The Bitter Sweet of Blending

But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. 1 Peter 4:13

In a few weeks, I will be faced with the barking reminder of one of the negative impacts of being a blended family. Two of my children will be headed out of town to spend 6 weeks of their summer with their father. As I prepare for this process and time draws nearer, I begin to feel many different emotions. I miss them already and they have yet to leave. The reality is that separation and the emotions connected to it, comes with the territory of being a blended family. At some point everyone within the circle experiences a period of separation, and it isn't easy for anyone.

The truth is that I have been needing and wanting a break, so you would really think I would embrace this opportunity. My kids can bicker and argue about tissue for 2 hours straight and then suddenly  (after driving me half crazy) I turn around and they are outside playing and laughing together as if the last 2 hours never happened. Despite all the crying, fussing, complaining and levels of energy that God created only for people age 10 and under, I never want to be separated from them for an extended amount of time. In preparing for this post God showed me something that softened my heart to this processes as well as strengthen my walk with Christ.

As I thought about my children leaving for six weeks and how much my heart was aching, Gods word resonated in my spirit.

                                                       Participate in the suffering. 

I didn't get it right away but moments later the word became clear.

 

"You see how you feel at the thought of your children leaving? I have allow you to feel this way so that you can understand the aching pain I feel when I am separated from you.
 When I have to prepare to not hear from you because you are to busy to talk to me or listen."
 

If I wasn't in front of a class when God spoke these words to me, I would have been in the corner sobbing. When I began to realize how it saddens Christ when I don't spend time talking to him, reading his word and communing with him. How he is heart broken by the thought that I may become distant at any moment when I succumb to the tools the adversary uses to come against our ever developing relationship. Bitterness, frustration, disappointment, TIME. All these tools that keep me from his presence. My throat tightened and my eyes got heavy when I really realized that I am important to God  and  when we are separated GOD MISSES ME.

 

I believe this is one of the many things that God was talking about when he said that we would participate in his suffering. We would feel the emotions that he felt when he had to be separated from the father and when the father was separated from him, but even greater is the glory that is revealed through that experience. I am so thankful that God allowed me to be a mother so that I can feel the emotions connected to being a child of God. As I experience things with my children, I am constantly reminded of how God views me as his daughter and each experience with God is worth the suffering.  

Moms, if you are preparing for a separation like this one or the one that Chef Robin mentioned earlier in the week, I would like to encourage you to Participate in the suffering for the greater glory that will be revealed.

Be Blessed and HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!