ROUGH DAY!

So Chuck came home from youth tonight around 9 and I had all the girls at least trying to go to sleep. I like to do some serious "get the kids in bed so I can relax" on Wednesday nights while he is not home to get them all hyped up. Anyway, I decided that I would take a nice, childless/husbandless shower. That I would use my amazing new exhilarating, cooling face scrub (so what if I'm excited about face scrub.) and have some peace and quiet. Well obviously, since I can't ever sit still, or just plain take a shower, I had a knife trying to scrape away some of the old caulk so that we can start re-caulking some of the tile (did I spell that right? Do people even caulk anything anymore? I shouldn't know...I'm a girl) So he peeks his head into the door and what does he find but his wife, whom he knows had a really rough, long day, in the shower with a steak knife.....

lololol....

That's funny right. He was like, "Ummm babe, what are you doing in there with a knife?" To which I quickly responded that I was scraping some old caulk off the tiles while I showered.... #WHODOESTHAT?! LOL. What a relaxing shower huh?! Anyway...when I get really stressed out...I usually clean like crazy. The caulk scraping just happened to be what went down tonight.

I say all of this to talk a little bit about my day again. Not gonna go into any crazy details...but I will say this. It was one of THOSE days. You know the ones. Whether you're a teacher, parent grandparent or well anyone for that matter, it was one of those days in which nothing at all seemed to go well. Me and my big girls went round and round today. And I will tell you what...I feel like pretty much the crappiest mom in the world. There was a LOT of disobeying, lying, hitting, yelling, sneaking, more disobeying you catch my drift. And any parent or teacher knows that those kind of days will plum wear you out and make ya wanna QUIT. Well that was me today (and no really I promise that's not why I had the knife in the shower....it was and never will be THAT horrible!)

I felt as if I was getting onto the girls constantly. Matter of fact, I was getting onto them constantly. For what seemed to be the same things I always get onto them about. Big things and little things. And so by the end of the day we were all 3 just pretty much worn out. They were tired of getting scolded and I was guilty for being a lame-o mom. BUT THEN.....

I remembered our "We Choose Virtues" word of the month. It just so happens to be perseverance. The definition of perseverance that our family is memorizing for this month is, "I can do it, even when it's tough." With the correlating scripture being Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Him who gives me strength." "Awww well isn't that sweet you're teaching your kids about perseverance." One might be thinking right about now. HA HA...Not quite the case today. God used that specific virtue to ENCOURAGE ME in what I was doing. I'm sure He was not encouraging me for the times when I became impatient or lost my cool, but I know without a shadow of a doubt, that at the end of a day in which I felt like a monster mommy, God was proud of me. WHATTT??!! Proud that you scolded your kids all day?!!!! No. I needed that encouragement through the word perseverance because it is HARD to raise your kids in a Godly home. In a backwards world in which most kids do the parenting. Where parents spend their days doing whatever the kid wants. Where kids are disrespectful and rude and well YOU know...you live in the same world I do!!!

Chuck & I obviously have chosen to live a Christlike life (even though we struggle and fail daily) and we have also chosen to raise our children according to a Biblical standard. Our prayer every single day with them is that we can be more and more like Jesus every single day. SO. Was it a long sucky day. Yes. But you know what....I am teaching my girls just how important it is that they obey. And not just obey....but to obey IMMEDIATELY. There's the kicker. I have NO DESIRE to sit around and tell my kids what to do 100 times over and over each day. I have every desire to ask them to do something once, and have them do it that very first time. I know they're 2 & 4. I know I have high standards. But I'm confident in that I am doing the right thing for me and for them, when I enforce rules. Mean or strict as I might sound. I desire that, because it's in God's word. It's how God parents us. He doesn't want to have to tell us things over and over and we just do it whenever we want. He wants us to obey immediately.

I want to have girls who are set apart. Who are confident in their faith. Who make friends that love Jesus. Who have no fear but of God Himself. Who have a servants heart. Who reach out to others to let their light shine. Who are respectful. Who marry men that love God more than they love them. Who, please tell me, is going to teach MY GIRLS those things. Who is going to invest in my little sweet angels to set those standards. ME! Daily, Chuck and I do as best we know how to teach our girls how to be more and more like Jesus. That is our responsibility as parents. We recognize that calling and have agreed to walk in it, as difficult as it is.

So here's my point. Life as a parent can't always be fun. Duh right? We can't always just play dress up and prance around then play barbies and build forts and live in a beautiful imaginary perfect world....dang that'd be awesome....but the reality of parenting is that it's up to me and my sexy bearded man to discipline our kids. To teach them. To train them up in the way that they should go, so that when they are older, they will not depart from those ways. And that's not easy when almost everything I teach them is disregarded in the real world. But...I can do ALL things through Him who gives me strength and power. Even raising up three women of God. I can't do that, but as I strive myself to be like God, He will in turn help me raise my little ladies. BE ENCOURAGED!!!

Galatians 6:9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

~MAXXED OUT MAMA