{This weekend I had the great privilege of hosting a shower here at the farm for a dear friend who is having her first baby and it got me thinking once again about motherhood and all my favorite things I've been learning along my own journey. So I wrote her a letter, {or maybe I wrote myself a letter?} reminding her, reminding me, of this incredible gift of raising up souls for eternity. What a sweet day of celebration it was.}
Sweet friend of mine,
Motherhood begins with the gospel.
Before you become a mother you need to know that Your sin can’t separate you (or your child) from Christ.
You need to know that Your Father is bigger than your failures, your flesh and your faults.
You need to remember that your strengths can’t save you (or your child) that Your ego, your excellence and your efforts won’t ever be big enough to be a Savior.
Your sins aren’t enough to keep your child from God and your strengths aren’t enough to get your child to God.
That’s the bottom line: Your sins aren’t enough and your strengths aren’t enough. You are not enough — for this parenting gig, this this mothering journey.
But here’s the best news of all__
Grace is the only thing that is ever enough.
THIS YOU MUST NEVER FORGET!!!
Grace is the only thing that is ever enough.
Because the thing is – every sin and every strength always falls short. Every sin and every strength is always both in need of exactly the same thing: the grace of God.
Grace is the only thing that ever makes a way.
You might find yourself praying it at the sink, crying on the bathroom floor, puzzled, distraught, wondering how on earth you’re going to get this child to his 18th birthday… but really there’s only ONE thing you need to know… You can’t control outcomes — you can only model how to become… how to become more like Christ.
Because Life isn’t about controlling things – but about letting God control you. Parenting isn’t about controlling kids – but about letting God control you. Parenting isn’t as much about raising the kids — but about laying yourself down.
Did you catch that? Parenting isn’t as much about raising the kids__ BUT ABOUT LAYING YOURSELF DOWN.
You will only parent as well as you know your Father.
AND
You will only live as well as Christ lives in you.
So my advice to you, new Mama, is to stay close to Jesus, stay in His Word {even if for a season you feel as if your eyes are merely skimming the pages because your so stinking tired that you can barely keep your eyes open}, and remember daily, that grace is the only thing that is ever enough.
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” {2 Corinthians 12:9}
As you mother your little one, you can always be confident of this… “that He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.” {Romans 8:28} This promise is glorious for the Mama’s soul. Don’t just brush it off as a verse you’ve known since you were a child. CLING to it! Soak every inch of it up! And rest your weary- mama-soul on it day after day as you walk this life with your little man.
When you feel as if you do not have what you need to train up your boy in righteousness remember this, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” {Romans 8:32} AND “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” {2 Peter 1:3}
And Some of my favorite quotes on motherhood__
“The more I realize that motherhood is stewardship rather than ownership, the more I can embrace the blood, sweat, and tears of this journey with gratefulness, not entitlement. Who am I that God would allow me to mold young hearts while He molds mine? It's grace indeed.”
“In short...We are a beautifully broken mess of a story that is fully written, but partially revealed. We are in the hands of a sovereign and loving God who is requiring (mercifully) for us to trust Him at every turn, because we have no resources like God's resources…” Ruth Simons
“The mundane, ordinary things are genuinely tremendous undertakings requiring Christ-courage.
Who has the courage to live a life of little, unnoticed sacrifices? Loving an angry child, making a bed, kneading dough in the kitchen. Voluntarily picking up a trail of discarded socks. Gratefully, folding up a damp towel abandoned on the bathroom floor. Carefully placing a tossed pair of shoes into the closet.
This is our life: a mosaic of little things, daily sacrifices in small, quiet pieces.
At its very essence, this Christ-life is about the little things being the greatest things of all. Christ Himself told us: Whoever wants to be great in God’s kingdom must learn to be a servant of all. And when will I hands-and-mouth-and-feet-remember that this little stuff is the truly noble stuff—the Jesus-stuff? Didn’t He too do great things that seemed so little: washing feet, and gathering children close on lap? Dying on a tree. In His kingdom heroes live hidden, medal-less lives, lives laid down.” Ann Voscamp
Soak up the seemingly insignificant.
Seek HIS face daily, hourly, minute by minute.
And Savor this incredible gift of raising up souls for eternity.
I love you dearly and feel privileged that we get to walk alongside each other as we learn to mother together for HIS glory.
Kacy
{Thoughts from one of my favorite posts of all time@ A Holy Experience}
