Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Unanswered Prayers

I'm sure many of you have heard Garth Brook's song "Unanswered Prayers". This morning, I was scrolling through  my facebook news feed thinking, what would my life  be like if God had answered every prayer. And then I immediately thought, Thank you God for not answering every prayer!!!! (I feel the need to add a few rows of exclaimation points, but I won't do that.) The first thing I remember really praying about was "God, please don't let my parents move me to Danville. I don't want to go there. All my friends are in Lincoln and I love it here." Wow...I am SO thankful for my move to Danville. I met my husband here, I have best friends that are amazing and can't imagine my life without, I have the most wonderful little boy. These things would never have taken place if God had answered the above prayer.

Then I think about the prayers over crushes. Now, I know I am not alone in this one. There have to be other people out there who prayed the prayer "Please, just let them like me. I want to go out with him." hehe...it makes me giggle a little to think about. Thank God that He didn't answer those prayers, because who knows where I would be. Instead, he placed a boy on my dad's football team that my dad liked, and he introduced us. Thank God.

The past couple of weeks, months have been stressful for Brock and I. Trying to move, living with my parents. Although we are forever grateful for being able to stay with them, it's hard to move back in. Getting into a routine and everything. Tomorrow, we close on our house. It has been a struggle. I have cried and prayed and yelled. Sometimes at Brock, sometimes at myself, sometimes to random people when I'm driving in the car :), but thank God that He allowed us to get to this point.

Monday, July 9, 2012

What kind of mom am I?

It has been a while since I have wrote anything. I quite frankly haven't had a lot on my mind other than buying a house. But here recently, I have been thinking a lot about the kind of mom that I am, the kind of mom that I want to be and the kind of mom that God plans for me to be.

I enjoy Facebook. I like to see what is going on with people that I know and watch their families grow. But sometimes I feel like Facebook does nothing but get people stirred up about all kinds of things. Politics (which quite honestly, I don't give two cares about. God put those people there and He can take them out whenever He pleases. My citizenship is in Heaven!!), human rights and most recently for me, parenting. When Brock and I decided we wanted to have a baby we had no idea the kinds of things that we were about to take part in. We knew it wouldn't be easy but we were ready for the challenge. I feel like the first year of Ryker's life went by pretty quickly but the second year has been a blur! My baby is almost two!

I get pretty opinionated about a lot of things but I don't always have the background or research to back me up. So with all these different moms I see posting things about not feeding their kids corn syrup, not spanking their kids, not vaccinating, not yelling at them, letting them set their own schedule, breastfeeding, not breastfeeding, not letting their kids watch more than 30 minutes of television, it makes my head spin. I don't doubt that the moms that have chosen different things for their children haven't done their research and I am not at all criticizing their choices. Because they are after all the mom of the child. And I completely understand that some choices are strictly for the safety of the children. Some things are bad for some kids, while for others they are ok. Each child is different. But sometimes, I feel like I just don't measure up. Do you ever feel that way? Do you ever feel like the newest fad in parenting is not something you are practicing so you think, well am I doing the best job that I can?

I hope I am not the only person that questions myself sometimes, but I have a feeling that I'm not. In my heart, I know that I don't want to waste my time worrying about some of these issues, because all to quickly my little Ryker will be grown and those things won't matter any more. So I am here to tell you that I am Ryker's mom who sometimes yells, spanks when necessary, vaccinates my child, allows television at times, lets Ryker have treats when good (and sometimes just because), breastfed and formula fed Ryker, loves that little boy with every piece of my heart, prays for him and his future daily and I am a mom who prays to God every day that He gives me one more day of being Ryker's mom. It doesn't matter whether we do everything right in the eyes of others, what those kids see in us, through us, is the most important thing we could ever do for them. So pray for your children, pray about your parenting choices. These little moments that we spend worrying about parenting are only taking time away from those precious gifts that God entrusted to us.