Big Hearts, Thick Skin, Eyes on Him

How many weeks of summer lie in front of you, and what mantra will get you through it? In 50 hours, summer break will officially be here, and this year it's eleven weeks long. I remember ten week summers, but at eleven you may as well round up and call it a three month break.

That's a lot of summering. 

As my friends and I prayed this morning, commissioning one another for what lay ahead, someone said, "Lord, give us soft hearts and thick skin." Add to that "eyes on Him," and I think we have ourselves what it takes to make it through.

Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of spending time with my kiddos - adventuring together, road tripping across state borders, beaching regularly and spending hours next to the pool with iced coffees.... Yet I have hard kiddos with unique needs, and the way they relate to one another often discourages me deeply. 

As our family grew, I never thought that the way they would interact would be such a source of grief in my life. I naively assumed that if kindness was modeled, kindness would become the norm. Yet I have children with deep trauma and little joy. I have one who screams so loudly during tantrums that our ears ring for hours afterwards, one who can hardly communicate, one who's always complaining, one who always wants to be at the park, and one who never wants to leave the house. 

Sweet Jesus, eleven weeks is looking longer and longer every day. 

My “this is going to be fun!” mantra can only get us so far into the summer, so folks, repeat after me: 

Big hearts, Thick skin, Eyes on Him

With this as the prayer we pray under our breath, we can do it. Let us remember that mamas everywhere are praying similarly. We're not alone in thinking that this is too much unstructured time in our family year. Expectations are high, rhythms are wacky, heat and bugs bombard us, and social media fools us into thinking that everyone else's family is having a better time than ours. That's a lie.

Together, let's take it one day at a time, trusting that God will provide us everything we need for the day before us. Eleven weeks of provision isn't what we need. We need big hearts to love well, thick skin to forgive much, and eyes to see God’s grace in the midst of all our beautiful mess.

Summer? Let's do this!