Everyday Prayers for PatienceSample

A Work of Character

When my nephew was probably about six years old, he said something about his younger cousin, my niece, that turned into one of those epic family sayings that last a lifetime. I’m not sure exactly what had happened, but the fact that she was just shy of two years old made it even more hysterical.

He proclaimed, “She’s a terrible distraction.”

Aren’t all two-year-olds a terrible distraction? I mean, I just can’t think of a better description for a little one at that age, but to hear another child just a few years older use that description was just icing on the cake. Now, many years later, my husband and I find ourselves using that descriptive phrase about all kinds of people and circumstances to add a bit of humor when things get hard.

In all seriousness, children can be terrible distractions. Distractions from the things we found meaning in before, distractions from important relationships, from the work we were doing for God’s kingdom before they were born, even from our ability to get basic tasks done. I heard one mom complain that her husband came home to a messy house and asked, “What have you been doing all day?” The truth was that she’d spent the day chasing her toddlers, keeping them alive, reading to them, making their lunches, rocking them to sleep for nap time, and then playing with them in the back yard until he got home, all while switching loads of laundry. Being a mom is a full-time job, with no pay and little thanks. Although my boys are older teenagers and I dearly love them, I still find it hard to work as much when they’re home. They’re a distraction.

But when received through the lens of Romans 12:12, motherhood adds a fullness to our lives that doesn’t come the same way through any other experience. There is a point to the hard things we encounter in motherhood, and that point can help us have the patience we need to endure them.

Prayer: Father, I need hope. I need to remember that when tribulations come, there’s a reason for them. Help me to remember that You are the source of my hope and turn to You in prayer as often as I need to so that I can have the patience I need to endure. In Jesus’s name, amen.