A couple days after the week of multiple trips to check on the baby, Daniel was on the phone relaying everything that had been going on to Pastor Mike. I was later told that the words shared in response were, "Parenting sure isn't for the faint of heart, is it?"

And I must say that, no, it isn't.

The doubts that plague, the fears that can overtake, the discouragement that so easily creeps in, the sinful impulses that are plainly seen, the problems that arise, the work that is required... No, it isn't easy. Parenting isn't a task for those who will easily give up and give in.

I kind of feel silly saying that being a mom is the hardest thing I've ever done because, well, I'm 24. I haven't done a whole lot.

But I know this is hard.

Yet I have also seen the Lord in the many challenges of parenting in ways I had never before seen Him. His grace takes on whole new meaning when I myself am given opportunity after opportunity to extend forgiveness to my own children; His love becomes increasingly unfathomable as I feel my heart swell each day with passion so intense for my children it causes me to ache. When resolution to situations, behavior, and problems seem so distant in the future I just want to quit, I have experienced the strength of the Lord like never before. When guilt about things I could do better and do more of penetrates the deepest parts of me, I taste His promises with a tangibility I'd not previously known.

The growth in me these last four years hasn't felt very spiritual most of the time. To be honest, most days it just feels like plain old hard work. It feels like choosing them instead of me. It feels like less sleep, less fun, more fret, and more responsibility. And yet the yield has been the greatest of my life.

So, yes, parenting isn't for the faint of heart. But it is for those who will call upon the Lord.

Because He never faints or grows weary. Because His watchful eyes are ever on me and mine. Because He will turn our striving into peace. Because He is trustworthy.

Drop Thy still dews of quietness,

Till all our strivings cease;

Take from our souls the strain and
stress,

And let our ordered lives confess

The beauty of Thy peace.
- John G. Whittier