En{joy} Them
I can’t count the number of times a week I’m told this. Family, people at church, complete strangers in the grocery store all utter these words: “Enjoy them…It goes fast…They won’t be this little long.” I’ll admit, at times it has frustrated me!
I asked Brock one night, “I know I am supposed to enjoy them. I know this stage is fleeting and it really is flying by before my very eyes. But in the everyday, in the screaming in your face, the endless wiping, picking up, correction, feeding and not sleeping. It is hard to enjoy them.
“Well, often I feel like it’s said out of regret,” Brock said.
As I have continued to think over this concept, and as the Lord has continued to sanctify my heart in this, a few things have come to mind. What if instead of telling a mom (who we don’t know what her kids are like, what her days or nights consist of, or know where the state of her heart is at) to “enjoy her kids.” What if instead we encouraged one another to find the {joy} in each day?
This can be applied to any stage of life. I find myself constantly looking to the next phase of life thinking that will bring a little more ease or enjoyment. If I can just get past….(fill in your blank)…then this would be easier.
Mom guilt is a real and present thing. We really don’t need help pilling the heaps of failures onto ourselves and the ‘what we should be doing’. I was feeling that with every direct statement I heard. It was the most refreshing morning when I walked up the stairs to children’s ministry and a friend asked, “So how is it going? I can imagine it is really hard.” I remember I looked right up to make eye contact and said, “Yeah, thank you, it is.”
So how do we find {joy} when our daily circumstances aren’t changing? John 3:30 says, “He must become greater, I must become less.” Ya’ll, it is all about Jesus. It’s about loving him more. The joy comes from Him. Joy isn’t based on circumstances. It is based on the cross, burial, and resurrection hope of Jesus Christ. It’s based on what our good Father did for us to give us life with Him and our response to sacrificially live for him.
Joy is embedded in our hearts because we know our purpose. To disciple. To Show Jesus in our everyday and bring Him glory!
Proverbs 31 is a chapter of the Bible I read often. I want to be this kind of woman. Verses 25-26 says, “Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come. She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.”
When we are spending time with the Lord He is able to clothe us with the strength and dignity we need for each day. When there is joy in our soul, we can laugh at something we may not have normally. When we are reading scripture and allowing it to change us, the way we talk changes and our response will too.
It means being the same person inside the home as you are outside of the home. It means asking forgiveness from your kids when you have been impatient, lost your cool, or spoken harshly. It means talking to them about how great our God is in the every day. It’s loving them with a Jesus centered love (not making them you’re everything, because our goal is to train them up and send them out) but loving them in a way they know there is nothing they can do to make you think twice about losing your life for them-just as Jesus did for us.
It is a crazy, hard, {joy}ous love. It makes you hurt sometimes. In good and bad ways. It’ll bring you to tears, drop you to your knees, and bring out laughter you didn’t know was there. It’s the most sacrificial role I have ever played. But I can say with a smile on my face, it is so very worth it.
It is worth every butt, surface, nose, tear and floor wiped. It is worth every fight broken up, crying baby needing held, and discipline given. It is worth every story memorized, prayers prayed, meals prepared, and laundry pile unwashed. It is worth every tubby night, booboo kissed, the dressing and undressing, the loading and unloading into carseats, and endless picking up. It is worth every discouraging day, every tear shed, every thought taken captive of loneliness and self-worth. It is worth every pound gained, the jeans never fitting quite the same way and every sleepless night.
It is worth it because it is making me and you more like Jesus. What {joy} it is to surrender my own desires when you hear that first laugh, squeeze those pudgy hands, feet, thighs…well everything. What {joy} it is to hear their bedtime prayers, their little voice reciting the books they have memorized, or watching them share unasked. What {joy} it is to see their smiles, their personalities blossom and their independence grow. What {joy} it is to experience motherhood.
Happy Mother’s Day to every form of Mama out there. Find the {JOY} in your day today.