I’m thrilled to welcome Christy Baca to My Messy Desk as she shares an encouraging story about how God helped her overcome the MESSES in mothering! Let’s give her a great big welcome!!

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MESSES in Mothering

by: Christy Baca

I often find myself daydreaming about the nostalgic days of being at home with my girls.

There were a lot of messes in the days of potty training and play dates, but I could manage them on my own with sheer physical tenacity, a predictable routine, and cleaning tips from Good Housekeeping.

Broken glass, sweep it up.

Spilled kool aid, mop it up.

Dirty clothes, delegate those to the washing machine.

Right?

However, as time passes (and it does, mamas) these littles grow and their messes begin to take the shape of things we can’t simply clean up with a broom, mop, or washing machine.

They morph into messy social situations like: broken trust, rejection, mean girls, battling self-image, managing money, failure despite their best effort, rebellion, cell phones, growing independence, and eventually being on their own far from the safety net called home.

When our sweet littles transition into teens we shift our mom methods. Instead of cleaning up their messes for them, we begin to guide from afar, trusting we have trained them well.

Even as a mom who invested 18 years of prayer, scripture, intentional conversations wrapped in WHO God is and ALL He has done for us, I still struggled to BELIEVE all that sowing would reap a harvest.

Months before my daughter went to college, I began to cling to Jeremiah 17:7-8. My prayer for her when she left the safety of our home was that she would not fear the messes that come with learning to navigate life on her own and that she would bear fruit from the sowing I’d done.

The Lord was so faithful to show me in a messy situation that He had reaped a harvest in our oldest daughter.

She wrecked her car on her return trip to college following Thanksgiving break and suffered a concussion that restricted her from light, reading, noise, and normal day to day living for several months. In the beginning, she slept a lot and spent days in her bedroom laying in the dark. Two days into her recovery she called out for me. Her request wasn’t for a drink of water or to have her pillow situated or another dose of pain medication. She wanted me to read the Bible to her. She knew that the Word of the Lord would be encouraging and she hadn’t been able to read for several days. She needed to HEAR it to remember the mess she was in was just temporary. This reading routine continued throughout her recovery. Some days she would lie on the couch in the dark living room, as I read by the light of our Christmas tree.

Once fully recovered, I had to trust she was ready to drive that same route where she totaled her car. The day she left our driveway, I clung to Isaiah 54:10. His strength in her to overcome the fear of driving was the same strength that allowed me to let her go again.

Mamas, we reap what we sow.

Even though we may not see it in the middle of mothering, GOD has a method of cleaning up the messes.

http://Even though we may not see it in the middle of mothering, GOD has a method of cleaning up the messes.

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I saw this car wreck and concussion as a mess. I mean who wouldn’t?

We have a healthy, beautiful, driven 19 year old who simply wants to grow into who she was created to be.

The mess of her circumstances allowed this mama to see the harvest from all sowing I had done through daily prayers, notes of encouragement, gentle (and sometimes not so gentle) guidance through advice.

My method of sowing wasn’t always perfect. Goodness knows, we mamas fail.

Did you read that?

Mama, we are going to fail. We learn from our failures. This mess taught me that despite my flaws, the Lord used my sowing and reaped a harvest from those imperfect efforts. He says, we reap what we sow. He just doesn’t tell us when that harvest will come.

Don’t give up.

Keep sowing into the heart of your daughter or son. It’s worth the harvest that will come in HIS timing. Seeing our girl drive with confidence and push through what will be a long recovery with the strength of the Lord is the masterpiece in our mess. She encourages to me to keep believing that God is working every mess out for His glory!

In all of this mothering this is my banner verse:

“Because of the Lord’s great LOVE we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.

They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

I say to myself, “ The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”

Lamentations 3:23-34

Even in the messiest messes in mothering, the Lord will never fail us.

Even in the messiest messes in mothering, the Lord will never fail us.… Click To Tweet

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Author of Saying Yes! To Saying No – Parent’s Guide to Values Based abstinence, Christy is a 1997 graduate of Texas A&M University. She is mom to two daughters ages 16 & 19. She has been married to David for 21 years and they live in North Texas where she spends her summer days teaching private swim lessons. In addition to being an author and private swim instructor Christy is a certified Life Breakthrough life coach, focusing on parenting, marriage and teen girls. She speaks nationwide to parents and students about social media safety, cyberbullying prevention, all things MOM related and current teen issues.

Website: www.christybaca.org