Gospel-Centered Mom: A 5-Day Devotional By Brooke McGlothlinSample

Never Enough

I’m guessing that at some point in your motherhood career you have felt like you’re not enough. You’ve looked at your children, your home, your job, your friendships, and noticed that reality falls sadly short of the way you want things to be. If you’re like me, you’ve wrestled so long with feeling like you’re inadequate as a parent that this negative perspective has become a way of life, a pair of glasses through which you interpret everything around you.

Bible verses that talk about the victorious Christian life, joy in all circumstances, overcoming in the name of Jesus, and the power of prayer just make you wonder, Maybe that doesn’t apply to me. If so, you’re not alone.

Here’s the secret I’ve discovered: you and I are focusing on the wrong things. We’ve become caught up in whether we’re doing all the right things in the right way for our children so they can get into the right schools and find the right careers and marry the right people and build productive lives. As a result we’ve forgotten our one true calling: to pursue God’s truth and grace and presence above all else. To do this effectively, we need to learn to apply the truths of God’s Word to our everyday lives.

When we do that, much of our insecurity and anxiety falls away. But you and I both know it’s not easy to remain focused on Jesus when the washing machine is on the fritz and your preschooler is glaring death rays at her broccoli and the neighbor just called to complain about your son bullying hers. Our response in those moments is determined by what we believe, what we’ve been building our lives and our hopes on, and the One we’ve decided we belong to. Will we serve Him no matter what?

As we ask God to reveal any areas of our hearts He needs to work on, we’ll find His grace touching our hurting places and bringing us peace about the kinds of moms we are. We’ll begin to learn what it means to follow God fully as we raise our children to know and love Him well—and then trust Him with the outcome.

What aspects of your mothering experience cause you to feel like you’re not enough? When you have that feeling, what do you usually do about it?