I?ve asked you before if you like your children.
Today, I want to ask if you like being a mother.
You can love your children and even like your children and yet find no joy in motherhood.?
If you wake up in the morning dreading the day ahead full of children who need you, you might be just surviving.
If you live for the hours when the children aren?t awake, you might be just surviving.
If you dream of days without the responsibilities your children bring, you might be just surviving.
If you cringe when your children call your name, you might be just surviving.
If you cry yourself to sleep at night, you might be just surviving.
Motherhood is hard.? I would be lying to you if I said otherwise.? It doesn?t take much to get lost in dirty faces and dirty diapers, spills and messes and sippy cups.? We go from task to task, just barely getting by.? We drop into bed utterly and completely exhausted, only to find it starting all over again the very next day.
It wouldn?t be difficult to drown in motherhood if we never look past the here and now of a day full of surface issues.? Yes, we most certainly run damage control, but that is not the essence of motherhood, nor is it a way to move beyond simply surviving.
If you really want to stop just surviving motherhood, you have to find meaning in motherhood that transcends the day to day-ness of your life.? Cooking and cleaning have to stop being tiresome chores, naughtiness has to stop being a personal offense, and the needs of your family have to stop being interruptions to your day.
But, you wonder how you can ever get to the place where you aren?t utterly exhausted and stressed.? You wonder if there really is joy to be found in your life.? Maybe you?re just really bad at this motherhood thing.
Or maybe, just maybe, you have lost your focus and your vision.? You don?t see motherhood the way God sees it.
Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, The fruit of the womb is a reward.
Psalm 127:3
These children you are raising are a gift, a reward.? What do you do with rewards and gifts?? You treasure them.? You look forward to a future enjoying these gifts.? And as Christians, you realize these gifts are not yours, but His.
That is humbling.
You have been entrusted with tomorrow?s fathers and mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers.? You have been entrusted with the next generation of believers, the future servants of our Lord and Savior, the Light-bearers and Truth-speakers of tomorrow.? They just happen to bundled up in little, foolish, needing-to-be-honed packages you get to unwrap!
Mamas, get yourselves in God?s Word and seek after Him and all He has for you as a mother.? Hold those tiny, sticky hands that reach for you, guide those little hearts and minds, speak His Truth into their lives and tell His story and how they are a part of that story.
Be transformed.? Be renewed.? Move beyond survival and into a life lived with purpose and meaning ? the blessed life of motherhood.
Beg the Lord to show you how to see motherhood through His eyes, how to care for your children with His hands, how to love them with His love.? When you do this, you stop surviving and you start living?for Him.
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Join me this week in linking up your posts aimed at making home a welcoming place where Christ shines through in everything you do.
And don?t forget to visit this month?s sponsor: DrinkBands!
I heard from many of you at the Teach Them Diligently Convention about how much you love DrinkBands!? They really are a terrific and inexpensive investment to help rid your counters of cup clutter.? All this month, get 10% off with coupon code: ramarch ? HURRY!
Read more of Raising Arrows:
Source: http://www.raisingarrows.net/2012/03/not-just-surviving-motherhood-welcome-home-link-up/
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