Tuesday Thoughts – Have Strength
At night, I think my children have a meeting. When we turn out the lights, the boys leave their room and tiptoe across the hallway. Slowly, they close the door of the girl’s room. In whispered tones I think they discuss a few things about the next day. I think they get together at night to choose who will wake up at the crack of dawn the next day.
Everyday at 6:30 or 7:00 am sharp ONE of them opens my door and whispers: “Mommy?” It is a different child every single morning!? How do they coordinate it? Who gets what morning? And why does just ONE wake up??
Either way, this momma has to stumble, literally, out of bed to hush the first one awake and pray to the Good Lord that no one else wakes up until I have a chance to make my coffee and take a shower. I can’t just explain to my three-year-old that mommy went to bed late, so please let me sleep in. Nope.
As a momma of four littles, ages 7, 5, 3, and 2, I love this article by Rachel:
Have you ever noticed that when there is more than one straw in a milkshake, everyone sucks faster? Everyone knows they are competing, and every sip from someone else means less for you. People start breathing through their noses to minimize lost time.
I have felt for a long time that when you have little children, they have a straw that taps directly into your energy. The milkshake cup is me, and the milkshake is my energy, and every child is armed with a straw. Infants who are either in the womb or nursing have a competitive edge on this, and get to take as much as they want before it even hits the glass. Read the rest of the article here.
Children need so much from us. Their little bodies need food. Daily. Their little hearts need encouragement. Daily. The mom-guilt that I’m never doing enough, being enough, or having enough to give them weighs on me. Those lies from the enemy sink into my heart.
I have learned early on that strength is something I pray for constantly. Strength for my body. Strength for my heart. Strength for patience, wisdom, love, and grace.
I found this verse in Isaiah.
Isaiah 35:3-4
Strengthen the weak hands,
and make firm the feeble knees.
Say to those who have an anxious heart,
“Be strong; fear not!
Behold, your God
will come with vengeance,
with the recompense of God.
He will come and save you.”
What an amazing process we have in these verses! We have all the strength we need. Not in ourselves, but in our God. He will save us from the mom-guilt. He will save us from whatever we are facing. He will give us the strength.
Grief.
Loss.
Loneliness.
Pain.
Disease.
Emptiness.
Rejection.
We have the strength, because Jesus is our strength: Philippians 4:13 – “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” You have the strength to get out of bed today. You have the physical strength to take a shower. You have the strength to reach out to that one person in your life who needs your words and your touch. You have the strength to listen. To laugh. To live. You have the strength to love. Not in yourself, but in Jesus.
It’s time for “Tuesday Talk!”
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One of our local places has a pumpkin pie shake! It’s my fave by a long shot!
Such great, encouraging words, Sarah. As always. #RaRaLinkup
Peanut Butter Chocolate milkshakes are a classic that I will never get sick of! So good! Thanks for doing this giveaway! I love the notebook.
Phillipians 4:13 is my life verse. Whenever I start to freak out about something or get anxious, I recall this verse. Have claimed it! Funny story about your children. AND terrific give away.
Thanks for the giveaway! Just an FYI, had a hard time finding your comments link…esp. on my phone…may just be me…am used to finding them at the bottom! 😉
Love ice cream, my stomach doesn’t! 😉 If I had to choose, coffee Haagen Dazs milkshake!
These are such thoughtful images and encouraging words. My sons don’t get up quite that early anymore (for which I am so grateful) but the mommy guilt can still rear it’s head, especially with teens and tweens. Visiting from Women with Intention
I needed to read this today! One day at a time…
My children do the same – every morning I think I’m getting up before everyone with enough time to do my devotions – every morning someone is waiting for me to get up. I love the verses you shared from Isaiah 35 – thank you for always being an encouragement in the adoption community and on IG!! I appreciate you!
Your blog is such an encouragement to me!!! You are truly a gift from God! Thank you for being a real mom, with real struggles, but also one that offers hope and encouragement for the soul!
Love this Sarah! So encouraging- I love chocolate milkshakes- I’m a chocolate girl through and through
I always treat myself to one Shamrock Shake at McDonald’s when they come out. I also like to get a Wendy’s Jr vanilla frosty.
Loved this post, found you through Mom 2 Mom Link-up! I’m right there with ya praying for strength with my little ones. We have the same wake-up time in our home. Silly kids!
Oooh what a great bundle! Let’s see, I’ll go with a Neapolitan milkshake from In-N-Out! Summer in a cup 🙂
I enjoyed this post also…I couldn’t decide, so I am featuring both of your posts from last week at Tuesday Talk. 🙂
Thank you for linking up with Mama Shares Monday! I really enjoyed reading this and connected with so much of it! I’m currently in a phase were I try to wake up at 5:30 just to get some devotions and a lone time…but somehow no matter how early I wake up, one of the girls seems to too! They’re all in it together! Also…favorite milkshake, carmell!
This is soaked in truth. Thank you for the encouragement as we all face another week:)
My favorite milkshake is called black and white. It is chocolate and vanilla ice cream. Yum!!