In her book, Feminine Appeal, Carolyn Mahaney shares the following as she talks about the struggles of keeping a right attitude in motherhood.
"Because mothering requires constant sacrifice, the temptations to resentment, complaining, and self-pity are always close at hand. But such selfishness will quickly sap the strength of our love for our children...As mothers, we have a choice. We can either resent the challenges and demands that accompany motherhood and persist in our selfishness, or we can draw from God's grace and receive his help to cheerfully lay down our lives for our children..." (p52,53)
There is no question about it, and anyone who's ever done it will agree, mothering is the hardest job there is to do. If we let all of the demands that come with the job overcome us and if we try to tackle them all in our own strength, we WILL be unhappy and we WILL resent our children. If, however, we look to the cross, and see (and learn from!) the example Christ gave us of serving day in and day out with abounding love for even complete strangers, we'll find the strength we need to get us through each difficult day and season of mothering. I find I am most satisfied in life (and in those given to me) when I allow the calling of motherhood to take its rightful place of center-stage (in priority over other life responsibilities-- after God and husband, of course) instead of resenting it compared to whatever "else" I could be doing at the moment. For me, discontentment in motherhood and in this stage of life, appears when I allow myself to dwell on "other possibilities."
I've always been a dreamer -- somewhere in my the depths of my heart I've wanted to do something so big for God that it is as if it were impossible to do. I recently heard a broadcast (don't ask me which one!) where a quote was made about God working in impossibilities; something to the effect that Christ-followers should live everyday doing the impossible because as Believers we should be living fully dependant upon Him -- and doing impossible tasks require relying on the God of impossibility. I sighed at this thought and revisited the "oh, I wish I were doing something impossible for God" thought-- and then it hit me (I'm pretty sure it was the Holy Spirit that hit me, but ya know, not in a harmful way, lol) -- as a mother, I AM doing an impossible thing for Him!!!! Raising children who will love the Lord and follow Him and lead their families someday to do the same IS an impossible task!!! And, to do so successfully, can ONLY be done WITH the Lord!! Only HE will draw my children to Himself and only HE can give me the strength to keep going on the many days when I want to give up or "do something else."
If you are in this with me, and feel the same way, let me encourage you; you, as a mother dedicated to her children, are attempting the impossible -- and we know that WITH GOD, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE. Keep on leaning on Him.
"Attempt something so
impossible that unless God is in it, it's doomed to failure." ~ John Haggai
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