“Why does no one listen until I am yelling?”
The above phrase leaves my lips far more than I care to admit. I lose my cool more often than I should and I am not the godly mother I need to be as often as I’d like.
I have four children, and in their infancy, I had four children under the age of three. Life was crazy, and I was in survival mode. I’ve never actually left survival mode and although my children are now school-aged, life is still crazy.
I am not perfect. I falter. I fall. I fail often. In motherhood, in life, I need God’s grace far more than I seek, and far more than I deserve.
Thankfully, His grace is not earned, but freely given.
And I’m so grateful that His grace is enough.
As mothers, as women, we often allow the weight of the world, or even just our family, to sit squarely on our shoulders. We allow Satan to speak to our hearts telling us we are not doing well enough. We allow Satan to steal our precious moments, coating them in discontent.
We allow it.
Instead of allowing Satan’s lies to permeate our being, we must cloak ourselves in the grace of our Father. We must believe what we read in 2 Corinthians 12:9: “But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will boast in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
His grace is sufficient for us and His power is made perfect in weakness. We need to embrace our weaknesses, allowing Christ’s power to shine through us. We need to openly admit our shortcomings, visibly leaning on the Almighty Father.
When we fully embrace the truth that God’s grace is sufficient for us, we don a cloak unable to be penetrated by Satan’s lies. When we fully embrace the truth that God’s grace is sufficient, we allow ourselves to bask in the joys of motherhood, of life, opposed to being weighed down by the hurts.
When the house isn’t clean, laundry piles litter the floor, and dishes are stacked in the sink, His grace is enough. His grace is enough to remind us that it’s okay to take a break and we are not defined by the status of our home.
When we lose our cool because our toddler pulls the lamp off the table for the umpteenth time, our school-age child forgot his homework again, or our teenagers declare we are the meanest moms on the planet, His grace is enough. His grace is enough to remind us that as much as we need grace, others do too.
In any situation, any stage of life, His grace is enough to lift the weight of perfection from our shoulders and replace it with the joy of being a child of the King. {eoa}
Angela Jamison is a mother of four and also the director of a Christian preschool. Angela enjoys connecting with other mothers and parents, reiterating God’s design for this toughest job on earth. Although she spends much of her day feeling as if she’s herding cats, she is always grateful for God’s unending grace for her crazy life. To learn more about Angela, visit her webpage at angelajamison.com or follow her on Twitter (@AngJamison04, Instagram (@AngJam731) or on Facebook @barrenbutblessed.
This article originally appeared atjust18summers.com.
