Staying the Course - Being a Single Mom 9
- Anita Delene Manthe
- Feb 8, 2017
- 2 min read
Currently, I’m counseling a stay-at-home mom with two young children. She is not a single mom. However, both her children have ‘disabilities’ which takes up a lot of her time. She has no option but to be ensure her life has structures and that she is organized to be able to of the best help to her children. Consistency is essential to their care, to their growth and development. Her governance is needed to ensure ongoing learning for them. Without this her children do not function well.
Initially she was overwhelmed with their needs. How could she parent them well? The first priority in counseling her was for her to understand the sovereignty of God, and to grow in trusting Him. Second to this was understanding her order of responsibility – her husband was her ministry priority, then her children – yes, this is the correct order! With these priorities established we began to introduce the correct nurturing of her children. What was the best strategy she could implement to teach them what was essential to life and godliness?
As we have suggested single moms implement a catechism into their homes, I wanted to emphasize the value of this through discussing the mom with two children who have disabilities. She has been working on introducing a catechism to her family’s daily functioning for a while! Where you as a single mom are responsible for the spiritual leadership in the home – she has a husband. Yet, even with him present in the family she has to work two to three times harder to impress upon her children what she is trying to teach them. It is hard work for her – it would be so for anyone! To ensure the catechizing – the training of her children – continues we worked on her own times with the Lord – they don’t always happen because of the time her children need. Our resolution was for her to develop her own study out of the catechism. When her family have gone to bed she studies the verses attached to the questions. Our goal is for this to occur on a daily basis – it does not always happen. We are not looking for perfection, we are looking for progression. After a month of working through the first few questions her four year old has finally begun to respond – not correctly, but we are grateful for the response. We will persevere.
And, so should you!
What changes can you make to your day to give you the time needed to plan a way to implement the catechism into your family’s daily functioning? It worked, and is working for her, it can for you too!
As servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, … sleepless nights, … by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; by truthful speech, and the power of God (2 Corinthians 6:4-7)
I discipline my body and keep it under control (1 Corinthians 9:27).
Give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth—Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance (Proverbs 1:4-5).
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