(Disclaimer: As Mother’s Day approaches, I know many may be grieving the loss of a mother or child. Some women never had children by choice, and others through no choice of their own. I don’t want to be insensitive to women whose experience is different than mine. But I do want to celebrate motherhood for all that it is to me. These are my personal thoughts for what they are worth.)
Motherhood.
The most challenging, most rewarding, most exhausting, most exhilarating job in the world.
When I became a mother, I remember being afraid of making mistakes with my kids. I didn’t want them to resent me when they grew up. Or need years of counseling to undo the damage from my blunders.
Well, if you’re a mother you know that we all make mistakes in raising our children. But I believe that most mothers (me included) do the very best we can.
When our children are babies, we live life sleep-deprived, with few moments to ourselves. We lay aside our own needs to make sure they are well cared for. Almost everything they are learning about life comes from us.
As our children grow, we continue to nurture them, teach and encourage them, kiss their boo-boos, and give them a safe place to develop their own unique personalities. We are there to protect them much of the time, and they learn about love and trust and values from us.
When our children are teenagers, we start to widen boundaries so that they can make more of their own decisions while we are still close by. We supervise and guide and pick them up and dust them off when they take a wrong turn. We remind them that the choices they make have lasting consequences.
Then comes the time when they step out on their own, maybe to college or a job. Wherever they go when they leave our home, they take a part of our heart with them. We hope we have taught them enough about the world around them that they will be able to avoid some of the mistakes that we made at their age. And we pray for them. A lot.
Motherhood doesn’t end when our children are adults. We take a more minor role in their lives, but we make sure they know that we’re still around if they need us. Our heart still celebrates their victories and grieves their defeats. Whether they are on the other side of the globe or right next door, we think about them daily and miss them when we’re not together.
One of the most important things I did for my children was to weave a thread of Christ throughout their growing years. We prayed together, we read devotions together, we went to church together. I missed some opportunities to draw them closer to Jesus, but thankfully God brought other people into their lives to pour into them and bring them to salvation.
And I prayed for them. For big things and little things. I prayed for their spouses before I even met them. I am praying for their children, the ones that are here and the ones yet to be. I will continue to pray for all of my children (biological and otherwise) until I take my last breath.
I am so very thankful that God allowed me to be a mother. The best job in the world. I can’t imagine my life any other way.
Happy Mothers’ Day!
He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.” Mark 9:36-37
