Adjusting Focus

In the last couple of weeks I have been seeing a true shift in my purpose and direction.  The past year and a half have been focused primarily on grieving our loss of Scott and finding a way to move forward.  Part of my focus during that time was on helping Jaelyn grieve.  In the past few weeks I have really felt God pulling me toward a different focus in my devotional time and in my thought processes.  For anyone following my Facebook posts recently, you have already had a pretty big glimpse into how God is speaking to me.

Sometime before Christmas I was looking for new devotional books for my quiet times.  At that time I picked up two devotional books and another book.  The book I felt the most led to pick up was a woman’s devotional.  It really met me where I was at that moment in some of the grief steps I was facing.  Yet after about a month to six weeks, I began struggling to find a personal connection in the daily readings.  It took me a few weeks of this struggle before I gave myself permission to set it aside and pick up the other devotional and book.


This devotional is “Wisdom for Mothers Devotional Journal” and the other book is “The Love Dare for Parents.”  I have shared a few excerpts in my Facebook posts from “The Love Dare for Parents” that have really struck home with me.  Between these two books, I feel like God is really doing a remodel on me as a parent.  Being a single parent has been extremely overwhelming at times and exhausting.  I have felt like I am parenting by the skin of my teeth.  These books and the thoughts that God is highlighting for me are making me more conscious of my reactions to Jaelyn and being more intentional in my interactions and reactions to her.  As I have seen God changing my interactions and reactions to Jaelyn, I have seen some of the challenges in her behavior significantly decreasing and changing.  This has really convicted me as a parent.  How many times have I vented and complained about the challenges of parenting without considering how my own actions, reactions, and attitudes have contributed to those challenges?   This is not to say that all of our children’s behaviors are a direct result or reaction to our own actions, reactions, and attitudes.  But how much more successful can I be as a parent if I am demonstrating the very actions, reactions, and attitudes that I want to see in my child and that God shows me as His child?

http://smile.amazon.com/Love-Dare-Parents-Stephen-Kendrick-ebook/dp/B00D7FLHOS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394415224&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Love+Dare+for+Parents

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