One of those days...

Just a quick story I wanted to post so I never forget how precious and challenging these days as a mom are...it had been one of those days (this was last week), and I was worn out, frustrated with my precious children :), wishing my husband were around to help put them to bed, emotional-you get the point. I hadn't handled disciplining the kids very well towards the end of the night, and had to ask for their forgiveness as I was tucking them in to bed. They graciously forgave me, and I began to pray. Somewhere along the way, I started crying and couldn't continue my prayer. I had my head down, and was trying not to show my tears. I choked out, "Gabe, could you pray for us?" Right away, he starts tearing up and asks me why I'm crying. Busted. Then I feel his little arm around me and his head on my shoulder, followed by sweet little kisses from Seth on my forehead, cheek, other cheek, lips, back to forehead-there must have been 20 of them. Their concern and love was so sweet. I told them I was starting to feel better already, and Seth grins and says, "I just knew my kisses would work." Josie was in the boys' room this whole time reading books, and I was surprised she didn't say anything because she is typically very concerned when someone is upset. She often cries if someone gets hurt or even if someone has hurt feelings. When I brought her upstairs for bed, she finally noticed I had tear marks on my face, and asked if I was sad. I said, "Didn't you see mommy crying? That's why Gabe and Seth were hugging and kissing mommy." Then she starts crying hard, and says, "I didn't see you crying and I didn't give you hugs and kisses when you cried. Can you cry again?" Hilarious. So I fake cry, she gives me hugs and kisses and all is well. God is so good.
This really spoke to me, taken from Sacred Parenting, by Gary Thomas.
"Parental guilt can actually encourage us to rest in God's providence. It's no accident that we have the children we have; God made them and placed them in our care. When he did so, he knew our limitations, but he still entrusted us with these children. As people of faith, we need to trust God and let some of the responsibility fall back on him. This doesn't mean we become cavalier and fail to fully engage ourselves as parents to the best of our ability. But it does mean that we have a place of rest-it's called trusting in God's providence and in Christ's sufficiency. All of us come up short as parents-but Christ promises to make up for what we lack." And I, for one, am so thankful for that.