OUR TEARS WATER SEEDS OF LOVE AND COMPASSION

1 John 3:17 KJV
But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?

HAPPY THURSDAY!!!!

HAPPY MARCH!!!!! It's official!!! Today is the 2nd GRAND day of the month! Yay! Hooray!

Happy Birthday to all of the March babies among us!!!!! Some are Winter babies; some are Spring. We welcome the parties and warmer weather that March will bring.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY March babies!!!!! Muah!!!

OUR TEARS WATER SEEDS OF LOVE AND COMPASSION PLANTED IN OUR KIDDOS' HEARTS

Dearest beautiful mamas,

You're super! You're tough! You're big! You're bad!

You make the bad guys flee! You make boo boos feel better! You make germs and bacteria perish! You make nightmares vanish! You make dirty dishes disappear! You seamlessly pull off play dates, field trips, and parties. You do it ALL, for everyone, EACH. AND. EVERY. DAY! You make single parenthood look sooooooo easy! In fact, YOU make motherhood look stylish, trendy, fashionable, AND COOL! Did I mention easy? Yeah, SUPER easy!!!!

Day in and day out, many of us lead heroic lives. We are unsung heroines! We juggle so many things and rarely ever miss a beat. Well, at least our kiddos can't tell when we miss a beat.

We can out pretend "The Great Pretender." We could be totally bummed out, weak, weary, and wilted, yet many of us continue to don our masks and capes as we dart about, from each summon to the next, in our quests to save the day A MILLION TIMES for our kiddos. Because we often keep our true feelings/ conditions hidden from our families, they continue to press us for things even when we are operating beyond a happy, healthy, safe threshold.

As amazing, awesome, and astounding as we are, we must reveal our humanity to our kiddos. From time to time, they need to see us cry, fail, make a mistake, break an overwhelming sweat, desperately pray, struggle, feel scared, weak or hopeless. We have to normalize our lives and experiences as much as possible. We have to teach our kiddos that although they are wonderful and special, life doesn't revolve around them. Even mamas need breaks from serving their kiddos. Mamas need to be served too.

We have to show our kiddos our fragility and our fastidious need for God so they too can learn to lean on God....to depend on Him. Super heroes may not need God. But, ALL Super moms DO. We must point our kiddos back to Christ everyday, ALL DAY. We are Christ's handmaidens; we do the Lord's work. But, we have to point our kiddos to THE SOURCE. Our gifts are great but, we must direct them to the ultimate giver of our gifts.

When we show our kids our weaknesses, we demonstrate our need for God. We also demonstrate that biblical love is not a feeling but rather a sacrificial commitment that is coupled with feeling. When we show our kids our weaknesses, we teach them how to be loving, sympathetic, and compassionate individuals. As much as we want to shield them from EVERY hurt, harm, and danger, we must not shield our kids from "all of life." We must allow them to experience life, and it's rawness, in the safe confines of our homes. We must allow our kids to grapple with reality under our wings so that we can guide their development and strengthen them.

We have to instill gratefulness and gratitude in our kids early on if we want them to become loving, compassionate adults. Trusting our kids with our tears and our hearts, in an age-appropriate fashion, will challenge them to cultivate love and compassion like few other things. Embrace the adventure!

Love and blessings

Hugs