Fall is probably my favorite season. I love the cooler weather and getting to wear layers and boots. Of course, I might be sweating after 10:ooam, because, well, Houston. I love the smell of all my fall candles burning in the house and I especially love the closeness of Thanksgiving and Christmas! With the wonderfulness of Fall comes the tour season for Tauren. He always does a fall tour and it's always awesome and bit challenging. I always try to keep the right attitude, but honestly it's difficult for me. I am doing a lot of things alone and having to be the organized, clean, loving, caring mom on one hand and the fun, crazy, wrestling, dad on the other. And then throw in the disciplinarian in there. It's a lot to handle. I know a lot of you experience this as well. My biggest challenge is church on Sundays.
I had a situation this weekend where, for a minute, I almost talked myself out of going. I drive 45 minutes to get to church and then it takes me AT LEAST 30 minutes to get the boys checked in to their classes. We have a VERY BIG church. lol. Once I get to my seat, I'm pretty tired, not gonna lie. After service, I do it all again and load them back and head to a restaurant with my family where I wrestle the kids some more until we go home for naps. I pretty much die once I lay down. haha.
I just had that convo in my head where I was like, "you really could just watch online. The boys don't even know it's Sunday. They won't know we are missing service." I pushed that out of my head and powered through and decided to have a good attitude through it as well.
I'm so glad I did. As challenging as it is, every time I get into the church, my heart is filled and I am renewed. I need the community of fellow believers, I need to have focused, uninterrupted worship time with the body of Christ, and MOST importantly, I need to show those boys that being faithful to the house of God and being consistent is VITAL.
We may think our kids don't notice the times we sleep in and miss church, or the lack of them catching us reading our bible or praying, but they do. It is shaping them. One day, I want my boys to say, "my mom never missed church, even when my dad was gone and it was challenging. I always saw her reading her bible or would hear her calling our names in prayer." I don't wanna hear them say this so I can be praised in some way, but because I know I will have impacted their lives for Christ. They will see that I value those things and they in turn will want to value them as well.
Moms. Single moms, working moms, SAHMS, moms that have husbands who don't come to church, tired moms, you can do this. HOLD IT DOWN! If you are doing this alone sometimes, or even all the time, you are the only example your kiddos have. It is important that you are consistent and at church every week. It's important that you live a life of integrity. It's important that you are consistent and faithful.
My hat goes off to you. God sees you. Henry may have some donut on his face from that "healthy" breakfast you fed him and Susie may have on mixmatched socks, but you got them there. You are making a HUGE impact. You may not see it right now, but you are.
Luke 16:10 “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities."
Lean in to Life. It’s messy, but beautiful.
Much love,
LB