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Last week I shared a children minister’s wisdom that I can’t raise “godly” children if I am not growing myself. To raise children who have a personal relationship with their Savior, we must “practice faith together as a family.” With so much truth, she shared, “It’s easy to want something for our kids that we don’t have ourselves.”
But what if we want more for ourselves and our kids? What is we desire to grow?
Tammy sent me an email sharing how much the 31 Days to Change Challenge affected her life. I asked if she would mind sharing for in her two-day guest post below, you will find the answer to growing.
In an attempt to be very honest with you, I will share that my devotional life had really
become non-existent. But that hadn’t always been the case.
I’d never been a big early morning person who cracked open their Bible at the first light of dawn; however, I had been a very dedicated individual to feed on God’s Word. Every day in college I would throw my books, journal and Bible into my messenger bag, drive down to the closest coffee shop (because what college student doesn’t survive on coffee?!), and pull up a small table to call mine for the next few hours. I would grab the needed cup of coffee, unload my bag, and pull the Bible straight to my heart. Saying a pray for wisdom as I read, I would sit and ingest the Word stopping very often to jot down notes, ideas, and what I felt the Spirit was saying to my heart. Feeling refreshed, I would then open up my school books and go “back” to my college routine. It was the spiritual food I needed desperately to survive.
Once I graduated college and entered the “real world” it became necessary to be an early morning person to make it to work on time. Since I couldn’t spend hours in a coffee shop daily anymore, I would either get up a bit early or spend the last hour of my night practicing the same devotional routine. Reading, writing, journaling, praying… being uplifted by the Lord.Somehow when I became a wife and mother the routine began to change. Newly in
love and passionate about my husband I found my extra hours turned to cuddling with him, watching a movie together, sitting with a cup of coffee next to him talking about our hopes and dreams; all beautiful things but yet things that took me away from my first
Having children back-to-back-to-back didn’t help with my routine either. Getting up multiple times a night, chasing around infants and toddlers, cleaning, cooking, and
comforting babies left me falling into bed at night and waking up only when the kids
woke me up. It became a tired-mommy cycle.
And so, my time spent with God daily slowly slipped away…. I did try and fit it in when
I could. But key here is it was “when I could.” When I felt up to it. When I could find a
scrap of time to fit it all in.
Oh, but how I missed it. And how I needed that time with the Lord. Was it any wonder
I became such a discouraged mommy, grumpy wife, and lackluster friend? What I
needed most in my life, I pushed aside for “living” my life. And life was getting too hard.
Friends, can you relate? Is life getting too hard?
Come back tomorrow as Tammy will be sharing the rest of this story. You will be encouraged. And in the process you will be one step closer to understanding how to grow “broken and godly kids.”
Because that is our goal. Right?
Tammy Moyle met and married Zac, the love of her life, in less than a year and then quickly added 3 wonderful babies in the next 4 years… so needless to say, she’s a bit tired. Her utmost desire to reach out to the hearts of all women: wives, mothers, daughters, sisters, and friends… to let them know they are not alone in their fears and to ultimately find their joy in Christ and Christ alone. She is passionate about her family, cupcakes, pink lip-gloss, and coffee. Tammy lives in Las Vegas, Nevada and blogs way too much about her children at blitheblog.com… but that is unlikely to change!
