Toddler to Tween

{Linking up with Stacey today, as we discuss the next three chapters of her book, Being OK With Where You Are.}

I'm the mom of four daughters - ages 12, almost 10, 6 and almost 3. Tween down to toddler. Drama-filled battles on every topic from potty training to iPods are a daily reality for me. Exhausting is an understatement.

I used to think that life would get so much easier when I wasn't dealing with a crowd of little faces. Once they're older, I won't be up with cranky babies or fighting with stubborn toddlers. Easy. I wished away some of those days full of littles. I longed for time. Time to read. Time to spend with my friends. Time to grocery shop alone. Now, those would be the days! Life would be sweet.

But the battles don't go away when children get older. Someone once told me that parenting teens is just as exhausting as parenting toddlers. It's just a different kind of exhausting. We aren't quite to teen years yet but I get it already. It's still exhausting.

Sometimes the battles are hard and things that I wasn't expecting walk into our lives in the form of an email. Battles that my 12 year old doesn't know how to fight on her own because she's 12. So I battle with and for her. And my 10 year old with the sweetest heart gets hurt by just a few little words. We all know that those words can hurt just as bad as sticks and stones.

honestly? It makes me long for the days of little faces and blanket forts and playing Little House in the backyard. It makes me cling to my 6 and 3 year old daughters - not wanting a day to pass that I don't appreciate a moment of their littleness.
God, how am I going to do this?
I don't want to do this.
Why can't they be little again?
Why didn't I teach them _______ when they were young?

It's that icky, not ok with this feeling that drains me and makes each little molehill into a mountain I can't climb.
How am I going to do this?

Stacey says in chapter 5 of her book -

To stand on the promises of God when the howling storms come, we have to know them. We have to have them handy, in our pockets to pull out when we need to be reminded. We need to scribble them on cards and tape them to our refrigerator.

Yes.



What has God promised us, Moms? We need to know them, backwards and forwards so in those exhausted moments of frustration we can grab onto His Words of Life.
He is our Hope. (Ephesians 1:18)
He will not leave us or forsake us. (Hebrews 13:5)
He will gently lead those with young. (Isaiah 40:11)
He will complete every good work He begins. Our children are good works of God. He will complete His work in their lives. (Phillipians 1:6)

It's hard but God has promised to guide us through. We can trust in that.