Winter Break

How are you doing after winter break? My husband and I often feel that it’s the hardest time of year for us, and this break was no exception. Here are my thoughts after surviving the toughest break we have yet experienced: 

Society tells us in more or less words, that if we are struggling it's because of a mistake we have made. We made poor decisions, implemented the wrong parenting strategies, or didn’t hear God’s call to us correctly. The reality however, is that the gospel motivated us to walk down this road, and we heard God’s voice clearly. When we said yes, our smoother, straighter road, merged with a smaller, bumpier one. We're not struggling with our children because of bad parenting or even their own fault, but because they have been hurt and they need to heal. This is hard because when we choose to come alongside the hurting, we inevitably are going to get hurt too.

We don’t need to blame ourselves or our children, dear friends. My prayer is that we would see that God is with us in the midst of our suffering, walking the narrow, bumpy road at our side.