This is a note for the Mamas this Mother’s Day …
Whenever I get the chance to talk with my BG Moms – their heart is all the same… they just want the best for their kids.
As a mom you spend so much time worrying about your kiddos – their health, their education, their minds, their friendships, their dreams — all while the mom guilt slowly creeps in … are you doing enough?
Are you serving the best foods? Teaching enough? Is the house clean enough? Should you be doing more? What if this life you are leading is damaging in ways you don’t even realize?
You wake up every morning with fresh energy, and spend the day running it seems only to end exactly where you started. By the time you lay your head down on the pillow, you are exhausted, burdened with the heavy weight of worrying for your children and it seems as though you have made no movement.
But … what if we paused?
These last few days God has been putting it on my heart, that what if we flipped that idea of productivity on it’s head.
What if the things that we view as insignificant are the *most *important in God’s Kingdom? And what if the things we worry about are insignificant to God?
What if the work God has called you to seems unproductive to the world?
Come & Listen to the Birds
One story that seems to constantly replay in my mind is this: I was listening to a sweet lady call in on the prayer line on the Daily Audio Bible. She said her husband passed away recently, and she was thinking back to how he would always say to her,
“Come and bring your coffee and sit outside with me and listen to the birds.”
And she would laugh, “Who has time to sit and listen to the birds? The laundry is piling up, the dishes need washing, and I have a lot to do inside.”
And now that he’s passed away, she said, “What was I so busy doing that I didn’t have time to sit with him and listen to the birds? Now that he is gone, I can’t think of one thing that could have been more important than just being with him listening to birds chirp.”
So much of your day as a mama feels like running all day long only to end up in the same spot as before … is any progress being made? But what if that is exactly where God wants you? You don’t know what God is going to do with a simple conversation, hug, hand-holding, or just your presence next to your little one.
And you give that gift to your kids daily.
While you feel like you are failing, falling behind, or not doing enough… your children don’t see that at all… They see Mom: the one who loves them, a friend, a comforter, a laughing buddy –
“You make the best macaroni; we never cared that it came from a box.” – JJ Heller
God is working in ways you can not see. He is in the simple, mundane, quiet moments of Motherhood…
Every conversation – on the way to school, in the kitchen, before bed, at the breakfast table
Every quiet moment – the midnight nursing snuggles, the coffee breaks, watching Bluey on the couch, holding their little hands as they drift off to sleep
Every playful moment. Every outbreak of laughter. Every sad moment. Every tantrum. Every creative idea. Every goofy voice
— God is there. And He is using it in ways you can’t even imagine.
Every moment with your kiddos is an opportunity from the Lord, where if you are compassionate enough, discerning enough, brave enough, and patient enough, you can collaborate with God to show His love to your children and bring them nearer to Him.
So, to the mama who feels as though she spends her days scurrying around, tidying the house, working hard, yet the to-do list keeps growing, distracted, tired, and feeling as though she is stuck in the same spot she started…
Give your weary heart to the One who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.
The Lord doesn’t waste anything. Just your presence in your children’s lives is enough… God will take care of the rest.
Here’s to you Mamas!
Here’s to the rock of stability that you are in your home, in your children’s lives, in your husband’s life.
Here’s to the ways you care for and love your family endlessly.
Here’s to the small, simple, mundane, beautiful moments of motherhood that you are committed to from the crack of dawn to the depths of the night.
What a beautiful journey.
May you feel even half as loved & celebrated this weekend, as you make your family feel every day!
Happy Mother’s Day!
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”
- Ephesians 3: 20-21
