We have a 6 yo first grader who is a joy, but we have never been parents to a 6 yo before and I feel like I am at such a loss! I don't know how to deal with issues that arise (lying, being sneaky, bad attitude, complete defiance) and feel like I am failing on a moment to moment basis. The only thing I can do is pray and ask God for help in making the best decisions possible for him!
We have a 4yo who is a riot and a joy but very strong willed and very sassy! We are dealing with all of that but she can be a challenge! Mostly I just feel badly because I feel like she gets forgotten in life because of the twins. And that makes me feel terrible.
Oh yeah, the twins, the 18 month old, crazy, active, terribly sleeping twins! They can be so much fun but mostly I am exhausted! They are in to everything, I mean everything! The first two kids I hardly baby proofed, these two, everything is locked up. And if for some reason we've missed something they will defiantly find it. I feel short tempered, and irritable way to much and I hate that! I keep trying to turn it over to the Lord but find myself a lot wondering where my help is! Mostly this comes from the exhaustion but that makes me feel in a very dark, lonely place!! I know that sounds terrible! And its not how I feel all the time, just when I am so tired. These babies have just been a lot to handle. I love them dearly, but when in the last 10 days they've slept through the night 2 of them it gets tiring!
There have been good days, a lot of them. And every day I laugh a lot, but I just feel overwhelmed a lot! I am thankful for words of encouragement like this:
"As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all." (Ephesians 4:1-6)
Reminds me that my Father is over all and through all and with his strength I can strive to live a life worthy of my calling!
Then the other day after being completly overwhelmed I went to my room and read these words in a devotional I have been reading:
God never said the right thing would be the easy thing. It’s not always easy to get our quiet time in with the Lord each morning when we could really use an extra hour of sleep.
It’s not always easy for us to respond with grace when the lady in front of us in the express lane has exactly 37 items (yes, we counted) and has swiped her credit card with the magnetic strip pointing out six times (admittedly, also counted).
It’s most definitely not easy to forgive (and even harder to love) someone who has betrayed our trust and hurt us deeply. I can only imagine what Hosea must have been thinking when God commanded him to not just let his adulterous wife back in his life, but to actually go get her and love her again.
But God doesn’t just command Hosea, He encourages him with an “if I can do it, you can do it too.”
“Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.” (Hosea 3:1, NIV)
He’s been in Hosea’s shoes. He’s loved the unloveable. He’s loved those who have abandoned him. He’s loved those that worship and give their best to the things of this world.
God never said the right thing would be the easy thing.
The Israelites didn’t get off scot free for their sins, and neither do we. We feel the consequences, the emptiness and the futility of living without a King. And while He’ll have grace for us as we struggle to lie in the beds we’ve made, it’s out of His deep love for us, that He won’t let himself take away the punishment.
And despite all of our transgressions, He loves us anyway. And He knows what is coming.
It’s hard to fathom how He does it. It’s hard to understand why.
We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him. (Romans 5:8, MSG)
God never said the right thing would be the easy thing.
Yet He asks us to do it anyway, He promises to redeem us, and He loves us all the while.
(from youversion She reads truth: Hosea)
So it may not be an easy life but it is my life, the life that God has given me! So any advice out there would be appreciated and I covet your prayers!
How can you not love these crazies!
