encouragement for the journey
When my girls fall and hurt themselves, they know they can come to me, and I will get out the first aid kit, and administer Band-Aids, kisses, or ice packs as required.
But some days the hurts that my girls come home with are internal; harsh words spoken, friends who no longer want to play, or a teacher who shouted at them. For these hurts the treatment is less tangible, a hug, a listening ear, grace when their overwhelmed emotions overflow onto their mumma.
Are you in need of healing?
One of the joys of my life as a young mum was watching my babies as they slept. The days were filled with feeding, and playing, and consoling, and, of course, trying to get them to sleep. And yes I did enjoy my days with my babies.
But I cherished the times when finally, they closed their tired eyes and rested. And I would often watch the peaceful rise and fall of their chest and listen to the little sounds they made as they slept. Continue reading “Present with us – The protective father”
In times of great distress and pain we can sometimes feel that we are the sum of our emotions. Emotions that are overwhelming and hard, emotions that seem to take up our whole being. In these times conversely, we can also feel that God is distant, that he doesn’t understand the extremes of our emotions and that he is uncaring.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Our God is not a passive father that watches our emotional turmoil from a distance. Instead he is present with us in our emotional ups and downs. Continue reading “Present with us – the emotional father”
Winter.
A time of cold, and rain. The grey clouds, cold weather and shorter days calls for bunkering down in our cosy homes with a bowl of hot soup.
Winter can be a time of withdrawal, a time of isolation, a time of hibernation.
You hold it in the palm of your hand
It is small enough to fit in your pocket
Yet it controls your life
You answer every beep, flash and buzz
With Pavlovian single-mindedness
I am in the middle. In the middle of the term; in the middle of the primary years of parenting; in the middle of fifty-three thousand unfinished tasks (or so it seems). My mind is always full with too many tabs open.
I’m dropping the ball. Last week I took the girls to their swimming class straight after school. I had packed the bag with a warm change of clothes, googles, towel, everything but their swimmers!
It feels like a treadmill of washing, cooking, making lunches, hassling about homework, etc. You know the regular ins and outs of #mumlife Continue reading “on parenting in the middle”
