A meek and quiet spirit

The Lord has been speaking to me lately. It seems like I have been less and less patient and kind and loving to my kids as the stress in my life has built.Cross country moves,a husband finishing up a year deployment and a two year old (face it they can be pretty stressful!) have all been weighing heavily on me lately. The two scriptures that I have been turning to again and again that have really convicted me are-

Ephesians 6:4 “ And,ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”

James 1:19-20 “..let every man be swift to hear,slow to speak,slow to wrath.For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.”

Over and over these scriptures have come up in my scripture study,in lessons at church and just popped into my head at random times! The Lord is definitely trying to tell me something! I have not lately been slow to speak or slow to wrath. I know that my impatience and irritated tones are NOT working righteousness and not showing the love of God to my children.

I’ve been praying  a lot lately about this and asking the Lord to give me patience. Today I got a big answer to my prayers right from my bookshelf! I was looking for something to read and came across the book “Homeschooling with a Meek and Quiet Spirit.” By Teri Maxwell. I vaguely remembered reading it and since we are starting homeschool again next month I thought it was a perfect read!

Well you could have titled this book “Christina here is your answer to Parenting with a Meek and Quiet Spirit!”Hahaha. I love this book. Mrs. Maxwell first helps you to understand that we ALL have those bad days and that none of us can be the parent we want to be on our own.We are nothing without Gods mercy daily. He can work in us and give us a meek and quiet spirit if we let Him.She also stresses the importance of daily time with the Lord.Time to read scripture and pray and feel Gods spirit. In truth that is one of the things most easily put off in my life. Around feeding babies,teaching kids,cleaning house,grocery shopping and all the many other things. But the thing that really was witnessed to me today reading this book is that although those are all important things none of them can give me the peace and the strength that I can get from focusing on my relationship with God.

Today I focused on using my pause button. See we all have one. In the split second between the toddler smearing red lipstick on your tan carpet and your reaction you can use that pause button.Just stop yourself right there and look at the situation and decide how you will handle it. We are not slaves to our emotions.We can CHOOSE how to react.Using that pause button really helps me with that!

I hope I am not the only one who struggles with this. I know at times we all feel discouraged.Its when we realize that we are nothing without Gods strength and love that we can really let go of the guilt and feelings of inadequacy  and look to the Lord for strength.