{dis}content

I think contentedness is the number one thing I struggle with as a mother of little babies and wife of a busy man. 

I can ALWAYS find something I wish was different, moment to moment. 

I wish Tyler was home.

I wish I knew why Grace is crying, again. 

I wish Riley would just obey me and remember I told him not to do that 3 times already.

I wish my house was clean.

I wish I didn't have to cook dinner.

The list could go forever. But isn't this discontent what we're warned against in the grocery aisle by the wise old woman that places her hand on your shoulder while your toddler is screaming something about juice the pediatrician forbids and says "love every moment of this, it goes by so fast..."? The days are so long but the years are so fast. This is why, I think, its so easy to let a spirit of discontent camp in our hearts. Its the day to day that literally wipes you off your feet and its so easy to let your mind wander to the "what if things were different..."

This week was a whirl wind for my family. My husband worked over 55 hours and I had little ones at home and a wedding cake to bake. But I want to fight against my nature to wish away the stress and hard times. I don't want to walk this life with a discontent heart either wishing for the past or future. 

Lately as I've found myself huffing out a prayer of frustration, for the Lord to intervene and "fix' a situation, I've felt him whisper to me "you want me to stop this thing that's stressing you out, but you've yet to learn what I'm teaching you through this very thing, you have yet to respond in a godly way..."

So this week, I would like to breathe a little deeper and focus a little harder on Jesus, so that the Holy Spirit might flow out of me and enable me to not only make it through the stressful times, but to learn from and maybe even enjoy some along the way. So when my 2 year old refuses to go to sleep, or my 3 month old baby wont be consoled, or my over-worked husband comes home with nothing left to offer, I will turn to Jesus and be thankful, and not wish for something else.

Praise the Lord for these moments, for these hard moments can be used to make me more like Jesus.

{this post was written for "Mindful Mothering Mondays" head on over to read more posts and encouragement from other mamas. If you have posts you'd like to include, all are welcome!}