Letting God be God to my children

11:49 a.m. Today's project is to make sure everything is ready so our family can enjoy a relaxed and fun Mother's Day together. Steve and I picked up Subway meatball sandwiches after church, and are enjoying them together before Kriss and Marisela and puppy Penny arrive; we have some for them, too. Since Heidi has informed me that she is making carne asada for dinner, thought we'd better get a different kind of food for lunch!

Our second son and his wife are having a bit of a rough time, so we hope that the "goodie box" I've been compiling with all my grocery bargains will help fill in a few gaps. But it's not about them feeling grateful or obliged to us--it's about receiving and acknowledging the love of Jesus Christ, who makes it possible for us to make efforts and plans in the first place! (Deuteronomy 8:18)

Since it's Mother's Day, there are choices I'm allowed to make, and I choose not to just lounge about and be waited on. I noticed a stain (from a years-old accident one of the dogs had that oozed out from her crate) on our fireplace near the carpet. So Steve and I just now got some matching paint and covered it up! No sense sitting around when we can make ourselves useful...

Now that things look nice around here, I can reflect on my children: whom I'll see today, and whom I won't. Steven was here for the day Saturday, resting, checking in with his diet and posing coach down in Hemet, and cooking his competition meals for here and to go. With three more weeks until his big show, the eating strictures and extra hours of cardio are wearing him down physically and emotionally, making him a person that "only a mother could love!" That's all right. After the first competition 3 years ago, I know that his dreadful attitude is one of carb deprivation, and I can relate, being on the Atkins plan myself. Atkins seems indulgent by comparison! But he did give me the beautiful necklace pictured above, and texted an apology for his attitude on his way home. I'm not sure how even the godliest among us would behave without those cushioning carbs!

Sean, our oldest, has always been "quirky," as his middle school counselor Miss Dauphine described him in 1989. He may surprise us by coming over, or may call or text. I'll be seeing more of him and Pam as his April wedding plans move forward, that's for sure!

Heidi, Nick and Heather will be here fixing dinner, and we might see Pavel unless he is busy with his own mom. While it is glorious to watch your family expand through marriage, special days and holidays do cause the need for Mom to be flexible, to be gracious, to be a good representative of Jesus Christ, setting nan example even to fellow believers. As our pastor said this morning, we need to have a prepared generation coming up behind us, prepared to go forward in Christ as we have done. "I have no greater joy than that my children walk in truth."(III John 1-4) That is a mother's true joy.

Steve and I remembered our own moms this morning as we prayed together, and thanked God for the loving, diligent women they both were. Our upbringings, while certainly not perfect, laid the groundwork for the stability of our own home, and the dedication to making our kids do the right thing, even when it hurts. (Psalm 15:4) That's how we were were raised, and if there's a better formula than God's Word gives, contact me!

Wherever my five children are with the Lord, I trust Jesus to make Himself real to them, whether they are in a time of blessing, ministry, success, setbacks, need, conviction, correction, or humbling, because that who Jesus is, Lord of all.

I will honestly say that as a mother, giving my children over to the Lord is hands-down the hardest thing of all! Praying and waiting, waiting and praying, for one's return to Him, for a breakthrough in another's walk with Him, for the maturing of character, for the development of empathy, for the realization that it is by grace and grace alone, that any of us can stand before Him...

Lord, let me not try to "smoothe the way" or interfere in the work you are doing in the lives of Sean, Kriss, Heidi, Heather, and Steven. In Jesus' Name, Amen.