Mothering Delight

I received joy and encouragement recently when something finally connected in my brain and I realized that by being their mother, I am helping my children to know who they are in Jesus. By how I love them, delight in them, and train them to be excellent young women I am helping to reveal that unique person that God has made in His image! What a wonderful calling. It is with particular sadness, then, that I reflect on the the sundry examples of bad parenting I see. I see moms who are frazzled, fed up with their toddlers (though they are reaping what they sow by not giving their children consistency in training, or consequences (with love) for disobedience), talking to them in tones that demonstrate exasperation and dislike, and dealing with them with immaturity and annoyance. What I am not proclaiming is my own propensity for great parenting. No - I have meltdowns from time to time, I am tired frequently and unable to spread grace liberally on those around me. But here's the difference: I am shooting for something outside myself- my goal is godliness from myself and my children. And the hope that sustains me in this is Jesus himself, so I need not fear laboring in vain or failing in my own efforts. I am not alone; when my cup is empty is precisely when Jesus can do his astonishing work.

Final thought: when I think of my task in parenting not on a day to day level (which can feel sometimes like I'm just schlepping along) but on a scale of my and my children's whole life, I benefit from both the relief that the mess that I make of it sometimes is not the whole story AND the admonishment that who they will be in 10, 20 years depends in some way on what I am pouring into them right now - and if what I'm pouring into them is Jesus and his love, that gives them what they need to grow into people of faith and love, peace, hope, and joy.