5 Days to Discover the Mother God Made You to BeSample

SO GOD MADE A MOTHER JUST LIKE YOU

Making a Masterpiece

"Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us."
Hebrews 12:1(ESV)

I’d just clicked the baby’s bedroom door shut—quietly, of course—and settled in with my laptop, the sunshine streaming through the kitchen window, when the phone rang.

It was the elementary school. Darn, it. I sighed and swiped the phone alive.

I was greeted by the tiny, trembling voice of my six-year-old. “I wanna come home,” he sputtered before dissolving into tears.

His teacher took the receiver and explained something had happened on the playground that had upset him terribly. What, she couldn’t say—no one had seen or heard—but he was beside himself.

Another email chirped cheerfully as it materialized atop my inbox. I closed the screen, then my eyes. It was going to be a different sort of workday than I had planned.

And isn’t that how it goes? You make plans from the moment you know you’re becoming a mother. While you’re dreaming of that tiny poppy seed growing inside of you or that little person you’ll welcome into your home, you imagine the kind of mother you’ll be.

They’ll never cry it out.

I’ll read to them every night—two books, maybe three!

I’ll never raise my voice or lose my patience.

They won’t ever eat fast food or high-fructose corn syrup.

I’ll give each child plenty of undivided attention every single day.

They’ll follow all the rules, pitch in around the house, brush their teeth twice a day.

I’ll do it all right.

But God gently reminds me over and over again: motherhood isn’t about me or my plans—it’s about loving them.

It’s letting your inbox hemorrhage just a bit more while you tuck a Hershey’s bar into your purse and surprise the first-grader who had a tough morning with a lunch date and dessert.

It’s rocking the baby at 3 a.m. when she’s cutting her third tooth in two weeks and the only antidote is her exhausted mother’s arms.

It’s getting in the car—again—to drive the budding athlete to practice, then swinging through the drive-thru for chicken nuggets and french fries.

When your kids are happy, you’re happy.

When they hurt, you hurt.

When they fly, you soar.

That doesn’t always leave time for a mom to accomplish the tasks she had planned or to have the day she wanted, maybe even needed.

The truth is, motherhood will suck you dry on the regular—of your time, your energy, your independence.

But when you fall into bed at the end of an upended day when the tired you feel is already bleeding over into tomorrow, you won’t feel bitter—you’ll be grateful.

Because motherhood—busy, exhausting, unpredictable motherhood—is so much more than you could have ever planned, this calling is yours, and it’s extraordinarily beautiful.

So God made a mother . . . and you are His masterpiece.

When God made a mother, He had you in mind—imperfect, incredible, irreplaceable you.

Interested in reading more stories from moms like you? Check out So God Made a Mother, the latest book from Leslie Means, founder of the popular website Her View From Home.