Having a husband, 3 children, full time job and busy ministry can keep a girl running. Really, even as I write this I think,” Ah, I can do it.” But that’s not the point. This is where our story begins today.
Often times I feel like the glue in my family. You see I remarried after having been divorced for 7-8 years. My ex-husband didn’t participate in much of the child rearing and I was doing a lot of things on my own with them by the time we divorced. My 2 children were teenagers and I thought I wouldn’t remarry or have any other children. I was wrong. I met the right guy and we decided that since he didn’t have any children of his own (besides the 2 he adopted when he got me) that we would try and see if the Lord would bless us. He did. We had a beautiful baby girl. So, while my son was a senior and my first daughter a sophomore in high school I had a baby- with a man who didn’t have any children prior to us getting married 2 years earlier. I even had the nerve to have the baby on my first daughter’s birthday. Of course, I didn’t plan that but it happened.
And over the years I’ve felt like the glue that holds everything together. When one child feels left out, I would be the one to talk to them and get them back together. When my husband feels like I haven’t spent enough time with him because I’m doing other things- I have to take the timeout to bridge the gap and make sure we get our time. When I was pregnant with the baby- my husband was laid off from his job. He’d never been without work for such a long period of time… I started telling myself that I could do it. I can work, I can pay the bills, etc etc… and I’ve even become the person that my friends call when they need to talk, yell, cry or pray. I have always been a helper but sometimes as a woman I’m told that I’m the rock. I’m the one who holds it together and this can be a dangerous place to live.
We were not designed to be the pot that everyone pulls from and never put anything back in. We should be teaching men to fish for themselves. Teaching our children and all those around us how to access the father for strength. We are not the source of their strength, He is!
And although we may minister to them and pray for them they should also know how to go to God in prayer for themselves. He provides. He supplies. He causes us to triumph. Its our job to depend on the true rock. To lean on his wisdom and understanding. To allow him to direct our paths. We are only leaning on the rock. And we all have to know how to replenish with the Father!
Above all I want everyone to know that when we are weak, He is strong. He didn’t ask us to be the rock. He asked that we know how to lean upon the rock. Don’t ever feel in despair or at a disadvantage. Use what you know to sustain yourselves in his word. We don’t have to be the glue that holds everyone together but when He holds us together we can stand strong against any obstacle or problem. And that’s something that holds up. Just keeping it Cristaclear.
Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths.