MOM FILTER

     I have been a Mom for 6 years tomorrow.  When I first started out I was sick with anxiety.  I wanted so badly to be a perfect mom which we all know is impossible.  I wanted other's to think I was a "good mom."  This threw me into what I would call "ta da!" parenting.  I was a good mom, I loved my kids discipline consistently and had fun with them but I was living under this extra pressure that wasn't from God.  About 9 months ago God put a spot light on my "ta da" or show off parenting.  He helped me get over myself and thinking my worth was some how connected to my kids behave or how they turn out.  A common misplacement of value or so I have heard.
     Being a good Mom can become an idol that makes us a calm calculated parent in public and not so much that way in the home when no one is watching.  Being a good Mom can not be our goal.  The goal has to be obeying Christ.  When we parent with any other motive we start projecting standards on our kids that God did not intend.  Fear of what others think will never give us the clear mind to shepherd the heart of our little sinners.
     All that is the foundation of where I have come from in my Mom journey.  What I am learning now has more to do with my parenting with in the 4 walls of our home.  The place that God has given me to love, discipline, train, play, and laugh.  It is to be the safe place that my husband and kids want to be because they are loved accepted and cherished.  So what do you do when you feel like your adult world is falling apart and you still have 3 wonderful little sinner's in your home looking to you for stability, standards and fun?  There is no way to manufacture peace in and of yourself.  Believe me I have tried.  So the first step I have found  is to trust the LORD with your whole heart.  This is the first step in progress of every single life experience.  As you trust the Lord with the adult things going on you will receive peace to do the Mom job better.  There is no greater deterrent that I have found to being the Mom God has called me to than a storm going on in my heart. The only thing that has ever calmed that storm is TRUSTING the creator of heaven and earth!  Then you FILTER.  You ask the Lord how much of what is going on do you share with your kids so that when God provides their faith is built.  You press on with the day to day.  Even when what you really want to do is go to bed and wake up with all your problems are fixed.  You do the morning routine, you do the laundry, (for Me) you keep up with the lessons (home school) and play.  Never stop playing.  We are always going to have trials.  ALWAYS.  Christ promised it. S o play and laugh anyways.  When the storm brews in your heart in the middle of a good game of hide and seek, hand it over to Jesus right then and there. God cares about the things that trouble you and has a plan for your life to give you hope and a future. DIG YOUR HEALS INTO HOPE.  When you mess up and scream at your kids, not because they are that terrible but the issues of life (that you can't share with them) are weighing heavy and you just used your kids as your out let.  Apologize, nock it off,  and move on the the next task or just stop altogether and read a book with your little ones. These are not things I have mastered but by God's grace am growing in.

 Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart

Proverbs 3:3

     This is how we do it Mom's. We hang on to mercy and truth. Mercy in the Hebrew is kindness and beauty. Truth= stability! STABILITY! 

     In my current season God has shared with me that my faith will manifest itself in stability with my family. I do not walk by faith every moment of the day but I am growing and I will brag on my Lord that He has done a mighty work that makes me look forward to, or smile if you will (prov. 31:25) at my future with Him. 

     Trusting Him is the greatest thing you can do as a Mom.