BE THE MOM!

I am the mom who didn’t rock babies to sleep but let them fall asleep in their own beds. I am the mom who chose to have her boys circumcised, that had epidurals several  hours in to labor, that chose to immunize my 6 healthy children even after I read the information.  I am the mom who homeschooled for 10 years and then one by one, or two by two sent my children to public school or charter school and keeps the door open so that if ever I feel like someone should come back home, they can.
I am the mom who let her kids listen to some “secular” music and play some video games even though I don’t like them at all.  I am also the mom that checks her kids texts, twitter, instagram, facebook regularly and randomly.  I am the mom who doesn’t care for sleepovers.  I am the mom who says if you haven’t already made a plan to do something after church on Sunday, don’t ask me once we get there.  Plan ahead!!  I am the mom who didn’t make my kids clean their plate and eat all their veggies first at dinners away from home, I figured if I was feeding them a pretty balanced diet the rest of the week, who really cares what they eat on special occasions.  I am the mom who just wouldn’t allow certain words to be used but have realized that I just have to loosen up sometimes.  I am the mom that never told my kids there was a Santa Claus or a tooth fairy but always reminded them that it wasn’t their place to tell their friends that information.  I am the mom who really doesn’t try to make things look fair to my kids. I am the mom who didn’t give treat bags to other kids at my kids birthday parties.  I am the mom that parented my last children differently than my first ones.

I am the mom who might raise my voice every once in a while, but not nearly as often as I used to.

I am the mom who wonders if I’ve done enough, loved my kids well enough, prayed enough.

I am the mom who will make room for a sick or sad child on my side of the bed, even if my youngest is 9.  I am the mom who loves to be in the kitchen with my kids.  I am the mom who freaks out a little bit when my kitchen is left a mess.  I am the mom that has at some point(ok, several points) locked herself in the bathroom so that I didn’t hurt someone.

. I am the mom who knows I need to laugh more and be a little more spontaneous.  I am the mom who doesn’t wash my kids laundry, make their beds, or fix their lunches before school.  I am the mom who won’t buy alarm clocks because I still love to wake them up every morning.

I am the mom who wants my kids to learn from my mistakes but knows that sometimes consequence teaches a lesson better than wisdom. I am the mom who holds  and cries with broken hearted teenagers.

I am the mom who is still trying to figure out this parenting thing after almost 20 years, messing up and asking forgiveness, praying that they will forgive and forget the things I shouldn’t have said and hope they live by and cling to the things I did that pointed them to their Savior.

I am the mom who is trusting the Lord to cover my mistakes, to do the work in my children’s hearts that I can never accomplish. I am the mom that prays that He will captivate them and assure them that they are forever loved.

I am the mom I am. You are the mom you are and even if we differ in every decision we make, THAT IS OK.  We can still be making right decisions for our families.  Don’t try to be the mom that someone else was created to be.

Let’s BE the moms that OUR kids need.  Not the neighbors kids, not your sisters kids, not your pastors kids.  The only way we know how to be that mom is to seek the Lord, trust Him and surrender our ways to His.  Help us Jesus, Be the MOM!