Parenting Isn't Pretty

I think that is a pretty good assessment of parenting! Parenting isn't pretty most days. It doesn't run smooth, someone often feels they have failed, and typically there might be some form of tears in someones eyes.

What I am still learning and discovering is that parenting is necessary! I can have 'my A game on' and think I am ready to tackle the issue or train to a solution but that doesn't mean they have 'their A game on' with the right response! (Hence the mess that comes.)

As a mom I need to remember to not take it personal when my children react to training.
As a mom I need to remember not to react to their responses to training.

When I think about it I realize I often react when someone points out an area I need to work on. Why would I think these toddler, tweens, and teens would respond any better than I do when confronted. Where did we get this pretty picture of parenting in our heads? I think it might be God giving us a little boost to keep us going. (Kinda like childbirth! What woman would do that again if she truly remembered what it took to deliver that baby!)

The trauma comes when I parent, it gets messy and then I feel like a failure because it didn't look like what I pictured before the child was confronted. Then I begin to believe the lie that I can't parent. Wouldn't that be the perfect plan of attack for Satan to get me off track, believing I can't parent so I don't try!

Mom's, lets rejoice in our pretty picture of parenting but lets not leave the battle when it becomes messy! Surround yourself with 'moms of encouragement' and continue in raising these soldiers for Christ even in the messy moments that come!

(I couldn't even push the publish button for my post without taking a messy moment of spanking a toddler and ensuring he would obey his mom! There were tears from him, a moment of frustration from me, but now the sensation of 'we did it', trained for the future!)