I sat in a coffee shop with a dear young woman awaiting the birth of her first child. I first met this woman when she was 9 months old. I was her babysitter and remained so for the next 8 years. I have a special place in my heart for Katey and it has been years since we sat close, talking and laughing. It reminded me of what a privilege is this task of motherhood. I pray she realizes the enormity of what lay before her and that she would cast her complete dependence upon Christ.
“O
call back yesterday, bid time return”, says Shakespeare.
There
is a wisdom that comes with the years. And could we,
who have gone before you, have opportunity to redo our early
motherhood, bringing the wisdom of our today
back
with us to our distant yesterday…hmmmm, but, alas, we cannot. We
can only relay to your heart what we see from our vantage point. You
sit here in the privileged place of The
Beginning.
With the birth of this precious soul, you and your husband embark on
your own unique journey.
A
quote hung in our boys’ room for the longest time: “Your life is
like the driven snow. Be careful how you tread it for every track
will show.” Your journey of motherhood is yet in its infancy, just
like your soon-to-appear newborn babe. I encourage you to handle your
new and privileged position of mother as carefully, as delicately and
as wisely as you will be handling that lovely and wondrous and
miraculous new baby.
A
mother is a beautiful thing; purposefully directing her child’s
attention to that which is beautiful, lovely, divine. When a mother
has conquered herself, her children will feel the blessing of that,
as she can now bestow upon them the greatest of blessings. “To
Timothy, my dearly beloved son: Grace, mercy and peace, from God the
Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.” (2 Timothy 1:2) Three of the
most blessed things that can be bestowed upon a human being: grace,
mercy and peace. We can offer these to our children only when we have
tasted of them ourselves.
Our
life with our children begins with labor; intense, physical labor and
great, personal sacrifice. Why do we think that will stop with the
birth? Or that it should
stop?
The labor continues. For we must continue in intense spiritual
labors for their souls; entreating God to not only work a miracle of
regeneration in their
hearts but to also work a miracle of a
total transformation
of our own heart from selfish woman to selfless mother. Just as a
child moves from infancy to toddlerhood where he must learn some very
basic lessons such as, “Obey Mommy and Daddy” and “Share”;
these are the foundational lessons of submission, sacrifice and
selflessness. In this stage of early motherhood great personal
sacrifice must continue long after the labor ends as we die to
ourselves, namely: to our will, our plans, our personal ambitions,
our pride, and learn to serve others with a pure heart.
As
the toddler grows and moves to elementary learning, he is quickly
faced with the basic building blocks for the advanced lessons yet to
come. So, too, for the mother comes some early lessons crucial to
future success. I believe that perhaps your greatest need, and one of
your most basic
lessons as a mother, is going to be in learning how to walk with your
God. For life is filled with both the bitter and the sweet. In the
midst of Job’s terrible suffering he cried out in profound desire,
“Oh that I knew where I might find Him! That I might come even to
His seat! I would order my cause before Him, and fill my mouth with
arguments. I would know
the words which He would answer me, and understand
what He would say unto me. Will He plead against me with His great
power? No; but He
would put strength in me.”
(Job 23:3-6) Job is trusting in God’s mercy and God’s good
plan for his life but is struggling to draw the
more closely
to the only
One who can make sense of it all. In the agonizing “whys?” along
life’s way there is for the Christian mother the assurance that the
All-Powerful God longs
to impart this generative power to us, “He
would put strength in me”,
that we might know
Him and
understand
Him in
the midst of the pain and in the turmoil of questioning, that the
great I Am
is
and that He walks with us. Seeking first His strength and His help
through His Word and through prayer is key to the lessons yet to come
on this journey of motherhood.
Ah,
yes, the bittersweet of motherhood. How keenly we feel it. Dear young
mother, you know not what lies before you. I encourage you to set
your will firmly in line with the Lord’s and drink in the entire
experience. Ladies, remember labor? What were we coached to do?
“Breathe, Breathe! Work with the pain.” That advice is very
good! That advice carries through long after the labor pains have
passed: terrors such as the realization that this child, this eternal
soul, makes its own choices, and must suffer its own consequences;
the brutal reality that this child has its own will; and that much of
her life is completely out of our control. Mothers: Breathe! Pray!
Breathe! Pray! As natural as breathing, should be our communication
with God. A continual conversation should flow from our hearts to His
throne. This sweet, this precious, this hard, this scary, this
exhausting, this exhilarating experience of motherhood; drink it in
deeply. Savor the cup.
Throw
yourself into this motherhood. Give it your very all. The master
passion of your life has been decided for you as you now bear the
title of mother. Succeed you must! And in Him, succeed you will. From
the old book, The Golden Gems of Life, “Success is the child of
confidence and perseverance.
The talent of success is simply doing what you can do well, and doing
well whatever you do, without a thought of fame…Success in life is
the proper and harmonious development
of those faculties which God has given us. Whatever you try to do in
life, try with all your heart to do it well; whatever you devote
yourself to, devote yourself to it completely. …There is no
substitute for thorough-going, ardent, sincere earnestness.” And I
say, there is no failing as a mother if you seek to live fully in the
present; devoting yourself to your sacred calling and to God;
striving daily to walk with Him in lowliness of mind and meekness of
heart bringing your children alongside of you.
There is no “perfect”.
The finish line is death. Our goal is to spend ourselves for Christ
while we yet have breath. The race is your own and your only
competition is you. God
has called you to the task of motherhood.
Rise to its challenge. Die trying if you must but don’t quit. I
remember a time of terror during one of my pregnancies when I
believed I could not move forward. I still had some months left
before the delivery, and being my fourth, I knew what was ahead. I
wasn’t up for this task and all that lay before me. I had
completely panicked. My husband leaned over my hospital bed, held my
hand, looked into my eyes and said, “You must. There’s a baby in
there who is counting on you. You must and you can.” There was no
way out but forward! So, too, in this Christian life. Fears? Yep, but
face them we must. Fatigue? Most certainly, but wisely pressing
onward we must go. Failures? Absolutely! “For a just man falleth
seven times, and
riseth up again...”
Don’t
give up! You cannot avoid the lessons slated for you to learn. We
must remain at our post and overcome. The enemy is waiting, lurking,
seeking whom he may devour. There is a child, perhaps children
counting on you not to give up but to pursue
your calling of Mother with every fiber of your being.
Let
me encourage you today, all of you dear, dear ladies: a mother is a
beautiful thing; an emblem of grace and beauty; of survival and
selflessness. Grace, mercy and peace… A gentle hand, a smiling eye,
a patient response… …these are some of the great blessings in
this life and you have the power to freely give them. Are you
deserving of that forgiveness, of that grace, of that mercy Christ
has brought to you? Neither are your children nor your husband
worthy. Freely you have been given, freely give. Live today as one
who holds the gracious trust of mother and dispense your influence
wisely to those particular souls that have been positioned at your
feet, on your lap, at your side by God Himself.
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