This crazy stage of life
“Lord you have assigned me my cup and portion, you have made my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.”
(Psalm 16: 5-6)
Hard but beautiful
Parenting young children is a particularly hard stage of life, but it’s a beautiful one too.
I know this because it’s the stage of life where every single older person you ever meet will tell you that it’s precious, and remind you to enjoy every moment because ‘they grow up so fast’.
It’s easy to forget this when you’re lost in a fog of nappy changing and feeding and sleepless nights, or when you’re stuck on the never ending merri-go-round of school runs and nursery drop offs and bath times and story times and picking up toys at the end of the day.
But deep down I know it’s true…
Because this stage of life is just brimming with fun… like farm outings and seaside trips, and kids parties and fancy dress days, and swimming lessons and first steps… and also just lots and lots of cuddles.
In this stage of life your kids love and look up to you more than they are EVER going to love you again.
In this stage of life you get to experience Christmas, Easter, Halloween, birthdays, snow days through your kids eyes, and it’s so much more magical than it ever was before.
This is the good stuff!
These small, ordinary, perfectly imperfect moments really are the good stuff… unfolding right in front of me.
It’s not glamorous. It’s often tiring and it takes a lot of personal sacrifice.
But at the end of the day when I collapse on the couch in exhaustion, I can honestly say, just like the Psalmist, ‘the boundary lines for my life have fallen in pleasant places’.
I think often when you’re exhausted it’s so easy to look at your stage of life and think that the grass looks greener elsewhere… when the kids are bigger, when I feel less tired, when we have more money and headspace… But it really isn’t, it’s just a different patch of grass.
And my gosh, I know it can be hard, but my son is four already and it really has gone by in the blink of an eye! So these days, I’m trying to take the time to really appreciate and savour each one of those special little moments, even amidst the tiredness and chaos and mess.
So whatever stage of life you are in right now, whether you’re parenting pre-schoolers or becoming an empty nester, why not take a moment to thank God for it today?
Because the truth is that there really is no better season of life than the one He has given you and I to live in today.