Pick a path, any path … or not!

Have you ever felt like you were wandering all over the place? I’m raising my hand on that one … and waving it, too! There is a common sense about ordinary things, like not letting your child touch a hot stove or not keeping scissors low where little hands can reach them. For me, additional common-sense-training started by doing a couple of few key things:

• Observing other moms around me and noting what worked and what didn’t. (We don’t always have to make the same mistakes to learn!)
• Digging into God’s Word, and making Bible study a part of everyday life … which is what I want to chat about.

I started daily Bible reading when my second child, Leslie, was a baby. I remember setting the alarm clock to wake up 15 minutes before the kids. That time in God’s Word made a huge difference. My whole day changed when I focused on God and invited Him into my little world. Also, God’s sense soon became my own. (Another way common sense is learned!)

As I read about God’s work among the people in the Bible, I began to understand His work in the world, in my life, and with my kids.

One of the greatest examples was reading about Jesus. If anyone had the ability to help people and to improve their lives it was He. Yet, Jesus wasn’t on the go 24/7. He went off alone to pray. He hung out with close friends. He served. He picked out certain tasks on certain days.

“Jesus understood what it meant to prioritize and to balance,” says Richard Swenson (M.D., author of The Overload Syndrome). “It’s okay to have limits. It is okay not to be all things to all people all of the time all by ourselves. At any given moment, the most important thing in life is the person standing in front of us.”

This makes sense, and—as a mom—I realized the people standing in front of me most were my kids. They were my greatest responsibility. When I focused on God, He helped me to give priority to the little ones who called me Mom.

That was just a start, though. As I dug into God’s Word, He taught me another lesson. Through Scripture and God’s whispers to my heart, I realized that my common sense often got pushed aside because of two big reasons: Fear and Urgency. Learning to battle these evil twins increased my common sense knowledge, too.

And the more I read God’s Word I discover God had two other things for me to focus on instead: grace and patience. Grace reminded me that I am not perfect and my kids were not (and would never be) perfect.

Patience was the other side of the coin that reminded me when I continued to dig into God’s word, He would transform me more and more into the image of His Son. And He’d also provide me with the wisdom and tools to help Him in the modeling process of my kids.

When talking to my friend, Cara, I learned God had been teaching her the same lesson.

“God gives me grace and patience when I need it, wisdom in abundance, and insight to see my kids and their challenges and potential the way that He does,” she told me.

The good news is, God can provide the same for you, too. Just dig into the Good News … it’s a perfect place to start and will carry you through to the end.