One Minute Mama – The Days Go Slow but the Years Fly By

Mother’s Day is upon us. It’s time for Moms across the world to have a moment to themselves to relish in a job well done and take that proverbial “breather.”  When your kids are small, you are physically busy every moment, from tying shoes, making food, driving to activities, helping with homework or attempting to clean up the house for the 5th time that day.

When your kids become teenagers, your physical work changes to mental gymnastics.  It is a constant challenge to figure out what is going on in their minds regarding peer pressure, friend dynamics and the ever-present school issues.  You are shocked to realized you are not as “cool” to them as you were when they were little.  You never thought you would be viewed this way by your child who has always adored you.  A key component during these years is to find a church or teenage small group where there are leaders or other adults that can pour into their lives and echo the advice you are telling them.  For some reason, kids can sometimes hear life messages this way a little more clearly.

Then the college years come and slowly you become a friend to them again.  You are a phone call away when they are sick and need your Mom advice on how to feel better.  They know they can ask you for money when they don’t know where theirs has gone.  You are their sounding board when their roommate has become “weird” and friendship issues surface where there were never problems before. Then they graduate and their next exciting chapter stands before them.  You are on the sidelines as their biggest cheerleader as they begin to navigate life, just as you have prayed.

Where do the years go?  They fly by.  People tell you this when they are little and you don’t believe them because you are too knee deep in motherhood.  Enjoy them at every stage, know that all the work is worth it.  Don’t compromise what you know is right in raising them and pray every step of the way for God’s perfect will on their life.  Remember you are the vessel that God used to mold and shape them. Just release all of the control to Him and then breathe!

Proverbs 22:6 NIV “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.”