I had messed up. We needed childcare for the event but I had not thought about it beforehand. When I arrived (3 wild children in-tow), it quickly hit me that this was not an everyone kind of event.
“But I didn’t know we needed childcare. I thought it was for everyone.” These are the words that slipped out of my mouth to my husband. The problem was that I should have known.
If you’re like me, when you feel that you’ve failed in one area, your mind begins a downward spiral into everything else…
“I am such a bad planner.”
“Why can’t I manage our home right?”
“My husband and kids deserve better.”
“I’m not a good mom.”
“I’m not a good wife.”
“Why can’t I just get my act straight?”
Then these words come to mind: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. – Philippians 4:13.
The verse doesn’t tell me that I can do all things through MY strength, although that is what the world and even some Christian speakers want us to believe. We can’t self-talk our way into becoming strong. We can’t self-talk our way into becoming great mothers or fathers, wives or husbands. And we definitely can’t self-talk ourselves into becoming better followers of Christ.
The ONLY way to develop the strength to overcome our failures is to lean whole-heartedly into the cross of Christ… to trust Him, stay in His word, and stay in close communion with Him. All human methods will fail us.
So when your mind starts taking the downward spiral like mine did today, remember this from Philippians….
I can do all things through CHRIST who strengthens me.
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I’m familiar with the downward spiral! But I’m curious about the resolution of the story of the moment: why should you have known about the childcare? It hurts when an event appears to be open to everyone, but is actually somewhat hostile to the presence of kids.