The person you need…..

Have you seen the movie Nanny McPhee?  I must admit that we watched it for the first time this week.  Not going to lie, I quite enjoyed it. About halfway through the movie I kept thinking to myself, “wow I need to get one of those sticks!”  In case you haven’t seen the movie I will give you the short version.  There are a bunch of naughty kids who have lost their mother and the dad is desperate to find a nanny they won’t run off.  One day he hears this voice saying “the person you need is Nanny McPhee”.  So Nanny McPhee shows up at their door and begins working with the children.  She is calm and quiet in the way we all wish we could be……as opposed to loosing our cool and screaming at the kids for the 87th time in a day.  But she has this walking stick that she pulls out when the kids are being particularly naughty.  She taps it on firmly on the floor and BAM……magically they are taught a lesson in some totally awesome way.  I need one of those sticks!

This week, I am not going to lie, has been some kind of rough.  To give you just a glimpse, on Tuesday Ian flushed a cardboard toilet paper holder down the toilet……plunging and nastiness followed. Jacob shoved a cheerio up his nose….like really crammed it up there…….tweezers were required.  All three boys decided to pull the mattress off of a bed and prop it up on a cheap game table to use as a slide……the table is now broken in 7 pieces and there is a hole in the wall. This was just Tuesday, do you want me to continue? A magic stick is what I need.  Or a magic nanny, either will do. You can’t make this kind of stuff up!

Days and weeks like these are just plain hard.  They are also inevitable if you are a mom. I wish I had some magic words to share with you that would tell you how to avoid them, but unfortunately I do not.  What I do know is that sometimes weeks like this can make even the greatest of moms feel like a rookie. It is so easy to slip down the slope of believing that you are not a good enough mom, that you are failing at this “job” in life.  If we aren’t careful we can start looking for a way out.  Maybe not in the literal sense of leaving our family, but there is more than one way to step out of your mommy calling. We can emotionally and mentally be completely absent from our kids and family with never stepping a foot out the door of our home. The enemy wants more than anything for us to give into these lies and fall face first into believing that He must have made a mistake when He assigned us these wild kids. 

I want you to hear something today.  Something that I have to tell myself almost every day.  They are not my words but my Father’s words.

⁹ I took you from the ends of the earth,
    from its farthest corners I called you.
I said, ‘You are my servant’;
    I have chosen you and have not rejected you.
¹⁰ So do not fear, for I am with you;
    do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
    I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Isaiah 41:9-10

You are chosen by the all-powerful and all-knowing God of the universe!  Is this life hard?  Is being a mom a tough gig? Holy Pete YES! On days like this when things get stuck up noses and melt downs occur around every corner, we must not give in to the lies that run through our heads. We must remember who we are and who’s we are.  We don’t need a magic wooden stick or a mysterious nanny to come save the day, we need Jesus.  We need more of Him.  The next time the chaos begins, what if we took a moment and cried out to Jesus for help instead of just wishing things were different? I am not saying that tomorrow will be peaceful and calm, but I am saying that when we take hold of the knowledge that we are chosen by God to be mommy to these chosen kids through a grace-ridden design…there is a magnificent strength we will find.

God has entrusted me with the care of these three boys.  These three….not a different three. God knew that on Tuesday I would need to be able to find the tweezers and the plunger all before finishing my coffee. Why is it that when things get hard I start to question whether God knew what He was doing? It’s my escape plan lingering in the back of my mind.  I know that sounds terrible but I think if you are honest you know what I am talking about. I would never leave my children! But there are so many days I feel ill-equipped to be their mom. Days where I just know that the next door supermom would never be doing what I am doing right now, her house is probably spotless and children always well-behaved.  The truth is, who cares about what she is doing?  She is not me. I am exactly where I am supposed to be today and I am so greatly blessed by and through my mayhem.  I just need to slow down enough, and stop comparing enough, and stop expecting perfection enough to see the joy in madness of our life.

My challenge to you today is when these crazy days and moments come, rest in the truth that you are God’s chosen one for your family.  He chose you!  HE CHOSE YOU!  In Him we can find our strength to not just get through the day, but to see the joy in each day.  Be blessed……find the tweezers if  you need to……and keep a plunger in each bathroom. 😉

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