So you’ve just wiped up spilled milk, scrubbed crayon off the wall, threw in your fourth load of wash for the day, wrestled up a quick, nutritious lunch for your hungry brood, kissed a hurt and sealed it with a band-aid! You’ve rocked, and lulled, and sung sweet lullabies, while all the while just wanting to have a spare minute for yourself but you can’t find one anywhere. The day wears on and the hours are tedious and so the same with whines, and cries, and fussiness and wet diapers, and quarrels, and how come no one ever told you that motherhood assigned you referee credentials? So, you’re a mom, and when you signed up for parenthood, you were unaware of its strange mix of excitement, fear, joy, panic, happiness, sorrow, fun, or anxiety. But it is and there you are right up there in the top ranking of it all, and it’s awesome but it’s scary, and it’s sheer delight but it’s frustration, and it’s rewarding but it’s so time-consuming. Oh, so time-consuming!! Yeah, motherhood; there’s really nothing like it on the planet! Its challenges are out of this world and it’s rocked yours to the moon and back. It’s got you booked solid ~ hook, line and sinker and drowning in its many demands! The hats you wear are ridiculous and next to impossible and your sanity? Well, it’s gone south for a break and right now as you think you might go under for the very last time, know that you won’t! You won’t because your job is the toppest of the top-notch jobs in the whole wide world.
You’ve been entrusted with gifts from heaven, all ‘little life’, wrapped up and so tenderly placed in your lap. And there you are!! Smack dab in the middle of days that don’t end and nights that don’t sleep. Those gifts of life are yours to cherish, to love, and to nurture, guide, teach and train and when that journey overwhelms your beautiful soul, remember King Lemuel’s mom had some good words of advice for him in Proverbs 31: 10, 17, 25, 26, 28. She told him exactly how fortunate he would be to find a woman of noble character just like you. You may be tired and exhausted but your value is outstanding… “A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies…….she sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks…she is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue…Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also and he praises her.”
God hasn’t promised pastel rainbows for your days of motherhood, in fact, some days might just well be purple and red, but He has promised joy to the mom who seeks Him and grace for the one who walks the ho-hum of the daily journey by His side. No, your rewards won’t necessarily be seen nor given out today there in your little kitchen nook, but your loyal works and your tedious steps will etch their memories into little hearts that will grow big and strong to become mom and dads of their own little gifts of life. So mom, take heart! Your tasks performed faithfully today will navigate back and will find their way into your seasoned heart of hearts when all you have left are the memories of the long lost, good old days. So yeah, beautiful Mom, enjoy these joyous but trying days of motherhood. They’ll be gone all too quickly.
It’s a new day dawning and I get that it’s uncertain. Perhaps our most important message of the hours that come and go would be that given by the writer of Hebrews, in Hebrews 12: 2, “To fix our eyes on Jesus” in these days of uncertainty. The book of Hebrews was written, possibly as a sermon, as an energetic pastoral response to meet the needs of the struggling people of Rome yet, today ‘we’ are those people, struggling, meeting challenges head-on, that we don’t know how t
The world has a mess of stuff on its doorstep! Who knew? Yet just out of the blue, it sideswiped us! Took us off guard and caught us unprepared. Now it’s a full-blown season of questions without many answers, but yet, you gotta know, even the hard times hold beautiful moments for your beautiful soul. This is not a time to press panic buttons and hide away out of fear but It ‘is’ a time of quiet reflection on life as we see it with a “hands-on, how simple life can be” reference. These days of closures and lockdowns and self-isolation provide a much-needed opportunity for a time-out to bask in the presence of the Omnipotent, Omnipresent sovereign God who is in control and who encompasses you on every side and has you in the palm of His nail imprinted hand! He wouldn’t think of letting you go, not even for a second! He’s got your heart all wrapped up sweet and tight and safe in His, nestled in with His vast and unconditional love and held snug with a grace so amazing it’s beyond comprehension! So even on the days when you feel alone ~ you’re not at all. He’s there for you and your beautiful soul in your moments of need ~ held fast with His mercy! So today, beautiful one, it’s simple. Don’t focus on the latest news, but rather fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, and just respond with a thankful heart for His divine watch-care over your family. Let Him work His plan in you and through you. Be alert to His words of guidance and walk in sweet and simple trust. A childlike faith in an all-powerful God is what you need for today ‘cuz a simple faith walk with Him is a victory walk and a win/win situation. Go for it! He’s got you in these uncertain times.
Some days the pain goes way deep and the hurt is really real and really hard and the heart hurts and the head hurts and the soul cries and the tears flow and the days are just so overwhelming.
In these anxious filled, difficult moments, we have an Author writing our lives with pen in one nail-pierced hand and a divine paintbrush of grace-filled red in the other. His blood was shed for us and yeah, He paints our story beautifully now because of it. He’s our Saviour and He’
Hope and Healing In Hard Places 