Mom Set FreeSýnishorn

Cease Striving to be "Enough"

I stumbled from my bed to the medicine cabinet to find something, anything, that would relieve my son’s pain. Through squinted, burning eyes, I read the time on the clock as I entered the bathroom. 2 a.m. Only a mere hour after he’d last woken up in pain, and I’d soothed him to sleep with back scratching and prayers for healing. I don’t know when we fell back to sleep again, but I do know the sun came up too quickly and greeted me with a to-do list that I’d be lucky to tackle on a good night’s sleep. 

Before my feet hit the floor I prayed, I will not treat my blessings as burdens. Lord, help me. I don’t want to treat my blessings as burdens. My heart was centered, but reality still loomed. Our refrigerator was empty. The new puppy needed exercise. I had a meal to cook for my neighbor who was ill, and I had fifty emails to return. But before that, I’d still need to make breakfast and get the other boys out the door with a smile on my face and a prayer on my lips. We wouldn’t have time to read our devotion that morning. We’d barely have time to breathe. My insides groaned, “I can’t. I must. But I can’t.” 

Maybe you’ve had a morning like this? The kind where you are painfully aware that the physical and mental demands of parenting are going to push you far beyond your human limitations, and you’re once again assured, “I am not enough for this. Definitely not enough.”

God has a simple but profound message for us regarding our quest to be enough. 

Read Psalm 46:10. 

Oh, how profound this is for our lives and for our parenting. God is firmly but tenderly wanting us to hear Him assure us, Enough, my dear daughter, of trying to be enough. Know that I, not you, am God. And I am good at being God.

I have actually clung to this verse for years. In fact, I have this verse written on a sticky note just above my desk because, as a girl prone to striving to be enough, I need to be reminded of this truth every day. On the note I wrote the NASB Bible translation, which says, “Cease striving and know that I am God.”

Let’s not miss this. We can stop striving to be enough, because who God is (sovereign) and what God gives us in the person and work of Jesus Christ (grace) is enough.