Looking at these pictures I am so thankful that I’m not where I was and praying that God continues to do a work on me. If I could tell my Younger self anything. It would be.” Time is short, don’t worry about the less than important stuff” . Emma is my oldest and Jacob is my 2nd born. They were born 17 months apart and were such sweet friends for a while …. then they went through a stage that they fought all of the time. Praise God ! that most of that is behind us. Now when I see this comparison, my mind wants to go straight to “how many mistakes I’ve made in the time between the two pictures.” That is the Enemy that wants me to think that. The word that God gave me was “life lessons”. I have had plenty of life lessons in a matter of 9 /10 or so years.

Emma was my first born. So I did what any mom did. I dressed her so cute , played learning games (that way she was so smart), and pretty much was raising her in an image that I thought God wanted for her. Without realizing I was passing my chains of perfection , self doubt and a “fixer”. I was turning my child into EVERYTHING that I struggled with the most. I was setting unrealistic expectations that she could have never necessarily met (what I do to myself ) . As she was in school she would get sick before a test , she signed up for everything to please people but didn’t realize what her likes or dislikes were. She thought I measured my love by what she accomplished.

Jacob is a sweet heart that has a huge heart for kids and the greatest love for baseball. He also has a HUGE expectation issue. He is so afraid to “hurt” my feeling or let anyone down. I remember him being in 2nd grade and wanting to please people and the teacher so bad. She told me, “Jacob was putting too much pressure on himself and he needed to see that if he got a name pull that the world would go on”. He hasn’t grown out of it , but it has gotten better. Baseball is definitely a battle in progress. When he wants something, there is no stopping him. He will work until he figures it out and excels in it. If he doesn’t want it, than it’s the opposite 🤦🏻‍♀️

We have been though many battles and test that I will share at another time. Just a little bit of information/ guidance. When I decided to change… My reactions / less of a reaction of the situations were the moments that we had the most breakthrough/bonding moments. Perfection is unrealistic expectations that can not be met. This is something that I had to see my kids walk through in order to change my own heart. We are all a work in progress.

The verse I would like you to pray and dig in more with me is

2 Corinthians 12:9VerseConcepts

And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness ” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me”