As much as I love being a mom, mothering is filled with stuff I’d rather not do, because I much prefer peace and ease to hostility and battle.  But if we as moms and dads want to create a revolution in our homes with our families, we have to swim against the current which takes constant effort, with firm intention, toward the vision God’s given us.  Recently – perhaps a bit weary of standing firm, I realized how much I’d rather avoid:

1. bracing myself against the strong and persistent will of children who are pushing me to approve, disapprove, change my verdict, allow unallowables, bend, stop, start, begin, end or anything else we aren’t in agreement on at the moment.
2. grounding my kids from fun events and activities after difficult moments of conflict because it’s effective leverage toward future peace on the home front.
3. feeling like the ‘enemy’ when I really want to be the chum.
4. making them, despite their obvious displeasure, eat the foods they’d rather not eat so they can appreciate all the food groups and grow accustomed to healthy, creative and diverse foods to build strong bodies and to be prepared for whatever the future holds.
5. not buying them things they really want that I really could afford to pay for, because they need to earn the money themselves so they’ll understand the value of the dollar.  This usually means a looong….waaait for them to achieve their lofty goal.
6. consistently insisting on their regular and strenuous physical, mental, fiscal and spiritual exercise to help them develop life patterns that will bring them prosperity and success for their futures.

It ain’t easy, but it’s gotta be done.  And, someday they’ll love me for it. 

March on Mommas.