Mama heart

Hey friends~

Before I even write another word I must be upfront and honest.  I battle my own selfishness daily in motherhood. What happened in my house yesterday is nothing but ugly. I’m scarred to let you in this picture but I feel compelled to before I write more. So welcome to Sunday afternoon in my house.

How in the world can a house get so messy in two days is what is running through my mind? I don’t pick up for two days and now we can’t seem to see the floor. So I start my cleaning in a fit of rage. Going from room to room I pick up and put away while at the same time my one year old was in the process of literally emptying out baskets of toys all over the place(so really just doing what one year olds do). I let my husband get an earful that this is what I do everyday. I told him I was going crazy and how defeated I felt. I am not one to usually curse aloud but feeling that it was my right too I let out a word that I shouldn’t have. And that only made me feel worse. That’s what sin does. Sin enslaves you to shame. I then move into the kitchen that was now the clean room to find my child throwing everything out of his diaper bag. I tell him no. He doesn’t stop and so I only get louder and yell no again. Now he’s in tears and I feel like the worst mother on the planet.

I share all this with you because I’m in the trenches too. I fail daily and that is when I preach the gospel to myself. God’s grace is always greater when my heart wants to condemn me. Jesus took the wrath I deserve for my sin and it is finished. I am no longer condemned because of what Jesus did. And as a child of God I hate the sin that I still turn too because it keeps me from walking in the Spirit and in truth and reflecting his image to a dying world. I can’t walk in the Spirit if I’m choosing to walk in sin.  We experience freedom only in abiding in Christ and dying to self walking in his ways.

Wow so that was my intro to lay the ground work. I wanted to share the above because I’m in the trenches too.

Now to this post…

I shared this with a group of moms in my church fellowship last summer and it’s been on my heart to share it here. I keep seeing so many articles about what is wrong with todays kids. As a young mom they really aren’t encouraging at all.

We live in a world where we are constantly hearing about all that can go wrong and seeing how our peers are doing. We hear about moms who lose their child and they end up in a gorilla cage in the zoo or remember the child attacked by an alligator at Disney. Those moms are then attacked in the media. And then on the other hand  we can daily hear about being a helicopter mom or a lawn mower mom and how we need to let kids learn and be kids. We live in a world where we constantly read a new article on facebook about new dangers in the world…electric shock drowning, the toxicity of sunscreen, slides being covered with glass, a child swallowing a fidget spinner, the reality of human trafficking, the new drug of child pornography, children being shot and killed. This list goes on and on. As moms we are constantly being told things to fear and everything we need to do to help our child succeed. On tap of that we we read things posted about everything thats wrong with todays children blaming the parents.

Hear this: the fear of man is always a trap.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (Proverbs 9:10). It is only in having a right view of God and who we are in Christ can we find rest. When our eyes are looking at Jesus the fears of this world fade and our thoughts are taken captive to Christ. For we can take heart in Christ for he has overcome the world. Yes, in this world we will have trouble but we rest in the truth that Jesus has overcome the world.

It is a daily battle field for my mind in this world but God continues to faithfully meet me in His Word. God transforms me and renews my thinking in His Word. God transforms my desires, my longings, my thoughts and my fears.

So Mama’s lets encourage each other and build each other up and pour into each others little ones like they are our own. Because they are. When you are in Christ we belong to each other in Christ(Romans 12). Let us rejoice, mourn, encourage, rebuke in love, and serve one another all for the glory of God. Lets not invoke fear of man or shame but encourage and build one another up in love. We need each other. Older women pour into and teach younger women in love and younger women listen. There is no room for judgement or condemnation only serving each other in love all for the glory of God.

Wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord. Wisdom is the right application of knowledge. We get lots of knowledge in our day of all the dangers in this world as our finger tips scroll through news feeds. We can’t apply anything we learn without first seeing that apart from Christ we cant do anything good. We must first remember and see we are sinners who deserve nothing but the full wrath of God. BUT God in his great love and mercy saved us while we were dead in transgressions. We are dead apart from Christ and without him we can’t do anything good.  Christ dwells in us through the Holy Spirit when you call on his name turning to him and you are sealed in Him. So when I think about walking in the fear of the Lord I think about surrendering in reverent worship and walking in full dependency on Jesus.

Wherever you are friend lean hard on Jesus. And when you feel you can’t go on lean harder on Jesus and don’t hesitate to reach out to sisters in Christ. For we belong to one another(Romans 12:5).

I can’t begin to get this motherhood thing right unless I first take each day walking as who I am a child myself…A child of God depending fully on Jesus and resting fully in the truth that Jesus is making ALL things new. And in the meanwhile I am Christ’s ambassador here in a dying world and that includes first being an ambassador to my kids.

~Lane