Have you ever had a day that your confidence felt so tried that you just wanted to throw in the towel? I must admit that I have had several of those days in the past couple of months. On the days that Tyler has thrown a temper for the 5th time and Katy has cried for hours without end, I ask myself if I am really cut out for the task at hand. Am I really equipped to raise these two kids with patience, humility, love, and discernment? I have always heard that God will not give you more than you can handle, but, at times I think that God thinks more of me than I do. Not that long ago, I participated in a ladies bible study centered around a book called, Raising Children without Going Insane. I would definitely recommend it to every mom reading this entry. It is chock full of Godly wisdom for every stage of being a mom. One of the chapters we read last week was about our confidence as moms, and I would love to share a little morsel of insight with you.
The author, Jane Evans, says, “So, Mom, don’t ever think you don’t have what it takes. Don’t be tempted to give up. Your children have seeds of greatness placed within them, planted by God before the foundations of the world were laid. He chose you to water nurture, and bring them to light…it’s your mandate from God. If ever there was a reason to be confident as a parent it is this: God knows you’ve got what it takes! So don’t allow the challenges of parenthood to undermine your confidence.”
I stand with confidence in the face of the enemy, knowing full well that God has given me the tools and resources to raise the precious cargo He has entrusted into my care. So stand firm, sisters…on the days you feel weary and challenged, know that you have a heavenly mandate, and YOU’VE GOT WHAT IT TAKES!!
Jamie Mullins is a wife, mom of two, runner, wanna-be chef, and recovering shopaholic who LOVES people. Jamie is the Volunteer Coordinator at the Denton Campus and is amazed that God chooses to use a broken woman like her.
As I try and read the blog “What if you just said yes God” every day, I find inspirational stories that I can relate too. When I read the story by Jamie, wrote on May 13th that first line struck me were I have been feeling for a little while now. She wrote “Have you ever had a day that your confidence felt so tried that you just wanted to throw in the towel”? That has been me! I retired from the Navy in February, after almost 22 years of active duty service. My last day in uniform was the day before this past Thanksgiving. Since then I have spent countless hours day after day, week after week and month after month job hunting. Knowing I have a good education and tons of experience it has been a very long process. If it wouldn’t be for knowing the Lord I feel it could have gotten extremely depressing a long time ago. Driving my confidence to some very low levels at times, giving me the feeling that I just wanted to throw in the towel.
Going to Cross Timbers has been a blessing that my wife and I have needed for a long time. We started going there the Sunday after Valentines Day week-end and have not missed a Sunday since. We were looking for a church (and I must say not very hard) for a good while. After the first Sunday that we were there we felt an overwhelming feeling that this is where God wants us to be.
On Sunday after watching many people getting baptized my wife, Carole looked at me with tears in her eyes and said “I feel we need to get baptized”. After a short discussion with her we found our way to the outside table to get suited for this wonderful occasion. I wasn’t sure at first if I was doing the right thing, I was baptized when I was 24 y/o, not long after I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I just wasn’t sure about doing it again, but it didn’t take long after I got into the water, emotionally I knew that it felt good and there wasn’t a thing wrong with doing it a second time. As tears welled up in my eyes I knew that God’s presents were with me and He was happy that I choose to get baptized with my wife.
I could go on and on about the peace that God has given Carole and I as bills back up and money get less, quoting scripture after scripture of what I have read and prayed about. Knowing that God has a plan and I need to just keep doing what I know to do, His plan will prevail. God has reasons why we go through what we do. We need to keep our chins up and know that it is His will and we need to keep looking for the positives that come out of our situations that He allows us to be in. At times we need to look around and count our blessings for there are so many we can’t count them all…try it. Sometimes there are things we need to do and/or things we need to learn. As I get on my knees and open my bible on a daily basis searching for Gods direction, I pray for all of you in the same situation that I am in, God is with us all and He is listening. We just may not be getting the answer that we want or the answer as quick as we may want it. For the power of prayer is great and rewarding. After almost 28 years of knowing Jesus as my personal savior, I know that (like His word tells us) He will never put on us what we can’t handle, “never throw in the towel”, just keep our eyes on Jesus.