mom-daughter-sweet-moment-kitchen

Last Updated on October 9, 2024

Last night I danced.

I put on the Bluetooth speaker, cranked up the songs, grabbed an 11-year old who happened to be walking through the kitchen, and we danced.  She was a little baffled at first until I grabbed her hands and we twirled around the kitchen. Her face lit up as her smile widened. We laughed and sang and I thoroughly enjoyed this moment with my daughter.  

Joy.

In the hustle and bustle of single parenting I forget to dance. I’m so busy I can’t seem to find time to just enjoy life.  I have so much to do and so little sleep to work with, I think sometimes I have forgotten to even look for those moments. Maybe it’s my drooping eyelids, but sometimes I find it difficult to look up…to look for the bright side of things. To celebrate a moment…any moment.

I want to choose joy – to, as Paul says…

“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” – Philippians 4:4

Single parenting is hard. Sometimes it seems like the music coming out of life’s speaker is more of a dirge or some chaotic modern piece of music that makes my head hurt.  

Where is my joyful song? Where are the dancing moments? Why not more? I cherish moments of rejoicing, but I want a life of it!

I’m beginning to believe it’s up to me.

I want to count it all joy…count this life all joy.  (James 1:2) This life…maybe joy comes with remembering that I am loved…that, no matter what, God loves me.  No matter how I feel, no matter how well I do things, no matter how difficult things are…God loves me.

Count on Him.  Count the blessings.

I remember one Sunday when I was young, my mom and I sang, “Count Your Many Blessings”. The words are beautiful.

I believe that counting our blessings is very similar to counting it all joy.  Within every moment is a blessing. I know that to be true, but sometimes I forget.  I forget to count it all joy because it doesn’t feel joyful. I don’t feel like I’m living blessings.  I feel like I’m surviving burdens. But that is not how God has called me to live. He has called me to live as more than a conqueror.

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” – Romans 8:37

What’s the first step I can take in the process of changing my perspective from burden-focused to blessing-focused?  

Counting my blessings.  Maybe it’s time to start a journal of thankful thoughts.  I believe it is. I will start today…

  1. I am thankful for a time to dance with my daughter.

Sue Birdseye is an author and communicator who shares the adventures she has on her unexpected journey of single parenting. She went from the typical “picket fence” kind of life to being a single mom to five beautiful children. She has learned what it means to be totally dependent upon the Lord and how beautiful that dependence is.

Her change of life circumstances has led to a passionate desire to encourage and bless other moms no matter their life circumstances. She has been active in her community as a foster/adoptive mom and public school teacher. She has also been part of her church’s worship, discipleship, women’s, and children’s ministries. She is an avid book reader, a game night hoster, and an early morning writer. Her book “When Happily Ever After Shatters” is the story of how God stepped into her life and the lives of her children just when everything seemed to be falling apart. She hopes that her writing will encourage, bless, and maybe even make someone smile.