What If ? 3 Steps to Face YOUR Fears

In this dark and scary world I find myself at times overwhelmed with, "What ifs?"

I was shocked and saddened with the world at the deaths in Colorado- in a seemingly safe place- a theatre. 

I woke early the next morning with scary dreams of being chased down and trying to keep my children quiet in hiding, an impossible task with toddlers. I found myself gripped with fear and a million what ifs? 

• What if my son were to grow up to commit such a crime? 
• What if I am not raising my children properly? 
• What if we go somewhere and get shot today? 
• What if the forest is full of hidden gun men?(as we were out gathering mushrooms)

Every what if squeezed joy and life from my frame. 

But then I remembered what I had read just the day before in the book that God has placed in my life just when I need it most. "Calm My Anxious Heart" by Linda Dillow. I had just read a chapter on facing the what ifs in our lives.

She had shared what one young man had done to face his fears and his what ifs in three steps: (pg. 163-Calm my Anxious Heart)

1. Ask yourself what is the worst that can possibly happen? 
2. Prepare to accept it if you have to.
3. Then calmly proceed to improve on the worst.

The truth is that worrying never improves anything. The truth is that there is One greater than all my worries and He is the only one capable of changing anything. When I worry I am not trusting Him. 

Thinking within the perspective of those 3 steps guides me to be the person I ought to be today. 

My worst fear and greatest WHAT IF in raising my children would be for them to turn their backs on their Creator and for them to commit some hideous crime like the one in Aurora. 

However, I cannot know what their future holds. I could raise them perfectly in every way and pray for them night and day-BUT I cannot control them or force them to have a personal relationship with Jesus. It has to be their choice-their transformation. The truth remains that I must accept the decisions they will make- while guiding them now in a straight path. 

That is the conclusion- I MUST be present in their lives, loving on them, praying for them, training and guiding them to be the people they will become and in doing all this I am doing ALL that I can to prevent and improve upon the worst. 

Toddlers ????

As a Mom with two very active toddlers, ages 3 1/2 and 22 months I am sometimes so short on patience. 

• How do you get them to eat, and not asked to be fed or just dream away and not eat? Our older boy is worse about this than the younger child. 

• How do you get them to be quiet at nap time? Especially the older so that the younger can sleep? I feel ready to pull my hair out some days on this and finally just put the older in a different room so that he can be noisy and she can sleep. Maybe he does not need naps anymore. But I need them now (at 33 weeks) pregnant. OH HELP! 
  

• How do we teach our children to pray? And to want to pray? We show them by example, but our older doesn't want to even try to pray aloud? Why? (Dad- Mom, were we like this?)

The wisdom and patience required of parents is beyond anything I could have imagined. I can only marvel at the great job my parents did in raising us. Thank you!

Nap War. . . or. . . Wow, God!

Lately my 21 month old girlie has been giving me a taste of the terrible twos. The one who always went down for a nap without a fuss and fell asleep like a dream has now taken to standing up and being noisy and just plain NOT sleeping.

My 3 1/2 year old goes down for a nap/quiet time. He didn't sleep a single day this week. But I didn't expect him to.


I have been really worn out lately. It is usually when they nap that I can relax and paint or take a nap myself. These last two days I have wanted to nap- but no luck. How can I sleep when they aren't?

Yesterday I got so frustrated with them. I wonder if it is worth this struggle. I finally put D in a different room and A finally fell sleep at 16:00 rather than the usual 13:30 or two.

Today was looking to be a repeat of yesterday. It is in times likes these I am very aware how much I need God's wisdom and guidance and PATIENCE as a Mom. I separated them much earlier this time and had D go downstairs to sleep/rest. He NEVER sleeps down there, but at least then A can fall asleep. She cried and carried on. I went and gave her a hug and told her I would be right here and that it was nap time. (Aren't I always here?) Finally, she fell asleep! Whew!

I had set the timer for D because he wanted to play with toys in bed and I had said he needed to try and sleep for 30 minutes and then I would let him play quietly in bed. When the timer went off I went to check on him and I was astounded to see he had fallen asleep! Wow, God! Thank you!

So my stressful afternoon has now calmed. The Giver of all patience and wisdom has overcome.

What do you do about nap times?

January Plans

One day I realized that I need to start making some plans for the time I spend with my children. Granted, I am a stay at home mom and have lots of that. But I wanted to plan things like I used to when I was a preschool teacher.

So I decided to make a calendar for January. I chose a theme- which for us will be winter. I went through a site on the Internet and got some great craft ideas which I put into my calendar. We will try to do one or two crafts a week. I also chose a verse and song for the month which we will try to learn. My kids are only 3.5 and 21 months. But I feel good knowing we have a plan. The teacher in me LOVES being so organized.

I have also been working on weekly menus. I love planning what we are going to eat. Though it keeps getting readjusted according to what comes up that day. I flip flop my days some of the time to fit into our schedule as need be.  I think part of my sudden interest in meal planning has to do with my seemingly never ending appetite which has suddenly appeared at 26 weeks :)

So how about you? Do you plan menus or schedules for your life and kids? I'd love to hear about them!