A Surrendered Life

This morning in my prayer time I was praying for my kids.  There are some qualities I see in them

that I would LOVE to be worked on.  I was asking the Lord, "How do you want me to express this to

my kids without nagging them, (because I have done that and it does not work)! The Lord gently

said, "Use my word!" Why is that the last thing I think of sometimes.  So I sat down with this white

board and wrote out the qualities I would love to see grow and found scripture to back it up! Okay

Lord, you get ALL the glory, now work in these kiddos because where I am weak you are strong!"

You see, my husband and my desire when we gave life to these kids was to raise them in an

environment where we were sold out for Christ, but life is messy and hard and teachable. We have

not always done everything right, we have argued in front of our kids.  In fact, we have yelled in front

of our kids.  I am not proud of that, but it's true.  We have spent more time on our phones than in the

word.  Again, not proud of it, but it's true.  We have disciplined more harshly than we should have

in certain scenarios when we should have shown grace.  We have said bad words, yes I am admitting

that to the world.  That is not my language of choice, but I have indeed failed in that area, usually

when I lose my temper and stop showing grace and fail to listen.  Folks I am so far from perfect

and I find myself wishing I could redo certain times in my life, but I can't.  All I can do is ask God

for the grace to get through today.  I know I am forgiven by my Savior, but the problem is forgiving

myself.   Shame is from the enemy and I will not listen to his lies.  So get behind me satan because

my God is mighty to save and he will quiet me with HIS love.  I know MY God will restore the

years the locusts have eaten and I put my trust in HIM.  The so the real question is, Are we really

sold out for Christ? Oh yeah!!!

Christ followers are far from perfect, but when we fail we get back up again! When we stumble

our God gently guides us back to truth. A perfect life is not a life of Christ, but a surrendered life is.