Humility

I've been doing some thinking about my new status as stay-at-home mom, and mother-of-toddler, and temporary mommy-without-daddy, and I think my biggest problem is pride. I think that if I'm honest, my struggles at home come from two places: feeling inadequate when it comes to raising my daughter and feeling that others think I'm inadequate when it comes to raising my daughter.

If I were humble, I wouldn't be so concerned that others think I'm a supermom, so it wouldn't bother me when my normally happy baby has a meltdown in the parking lot, or when she shakes her head "no" at me and laughs instead of coming back to my side.

If I were humble, I would recognize that I'm not capable of making my child love God or desire obedience. If I were humble, I would recognize my inadequacy and fall on my knees, daily, hourly, for patience, gentleness, wisdom, mercy, energy, and encouragement to see every moment as an opportunity to teach and train my daughter. I would pray that the Holy Spirit would soften her heart, make her alive in Christ, turn her to saving faith and a desire to live a life of thankful obedience. If I were humble, I would recognize the pattern of my own sin in her pattern of toddler misbehavior, and thank God every day that He is a loving Father who shows mercy to his children.