my struggles.

Josh and Kelly said... Also, what have been some of your biggest struggles as a mom and how have you overcome them?

I am like any other Mommy.

I have struggles.

I have not overcome them all.

Sometimes I even feel very much defeated and under condemnation because of my struggles. I know the devil tries to take my weaknesses and make me feel like I may never change. I also know, in fact, that this is a lie.

Some of the areas I have struggled in are lacking patience, being pessimistic, yelling, being a perfectionist and losing my joy.

I realize that I cannot continue to let these things have dominion in my life if I am going to raise my 8 children the way I want.

The Bible calls the Holy Spirit, the Helper, and so with His Help, I am learning to weed these out of my life.

Like I've said before-- by not getting saved until I was 25, I unfortunately picked up a lot of bad habits and garbage that I am working and praying to overcome. Some things are harder and some have already been eliminated.

I think I forget about the ones that I've had victory in and the devil exploits this because his strategy is to get me to focus on the struggles I have now. And we have such a tendency to forget much of what God has done in our lives since we've gotten saved, don't we?

Help to overcome has come through a variety of sources: through prayer, wisdom from my Pastor, attending Bible conference, wonderful Christian mommy books, being open with my husband, seeing how my weaknesses effect my children, using common sense, being transparent and reading, reading and more reading of the Bible.

I am not perfect and neither is my marriage or my children; We all need a lot of work. But I have a vision, a purpose, goals and know that God is not done with me yet. He will finish what He started as long as I stay on track putting my faith in Him.