Parenting is hard

I confess that I appreciate my parents so much right now. How did they survive my childhood?  Life is like a roller coaster without any brakes. Coasting at times, careening out of control...up up up and then down at 150 mph.

And I have all these words I want to write and I can't even put a sentence together. It's like my brain is refusing to adult lately. 

I feel so out of touch with our oldest son and his wife. They have their own lives to live. But I also have great joy because wow! they are so in love. It's hard to be a parent to an adult child when there are still little ones at home.

Then there is the teenage Farm Girl, who is on an emotional roller coaster of her own. Perfectly in sync with mine. Yee haw.

Skip down five years and there's the Tater Tot. She's stuck in the middle and can't seem to find her own place. She is very sensitive and like me, she eats to cover her emotions. She can also yell louder than any other human being on the planet. I swear.

There's The Farm Kid, he's 6. He's his Daddy's little Buckaroo. But he is also very mischievous. (Dang it, I had to use spell check on that one.) Yesterday, he and his brother went chasing a farm cat into an alfalfa field and scared the crap out of us. We looked for ten minutes before Jaima heard them. They had to raise their hands so we could see where they were and guide them out. Needless to say, yesterday will be entered in the record books as "exciting".

And then there's The Baby. 'Cept he's four. And he is t-r-o-u-b-l-e. He sneaks into our room at night and steals my phone. He's figured out how to crack the code. We catch him sneaking, like a lynx, across the floor. It's creepy. He also loves to eat candy and can find it anywhere. 

Tonight, at wit's end, I decide to Google "Charles Spurgeon on parenting." Spurgeon is one of the greatest preachers the world has ever known. His words are like salve for my wounds. He takes the Word of God and reaches my heart across the century with words that still ring true today:

Do not others expect from children more perfect conduct than they themselves exhibit? If a gracious child should lose his temper, or act wrongly in some trifling thing through forgetfulness, straightway he is condemned as a little hypocrite by those who are long way from being perfect themselves. Jesus says, “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones.

Spurgeon talks about how Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me" and "Feed my lambs." What an extraordinary calling it is to be a parent. Will I lose hope during the difficult times? Or will I lean stronger on the One who has loaned these little souls to me, to train them in righteousness and yes, to teach them their manners as well...

Points to ponder on this parenting journey.

Never lose hope,
Thee Farm Wife