We recently welcomed our third child to our family. She arrived in a hurry and has quickly settled into family life. I’ll admit it’s a little daunting having three kids under three but for the time being I’m just enjoying the fact that she eats and sleeps with little crying in between. You might think that this would mean that we are all getting some sleep, but that is not the case. Our other little girl is struggling to sleep through the night. When I look back I can see that she really has never been a great sleeper at night but at the moment we are being stretched further than before. Our nights are punctuated with repetitive cries of ‘mama’ followed by crying which then regularly escalates to ear piercing screams. It’s hard for me and my husband. In dealing with this I’ve been thinking about a word I heard preached recently. The statement I heard is that God is not interested in the ‘what’ someone has done to you but rather what will you do next. Will I become a victim and look for sympathy from everyone around me? Will I demand that others around me make my life easier because this is unfair? Will I expect my husband to pick up my load in this? Or rather will I stand accountable for who God has called me to be and that is simply a wife to Jonathon and a mother to our three kids. I know that God is calling me to look to Him for strength and wisdom in this season. He has all the patience, love and care required to train and secure our daughter, not just through the night but through her life. My strength and abilities are finite but in my weakness I know His strength. This season of sleeplessness may only last a few more nights or maybe it will be weeks or months. My desire in it though is to continually fix my eyes on God, find His grace and to walk obediently as the wife and mother that He has created me to be.
1 Corinthians 12:9-10 9 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.10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.