“With school just a few weeks away, moms can make the most of the remaining summer with recharged energy and meaningful connection.
Recover the Energy of Our Daily Routines
As mothers, we may not be aware of the day-to-day energy required to negotiate specific children’s emotional and physical needs, as well as run a home and family. Wonderfully, we can acknowledge and adjust it! Just for today, ask for one thing you need. Whether it’s 15 minutes to rest, help with dinner or running an errand.
The other day, three of my children had three different activities. I enlisted my oldest son to do the chauffeur drop for one, as well as two errands, while I focused on the other two and the baby. Rather than attempt to run everyone around, this way made it simpler and more enjoyable, and I only had to ask.
Another great recharge is to add on just a little sleep consistently rather than try to catch up in one big power nap during the week. Lifestyle coach and author Debi Silber, who wrote “A Pocket Full of Mojo: 365 Proven Strategies to Create Your Ultimate Body, Mind, Image and Lifestyle,” suggests going to bed one hour earlier. She claims that makes a huge difference in waking with energy. For me, summer isn’t conducive to that, but on the few days that I tried bedtime of only 15 to 30 minutes earlier, I woke with more clarity and energy.”
To read more of Connie’s tips on, “Ways to rejuvenate mom before summer comes to an end” go to KSL’s Motherhood Matters blog by clicking HERE!
Also…Check out Connie’s KSL segment, “End of Summer Re-Charge” by clicking HERE!
[The following in an excerpt from Motherhood Matters: Joyful Reminders of the Divinity, Reality, and Rewards of Motherhood, by Connie Sokol. Purchase links are found below.]
“Faith in Our Children
Regardless of our children’s choices, we can be assured of Heavenly Father’s love for them, and for us.
President James E. Faust stated that if we don’t have problems with our children, just to wait awhile. That some children would challenge any parents but that at some point, they would feel the Lord’s Spirit reaching after them and whether in this life or the next, they would return. (1)
What matters most is that mothers feel comfort in this doctrine and continue to pray for difficult or wayward children, holding onto them with faith and trusting in the Lord’s promises.
How comforting to know that prophets of all ages have struggled with their own children, all the way back to Adam with Eve and their son Cain. Even God the Father had a son who unwisely used his agency—“and we beheld, and lo, he is fallen! Is fallen, even a son of the morning!…and the heavens wept over him” (D&C 76:26, 27).
Difficult children are not a new concept, but it is often a rite of passage. Elder Lynn G. Robbins said, “A sweet and obedient child will enroll a father or mother only in Parenting 101. If you are blessed with a child who tests your patience to the nth degree, you will be enrolled in Parenting 505. Rather than wonder what you might have done wrong in the premortal life to be so deserving, you might consider the more challenging child a blessing and opportunity to become more godlike yourself…Could it be possible that you need this child as much as this child needs you?” (2)
We can take heart in knowing that as our children learn to properly use the principle of agency, they will make mistakes as part of the learning process. But as mothers, we can focus on being a spiritual beacon and a safe harbor that always welcomes them home.”
