Some of us choose the calling, to others it was definitely given. I am in the second category, but because our second, third, and (technically) fourth children were planned I also feel I am partially in the first category.
My oldest son wanted to talk to me, just the two of us, no Daddy and no Ronin; this kind of time is pretty hard to come by, but we managed to sneak away to the back porch on a Sunday morning for some conversation. He asked what it was like being a mom and dad (he also asked what it was like being married, because he's really nervous about it---that is probably a post for another day). I responded honestly, "It is the hardest job I've ever had."
"But it's the best one."
It's true isn't it? There are moments that I think really highly of myself, those times when all the children behave really well when we're in public, and I contemplate all the hard work we have done in raising them thus far. Then we get home and they start whining, I yell at one of them, one of the babies will inevitably hurt himself, and on and on.
Reality sinks in...I am not the perfect mother and I do not have the perfect children.
To continue the hard work despite behavioral outcomes is incredibly challenging, a task I cannot bear; I do not have the consistency, the patience, nor the perseverance needed to be all the things our four children demand of me. It is only in the power of Jesus Christ that I find all these things, I discover on adaily hourly basis I need sustenance that I can't provide for myself.
He is enough for the sometimes monotonous tasks of a mother's day.
Motherhood is a calling (it is not more noble than that of being a father or even of being single), and it is hard. It is hard because the by-products of your work are constantly in front of you, because there is a temptation to count yourself worthy often, because to be successful it requires trust in Jesus--for the strength and for the future of your children.
It is the best job because it provides a daily means of my sanctification, because I see and understand more God's love for His children, and because when I slow my mind down long enough, my heart swells so with love it is hardly bearable.
My oldest son wanted to talk to me, just the two of us, no Daddy and no Ronin; this kind of time is pretty hard to come by, but we managed to sneak away to the back porch on a Sunday morning for some conversation. He asked what it was like being a mom and dad (he also asked what it was like being married, because he's really nervous about it---that is probably a post for another day). I responded honestly, "It is the hardest job I've ever had."
"But it's the best one."
It's true isn't it? There are moments that I think really highly of myself, those times when all the children behave really well when we're in public, and I contemplate all the hard work we have done in raising them thus far. Then we get home and they start whining, I yell at one of them, one of the babies will inevitably hurt himself, and on and on.
Reality sinks in...I am not the perfect mother and I do not have the perfect children.
To continue the hard work despite behavioral outcomes is incredibly challenging, a task I cannot bear; I do not have the consistency, the patience, nor the perseverance needed to be all the things our four children demand of me. It is only in the power of Jesus Christ that I find all these things, I discover on a
He is enough for the sometimes monotonous tasks of a mother's day.
Motherhood is a calling (it is not more noble than that of being a father or even of being single), and it is hard. It is hard because the by-products of your work are constantly in front of you, because there is a temptation to count yourself worthy often, because to be successful it requires trust in Jesus--for the strength and for the future of your children.
It is the best job because it provides a daily means of my sanctification, because I see and understand more God's love for His children, and because when I slow my mind down long enough, my heart swells so with love it is hardly bearable.
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