There’s so much stress in a blended family.  And stepmoms find themselves right in the middle of it!  Loyalty conflicts, parental alienation, being the “outsider” in your own home, balancing a new marriage with the blending of a family, the collision of a joy-filled new marriage with the grief your stepkids can feel over the loss of their family, court battles, expensive lawyer bills.  The list goes on and on.  At times the pressure has felt like it could destroy our marriage and family (just look at the divorce rates for second marriages!).   During this journey my husband and I made the purposeful decision that all of this stress would not break us.  It would be an opportunity to grow closer to each other and to the Lord.  I often think about the Bible verse I Thessalonians 5:18 “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus”.  There have been many times as a stepmom that I have really struggled to find something to be thankful for.  Most of us stepmoms eventually have an eye opening realization about the complexity of our situations and say to ourselves at some point “wow – this is not what I signed up for!”  But God tells us to be thankful in all situations.  So I have decided to be purposeful as a stepmom and challenge myself to continually seek out reasons to be thankful.

Today I am thankful that God commands me to be thankful in all situations and that He gives me the strength to persevere.

What are you thankful for today?