Grit & Grace: 5-Day Devos For Moms Of Young KidsSample

Unhappy Camper

If you want to be humbled, go camping with young children. My husband and I attempted our first family camping trip when we had four children, 7 and under. I don’t know what made us think it was a good idea to go on our church’s annual camping trip, at the beach, in a tent. 

This is where I learned three very important lessons.

• Lesson #1: Camping with young children is taking all of the stresses of parenting at home and adding a lot more dirt and a lot less sleep. Plus, fire.
• Lesson #2: Camping with young children will quickly bring you face to face with your control issues and inadequacies.
• Lesson #3: Camping with young children will make memories that none of you will ever forget. The air mattress deflating in the middle of the night while you’re trying to nurse the baby. Every square inch of sticky little bodies covered with dirt and sand. The ants infesting your picnic table, pillaging the scraps of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches left there the night before. And then there are the smiles. The giggles. The unbridled joy of little ones jumping into the surf, dancing in the firelight, and discovering “treasures” along the trail.

I think camping made me feel so defeated because I was not operating within my strengths. Flexibility isn’t my strong suit. I like to know exactly what’s going to happen so I can feel in control.

A lot of my struggle came down to a belief that I’m more valuable when I’m operating in my strengths… when I’m confident and feel I have something to offer. But the truth is, God can use me in my weakness too. Discomfort and even failure draw different things out of me, such as dependency on others. You would not believe how many kind souls fed my kids, said an encouraging word, or offered a hug.

2 Corinthians 12:9 contains this incredible truth: “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”

In those moments when you are uncomfortable, and so very aware of your own inadequacies, God gives you more grace. He invites you to just be… weak. That’s it.

You don’t have to be strong.

You don’t even have to be functional.

In fact, you can brag “all the more gladly” about your weakness because it provides an opportunity for Christ’s power to shine through you.