Mom Heart Moments #225

These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.

PERHAPS I AM JUST MORE OF a wimp than most moms and was less prepared and had a weaker character, but I have struggled so many times in life! My days have been made up of thousands of little moments, insignificant to the public eye: changing one more diaper, listening to the heart’s cry of one more teenager, encouraging Clay through one more year of financial difficulty, living through one more season of faith when it all has felt overwhelming.

Isolation and loneliness have been aching companions at different times —feeling that I don’t fit in with many people. I have felt lost in the storms of life.

Other times, I have felt like I would drown from feeling the weight of my children’s lives and trying to keep them afloat —struggling with differing personalities, meeting their needs, answering their spiritual demands, bearing with them through very difficult seasons like the sleepless nights of babyhood and the mysterious years of toddlerhood, all the trials and joys of elementary school, teenage storms, and young adult decisions and pressures.

Yet somewhere, deep inside, God gave me a tenaciousness to keep going through the storms, to keep trusting Him, to keep believing Him, to have faith that He is good, even when I don’t feel His presence.

Integrity in these seemingly insignificant moments will become the measure of integrity over a lifetime and build a picture of faithfulness for others to recall when they go through their own hard times. “Oh, I remember —Mom kept going. She kept loving. She kept believing. I guess I can too. Her story is my foundation for encouragement.”

Ask the Lord today to strengthen your own resolve to keep moving forward. Be the person you needed as a child, and give your children a picture of faithful steadfastness.