Overcoming Mom Guilt: Gospel Truth for MothersSample

Moms spend a lifetime making their children into capable, kind adults. We teach, train, and discipline. We cheer, encourage, and support.

We clean and feed them, and then clean and feed them again. We really do it all. But, there is one thing that moms feel they can never, ever do. We feel like, as moms, we can never make mistakes.

Whether the message comes from the watchful eye of a well-meaning grandmother or a husband who doesn’t understand what you do all day and doesn’t understand the mental load that you carry or a friend who says something trying to be funny, not with ill intent, but hits on one of your pain points. That message of I can’t make a mistake and I’m doing everything wrong plays in our heads over and over.

And don’t even get me started on social media where all the time we see picture perfect parents who look like they just stepped off a Pinterest board who never yell, who never have a messy house, whose kids aren’t crazy. There’s nobody like that, right? The truth is: they don’t. That’s just a little curated image. It's part of it.

The reality is that picture perfect doesn’t exist for us on this side of Heaven. What we often do is we fall into the trap of trying to live up to an unrealistic set of expectations.

But the truth is: the weight of mom guilt that we carry over our mistakes isn’t something our Father wants for us. He is kind and good and gracious.

He guides us through His word to remember that there is only one person who has ever lived who fit the criteria for perfection. And we know who that is. It is Jesus. We aren’t meant to be perfect. We aren’t held to that expectation.

You are only meant to point your children toward the One who is perfect. Your mistakes, mess ups, and mishaps can point your children toward Him.

In fact, I’d even go so far as to say that it is good you are imperfect. It is good because your imperfections help your kids realize they need someone bigger and stronger than a fallible human.

Your imperfections help your kids recognize their need for Jesus too. No person’s perfect.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 gives us wonderful advice for moments when mom guilt takes hold and we feel the pressure to be a perfect mom. These verses say:

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Do you hear that? The power of those words? He is glorified in the midst of our mistakes when we continually point to Him.

And our weakness leaves space for His grace and power to be revealed. I don’t know about you, but that sets me free.

I don’t have to bear the burden of guilt when my mothering isn’t as good as I’d hoped on any given day, because my God, who knows me well enough to know how all these crazy hairs are on my head, is strong enough to overcome any imperfection I might have.

He invites us to boldly come to Him to receive mercy and find help in our time of need. He receives us despite our mistakes and flaws.

His grace forgives us of our sins. Incredible, isn’t it? Your failures, your mistakes aren’t final. Jesus, wonderful Jesus, will work in and through them to grow you to be more like Him and to bring Himself glory.

Amen? Amen.

Lord, I’m done trying to be the perfect mom. I realize that perfect is something I can never be. But, you are and have always been perfect. Please use my mistakes for your glory and the good of myself and my children. Please help me see your grace and power in my weaknesses. And thank you for your merciful, forgiving love. Amen.