God's strength keeps me running

My house is quiet right now. It's rare, especially on the days that Asher doesn't have school in the mornings. But God knew how desperately I needed at least a few minutes to myself of peace and quiet. Usually I get that on Tuesday and Thursday mornings while Asher is in school and Sydney naps, but yesterday Boston was home with strep throat so I spent the day tending to him - and don't get me wrong, I LOVE taking care of my babies when they are sick. But by the end of yesterday I was exhausted.

Boston woke up and informed me his throat hurt bad. I took one look at it and knew it was strep again. He had just finished his antibiotics a couple of days ago, but we missed a couple of doses in the midst of the 10 days. So my morning consisted of dropping Dallas off at 8, taking Boston to the Dr at 8:30, taking Asher to school at 9:15, going to get prescription for Boston and Dallas nose that is infected, racing home to get Sydney down for a nap. Then the dr called to schedule an appt for later that day to see Sydney to clip the flap under her tongue because she, like Asher was, is tongue tied. By the time I got all the homework done with the kids and made dinner and sent Dallas off to baseball practice with Daddy I was spent. Completely and utterly exhausted! And I had a huge pile of papers to go through. I literally almost fell asleep in them. Anyhow.........

Today, after listening to Asher whine and cry most of the morning I was ready to pull my hair out, call a babysitter and escape to Starbucks. But since all my babysitters (aka grandparents) are out of town I had to suck it up, which meant putting him in his room and banishing him from the rest of the house until he stopped. He stopped .....in his bed....fast asleep.....HEAVEN. I love my sweet, adorable Asher but this stage extreme learning of rules, discipline, how to act that revoles around 3 year olds is exhausting. I know it's just a phase and he's learning his boundaries and this is the big year of parenting on my part, but I also know there's only so much patience piled away in my storage bank. And God knew this too.

I had a nice quiet time with the Lord and He directed me to an amazing verse which will be my anthem for a while:

Colossians 1:9-14 (New International Version)

9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10 And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you[a] to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption,[b] the forgiveness of sins.


I prayed for this strength that I might have great endurance and patience and I joyfully thank Him for this strength for it is only through Christ Jesus who strengthens me that I am able to parent 4 kids, love a hard working husband, run a busy household, cook homemade meals and keep this house clean.



I acknowledge the thoughts of overwelmingness, failure, desperation, loneliness, pride and unworthiness are not from the Lord but straight from the fires of hell. He comes so that he can kill and destroy and he loves to wreck havoc on mothers because they control the emotional well being of the house and when he kicks them in their knees and keeps them away from their Lord he will succeed in destroying the rest of the family.



So I stand here today ready for the fight. Because I am armed with the great armor. I have an army of angels on my side and I'm not afraid!

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Here's the crazy part about this post. Right after I finished typing the word "afraid!" Asher woke up crying. He came in, climbed up in my lap with tears running down his face. I asked him if he felt bad. He said, "Yes mommy. I have strep throat and I need to go see Dr Yarckin now." He was very insistent. I thought maybe he was just saying that since Boston has it but he kept crying and telling me to call, call right now! So I called and they said I could come by right now and get a strep test on my way to pick up the big boys.

I woke up Sydney, drove to the the Dr and sure enough he has strep! What a smart little guy. No wonder he was so whiny and tired this morning. Ugh, now I feel bad for being frustrated with his incessant whining. He got extra hugs today!

Then I was off to the car pick up....back to Publix pharmacy for free antibiotics.....racing home to cook dinner........and the energizer bunny went on and on and on because she had God's words of encouragement.