Archive for Mommy Moments
One More Mother’s Day Thought
Posted by: | CommentsSorry to drag Mother’s Day out so long, but my friend Larry posted yesterday 10 ways to pray for mothers that I had shared with him 3 years ago when he asked. In looking back on those, I see that I am still in need of those requests every day.
Reflections of a Fourth Time Mommy
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First Time Mommy with my Little Abigail
The other day I was thinking back on my first pregnancy and had to laugh a bit at how differently I feel 6 years later. I can remember being pregnant with Abby and getting a call from my friend who was due a week before me in Kansas City. She had given birth a week before her due date. I was so excited for her, yet when I got off the phone I threw myself on our bed and started crying and declaring that this pregnancy was “never” going to end! I was a first time mom who really had nothing else to do but sit around and think about being pregnant. I was so anxious to meet our first little baby.
Now here I am 6 years later and getting ready to have my 4th child. This time around, I am totally content with a baby that comes late. Not that I am any less excited to meet this new little one, but a few things have changed since I was pregnant with Abby:
1. I have realized how much easier babies are on the inside! No matter how badly I may be feeling at the end of a pregnancy, it is still easy compared to the sleepless nights and care for a newborn that I will soon be experiencing. I now know what those first few weeks (and even months) entail, so I enjoy carrying the baby around in my belly as a simplicity rather than a burden.
2. I have the other kids that I want to soak up time with. Obviously I will still be able to spend time with the others kids after this baby is born, but I know that for the first few weeks, much of my time will be taken up in caring for the new little one. I especially saw that after we had our third, Naomi. Joe did a huge amount of work to care for Abby and Elijah in that time, which I was very grateful for. But I missed being able to be free to do all the little things I had done with them before. Obviously we got back to that as Naomi grew up, but it takes time. So int he past few days I have enjoyed reading lots of books, coloring in coloring books, trips to the playground, pushing them on the swings, going out for doughnuts in the morning and sleepovers in our room.
3. I am slowly learning to enjoy the season of life I am in. When I was waiting to get married, waiting to get pregnant and waiting to have my first baby, I feel like I spent so much time wishing away the season of life that I was in. Not that I have completely overcome this (I still find myself looking to the day when all the kids can go to the bathroom on their own and clip their own nails!), but I do feel like I am slowly realizing how quickly each season of life passes. So I am trying to just enjoy where I am at and not have to rush ahead to the next thing.
In reflecting back on my past pregnancies, I found 2 funny blog posts Joe had written for our family blog when Elijah was born. I will be posting those up in the next day or so, so stay tuned.
Being a Mom to a Son
Posted by: | CommentsToday is our son Elijah’s 4th birthday. This marks the end of the spring birthday season here in our house, until our little Isaiah makes his arrival in the next few weeks, Lord-willing. This is always an emotional time for me as I get to sit and reflect back on the kids’ lives thus far and the grace and mercy God has poured out on us as a family. I am always so thankful for each of their special personalities and the fact that I have had the privilege to raise them. For me, I am especially thankful that I have been able to raise at least one of each sex. There are definite differences between raising boys and girls, and each challenge and encourage me in different ways.
Raising a little boy has special meaning for me. As I look at our world, society and the state of the Christian church, one over-riding issue I see that seems to be the root of many problems is the lack of strong men leading their wives and families. It saddens me to see the number of males out there who are acting like teenagers well into their 30’s and failing to take responsibility for their lives and the lives of those around them. I often take Joe for granted because I forget how many women out there are lacking for a husband who leads them in a loving, tender, committed way that is worthy of their wives following. I am so thankful that our son has a father he can look up to who holds himself accountable before the standard of God’s Word, before other strong men in the church and before his wife that he looks to love as Jesus loved.
Just yesterday I was so grateful for the time that I get with Elijah in these early formative years to speak to him about the great truths of God and the simple every day truths of being a solid man. Lately he has been struggling to look out for the interests of others (one of the main reasons we are still reciting Philippians 2:3-11 and Hebrews 10:24 with him). As we were getting out of the van to go to the grocery store, he pushed right by Abby without waiting to let her go first. After discussing the fact that as Christians we are to look out for others interests ahead of our own, we then moved on to talking about his role as a man. I asked him if he wanted to be a husband and father one day, which he responded to enthusiastically. We were then able to talk about how God gives the command to husbands to care for their wives as the weaker vessel (1 Peter 3:7) and how he can do that by learning to honor women by holding doors for them, allowing them to go first and taking on women’s loads so that their load is lighter and his is heavier. It is those sort of moments when I am so thankful to have a son that I spend the day with to teach and share life with so that he can make a huge impact in the world, simply by being a servant leader.
Being a man does not mean demanding your own way and running over everyone in your path to be successful. It means laying your life down for others as Jesus did. It means looking to the attributes that God says will bring blessing to the world and to your own life as the standard of success (see the Beatitudes) and not to what the world tells us “success” is. I am thankful to God today for 4 years of grace in my little man’s life and pray for many more that would make him into a man after God’s own heart!
The Moment My Little Man and I Met
