Celebrating motherhood, I'm excited to share some perspective from my own mom. She is a super hero rock star in her own right, and gave me the best mother's day gift this year by compiling a few stories and advice. Read more about her background here. Part 1 tells the story of nurturing and journeying with your children. Her real life experience blesses me, and I hope encourages you. I'll let her tell you the story herself:
When I was young, a wise mentor
taught me some things that affected my thinking. She taught me that children
are a blessing, not an inconvenience, not a burden. Believing this has resulted
in an attitude of thankfulness in my heart, through days and nights when I
didn’t know if I could really do the job I was called to do. This simple truth has filled my heart
with joy throughout the seasons (I think joy and happy are different). The
overall job of nurturing their little minds, souls & bodies gave me a sense
of joy that the trials couldn’t defeat (although attempted).
Kiddos are a lot of work. They come
to us 24/7 and are very needy. Through many years of being stretched, sleepless
nights, challenging behavior (mine & theirs!), I felt very overwhelmed at
times. Sometimes it seemed as though we did the same thing every day, like we
weren’t getting anywhere. The responsibilities and trials of life can be
daunting at times. Sometimes it was so hard to see any light at the end of the tunnel. I learned to walk through those
hard times, pressing on in the direction my heart was called to. The Lord gave
me strength to continue, sometimes just for the next hour. He also gave me a
deep conviction of my calling and the gift these precious people were. In this
was an underlying joy in my journey. I am so thankful I realized that at a
young age.
So, real life is full of messes
everywhere, work calling us, projects needing to be tackled, diapers, meals,
meals, and more meals, laundry, cleaning, playing (yes, playing is part of our
job, yeah!), shoes everywhere (but not where they are supposed to be, and
rarely a pair together), teaching, training moments, deep heart discussions
late at night (forget that you have to get up early, grasp this, they are the
best!) Some homes are orderly, mine is orderly some time, at others, I have no
clue what happened!
We can make a purposeful choice to
look for joy in the journey. A choice to pause and to see. To gaze upon sweet little
face, and smile. To thank the Lord
for piles of dirty dishes. We ate, we were full. When the laundry room is full of dirty clothes, I can choose
to see God’s provision, or the endless piles. I can make a choice to see the
blessings, or the drudgery. (isn’t any career this way?) My work is much easier
when I choose to let my heart choose thankfulness. I try to take time to stop
and to not only allow, but to treasure reality in my home. It is a fleeting
season, full of life and what comes with life.
I think that the most valuable
things in life cannot be bought. Some of the sweet, simple things I shared with
my children brought joy to my heart, and I hope theirs. Sometimes I had to
snatch time from our responsibilities to get them. If I had waited to plan
them, few would have come about. I
chose to walk away from a messy house, close a door to a messy bedroom, made a
simpler supper, let the laundry wait (yes, it does reproduce), etc. It wasn’t always
easy for me to take time out in the midst of responsibilities, a big part of me
wanted to get them done. But now that I have 4 grown children, I am so glad we
did. Choosing to nurture this way is sometimes hard because you can’t check it
off your list, the visual accomplishment isn’t there. Our culture tells us we
have to accomplish this or that (I do a good job of telling myself this too).
Nurturing children is seldom obvious, but one of the most valuable things we
can invest in our children, and probably one of their greatest needs.
