Have you ever felt heavy? The weight of life pressing you down?
Have you ever felt overwhelmed? The tasks before you look like climbing Mount Everest? Making another meal for your family. Driving to one more practice. Cleaning up another mess. Things that you want to enjoy. Serving and sacrificing is motherhood, yet some days motherhood is the Goliath staring back at you, mocking you.
Absolutely. You are not alone. It is completely normal to feel heavy and overwhelmed with motherhood. It is hard, however, there is grace and strength.
We won’t get it all right. We will have days when all we can do is throw some chicken nuggets on the table. That is okay. We don’t need to be a Rachael Ray cook every night. What we do need is love. We need to love even when it hurts. We need to love even when it’s hard.
Even when my 1-year-old is screaming on the floor because he refuses to try to crawl on his own. Even when my two-year-old yells from the backseat “go!” when the light is red. Even when my four-year-old tells me with a wrinkled up nose she does not like what is on the table for dinner, again.
I can choose love because God loved me the millions of times I was unlovable. Because there is grace.
A grace-filled, loving mother is strong, brave, and beautiful. She is not perfect. She still cries, gets tired, and sometimes overwhelmed, but she rests in the peace of Christ.
She breathes in Christ’s fragrance of peace and long-suffering and exhales love all over her family. She messes up, yes, because she is still human.
She cries in the bathroom when no one is there. She screams in frustration at the mess while everyone is napping. But at night when she lays her exhausted body down she rests in knowing that she was love, she poured out to fill.
Motherhood is a sweaty hike with magnificent views.
Like when the one-year-old takes his first step towards you. When the two-year-old says “mommy, the light is red that means stop.” When the four-year-old sits down for dinner and says, “thank you, Mom.”
A grace-filled, loving mother is strong, brave, and beautiful. A grace-filled, loving mother is loved and cherished by her family more than she will ever know.
1 John 4:19 We love because he first loved us. ESV
Romans 12:9-12 Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically. Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. NLT
Proverbs 10:12 Hatred stirs up strife, But love covers all sins. NKJV
Proverbs 15:1 A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. NIV
John 15:12-14 This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. NLT
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. ESV
