"I used to think it was stressful having small children."

from Lysa TerKeurst's site:

I used to think it was stressful having small children. The bathing, changing, whining, crying, feeding and cleaning up little people’s messes all day would wear me to a frazzle sometimes. I naively would throw myself into bed and think, “when they are older this will be so much easier.”

I remember thinking these same thoughts when the children were younger.  To go anywhere was a BIG deal because I had to pack the whole house (or so it seemed.) If you added any usual weather (snow, rain, heat, etc.) or extended periods away from the house and I would get to thinking, "Is this trip necessary?"

"One day at a time." and "This too will pass." echoed in my mind. Do you remember the time you:

couldn't remember how many times you were up in the middle of the night

stopped nursing 

prepared the last bottle

gave the sippy cups away

purchase the last  jar of baby food

changed your baby's outfit for the umpteenth time in as many hours

start planning an outing at least  a day in advance

had to stop and actually calculate the amount of time you had for errands  

forgot and gave your children raisins to eat on the way over to a photo session

gave away the padded infant spoons

stopped cutting up their food into itsy bitsy bite size pieces

debated about giving them celery with peanut butter because you feared they might choke

packed the last diaper for travel

changed the last diaper

administered meds

changed monitoring leads

returned the apnea machine

spent a good 10 minutes per child putting their snowsuits and snow boots on

took snowsuits and snow boots off crying, cold and wet children five minute after they raced outside

bathed everyone in the tub at the same time

were glad you too liked the color pink

were conversant in a foreign language you never learned in school..."toddler speak"

were a gifted interpreter of "toddler speak"  for others including DH

held their first baby tooth in your hand

held their last baby tooth in your hand

stopped brushing their teeth for them

stopped brushing their hair for them

stopped buying Deft Baby laundry soap

stopped buying "no tears" shampoo

took the inflatable tub faucet guard off

gave the baby cabinet locks away

stopped making sure the toilet seats were always down

waited until the children got a little older before watching "Snow White"  because you thought it might be a little scary for them

bawled with the children at the end of "Old Yeller" and haven't watched it since

gave the car seats away

sold the cradle and cribs

bought "big girl" beds

panicked momentarily when you heard a child call out "Mommy" in a store and you frantically looked around for yours and then remembered everyone was home with DH

stopped tripping over all your tupperware strewn on the kitchen floor and on your little ones' feet

stopped having people mention you had "spit up" on your shoulder

packed away your child's favorite baby clothes, blankets

everything was about dinosaurs and horses

If any or all of the above are ongoing occurrences in your home today...enjoy the moments. Let go of whatever may keep you from enjoying these moments now. Let yourself cry when you say, "this too will pass." These are good times.

Have you ever wanted to travel back in time and shake yourself? I would say slap yourself but let’s not get physically aggressive...

For as your children grow, a transition happens. You trade physical exhaustion for mental exhaustion. Now hear my heart, I’m not trying to pull an Eeyore today and get all down...

Y’all know I love my children with every fiber of my being. I thank God for the incredible honor of having people who call me mom. I dig investing and giving and shepherding these amazing future leaders. And I take it very seriously. After all they will one day get the privilege of caring for me when I’m old. And, I am going to be a feisty old thing. Can anyone say payback! I laugh when I think about it. But that is a topic for another day.

Back to the shift to mental exhaustion. I am as confident as I can be that I have invested wisely in the nurturing of my children. I haven’t been perfect but then again none of us have. So, I’m not tired from wishing I would have done more. It’s something else.

As the leash of freedom extends with each passing year, I realize how their choices are their own. And I can’t build the security of my identity as a mom on the fragility of young people’s choices. I have to build the security of my identity as a mom on prayer.

So, intertwined in my situational prayers for them I have three fundamental prayers I always try to include:

1. God, make this child one of the most godly people of their generation.
2. God, let them get caught when they make wrong choices.
3. God, save them from the wrong friends and the wrong mate, so they may be saved for the right friends and the right mate.

And then I ask God for the courage to let Him write my kid’s testimonies. Simple. Necessary. A bit scary sometimes. But so completely comforting. And one of the best remedies to help ease the mental exhaustion all of us mommies feel at times.

What do you pray over your children?