinking of that time as not a burden but as a blessing. There will come a day when I will miss sleeping next to that little face and feeling like he needs only ME his mom to help him. I have learned to laugh when he is wide awake at 3:30 in the morning and know that I get to spend that time with just him. The baby stage of life goes by so fast and I should cherish it and not wish it to speed up just so I can have more sleep.
      There are so many more things that I have been learning but these are the main ones for now. I hope this helps encourage any mother out there who is tired or frustrated. We are called to do this ministry and if we don't who else will raise up our children in the ways they should go.