lys&ladies

This topic has been coming up in my mind/prayer time for months now, and I feel like I’ve purposely stayed away from it for good reasons, but here we go…

What do you do when the blessings from God are too overwhelming? How do you handle everything, but not seem ungrateful?  Knowing that you prayed for all this, so why is it so hard to handle?

If you follow me on social media, or even on here, you know I keep it super real with rasing kids, being a wife, ministry, and everything that life pretty much throws at us..BUT I never want to come across as complaining, focusing on the bad/hard, or even shining too much light on the struggle (even though it’s definitely there). I’m sure everyone has seen “mom-bloggers” or people in general and all they post is “this is hard, this sucks, this needs to change”, everything negative & made you sit back and think “I would never want that life.” Ya know?? or is it just me? haha. I never personally want to get to a place where I portrayed the good things from God as “hard/unbearable”- even though with the wrong mental state, they definately are. I feel like that is the most important thing to remember here, “mental state”, where you have to step back and focus on what it really is like, and how good (even when it’s bad) that you have it. I’m very much an open book, but I do purposely refrain from posting all the negative, all the time. I sometimes share about struggles, like I got 2 hours of sleep last night, the kids were brats, the baby is teething anddddd I feel like I’m losing brain cells & patience by the seconds etc, but only in small glimpse’s if that. Sometimes, the blessings from God feel overwhelming, but I think it’s like that to bring us back to our knees and remember our “why”. Why did we do this? Why did we pray for this? Why did we ask for this? I completely agree that life is rough, the daily life can get crazy, and all these good things/answers to prayers can seem like “too much” to handle sometimes, but God would never give us something that we couldn’t figure out how to manage. I prayed soooo very hard for this life (not exactly this life, but God centered life) I prayed for a husband who loves God and I got it. I also got all that comes with it, the traveling, the full-time, the integrity, the dedication so when I’m in a funk, or life is just hard (or I’m solo with 3 kids hahaa)- it’s really easy for my first response to do is to complain. I prayed so hard for my kids, every one of them. (backstory- the dr’s said it would be really hard to get pregnant, so 3 is a miracle) but they are completely a crazy handful! There’s no sugar coating is, 3 kids is wild.. so is getting 3 kids ready for any church event (multiple times a week) showing up to everything, taking care of the house, doing errands and living out 24/7 all day, all night with them. The attitudes, the drama, the chaos they cause.. all constantly make me think “ha, I really can’t do this God, I’m gonna lose my mind” and his response to me “good, you need to!” (I respond well to harsh haha, so sorry if anyone needs super loving answers, that wouldn’t work well for me) Get it? lose your earthly mind, and learn to depend on Him! The giver of life, comfort, love.. He is the peace is my chaos.

A scenario I’m sure we have all experienced, or witnessed before… The person who prays for a husband & kids, or a good job & nice house- then God answers their prayer and they suddenly get “so overwhelmed” with it all that they lose focus & do less “ministry”/ things for God. The relationship with God is basically put on pause, because now there is suddenly too many things to do and focus on. “Everything is good” for a bit…so why would you work on a relationship with the king? Time and time again I’ve seen it. You got the vacation you prayed for, so now you miss church..you were given the kids you prayed for, so now you can’t show up to church or help out because “kids are too much work”, you get the marriage you prayed for- now your family life is more important than doing kingdom things. Somehow in the middle of it all you lost focus, and now the things that were once a dream are slowly dragging you down and making you feel overwhelmed (even depressed)- because they’re out-of-place in your mind, heart and actions. Been there multiple times- and the only thing God tells me is “remember why you prayed for this in the first place?” I prayed for all these things because I wanted to honor God with it- I wanted the family so we could change the world, I wanted the house so we could have people over for prayer & ministry, I wanted all these things..for the good, not so that I get too overwhelmed to even function. We need to honor God with ALL THINGS, even our attitudes. God hates complaining, and sometimes we just act like life is WAY HARDER than it really is, instead of just praying for strength, doing what needs to be done and trusting that God will come through. These are good things in life, and we need to not make them idols. God has blessed us with amazing things, HE is the best father & absolutely loves to give good gifts to his children (who are grateful!).

I hope you take this with an open mind, from my heart to yours…everything I’ve felt, dealt with, encountered, prayed against & fought for. I understand the overwhelmed feeling- I truly do, but I also know the feeling of JOY in giving it to God and being soooo thankful that there is no room for negativity (even when the kids are trolls!). Life is beautiful, even in the roughest waters. I would say it’s a daily shifting of the mind, but it’s more of choosing every second to embrace the good, and be diligent to do the things of God. 

xo, lys.