{"id":1732,"date":"2013-08-08T12:07:09","date_gmt":"2013-08-08T16:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etheriedge.wordpress.com\/?p=1732"},"modified":"2026-02-23T13:53:49","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T18:53:49","slug":"breaking-the-mold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/2013\/08\/08\/breaking-the-mold\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking The Mold"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Life seemed simple during the early years of child-rearing. It wasn&#8217;t easy but planning ahead helped and other than a tantrum or the flu everything moved along on a schedule (literally). Then middle school and teenagers happened and life got messy. The family environment I&#8217;d so carefully crafted and nurtured was being invaded and questioned. I hadn&#8217;t counted on that. What was happening? I felt incredibly unprepared for our children&#8217;s independence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;d prayed for years that they would catch my desire to be a light in the darkness, a hope for the hurting; joy to the brokenhearted&#8230; share Jesus with everyone. And they did. I hoped we would encourage other kids and their families. But in such a short while&#8230; poor choices brought attention to our family. This was not at all what I expected. Not at all what I&#8217;d planned for. It was like living through an ongoing train wreck -while so many around us just watched.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus&#8217;s ways are certainly not mine. So many things I can&#8217;t understand &#8211; I stopped trying. Instead I focused every ounce of faith on waiting for His Glory, because <strong>He is faithful<\/strong>! I determined to stand strong and trust Him- <em>through<\/em> the chaos and the shame&#8230;things I could not change, but He could use. And He showed me <em>Tools<\/em> like praise, prayer, and study to make me stronger. I found Hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;ll be the first to admit it&#8217;s been a struggle to let go of the image I had of a perfect family; all the pieces fitting nicely together and everything playing out according to plan. But who do I think I am dictating how The Creator can use <em>what HE&#8217;s made<\/em>? If HIS Glory lies in using a mess -so be it! As long as I have Jesus&#8230; I am a Light in the darkness, Hope for the hurting and Joy to the brokenhearted. He can use any of us in the chaos. It&#8217;s not too late. A city on a hill shines. Trust Him to use what you give, no matter how small. He&#8217;s got this&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ForGlorySake!<\/strong>&nbsp;<em>-Anna<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"574\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forglorysake.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/dh000041.jpg?resize=640%2C574&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1733\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forglorysake.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/dh000041.jpg?resize=1024%2C918&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forglorysake.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/dh000041.jpg?resize=300%2C269&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forglorysake.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/dh000041.jpg?resize=768%2C689&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forglorysake.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/dh000041.jpg?resize=1568%2C1406&amp;ssl=1 1568w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forglorysake.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/dh000041.jpg?w=1595&amp;ssl=1 1595w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forglorysake.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/dh000041.jpg?w=1280&amp;ssl=1 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><strong><em>\u201cYou are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.&nbsp;Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.&nbsp;In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.<\/em><\/strong> Matthew 5: 14-16<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Life seemed simple during the early years of child-rearing. It wasn&#8217;t easy but planning ahead helped and other than a tantrum or the flu everything moved along on a schedule (literally). Then middle school and teenagers happened and life got &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/2013\/08\/08\/breaking-the-mold\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,3,1420,4,5,9],"tags":[20,105,1195,1306,1295,661,813],"class_list":["post-1732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-addiction-recovery","category-children","category-devotional","category-illness","category-marriage","category-spiritual-growth","tag-addiction-recovery","tag-cancer","tag-darkness","tag-glory","tag-light","tag-raising-kids","tag-the-norm"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paUt4s-rW","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1732"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8020,"href":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1732\/revisions\/8020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}