A Godly mother is truly an inspiration in the lives of her children. As a young mother, I came across a quote - “The most important job you will ever have is within the walls of your own home.” I have taken that to heart. In this crazy world, femininity and motherhood have taken a backseat to career driven equality- and I’m not here to argue about all that, but I do know this generation of the world is lacking in Godly mothers guiding their children in the ways of the Lord and the results speak for themselves. There is so much more violence, crimes, and other travesties present in today’s world that 50-60 years ago would have been unheard of - and a lot of that can be attributed to the breakdown of the family as God ordained it.
I don’t need to tell you that being mother is hard work. It’s physically and emotionally exhausting at times. If you are a mom, you know each of these challenges firsthand. There is a lot of sleepless nights, tears, feelings of failures and inadequacy – Feeling exhausted, working all day cleaning, cooking, trying maintain some sense of order, then falling in bed at night utterly spent and feeling like you didn't accomplish a thing worth while. A lady once said “One of the great challenges of motherhood is the lack of a job description. Moms don’t keep normal business hours, because children don’t. Moms don’t have workplace boundaries, because we live at work. The tasks are always there, waiting to be done. The children are always there, needing our attention, love, and training. It’s a never-ending cycle of care.” Isn't that the truth?! Another hardship we often overlook as new moms (or sometimes even seasoned moms) is the challenge it presents to our sense of purpose. Through the challenges of motherhood, we lose many of the things that brought our sense of purpose before we had children : Maybe we don't work outside the home anymore. We might find our friendships weakening or distancing as we enter a different stage of our lives from unmarried or childless friends or maybe we just have a fussy baby that won’t cooperate and we are embarrassed to take out in public or our responsibilities at home doesn’t leave much time for anything outside of it. Our relationships with our husbands change as it makes room for the relationship of our little family instead of just the two of us as a couple. Even church services change for us: we rarely get to sit through a service uninterrupted without a crying baby, or toddler tantrums, bathroom trips, us trying to keep children occupied, happy, and mostly silent during the service. ( believe me ! I’ve been there! Sometimes you wonder if you will ever be able to “get in” service again ) Because the challenges of motherhood strip away a lot of our old identity , sometimes we feel lost- like we are “on the outside looking in” at all the others going on without us - everything that we felt “part of” before we had children somehow got pushed out of our lives- many times, I know I have felt that way. But take heart, Mama! God has a special place in His heart for you! The purpose of motherhood truly is becoming less focused on ourselves but instead, growing more like Jesus – loving sacrificially and teaching our children to do the same thing. Our purpose in life may have changed but is in no way lesser than all the other “purposes” we had before. In actuality, if we are mothers, it is our most important calling. In today’s world, secular culture stresses that “me time” is the solution for stressed mothers, and while there is nothing wrong with having a moment to yourself or taking a nice, long, relaxing bath, I'm afraid that if we aren't careful, this can develop into a selfish attitude. We can began to almost resent the responsibilities and pressures of motherhood and find ourselves losing joy in everyday life while wishing and waiting for the next dose of “me time”. Instead, when you feel overwhelmed and discouraged, try to develop the habit of leaning on the Lord. He is the only one that can truly “refresh” your soul and “renew” your mind. He can give you strength when you feel defeated. When your day is in chaos and you feel like you can't take another minute, His spirit will gently remind you of Philippians 4:13- “I can do all things through Christ Jesus which strengthened me” or perhaps 1 Peter 5:7- “Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you.” (Did you hear that? He cares for YOU! He sees all your frustrations and your discouragement and HE CARES! He doesn't expect us to be perfect or to always be strong and on top of everything. He knows our weaknesses and He invites us to cast our cares on HIM! He will help us carry that heavy load! Another thing we must realize is that everything in life happens in seasons – those sleepless nights with the newborn, that “terrible two” (or three or four! lol) stage with the toddler, they won't last forever. Our seemingly worst day is just that--a day! The sun will shine tomorrow which reminds me that the Bible teaches us that His mercies are new every morning. (Maybe He put that in there just for us, Moms! I know I have sure benefited from renewing mercy- if I had to use the finite amount of mercy, I'm sure I would have ran out of my allotted amount in just a short time. God knew that we needed to have unlimited amount of mercy. Take a deep breath, give yourself some grace, and know you are doing an amazing job that God knew He could trust you to do. ~Tiphanie
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