#Jesusandlife

Stay tuned for more great posts written by two fantastic and inspiring women. Two weeks of vacation for me means two weeks of fresh content for you. Enjoy! (And don't forget to comment and let these ladies know that what they write matters.) See ya soon.

Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.(Titus 2:3-5) 

I'm sort of a social media nut.

I love Facebook and  I've forayed into Google+; Blogging makes me giddy, but Twitter has my heart. 

I have a bazillion and one reasons why this is true, but it really comes down to the hashtags. 

Man, I love hashtags.  

Imagine if everything in our lives could be that easily categorized?  

#dinnerrecipes

#dinnerfail

#billstopay

#peopletoprayfor

#thingsImustabsolutelydoinordertokeepmyfamilyfunctioning

The same day that I learned of the opportunity to guest post here, before I knew that this would be the topic of my post, I was giggling to myself {hubby doesn't "get" Twitter} and silently categorizing everything I could with hashtags.  

Then I stopped, and thinking with honesty back on that day, realized that my actions with my son that day would probably be categorized as a #momfail. 

#Anger #harshwords #unneccessarysarcasm #frustraion  

There was very little of the Fruit of the Spirit in my speech towards him.

There was little to no #joy #peace #patience #kindness #goodness #self-control. 

Sure, there was #love, but would my son recognize that? 

Oh how I cried with the tears of that piercing conviction.

"Lord!" I cried. "How can I do this? You know my heart. You know that I love my son with all of my heart. You know that I am so horribly sinful, that aside from You there is nothing good in me. I need You. I need You to intervene, to fill me up, to clean me out. I can't have another day like today."

As a first generation believer, I confess to you, blog friends, that one of my greatest fears is that my son or daughter will not continue our legacy of faith; that they will reject the faith that has knit my family together; that one day someone will ask them, "Why?" and they will answer that their mom talked the talk, but didn't live it at home. 

I do have perspective. I understand that a bad day with a loss of patience is not the same as a lifetime of hypocrisy, but this fear has motivated me to search my heart, to ask God to cleanse me so that I will be so filled with His love that my children will not be able to deny that I loved God passionately, and my love for Him abundantly overflowed into love for them, into love for their Daddy.

O, Lord. Thank You that Your mercies are new every morning, that You forgive so completely and never hold back wisdom and love from us. Fill each of us with such an overwhelming love for You that it overflows in our homes, in our jobs, in our marriages, and into our children's lives. Replace our anger with patience, give us what we need to choose joy. Intervene mightily Lord, that we, sinful moms and wives, will reflect You. Turn our #momfails into #spiritwins. Thank You in advance. Amen.

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Heatherly Lane Sylvia is a mom, wife, homeschooler, speaker, aspiring writer, and apprentice grace-giver. Her greatest desire is to live a life following after God with abandon, and she hopes to be a blessing to as many people as she can while she figures out exactly how to do that. Het is passionate, loud, addicted to books, and loves her friends, old and new. She adores the blogosphere and would love to “meet” you there. She’s also pretty sure that blog comments and tweets  are her love language. Check out her blog A Pinkdaisy Life or follow her on Twitter.