My children were skating down the aisle of Target.

Fuzzy toilet seat covers under each foot, they raced each other back and forth. Slipping, sliding and giggling; I attempted to hold an important conversation. Normally I don’t schedule phone calls for public places, but this was a call I couldn’t pass up.

There’s a house we want; when we see it we feel like it’s home. The proximity to close friends doesn’t hurt it’s curb appeal…especially since we can see those friends’ home from the curb of the house.

Silently screaming at the top of my lungs, stomping my feet and shaking my fist, I politely fielded the landlord’s questions. Obviously I wasn’t paying attention because I told him the completely wrong amounts for our income. He was slightly concerned, which makes sense when you learn I cut my husband’s salary in half. Oops.

There are moments as a mom when I just don’t have the answers. I wanted to shake them and scream at them to demonstrate my anger. Actions that would only have escalated the situation, and not helped any of us to learn from it. How could I let them know that wrapping yourself in bath towels and reclining on the shelves of fluffy bath mats was not appropriate behavior?

Apparently telling them that was not enough.

Then tonight I come home and read about the time God wanted to shake and yell at the Israelites. He was fed up. Done. Finished. Because He’s God, and follows through with His promises, He told them He would send an angel with them to complete the journey.

“Depart, go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up from…Egypt…I will send an angel before you…; I will not go up in your midst, because you are an obstinate people and I might destroy you on the way.” {Exodus 33:1-3, emphasis added}

God pulled a “your children” on Moses. You know, when the kids are being bad and suddenly you’re not their parent anymore? And then, He says that they’re gonna have a babysitter, because if God stays with them He will DESTROY them.

Seriously! This whole passage made me feel so much better. God understands! He knows!

I am not alone. I am not a bad mom. I am going to be ok.

How does Moses react to suddenly being left holding the reins for this bedraggled bunch? He reminds God that the Israelites are His, too.

Moses intercedes for the Israelites, who are in no position to ask anything of God. He tells God that if He’s not going to lead them Himself, then He needs to leave them where they are.

Just like when Josh reminds me, after an earful of ranting, that I love my children. I’m grateful for the gift God has given me in putting us together. They were eagerly anticipated and joyfully welcomed into this world.

I am their mom, and I need to lead them forward.

So, I led them out of Target, got a break for a couple of hours, and I’m ready to begin it all again tomorrow. Because I’m their mom, and they need me to lead them.