By MELISSA HART
Truth from the Trenches 

"When your kids get older you’re going to have a lot of great help on the farm." As I heard that, I rolled my eyes and looked hopelessly at my messy house with toy tractors and LEGOs littering the dirty floor and a kitchen full of dirty dishes.

My dad was offering me an encouraging word, but at that moment in time all I could think of was, These four kids will never grow up and I’ll be cleaning up their messes the rest of my tired life!

But they grew and they grew and they grew, and yesterday my 18-, 22- and 24-year-old sons built a chicken coop for me as a birthday gift. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined those dirty, loud toddlers would grow up to hammer something besides themselves or each other – much less create a gift for me that would give me so much satisfaction.

Why am I telling you this? I’m glad you asked. My sole reason is because there are hundreds of moms out there who are waking up to a hopeless morning. They are overwhelmed with motherhood, having to work outside the home or off the farm and have no idea how they will meet the expectations that have been placed on them in the next 12 hours.

They have kids to feed, laundry to do, decisions to make and wish they could just hug their children into obedience without having to wield the heavy hand of discipline. They have a house they wish they could keep clean, they have a refrigerator they wish they could keep stocked and they have a disgusting bathroom they wish was used more carefully by their boys.

They wish their husbands understood their moods, they wish they themselves understood their moods and all they really want is a day without constant stress and challenge. They get on Facebook and see posts of successful moms and blissful husbands and wives on beaches or at a candlelight dinner celebrating 25 years of marriage, and their Hopeless Meter soars off the charts.

But what they don’t see are the years of suffering every parent goes through. They don’t see the mom sitting on her bed crying because her teenage girl came home high on drugs. They don’t see the hole in the wall made by the fist of an angry husband.

And they don’t see the isolation and desperation of a mom who will go days without encouragement from a friend because she feels she can’t break the veneer of her perfect world to let anyone see how bad life really is.

This is life. It’s hard. It’s frustrating. It’s complicated. But it doesn’t have to stay that way. The good news is what you struggle with now will not always be your struggle.

You will grow and mature and learn how to compromise. You will develop negotiating skills that will help you walk that tightrope of marriage and parenting. Your children will grow and life will change. You will have more energy and fewer emergencies.

Don’t give up on this season in life; your children will bear fruit one day and you will enjoy the taste of the hard work, tears shed and sore feet from stepping on LEGOs in the middle of the night.

Hang in there! Time is your friend … this too shall pass.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Melissa Hart may write to her in care of this publication.