Desperate Giveaway
Are you desperate?
No, not as in a desperate housewife.
I mean do you ever feel in your mothering that you are in a desperate place?
Exhausting round-the-clock babies.
Trying toddlers.
Physically draining school-aged kids.
Emotionally draining teens.
My friends Sally Clarkson and Sarah Mae are releasing their new book today entitled Desperate: Hope for the Mom Who Needs to Breath. Here is what I said in my endorsement of it:
“Motherhood is an emotional roller coaster ride. One moment finds you blessed and proud; the next leaves you stressed and drained. The ups and downs wreak havoc on your heart, often knocking the wind right out of your maternal sails. Desperate is a moms manual for what to do–and what not to do–when you feel the ride is just too scary and you don’t know how you’ll ever hold on. Sarah’s honest questions and Sally’s seasoned advice, laced with biblical insight and hopeful encouragement, will enable mothers of all ages and stages to find strength amidst the struggles, calm with every climb and peace in every plunge.”
If you’d like to know more about this fabulous book (and some cool freebies they are offering) I’ve included links below.
They are also hosting a Twitter party tonight at 9 pm EST. Be sure to check out this wonderfully honest mentoring book for moms.
MY GIVEAWAY: Two of you who comment on this post will win a copy of Desperate. Just tell us this:
What part of mothering leaves you most desperate?
For me? Watching my kids make bad choices sometimes and then suffer the fallout. It seems it would be easier to over-control them and yet, I know they need to learn hard lessons for themselves.
How about you? What makes you a desperate mom sometimes?
I am most desperate every time I say that I am going to let my children deal with their choices and then the next time something happens, I try to fit it.
I feel most desperate when I have too many balls in the air and the ones I drop are the ones that affect my children. With the Christmas chaos I forgot to sign my child up for the second session of cross country ski lessons and it filled up. He loves skiing and I felt awful letting hime know he may not be able to do it. A spot did open and it was a testimony of prayer works!
what makes me desperate is when my tweens are treating me disrespectfully and I’m taking electronics away and living through that!!
My biggest struggle is being screamed and yelled at by my 12 year-old daughter, when she’s not spouting out derogatory comments to everyone in the family. If I address each offense head-on, I won’t have time to do anything else. I believe I’m helping her learn the powers of persuasion (she doesn’t get her way with those tantrums, but sometimes it’s a loooonnggg wait till she realizes she won’t. lol) and not being manipulative. I just don’t know whether I’m doing the right thing.
I lost my dad a year ago and have been struggling to juggle motherhood since. I was a stay at home at home/homeschooling of a toddler and 1st grader. The thing that leaves me most desperate is loving my kids but not able to have patience with them of experience the joy of motherhood. It’s not their fault but I can’t seem to connect as I once did and I miss that joy of mothering that seems so burdensome. That makes me feel guilty and I have to be intentional to make time and spend quality time and make myself have fun with them when it used to be so natural. It slowly gets better but still not where I’d like to be.
Biggest struggle… giving them my full attention. I tend to want to ‘check out’ a lot when I am stressed and tired!
I have a 3 year old, and I feel desperate most of the time. I have no idea how to get her to just listen to what I say!
For me, its watching my teenagers’ relationship with girlfriend head south. You know it, you see it but he doesn’t see it. But they have to learn from their mistake. Its a lesson learned on what a relationship is suppose to look like and whats its not to look like. Thankfully, he walked away learning that lesson.
My husband is trying to learn how to overcome challenges from a neurological disorder that affects his relationships. I often feel like a single parent with an extra child, which makes parenting a tween girl and her siblings rough at times. Last night I cried and most definitely felt desperate! I needed this post today. He does his best and is always sorry when he says hurtful things or things that make no sense. I pray that his love will be stronger in the kids’ memories than his challenges.
I feel so desperate in everything as a mom espically one who homeschools her kids and has to do everything pretty much on her own with no help from any one. Epsically hard when hubby is working overtime at work just to be able to have the help or a visit or break so that I could breathe
For me, what makes me so desperate is watching my special needs children struggle with normal, day-to-day activities and cannot do a darn thing to make things easier for them.
I feel desperate when I know what those precious daughters of mine need (daily quiet time with the Lord and His Word, more rest, to take some time off from a friendship, practice piano), but they don’t see it. Sure, I can require them to do certain things (They’re only 16 and 11.), but I really want them to make right choices because they’re the right things to do, not because I nagged or threatened punishment or gave an ultimatum.
What makes me feel most desperate as a mother is when my children allow the world to influence how they dress, eat, talk, feel, see themselves. It hurts me when I see not only my own children, but other children who are called children of God, yet they can’t seem to stop seeking their happiness, approval, acceptance in the things of the world. I know it’s not easy because I have been there and that is part of why I feel so desperate for my children. They allow the words of other children to degrade their self-esteem, to make them think their weird. That if they are not part of the “in” crowd, that they aren’t cool or normal. I can even be desperate over the words of their father when they go to visit with him. All I can do is pray, be a loving example of Jesus Christ, and continually remind them who they are in Christ, and that what is considered “cool” or “normal” is not always what they think it is.
I feel desperate trying to balance everything and wish for some time to relax and be refreshed. I know I am in a busy season of life and praying for wisdom.
I feel desperate when I think my grown daughters are making mistakes…and they’re not walking with God. And I feel desperate when my last daughter living at home and I get into a heated argument and I say things I regret.
I have 3 kids under 3. Just as I had my twins my toddler hit his terrible twos. That makes me desperate and tired and at the end of my rope.
I feel desperate when my kids are bickering! I want to help them see their sin in light of scripture and guide their hearts toward obedience and selflessness, but sometimes I feel inadequate and impatient.
I am desperate to fix things for my children. I pray and pray that I will know what to do to help them past hurdles that seem to trip them up! I even wish so badly that I could go back and change decisions that I have made regarding my daughter so that maybe she would be in a different frame of mind now! Please pray with me for her and that she would see a glimpse of the bright future that God has planned for her.
My daughter is grown and no longer living at home. She is now 33. I made many mistakes and some really bad choices when my daughter was young and what makes me so desperate is that even though I have made better choices and live my life to the best of my ability, with the power of Jesus Christ, my daughter has chosen to cut me out of her life….many, many years after those bad choices ended. My desperation is in that I failed to teach her unconditional love. I have forgiven her for many things and will always love her unconditionally. Losing her 12 years after turning my life around is so difficult because I am powerless to change the past–I can only be the best person I can be today, through Jesus Christ.
God Bless,
Nancy
Not being able to control what the outside world thinks/says/does to my kids. One has some sensory challenges and that worries me.
Consistency is tough for me. I have an easy time threatening, but following through can be exhausting!
I am desperate when I know that my bad habits, actions and behaviors are rubbing off on my children. But, the most honest answer would be, I am desperate when I feel like maybe I shouldn’t have become a Mom because it is just too overwhelming all the time.
What makes me a desparate mom, is losing hope because I constantly see myself as a failure. I become unglued to much, I’m not being the best godly influence, etc. These are the things that go thru my mind on a daily basis, making me a desparate mother!
I have all girls, and emotionally I always feel desperate and drained. I try not to beat myself up and feel I’ve failed. Daily is a battle to renew my mind!
what makes me a desperate mom? Well, I would have to say when I had to tell both of my girls that their grandfather was dying of cancer (after just loosing a grandparent from cancer a few years back) To hear my oldest say ” I hate cancer” “why is god taking the good ones away from us” To see your youngest too young to understand just cry and cry…to have your kids crawl into bed with you and you are hurting yourself so deeply that you dont know how to take your childrens pain away.
To then have to tell them just in 2012 that their “poppy” just passed away unexpectedly from a massive heatattack in his sleep while you are away having fun. To see their pain, is just so hard and not being able to take it all away.
To me that makes me a desperate mom. Not being able to take their pain away and to have to tell them that 3 of their grandparents are no longer with them, but always in their hearts and watching how they heal from it all.