Waiting to React ~

Proverbs 3:5  Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;

NIV

I read a Meme this week that said, “Everything in your life is a reflection of a choice you have made. If you want a different result, make a different choice.”

That is so true.  Where I am in life is a direct result of choices I’ve made in the past.  I actually keep a list of, “Stupid things I’ve done and what I’ve learned from it”.  Sometimes, I remember the lessons.  Sometimes, I react with pure emotion.  Never, ever a good idea.

How we react to day to day situations play a huge part on the outcome.  One of the most difficult lessons for me to remember is to not react/try to fix/respond immediately, but to wait until my emotions “have some sense”.  Pray, wait, listen, trust in the Lord that when the time is right, He will give me the answer.  

God, a lot of women, including me, struggle with waiting on You in our day to day lives.  Friendship’s end, husband’s say something, kids are brats and so on.  Give us the strength to turn to You for guidance when we don’t understand how to “fix” these problems.  I know that getting my feelings hurt and reacting either in anger or defensively is not how You’d want me to react.  Help me work on the trust thing.  Teach me to have grace in this season of my life.

Staying in "Like"~

2 Timothy 4:17  “But the Lord stood with me and gave me strength…..”  NIV

Sometimes, my husband just gets on my damn nerves.  You guys will just have to excuse that statement.  It’s one of those “I cuss a little” days.  I won’t go into detail, I’ll just say, “Bless his heart.”  If you’re Southern, you’ll understand.

Being in love is easy.  Being in “like”, however, is not.  There are days when I just do not like the man I love.  I would bet all of my best marbles that he feels the same way about me at times.  (Probably more than I’d like to admit).  You know those days when you have to practice all of your Bible verses about kindness, forgiveness, tolerance, and the whole 13th Chapter of 1st Corinthians.  I have to sing a verse or two of “Jesus Hold My Hand”, too.

God, please help me to remember that my husband is precious in Your eyes.  You love him just like he is.  Today, I’ve struggled to like this man I love.  Help me to see him as You see him.  Give me a grateful heart that I have a good husband.  Thank you for standing with me and giving me strength as I work to get my attitude right.  And thank You for forgiving me for cussing...again.

Grandchildren ~

Proverbs 17:6  Grandchildren are the crown of the aged, and the pride of children is their parents. ISV

Grandchildren...I wish I’d had them first.  Between the two of us, we have 8 perfect little angels, ranging from 16 years old to 9 months old.  I love them all so much.  

I don’t get to see them as much as I’d like to, but when I do, I’m just amazed at how smart, funny, well-behaved, and … well, ‘perfect’ they are.

I am so much more tolerant with my grandchildren than I was with my children.  My son tells me all the time to make them mind, or “Mama, you’d have beat our butts if we did that.”  I do make them mind, just not much.  The rule at Mimi’s house is “no tattling unless there is blood”.  

God, thank you for my many blessings; all 8 of them.  Thank you for my children, too.  You gave me such wonderful children, but you absolutely showed out on my grandchildren.   They are truly the crown of this season in my life.

Ungrateful ~

1 Timothy 6:8  But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. NIV

I have so much, and yet I find myself being discontent.  I want to travel.  I want my blog to be successful.  I want to be out of debt.  I want, I want, I want consumes me…..until I realize what I have.  

I travel every weekend.  It’s to work, but I travel.  My blog IS successful in a small way.  God gives me words to use.  I’m working, so I’m able to pay down that debt.  I have a home, a good husband, and a healthy family.  I HAVE.

God, forgive me today for getting stuck in “want”.  I’m so ungrateful at times.  Grant me grace to make it through this season.  Every day, we have so many blessings.  Teach me to be content with what I have, because I have all that I need in You.

Even When You're Weary ~

Jeremiah 31:25  I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint. NIV

In my work as a photographer, I see a lot of new mommies.  The one thing they seem to have in common is they are exhausted.  They are so in love with their little baby, but I remember those days.  

I had a beautiful little 2 year old daughter when my son was born 5 weeks early.  He was a tiny little 5 lbs 5 oz little thing.  He had to be fed every 2 hours because he was so jaundiced.  If my mom and my grandmother hadn’t come to stay with me, I guess we both would have died, because I caught the flu from one of my OB nurses.  I was so thankful for help for that first week.  

He continued to be a fussy little guy.  He didn’t like anybody but me.  My daughter even told their dad one day, “Daddy, he don’t wike you.  When he’s big like me, he will wike you.  Don’t worry.”  Then, when he was 5 weeks old, I broke my foot.  So there I was, snowed in with a 2 year old, a 5 week old, on crutches in a non-weight bearing cast with a baby who cried all….the….time...unless I held him. To say I didn’t enjoy that season of my life would be an understatement.  And I would take it back right now.  

God, I ask you to be with these new mommies in this season of their lives.  Give them strength to make it through the sleepless nights and endless days.  This season won’t last forever and one day they will miss it.  Let them know that they are doing a good job, even when they are exhausted.  You chose them to be a mommy to their little miracle.  You believe in them.  This is such a precious time in their lives.  I pray You remind them of the joy of the season, even in the exhaustion.

My Mom~

Proverbs 31:28  Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her:  NIV

Who I am today is a product of how my Mom has lived her life.  My parents have been together 60 years this coming June.  My Dad worked hard all of his life and provided for us, but it is my Mom who is the glue that binds the family.

As a young bride, she moved away from her family to the boonies of Screven, Georgia.  My sister and I were born there.  She provided a home for my Daddy and two little girls until we moved to Tennessee, and then to South Georgia when I was 4.  I look back on little things now and realize that we didn’t have much in those years, but my sister and I never knew it, because my Mom always made the house we lived in into a home.  

We were inspired to do our best by her leadership.  When I was in high school, my Mom decided to go back to school.  She became an EMT first, then went on to nursing school.  She worked as an LPN until her retirement, (always wearing a starched uniform to work) all while providing a clean home, taking care of the financing, getting us to and from cheerleading and band practices, made our uniforms by hand, and seeing that my Dad always had a hot meal to eat.  And...she kept her yard immaculate.  

Never once in my entire life has my Mom turned her back on me.  I know I’ve disappointed her more than once, but she has always had my back.  She is the poster child for “unconditional love”.  Now, that love may have meant she’d beat our butts when we were young, but you know….

God, my Mom is slowing down.  It is so hard to see such a beautiful, vibrant woman struggle with the beginnings of Parkinson’s.  Thank You for giving me to such a wonderful Mother.  I am so blessed to have her.  Please give her mercy and grace through this season in her life.

Cube Steak and Gratefulness ~

Proverbs 25:24  It is better to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife. ESV

Social media is full of all of these wives who post their Betty Crocker cooking accomplishments every night.  Last night, I was thinking of them as I was slamming pot lids and hating every second of making dinner.  I....hate….to….cook....  I can cook, but nothing about it brings me joy.

Last night while I’m frying meat and making biscuits and probably cussin’ a little, it hit me.  I need to be grateful that I have a family to feed.  I need to get my attitude right before I call my family in to eat.  My son is almost 20.  Soon, I will miss him eating us out of house and home.  Soon, I will have to learn to cook for just the two of us.  Setting the tone of my household.  Sigh.

God, sometimes You get my attention at the strangest moments, but it’s always the right moments.  My life won’t always be like this.  Help me to enjoy every moment instead of resenting them.  Every women has things in their lives that they just don’t enjoy doing.  Help us to realize that everything we do for our family is a gift.  Having a family is a gift.  Will I cook dinner tonight with a joyful heart?  Probably not.  But, I can work on my grateful heart that I have a family to feed in this season of my life.