Created for Wild + Wonder — In the Wild+Wonder

Motherhood is a big job! An important job and a hard one at that!

With just 7 years under my belt I had come to a point in this journey where I felt like I was only surviving each day on coffee and distractions.

Wrangler southwest cardigan from Big R Stores.

The guilt of not spending enough time focusing on my kids was overwhelming and then when I was spending time with them, I was feeling the guilt that I should be getting work done on our business or mopping the floors instead.

I was there, but I was not present. The thought of being intentional with every moment of my day sounded great. It sounded wonderful. It sounded...impossible.

I was anxious and flat out overwhelmed and on the verge of a breakdown. How can I be everything to these beautiful little souls that I want to be and still pursue my dreams and run a household? If I’ve learned anything in my walk with God, I know that those kinds of feelings are not His best. They’re infused with fear and with the need for control. The peace I desperately needed would not happen until I learned to pray and let God into this whole situation.

So that’s what I finally did.

If only I had made that my first priority, I probably wouldn’t have gotten so deep in my despair, but you know, we’re always learning and I truly believe that we’re never too late to start living in obedience to a good God and walking in abundance. Learning to intentionally live this way does take work. It takes discipline. It takes ownership of your weaknesses so God can show up strong...but more than anything, it takes trusting and surrendering to God. Not just sometimes but daily!

Friends, I want to be living fully into how God made me now. We are created for His purpose now. Every minute of every day should not be lived just hoping for the future. Maybe it will happen when my kids are grown. Or when we hit a certain tax bracket or when we’re retired. I want it now. Maybe that looks different for each of us, but I do believe one thing is true in our over-stimulated, over-distracted culture that most of us live in...simplicity in our lives, homes, calendars and hearts can really help us not miss out on the really beautiful and important things in life now.

Learning to say “no” or “not right now” can set us up to make room for wonder in our wildly beautiful lives that are just waiting for us to fully step into! Whether you’re a mom or not, God wants this for all of us. This world needs us to start taking notice of the really wonderful things around us, so we can be prepared to tackle the hard things that will come with confidence and grace. We need to have and know our children’s hearts so that we don’t miss out on this precious time we have with them under our care.

I’m tired of the messy mom culture that gives us all permission to keep on just surviving instead of thriving. My children are not a distraction. Yes, they can be a nuisance sometimes (let’s be real here!) but I’m over skipping past the messy here and now and just wishing away their childhood because it’s not easy, it’s not how I pictured it or it doesn’t meet my perfection driven expectations. I take ownership right now on what I’m going to give my time, money and heart to.

Everyday we wake up with a choice of how we are going to approach our life, even when the world is in crisis during a pandemic! We can’t control the things that come at us or other people’s behavior, but we can control our attitude, our responses and our actions every day. Believe me, when we start doing this, it doesn’t always look like sunshine, rainbows and daisies but it does lessen the complete sh#$ show that will take place if we refuse to take ownership. When we do the small steps in the things we don’t always want to do, it sets up to lay hold of the things we really want, that’s discipline. Something my Pastor just said this morning, “What kind of story are people going to write or say about you?” It’s your choice to how you are going to live your life.

So here it is. This is my message to all my friends reading this, my heart is to help lead you into this. Maybe you’ve been with me since the beginning of my blogging journey with Cooped Up Cowboy’s Wife or you just happened to stumble upon In the Wild + Wonder recently… I want to be the friend that’s walking this out beside you. I'm going to stumble and fall, get back up, apologize and dust myself off because I serve a BIG, LOVING GOD who continues to pursue my heart every minute of every day and His voice for my life and yours is always lifting me up, calling me forth into the beautiful wild and wonder-filled life that He promises all of us. Sister, let’s stop playing small in our lives. In our marriages, in motherhood, in our workplace or businesses and in this world!!!

I’ve got plans to share more on this via my blog, weekly newsletter and am in the works of getting my podcast set up now. But in all of that, I’ve also have a great resource that I want to offer everyone who subscribes to my weekly newsletter here, it’s called “A Wild + Wonder-Filled Day.” It’s got some great tidbits on what I’ve learned to incorporate in my daily life, what’s helped me transform my mindset when it comes to overwhelm and how we can all #makeroomforwonder right here and right now! Simply subscribe here to my newsletter and it will be in your inbox soon! I promise you won’t get overloaded with junk from me, just intentional and fun information on how to cultivate a little more wild + wonder into your life.

I’m so excited for this journey and I’m so blessed to call you my sister and friend that I get to do this with!!

I’m always in your corner,

Candace