On Monday night, my poor three year old was bawling. Sweet hubby ran upstairs while I barely stirred. In my defense, I was exhausted and not feeling so great. As my husband opened the door, he found that Schafer had thrown-up all over the bed. After one more bout, he stopped for the night. I was so sad for him, but will selfishly admit that I was not looking forward to this clean-up, nursing job in the morning.
That morning, I came to his bedroom as he had er, um, let it out the other end all over the bed. I about gagged and I had to say, "Lord, I don't think I can do this." Immediately, I managed to handle it just fine. I was compassionate and made sure he knew that what happened is just a part of life. He never threw up or anything after that and enjoyed a day of pajamas and cartoon videos. LUCKY HIM!
DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY TIMES I HAVE SAID THAT? "Lord, I don't think I can do this."
Like when my Mother died, or during both of my labors, when Grant went into the hospital at three weeks old for a horrible case of RSV (nasty little virus) and he could barely breathe. I could barely breathe.
When I lost four people in one year , 2006 and when I realized I would be motherless while becoming a mother. "Lord, I don't think I can do this."
Moving to Grand Junction and the fact that God actually trusted ME to stay at home for this year and watch my two boys! "Lord, I don't think I can do this."
You know what? I CAN'T. That's right. I really cannot do all the hard tasks, trials, errands, and demands that life puts on me.
2 Corinthians 12 Speaks of Paul's thorn (there are many theories as to what this thorn represents)and how he asked the Lord to take it away. But verses 9-10 speak specifically about how the Lord did not take it away because His power is made perfect in weakness. Cleaning up gross things...well, I am weak. It also says, that Paul accepted the Lord's authority, and the hard things because Paul realized that when we are at our weakest we are stronger in God.
We don't have to be able to do it or be strong. We just have to trust Christ through it...that the strength, the ability, the needed change will be there from the Lord Jesus himself. In our weakness, we rely less on ourselves and more on His strength, help and hope.
Oh, and did I mention that my almost two year old played with his poop in the crib?
May the Lord's power be greater in our weaknesses.
aaahhh! Those are the parts of motherhood that we didn't know we were signing up for!! And at the same time, we had no idea how often we'd have to tap into God's strength to get through the day. Good reminder ... and a vivid illustration of the muck God wants to get us through! :)
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