These older women must train the younger women to love their husbands and their children. Titus 2:4
What kind of barbaric women have to have someone train them to love their children? Geesh!?
I know, I know! That would be me. I’m pretty sure that little verse in Titus 2 is for me.
Way back when, I had high hopes of motherhood being easy breezy. I mean, I did learn from all the mistakes of all the dismal mothers around me.
But here I am a 40 year-old mother raising six high-energy kids who spill a lot of stuff, yell a lot, don’t listen, argue, fuss, challenge me and sometimes are… well hard to love.
This is my house.
In this chaos I have learned some ways to love my children in their most unlovable moments.
Remember who they are.
This are the kids that I desperately wanted. Each one of them was a life I yearned to hold in my arms. Each one is life I asked for, dreamed for, planned for and prepared for.
They are answers to my prayers. They are marvelous, creative, wonderful students of life who are learning their way and discovering their created purpose every day and they are mine.
Remember who I am.
I am the guardian of these souls. Their true Father commissioned me to be their mother and to ultimately point them back to Him.
That doesn’t happen in church or Sunday school. That happens in real life. That happens when their interactions with me mirror the grace, love, patience and judgement of Jesus Christ.
Remember who God is.
Every moment of frustration, irritation and tribulation I bear with these kids is minimal compared to what I have put my Father through.
I have not been an easy one to raise up but I am abundantly grateful that He kept me all the while.
The LORD disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child. Heb. 12:6
