I can guarantee that in your life as a mother you will experience the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. I guarantee that your children will make amazing choices that bless your heart but they will also do the things at times that are not the best or make painful choices, I guarantee that they will fill your heart with joy and at times break your heart, I guarantee that they will make you laugh and in the next moment frustrate you. I guarantee they will make you smile and they will make you cry. I guarantee that they will make you proud and at times cause you to fight the feeling of disappointment for choices they make.<\/p>\n
Yet all the things they may do or may not do, can NEVER change why we love them. It’s WHO they are that causes us to love them. Who they are will never change, they are our children, they are a gift and a reward in our lives that can never be topped in this world. They are our sons and they are our daughters. When love is based on WHO some one is instead of what they do or don’t do, then that love is lasting and without end.<\/p>\n
Children can also be the best mirror and reflection of truth on a daily basis, that both applauds the strengths that we have and confronts the weaknesses in ourselves. The key is looking long enough to realize that we do have our own weaknesses and brokenness. For too long I tried to be perfect for them so that they could have a “good example” but it only caused me to hide me and caused them to feel that they could not measure up – when in reality the best gift I can offer is an example of admiting my own failures and weaknesses and modeling an absolute dependance on God.<\/p>\n
But recognizing our weaknesses should not result in shame or condemnation or trying to make a list of things that we need to fix and DO better. But its about choosing to focus on the One who can help us and letting Him and His strength lead our life.\u00a0 I am learning that if we can ask the right questions of ourselves and help them to do the same it can bring us and them to make course corrections based out of a true hearts desire to please Him.<\/p>\n
So I have made this commitment – I will not apologize for them or their mistakes (we all make them), I will not make excuses for them – I will love them for WHO they are, believing the best in all things and choose to be on their team and in their boat as they navigate this journey they are on. I will be their greatest cheerleader, there most passionate prayer warrior – seeing the gifts and the potential they have, calling to the surface the gold of their true identity and I will quit focusing on the things that are not all together figured out yet. I have chosen to see that they are on an amazing journey and I am an important part of their journey.<\/p>\n
So today if your at the end of your rope or at the height of your joy with your children, know this, they are destined for great things and they are a gift to you. Ask God to give you eyes that see the gold. We have been given the privilege to be apart of the building process of these amazing people. Let us never take for granted the gift they are in our lives.<\/p>\n
Two Final thoughts:
\n*Being a mom goes beyond the children I have given birth to. There is a world of sons and daughters who need a “Mom” and I can maybe be that person to others as well.
\n*For those who are beginning this journey or have not yet embarked on the this amazing adventure of motherhood, I will tell you, it is the best choice outside of choosing Jesus and my marriage to my amazing husband, that I have ever made on this earth. The awesome sense that I have been given the gift of bringing a life into this world, that has so much ugliness, is a true gift indeed.<\/p>\n