This blog...and more...Enjoy!

I have spent a lot of time thinking about this blog and the direction that I wanted it to go. What did I want to use it for, and then I was sitting in church this week and the pastor was talking about Hope (the next two weeks will be faith and love). While listening to this sermon, I kept thinking that I need to use this blog for more than just witty and whimsical posts about my family. I will still post those, but we need more God in our lives. Not just on Sunday, where we get dressed up for church, and sit through the sermon, greet friends and new comers and then go home. We need God Monday - Saturday as well. So this blog, while still about the struggles of being a single mom and the day to day amazement my children bring me, I am directing it  towards God and his work in our lives. I also thought about what Faith, Hope and Love meant to me. So I will be working on a blog that deals with these. Especially since Friday, when all our hearts were broken when an armed man, (I am not using the name of the gunman on purpose) came into a school and wreaked havoc on the lives of our most innocent. I have a blog outlined (in my head) for one related to this, because as probably almost any parent here can relate to, when you hear something of this magnitude you automatically do not want to send your children to school anymore. Homeschooling sounds like a much more viable option than sending our children to school where this can happen.

So I encourage you to join the blog as a subscriber. Read this blog and tell your friends about it.  Hopefully I can do my part in spreading God's word. We need more of God and not less in this world. There are those who claim to be spreading God's word and really they are only spouting out Satan's word. Westboro Church for instance who protest military funerals and who know want to protest at the funerals of these innocent children and brave teachers. God did not use an armed gunman to brutally murder and terrify children and teachers to seek vengeance on this world for gay marriage, or for any other horrible sin this church feels that society is making. Our God might be a jealous God, he mourns for those who do not follow Him, he does not kill them in His name and he certainly does not take vengeance out on innocent children who can't possibly know or understand any of this. Shame on this so-called church for intruding and possibly intruding on these funerals where parents are mourning the death of their child, or their loved one who so bravely protected these students to the best of their ability. I can't watch the news anymore, it is heartbreaking and even Morgan Freeman had a valid point, that by watching and retaining the name of the killer we are validating him in a small way. He pointed out that what is remembered in these kinds of tragedies is the name of the killer and not the victims. It is the victims that matter here, not the murderer. It doesn't matter how many were killed, whether or not this is the worst or close to the worst school shooting tragedy, simply because one is not more tragic than another. All are tragic, senseless and something that we will never understand.

Pray today for these families. Pray that God brings them some amount of healing and comfort. Their hearts are broken and their lives are forever changed. Only God can bring peace, healing and comfort for those mourning their loved ones.

As a parent I can't imagine my 5 year old not coming home from school to share with me his excitement over his day and that he got a green note today or being good. Or my 12 year old who may not always have a good day, but does try to find something good in her day, and who loves to tell me about her day after school. My 13 year who has a rough day at school most of the time, but still has a loving heart. My 14 year old and first born, who I have watched grow up into an amazingly independent individual. These children, a gift from God, are the joys of my life, they aggravate me, they frustrate and anger me better than anyone else can with their petty fights and senseless torture of one another, but they also bring me joy and wonder. I am constantly amazed at each of them and the things they come up with. If one of them did not come home, my world would be truly broken. Saturday I woke up to these little one's fighting and I started to yell at them, and then I stopped and thanked God that they were still here to argue with one another. I did ask them to stop and directed them to better and more productive activities. We need to thank God each and every day for our precious gifts. We need to put Him first in our lives.

Until the next Scribble.....

Praying for our Monsters...:)

Hello...

So here is to a frustrating night of learning. Our kids are our greatest source of joy, but they can also be our greatest source of frustration. I love being a mom, but nights like tonight remind me why I need God in my life and in my family. He promises to love us even through our mistakes and trust me I made plenty tonight. I let my frustrations get the better of me and that is never a good thing. I definitely came unglued tonight. (BTW the book Unglued by Lysa TerKeurst is amazing!)

God reminds us that while we are not perfect, neither are our children, and they are going to test our limits and our patience to see what they can get away with. They are kids....even though sometimes it feels kind of like a gang of ninja warriors attacking. As parents we need to guide them and guide their behavior in the right direction. We need them to turn their eyes towards God.

As moms, we take on a lot, as single moms, we take on even more and some days it feels like it is all just to much. No one ever says their goal in life is to be a single parent, and God created parents in twos for a reason, but unfortunately we are not perfect and things don't always end up the way they should or the way we planned. So while we struggle to maintain our homes, our busy schedules, and juggle all those things that we as mothers (and fathers) struggle to juggle, we need to sit back for a minute (easier said then done, I know) and breath. Pray for our kids, pray for ourselves, and pray for the parent who is absent. Pray over your family. As Christian parents there is nothing more important in our parenting lives than praying for our children.

I know its hard, believe me, I am human and there are days when I want to shake my child and ask what on earth he/she is thinking....seriously my 14 year old has blue hair...blue! My children are amazing and they each have their own quirky and unique personality that makes watching them grow the best thing on earth. Sure if we didn't have children, our homes would be cleaner, our lives would be quieter, we would have more time for ourselves and to go out, but, it would be completely and utterly boring.

So the next time your precious little one is suddenly turned into a whiny-crying-tantrum-I-hate-you-mom-throwing monster that without this monster you would be bored, even if somewhat relaxed. Grab a cup of coffee, read your bible and pray for your little monsters, they need it and so do you!

Until the next Scribble....