Lydiajw
About the Author

Lydia is a wife and homeschooling mama to four crazy kids. When she is not drilling ABCs and 1-2-3's, she is blogging gratitude at SmallTownSimplicity

(in)side DaySpring: things we love
& you will too!
Find more at DaySpring.com
(in)side DaySpring:
things we love
& you will too!
Find more at
DaySpring.com
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  1. I had my first child about 11 months ago now, and I was completely unprepared for the onslaught of guilt. I felt so inadequate, sometimes I still do, but its mostly through other women that I have learned that its really not about perfection. Like you said, its about grace.

    I love this post, thank you for writing it

  2. Thank you for this post. This morning my 16 month old son fell in a store and busted open his lip. He was screaming as blood came out of his mouth and as I tried to keep everything under control all I kept thinking was…”I am such an amateur parent.” I haven’t been able to shake the thought since it all happened.

    I often forget about grace and I’m so thankful for the reminder. The God we serve is quite amazing.

  3. Oh Sonnie I could have written this exact comment earlier this summer! I have an 18 month old and the same thing happened – what can I say, children fall! Mine bit almost through his lip and his teeth were bleeding – all I could think was “I am not equipped to handle this.”

    Thankfully God is with us always, even during our perceived “failings” at parenthood – and His grace is sufficient to cover them all!

  4. A friend posted your link…thank you so much for sharing this!

    I thought I had “arrived” when my eldest turned 18. Everything was so at peace. We were so close and everything was so…just good! Not that I ever thought I was a perfect parent or even close to it, but things were finally calm, settled. But no sooner then I had taken that deep breath in and laid back to relax…satan seized that moment and took over. Big time. Her 19th and 20th years were the most painful of my entire lifetime…and I’ve lived through infidelity, divorce, a genocide overseas, and more.

    Thankfully, being able to look back now, I found that God didn’t want me to just lay back…yes, He wants me to enjoy the peaceful times, but he doesn’t want me to rest! He needs for me to be ever-vigilant in my prayers for my children, even the “grown-up” ones and even in the wonderful times. Oh, and did I ever learn to pray! Did I ever learn to rely on Him! And to let go (and hush my parenting mouth)! And true unconditional love! My sweet, sweet daughter is now back in our lives and in the fold and healing (GLORY be all HIS), after the longest, most painful time we’ve ever experienced.

    I share that to entreat…once the spills in grocery stores, bloody lips, teenage angst, or other seen battles are a thing of the past…please don’t stop your daily, vigilant prayers for your children! 🙂

  5. Grace over mommy guilt! I love it…thanks for the encouragement today, on a day when the mommy in me is just so plain worn out!

    Grace abounds!

  6. This is such a wonderful message – thank you! I struggle so much with the guilt of feeling like I”m not being the best parent I can be. I actually even blogged about it today. 🙂

  7. A while back I was at lunch with my mother feeling particularly tired after a rough night with a sick kid. I turned to her and asked if she would tell me if I was screwing this parenting thing up. She laughed it off at first. But I told her she seriously HAD to tell me.

    It can be so hard to find balance between striving to doing my best and accepting my limitations. My mother’s advice was to pray more. She was right.

    Thank you for the above post. It is a wonderful reminder.