Please, No More Poop! (The Prayer Life of a Mom to Littles)

I used to have lofty prayers and petitions to the Lord.  I asked for more faith.  I asked for the ability to trust Him more.  I prayed that I would be faithful to His call and not forsake the journey at hand.  I prayed for friends and family members.  I prayed for people I didn't even know.  I thought I was doing great in the refining process.

Enter a few cute kiddos, a few extra loads of laundry a week, some exhaustion from either being pregnant or being up in the night with a nursing newborn, and over time my prayers have changed.

Now I ask for the faith to keep persevering on parenting tasks that don't seem to have an end in sight. I declare to the Lord that I am trusting Him to help me do the next load of laundry or wash up the dishes after lunch time.  I tell Him when I get  up in the morning that I'm ready to work hard for His glory and ask Him to help me do it...with a good attitude.

I pray for my husband, that he'll be encouraged at work.  I ask that God will help my kids to obey...sometimes just because it makes it easier for me!  And if I happen to get an email from a friend or someone pops into my mind I offer up a quick prayer for her.

But there are those days when the potty trainee walks through the room with a suspiciously saggy pair of underwear and the cry of my heart is simply, "Please, no more poop!".  Because the ninth messy clean up for the morning may just reduce me to tears.

And I think that's okay with God.  He knows that at this stage in my walk with Him poop can be more refining than the quiet hours I used to spend sitting on a porch swing thinking of how rose-colored life is.  And I know that He will keep proving His faithfulness to carry me through each trial - whether that be a nearly impossible and rocky climb through intense personal trial or a trek through a wasteland of noodles stuck to the bottom of my feet and stinky diapers that keep coming even after the Energizer Bunny has pooped out.

He's answering my prayers all the time.  The more spiritual sounding ones from a handful of years ago are being answered right now as I offer up petitions for grace to have a godly attitude in the little challenges of today.  The prayers I offer up today are being answered as I go - sometimes it's not a poop (Thank You, Lord!) and sometimes it is.

Either way He gets me through moment by moment, day by day, prayer by prayer.

This post is linked up at:
Mama Moments Monday Link-Up @ A Mama's Story

Titus 2 Tuesday @ Cornerstone Confessions
Wise Woman Linkup @ A Wise Woman Builds Her Home 
Encourage One Another @ Deep Roots at Home
Welcome Home Wednesday @ Raising Arrows