Sunday, June 8, 2014

Measure of Motherhood

It is a question that can keep me up at night.  It can rob me of inner peace.  It can cause me to measure myself against other mothers.  It can cause me to justify being judgmental against how others carry it out because we are doing it differently.  It can cause me to take the comments of others and create a block in my motherhood road map.  It can create doubt and fear that I'm making wrongs along the way that can't be made right.  
What makes a good mother?  A good parent of any kind, for that matter.
Recently, in my Sunday school class, this was our lesson.  It was eyeopening to me to see that there are very few scriptures about HOW to raise children.  The way to raise children in the right way is to strive to keep yourself on the right path.  OUCH!  Now that takes a different perspective.  You mean I can't just nag and discipline and coach and critique and praise and prompt and have them do what I believe they should??  In order to raise godly children, I'm supposed to examine my life and follow Christ's example.  Yep, that's it.  It makes perfect sense.  Children model everything we do.  That's the hard part. The scary part. The part where I have to pray please make me what I should be and mold me into something better when I stumble and fail every.single.day.  Help me to seek forgiveness and give me lots of second chances....and third and fourth.
The freeing part of this is that it's not all up to me.  I have been given an example of perfect love.  I've been given mercy and grace and I'm so thankful. I need it daily.  So the good news is that I have the most able and perfect helper in God above.  I'm also so blessed that I've been given an amazing husband to navigate this road with me.  Motherhood is probably the area in which I put most of my energy here on Earth.  I certainly want to succeed at it.  For today, I'll work on myself.
So, the lesson that I learned was......give it to God.  Strive to live my life close to Christ.  I will be equipped and through Him, I will measure up.  

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