Blog written by Suzy Mirabella
Parenting is a joyous challenge any time of the year, but it seems every parent over the summer gets put to the ultimate test. In this day and age, it feels like we are constantly comparing ourselves to each other. Always trying to keep up with what we did last year in the hopes of making this summer another memorable one. I love summer time, although it is my busiest season at work, it is a time when my boys feel less stressed with school and get to just enjoy their childhood.
As a full time working mom, my time with my children is precious; but lets be real, I am nearly spent by the end of the day and I need some time to decompress. It’s ok to snag a few spare moments of quiet while they are watching a show or playing a game. However, as I look at my boys I am constantly reminded that as a mom it is important to intentionally parent my children – especially in the busyness of the summer time when the weather is nice and the options for fun things to do are plentiful.
When our children are born and we hold them in our arms, it doesn’t take much convincing to know we are holding a beautiful, God-given blessing that has been entrusted to our care. As they get older and life begins to pick up its pace, we often need reminding that when the crawling turns to walking, and walking to running, and they become more independent those same children are still entrusted to us by our creator. Not to just survive the summer but to thrive in the summer.
As my boys get older I am always making it a point to have a genuine connection with them on a daily basis. Whether that‘s finding some one on one time, or playing a game that includes the whole family. It’s so important that our children are shown how to form and maintain deep and meaningful relationships with us. It’s during this time of connection that I learn what my children’s hopes and dreams are, what scares them, and what makes them feel sad. It‘s during these moments that my children have asked “Mommy, how do I know when God is talking to me?” And “Mommy, will Jesus still love me if I do something bad?”
“You formed my innermost being, shaping my delicate inside
and my intricate outside,
and wove them all together in my mother’s womb.
I thank you, God, for making me so mysteriously complex!
Everything you do is marvelously breathtaking.
It simply amazes me to think about it!
How thoroughly you know me, Lord!
You even formed every bone in my body when you created me in the secret place, carefully, skillfully shaping me from nothing to something.
You saw who you created me to be before I became me!
Before I’d ever seen the light of day,
the number of days you planned for me were already recorded in your book.”
Psalm 139 13-16 TPT
I read that passage and I know that our Creator, with such love and purpose designs each of us. Each one of us are given gifts and a calling before we even draw our first breath. As parents, God has entrusted each one of our children to us, not by accident but intentionally to us. Your children were not given to you by chance, but by design.
Whether you are a full time working mom, stay at home mom, single mom, or military mom – parenting during the summer can be difficult. Yet it is nothing that God has not prepared us for. While school is out, let’s be women of faith and take full advantage of the time we are given with our children to lay the foundations of genuine connection and pour Christ’s love into our children so that when school begins again in the fall we will have giant killers on our hands.