Reason #3 You Should Read “Loving the Little Years”

If you are a mother of little ones I whole heartedly recommend you read Rachel Jankovic’s book Loving the Little Years: Motherhood in the Trenches.

Reason #3: Because she encourages you to be strong for you tasks.

So imagine yourself delegating a task to someone (your children come to mind). Imagine you are asking them to clean up a room. You can see the work that you are giving them. You know they need to pick up the dress-ups, the plastic food, and the books. You also know that what you are asking is well within their abilities. Now imagine one child looks at it, takes a deep breath, and dives in. But the other picks up one piece of food and then lies down to cry a bit about the rest of them. You know as a parent that lying down and whimpering about the tasks does not get them done. It makes them harder, slower, and more difficult in every way. The child who is really working faithfully will see progress, will see that the task is doable. The child who is feeling sorry for himself will never get past that emotional low without some disciplinary intervention.

Do you see yourself in that? When you get up in the morning and the home is a mess, and the kids are being a little eggy, and you didn’t get to the grocery store, do you like to drape yourself across the work that God gave you and whimper? Or do you just dive in? Do you take a few steps and then go limp? Do you like to dwell on the discouragement? Do you spend time not working but tallying the work that you think is too much for you?

 ~ from Loving the Little Years, pages 41-42