Last summer was my first summer to blog with the girls at home. I was super worried about how to blog and parent so to buy myself time to work and get some quiet, I gave the girls a checklist to complete. I know… I can hear you laughing from here. The checklists didn’t work, and summer was just plain hard. I struggled to get work done with two people at home all the time; people I said I loved more than work itself. I struggled to shift into summer, a season that takes a while to find its groove.
Friends, let’s admit that summer is hard and let’s recognize that we aren’t meant to stay stuck in the struggle.
Summer is hard because our routine is gone.
As try-hard girls, we thrive in routine. Each day has it’s own personality and to-do list, and we love it. But summer seems to pull the carpet out from under us. While we love slower mornings and freedom, we struggle without our routine, leaving us with several side effects.
1. We feel less connected.
Without the automation that our benchmarks bring, we struggle to find time to do All The Things we need to do. As our brain swirls to find the best fit for us this week (because we know next week will be totally different!), we aren’t as present and connected as before. Instead of focusing on the people in front of us, our brain is constantly scrolling through how we’ll get everything done.
2. We feel out-of-control.
Without the rhythm that benchmarks and routines provide, we grasp for order – a la last year’s checklist idea. As we feel untethered and try to keep order through task, we leave our people feeling like they’re just another item on our to-do list. We continually beat ourselves up because why can’t we just enjoy summer and relax a little??!?!?
3. We feel resentful.
Without the daily routine we’ve so carefully created over the school year, we’re resentful of our people because they keep interrupting our work and attempts to get things done. We resent both the stress we feel and that summer isn’t as fun as we’d hoped.
Summer is hard, but we’re not meant to stay in the struggle.
As try-hard girls who thrive in routine, it’s easy to get stuck sulking. I pouted all last week by being rude, snippy, and frustrated. This is not the type of woman any of us want to be – unkind to the people who love us the most.
To become more like the mom I want to be, I’m training myself to pray these prayers:
Prayer #1: That God will remind me to bring my struggles to Him
Y’all, I so wish that I wasn’t a try-hard girl, that I was more go-with-the-flow. But that’s not how God created me. This isn’t an excuse to stay stuck. In fact, it’s just the opposite.
All the ways that I wish I could change are all the ways God uses to draw me closer to Him. My inability to cope with change well, my feelings of grief about the passing of a season, and my resentfulness that my routine is “ruined” aren’t emotions to bury, but flags telling me to talk to Christ.
We’re not bad moms, employees, or friends because we struggle. We struggle because we’re human, and humanity is God’s delight and greatest creation.
My prayer this season is that God will remind me to bring my struggles to Him so He can remind me of His truth and so I won’t be a woman who’s tossed to and fro by her circumstances.
But there’s one more truth to help us adjust to our change in routine:
Prayer #2: That I’ll see all the ways that I can give thanks
Y’all, I so wish that I was naturally a person who bubbled over with thanksgiving, but thanksgiving is a discipline that God is teaching me.
All the ways that I struggled last week were innumerated in my head: This is not great and I don’t like this and how will I get everything done and why do they have to whine all the time?
Our struggles aren’t cues for us to count how miserable we are, but are calls for us to give the struggles to Him and to give thanks for the good we see, even when we have to look really hard to find it.
My prayer this season is that I’ll see all the ways that I can give thanks: that I get to be home with the girls, that they’re healthy and have friends so we can have playdates, that we have money to pay for groceries.
Summer is tough, but there’s hope.
Last summer, I implemented the perfect plan only it wasn’t perfect at all. Y’all shifting into summer is hard because we don’t have the routine we’ve known.
It’s okay to struggle, but it’s not okay to stay there.
Will you pray those two prayers with me: to be honest with God about your summer struggles and to thank Him for all the good He’s given? It may not make summer easy, but it’ll make us more present, more trusting in His control, and less resentful.
Pin for later
