Overwhelmed by My Blessings: Encouragement for Moms Part 7 Sample

This parenting gig is the hardest job any one of us will ever have.  We finally figure out how to get through the exhaustion of our child’s infancy, and then we have a crawler.  We’ve placed all the floor items up higher, and then we have a toddler who can climb! We figure out how to deal with a new set of challenges and then they grow another day older! Add a kid or two, or four, to the mix, and we have blessed chaos on our best days! 

We are putting all our efforts into building a happy family, right?  

Isn’t that the calling of motherhood?

Or, is it?

You know, as I look through the scriptures I only find one calling for us moms. 

It’s making disciples.  Disciples of Jesus. Making disciples is what Jesus commanded us all. For us moms, that includes and is imperative of our children. 

That’s our mission, and is there really a better one?

The best way to make disciples?  It’s by the example you set.  Oh, I know.  It’s a high calling.  Being on alert. Always. Showing love when we want to give them all the words. Offering patience when we want to scream. Being ready to throw in the towel with the toddler who won’t be consoled over the wrong cup, or an angry teen that can’t go to that movie with his friends, but instead, choosing to stay the course. Living in the power, grace and glory of an intimate relationship with Jesus. 

You will make mistakes, many failings, and have to apologize and offer grace to yourself, so you can offer it to them tomorrow. And, through the process and repetition of life, you will begin showing them that a life with Jesus is far better than one without. You will tell them, day after day, how He loves you in spite of yourself, and how He gives you confidence and power and ability far beyond what you could do on your own. 

You will lead your followers to be followers of Jesus, not by your words, but by your life. And, one day, you will smile, as He does, at the magnitude of His love lived through the hearts of those in your care who choose Him as their own. Believe me. He promises it and I've experienced it.  

Father, help me grasp the magnitude of the call to make disciples, first to my own children.  May I always be an example of your goodness, grace and Glory in their eyes; quick to apologize, ready to admit my failings, and to always speak of the life You live through me. May your Presence be my hope as I follow hard after You. 

Consider reading these scriptures from The Message