Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Mothering for His Glory

Through red eyes and tears at the verge of falling, I have found great comfort in our Lord. Recently, it seems those hard days have been occurring too numerously to count. I stand wondering how much longer I can hold myself up? That is where my thinking falters and travels downhill fast. How many other mothers question their mothering? Am I a good mother? What if I am destroying my children? I degrade myself and then as I am at the bottom of the barrel of sanity, realize I have allowed Satan to infiltrate my mind. Even more sobering is I have disappointed my heavenly Father. If I don’t value myself as a mother, then I don’t believe in Him. I am questioning His sovereignty and truth.

I cannot stress enough that God values us as mothers more than we can fathom. God apparently values each one of us enough to entrust His children to our arms and our care. To think He has called us all to homeschooling even adds to the enormity of our responsibility as our children’s primary caregivers. Parenthood alone is a huge task. Then to add the responsibility of educating our children is incredible.

Our jobs as homeschooling moms can be downright overwhelming. Praise the Lord, He has offered us His yoke. Matthew 11:29 “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Even when our children have tested us in what seems to be every conceivable way, we are never alone. Our Lord is with us.

He hears our pleas. He sees the tears and He witnesses us as we grow. There is not one trial that has not contributed to the mothers we are. God has placed every circumstance in our lives for a reason, for His glory. God sanctifies us everyday bringing us a little closer to the likeness of His Son. Sure there are days that are messier than others in the human mire we sit in, but God brings something beautiful out of it.

The Potter molds us into the vessels He created us to be slowly and carefully. God stretches us and continues to form us. Every moment contributes to us adding the fine detail He crafts us with. Isaiah 64:8, “But now, O LORD, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our potter; And all of us are the work of Your hand.” He fills us with love that we may pour unto others. Others see, particularly our children, His glory in the love that is given and received.

Mark 10:45, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." It is all to easy to lose humility in the day to day ruckus. Between cooking, cleaning, teaching, loving, chauffeuring and every act in between humility can fly out the window before the sunlight streams through the kitchen window. Especially, for those of us mothers with younger, little lambs or monkeys depending on the moment’s happenings, all that Christ asks us to be seems lightyears away.

Philippians 2 can guide us. “Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”

It’s those moments where we have the option of renewing our minds and serving our Lord or caving in and bowing down to the enemy. Love, humility and meekness can be our foundation reminding us that we are mere servants serving God. We are raising our Father’s little servants to become the men and women He created them to be. Our calling is noble, but in no way can we be mothers with out our Heavenly Father, Savior Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Mom, you are never alone.

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