Skip to main content

My prayer for You and for Me: Kneeling at the Cross




The month is drawing to a close and I have committed to writing once a month, but oh how I feel inadequate to share words of wisdom on parenting and faith. The cold winter blahs have taken their toll. The constant desires to play IPad, IPhone, Minecraft, and computer games are slowly shattering the memories of many years of screen free play, creative endeavors, and hours of reading or coloring that once graced our daily lives. As a mom of older children, I am finding my children need me less from day to day, but truly they need me more. They need my grace, patience, comfort, wisdom. They only pretend to need me less.
It is the Lenten season, a time to draw near to Christ, remember the One who saves. I am reminded clearly that I am inadequate. I raise my voice, I grow weary and impatient. I allow the screen play for moments of solitude. I don't want to cook, clean, go grocery shopping, or fold laundry. I want to go somewhere warm, I need me time, I need a break.  Lord, I can't do it all. No one can, no matter how hard they try to make us believe otherwise. We can't have the perfect job, the perfect home, perfect wardrobe, three healthy meals a day; fit, healthy bodies; perfectly well-behaved and groomed children. Lord, it is a facade. We are inadequate, we need your grace. We need to sit at your feet and experience your love.


In this time of Lent, I open my hands to God and admit my faults. I need my Savior, for I am weak, but He makes me strong.
2 Corinthians 12:8-10 “But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 
Lord, thank you that your grace and your love are enough. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13.
As I am willing to admit my faults, my children can recognize theirs, they draw near to the Cross, to the One who takes away sin and makes us new.  Humility and not pride; gratitude and not entitlement; service and not demands; love and not hate. It is our job as parents to model these characteristics through the power of the Holy Spirit. As we fall down at the feet of Jesus,  we lead our children, our families to need Christ more and to seek after Him.

My prayer for you is that you would set aside your need to be seen as having it all, or doing it all. Admit your weaknesses, let Christ wrap you in his arms of mercy. Let your children see you needing
Christ that they would rest In Him as well. Amen and Amen.....


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lean Into the God who Gives True Rest

 It’s 3am, our infant is beginning to stir and wake. She is hungry again after only two hours since she nursed last. I have to will my eyes open, suffer the pain of staying awake while truly exhausted. I think how nice it will be when she sleeps through the night and yet, these sweet little fingers holding mine. Her soft breaths of contentment reveal her trust in me. It’s 4 am, I can’t sleep. I walk by my toddler’s room, see her sweet curls, finger wrapped around them. It has been a rough day, temper tantrums in the middle of the store, refusal to nap. How sweet now, as she lays on her pastel butterfly sheets clutching her “Lambie.” It’s 12:30am, she’s still not home. I will my eyes to stay open, waiting for her to come through the door. I start to worry, I shouldn’t. She’s always been responsible, she has a good group of friends. But what if...? What about...? My prayer in these moments is that God would protect my children, wrap his loving arms around them. They are ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Marriage

My husband loves to grow roses and is truly successful at doing so. He grew up on a farm and has absorbed the green thumb of knowing how much fertilizer, when to prune, how often to water. I am keenly aware lately of how marriage can be viewed much like a rose; going through seasons of growth, seasons of dormancy, sometimes needing extra encouragement and attention, sometimes flourishing with very little focus. We have grown up together, since I was 15, and he 16. We are now nearing 40. Our eyes and hearts were absorbed with each other, having very few responsibilities or distractions. As time has passed, the joys and frustrations of raising children; dealing with finances; learning to share the burden of added responsibilities have caused us to hurt one another, question, fail to appreciate. There have been moments of wanting to give up, years even of failing to communicate well. But, through it all, there are several truths that have held us fast, kept us strong, nurtured us in our ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Close to His Heart

                                                 We had just finished pushing Thomas the Train down the track to meet up with his red friend James, and read the last few pages of  Curious George Gets a Medal . It was time to get our coats on and head home for nap time, crossing my fingers he didn't fall asleep in the car. I pulled his blueberry hat over his ears to bear the Massachusetts winter chill, and guided his little arms into the royal blue marshmallow puff coat I thought would be so warm. Yet, now, the coat was an object of regret because what two year old wouldn't scream in opposition to being bound like a mummy, unable to move.  I wasn't sure if it was the coat or not wanting to leave, but the wailing began.     Feet stomping, throwing himself on the floor kicking, he screamed, “No, Mommy, I don't want to go home!No,...
Post a Comment
Read more