Motherhood is a wild journey. Just when you think you know everything about being a great mom, something always happens, and you quickly realize you don’t know nearly as much as you think. About 11 years in, you realize you know absolutely nothing.
The younger years of motherhood can be especially challenging. Some days you find yourself calm and loving, soaking up every hug and kiss. You bask in every ray of sunshine, trying to hold onto every moment. Then there are the other days of motherhood. The days you want to hide in the bathroom, wondering how boys ever become world leaders, and how long it is until bedtime. You think you will never get to the bottom of the laundry pile, and you find yourself changing your definition of the word “clean.” How can the same “job” leave you with such a vast array of emotions?
Motherhood is a refining and sometimes difficult process, but what makes it so difficult?
One reason I think being a mom is difficult is that motherhood daily reminds you of the simple reality – “You are not enough.” The very nature of motherhood constantly requires you to surrender your selfish desires, wants, and time. It forces you to realize that you don’t have all the answers, don’t know all the solutions, and can’t control the outcome. Yet in realizing you are not enough, it points you back to the One who is. Motherhood causes you to fall to your knees, to lift up holy hands, and with a sincere and needy heart cry out to the one who knitted your child in the sacred spot of the womb.
Motherhood provides you with mundane moments to encounter the living Savior.
“I am learning to love the dishes,” a mom friend recently said. That thought got my attention and made me ask why? Dishwashing is one of the mandatory, mundane, and never-ending tasks of life. You resign yourself to a single spot, and with repetitive motions, mindlessly sort through utensils, plates, cups, bowls, and pans. There is nothing sacred or holy about it. Yet, it is in those simple moments of life that you can invite the Lord into your daily routine. You can calm your mind and quiet your heart in a moment of worship before the Creator. In those mundane moments, you can open your ears and heart to the gentle whisper of the Holy Spirit.
Motherhood is full of mundane moments. The mundane tasks of laundry, cooking, cleaning, and sweeping the floor provide you with moments to worship, moments to pray, and moments to be still and know that HE IS GOD.
While motherhood may seem insignificant, it is powerful.
Billy Sunday once said, “There is more power in a mother’s hand than in a king’s scepter”. Is it any wonder that evil has tried to tear down and destroy the role of the mother in the family? Many have tried to portray mothers as weak, unneeded, inferior, and replaceable. Yet isn’t it God himself who created the position of the mother in the Garden of Eden?
Henry Ward Beecher said, “What a mother sings to the cradle goes all the way down to the coffin.” What a privilege and responsibility it is to guide the next generation. It is a holy work to speak life and truth into the little heart that looks to you every morning. You have the power of God living in you to fight the enemy and to raise up an arrow that will outlive your life. You are the frontline defender of your child and the one who can storm heaven’s gate on their behalf. At the same time, you can point your child to their need of a Savior by your humble heart and broken spirit.
Is it any wonder that motherhood has its difficult moments, days, and even seasons?
Motherhood is a crazy journey with all of its responsibilities, challenges, and rewards. However, once we embrace the calling, we can see the hands of the Creator extended to us in help. He lovingly walks beside us and gives us wisdom. He also meets us in the mundane moments, all the while creating beautiful moments and stories through our brokenness.
“You are as much serving God in looking after your own children, and training them up in God’s fear, and minding the house, and making your household a church for God, as you would be if you have been called to lead an army to battle for the Lord of hosts.”
-Charles Spurgeon
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