What Do I Need to Be a Great Mother?
What Do I Need to Be a Great Mother?
No one ever told us how hard it would be to become a great mother. The challenges are much more challenging than we imagined. The chaos is louder, the time is shorter, and our patience wears out sooner than we thought. Others make it look so easy, but for us – it is hard. Every season – babies, toddlers, school age, teens, young adults and then adult children – they are all hard. The failures hurt more than we expected. The love is deep. The joy is abundant. But still we look at our greatest blessings and we wonder, what do I need to be a great mother?
Can I encourage you today? We will struggle to ever label ourselves ‘a great mom’. But we don’t have to be great when the One who is great is alive in us. He is enough. He is everything we need.
The more we fall in love with Jesus, the more love we will show our children. The more we will come to understand that He loves them even more than we do. We can trust Him with them. Loving Jesus and spending time with Him propels us to walk in obedience to Him, which puts us on the path to becoming the mom He created us to be.
The more we understand His grace, the more grace we will show our children. Our children are far from perfect and will surely mess up. We look at the pretty pictures that other moms post and Satan whispers, “Their kids don’t mess up like your kids.” Whatever! All of us are imperfect people and that includes everyone’s children. But Jesus… He has rained down so much grace on us that it should be splashing out all over everyone around us.
When I am tired. Jesus.
When my patience runs out. Jesus.
When I am concerned about my children. Jesus.
When I don’t know what to do. Jesus.
When I feel like I have failed. Jesus.
When they lose their way. Jesus.
“What do I need to be a great mother?”, you ask? Jesus. He is everything we need. He loves us and wants us to know Him more. How can we draw closer to Him today?
“And Mary said: My soul praises the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, because he has looked with favor on the humble condition of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed.”