Goal #3 - Spending more time WITH my Family

WITH, (yes capitalized!) has been a word that God has used to quickly and immediately remind me of the precious little time we have with our families in this life.  As a full-time working mom, my children spend a good 40-50% of their waking hours in the care of others.  Not at all my ideal way of raising my children, but it is my reality at this point in my life. 

There are days when it has been a challenging day at work and all I want to do is mentally veg out.  I need rest, but my children need me.  I tend to have a constant mental to-do list running through my brain and that distracts me from spending time physically and mentally WITH my children.  This is actually a goal that God put on my heart over a year ago, and I continue to learn new ways of battling the selfish desires of my working mom lifestyle and keeping my godly desire to be a present mom and a mom who builds relationship with her children.

1. How does being WITH my children follow God's plan?
In my list of God-given priorities, my children are third in line, just below God and my husband.  I use WITH to also remind me of time to be WITH God and my man, but my struggle in this goal is centered on my children.  God has called me to raise godly young women and to be a role model, a source of safety, love, and joy for my children.  It is my gift to teach them and prepare them to live a godly life in the fallen world around them.  To be strong in their faith and to have a solid foundational understanding of who God is and who they are in Him.

2. Is being WITH, a reasonable goal I can accomplish with my strengths and weaknesses?
This goal in particular is a spiritual battle my saved self fights with my sinful desires.  I fight against my weaknesses in prayer and in my relationship with the Lord, He is teaching me to be a better mother.  My strengths include a strong desire to be the best -to be the Super MOM of faith for my children, an education centered in child development, and a God-given gift to see a spiritual need within the confusing contexts of a child's misbehavior.  My weaknesses are those that are selfish, impatient, demanding, and sometimes angry when life gets busy or when circumstances fail to meet my expectations. I can only accomplish this goal with the grace of my Lord and Savior teaching me each step of the way.

3. Does being WITH enhance the lives of those around me?
It is the best thing I can do!  If I forget about being WITH, it is too easy to fall into selfish behaviors and neglect the time and care that my children and family need.  Even with having a fulltime job, being able to interpret what priorities are at all moments of the day are vital to my ability to have a positive impact on the world around me.

4. Do I have support and accountability?
My ultimate support and accountability is God.  He speaks to my heart and uses verses, reminders from my husband, and situations with my family that show me areas to improve, times when I need to make a change in my perspective, and when I've crossed that line and need to ask forgiveness.  In my #1 Goal of having a deeper walk with the Lord, I cannot be successful in that Goal and ignore His leading in my life concerning this goal.

5. What is my specific plan of action?

 

This is complicated to explain in a short paragraph, but number one is spending time WITH God, which leads to my personal growth and a godly perspective on my life and my priorities.  My internal "mantra" so to speak is to make as many moments in the day ones that build positive relationships with my girls, point them towards the Lord, and are me focusing wholly on the moment (the gift of time) with my children.

I fail daily in this goal, but I also succeed daily.  As God continues to work on this area of my life, I will see more successes and less failures.  This goal will never end and will never be perfected because I am a human mom and I make mistakes...however!  With God's intervention my children will have the best mom God could have given them!