11 May The Gift of Motherhood

When we became mothers, we said “yes” to life.

We prayed for, planned, and prepared our hearts and homes to receive this new life.

We waited, worried, prayed for, anticipated…..and then held our child for the first time.

And as that child was placed in our arms, nothing else mattered.

A great gift had been given from God and we received this pearl of great price with tears of joy and awesome realization that this little person belonged not to us but to God.

When we became mothers, we said yes to pain.

Pains of childbirth, pains of baby’s first sickness, pains of trying to figure out this whole “mothering” thing. And as our children began to grow, we experience the pains of walking through life’s battles with them.

Pains of being bullied, left out, or overlooked. Pains of not making the team. Pains of sickness. Pains of poor choices. Pains of relational conflict.

But as a mother, we also said yes to experiencing their joys.

Joy in finding a worm in the garden, of catching a firefly at night. Joy in hot chocolate with marshmallows and being silly with friends. Joy in a trip to the zoo or a new skirt that swishes just right. Joy in a mud puddle or a dance or swinging high on the swing. Joy in adding numbers or reading books or playing an instrument or hitting a ball.

Joy in witnessing them receive Jesus’s great love for them. Joy in being part of a loving community. Joy in discovering their unique gifts and talents. Joy in formative and lasting relationships. Joy in good books and nighttime snuggles.

When we became mothers, we said yes to service.

We said yes to changing a million diapers, to making a million meals and washing a million dishes and doing a million loads of laundry. We said yes to soothing and rocking, to being wakened in the middle of the night again and again and singing songs to our toddler when they had a bad dream.

We said yes to working through school work and listening to them play the same song on the piano one hundred times. We said yes to being carpool queens and play date arrangers. We said yes to appointments and practices and birthday parties.

And when they said to us “Mom, can we talk?” in a serious tone at 9:30pm when we were about to fall asleep, we said yes. And we were so glad we did.

When we became mothers, we said yes to training.

We said yes to taking their hands and guiding them away from danger. We said yes to teaching them manners. We said yes to the messes of potty training and of moving to a “big kid bed.” We said yes to hard and awkward conversations about love and life and the broken world.

We said yes to walking with them through the hard stuff of heart transformation and to being open about our own failures and weaknesses.

When we became mothers, we said yes to release.

We learned to take off the training wheels and give them a push forward with a prayer, trusting that it was time for them to ride on their own.

After being cradled and carried, we said yes to the day that they decided to wriggle free and take stumbling steps. We said yes to letting them pursue dreams and interests that we had never known.

And one day, we will say yes to letting them go and watching them soar into the world. And we will say yes to walking with them into adulthood and beyond, knowing that motherhood never stops, it just looks different in each season.

Lord, thank you for entrusting us with our amazing children – each are gifts from you. May we keep choosing life, keep loving, keep crying and laughing with them, and above all, keep pointing them to your great love for them.