These are the five best of the parenting quips I’ve heard…do these quips resonate with you at all?
I feel like these quips give a tangible shape to my parenting life. I don’t know who said them but apparently real life happens at their house, too.
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“It takes a village to raise a child” (Because eventually I want date night again.)
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“Don’t get mad, get even.” (A mom getting even is a mom quietly teaching you a lesson that anger never could. As my child, you should worry.)
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“I’ll give you something to cry about!” (Sadly, my careless words are possibly the most painful of all…and I was probably just frustrated, tired, or overwhelmed when I said them)
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“The Swagger Wagon” (made popular by Toyota, we could live out of my non-Toyota van for a week, comfortably. You must watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql-N3F1FhW4)
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There is a nurse I work with who likes to say, “Sometimes you have to push the little birdie from the nest!” (This is the quip I’m stuck on today.)
For all the stuff that makes our family life, lately, I see my kids as little birds. Particularly, my older two. They are growing up and I’m not ready. I still want them to be small so I can keep them safe (or think I am keeping them safe).
There are so many unknown things that could happen to them good and bad. I am afraid. What if more bad happens than good? What if more confusion than certainty? What if more pain than growth? Forget them, these are my babies. I don’t know if I can handle that.
So this is the awful truth. I am afraid to trust God with my kids.
And you thought I had this parenting thing together! I’m as human as you are. What if God screws it up? What if my plan doesn’t line up with his plan? Ok, so what if his plan is (gulp) better…
I really do want God’s plan for my kids. I want him to mold and shape their lives as he has mine. Through painful life situations, he has taught me his infinite love and care. I would never be who I am if my mom had been able to protect me from it all. I wonder if my mom struggled with letting go of me, too?
As I struggle through this, lately, I am quickly realizing only prayer and trust in God’s goodness can help me through these growing years.
I see so much more clearly, now, that I have no control over what happens to them. I feel weak at parenting.
It becomes easy to identify with Paul in 2 Corinthians 12 when he felt weak and something really hard was in his life. His words are not quips.
8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:8-10 New International Version (NIV)
Wow, I am feeling the strength seep back into my body!
I need to continue making the best decisions I can regarding their daily lives…but I need to stop thinking I will do this perfectly. I am going to screw this up at some point. My husband might disagree but I am not capable of being the perfect parent. Good news for me, God the Father is the perfect parent and He’s got this. Better yet, He’s got them.
There is a nurse I work with who likes to say, “Sometimes you have to push the little birdie from the nest!”. Ok, I am trying to nudge them gently towards the side as they get older. I am still guilty of trying to tie a safety net beneath the tree some days but I continue to ask God for help on that one.
How’s it going for you? What was the hardest thing you’ve done as a parent so far? What did God teach you…judging from how hard you hit the ground when you were pushed from the nest? Do you have parenting quips to add to the list of best parenting quips ever?
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