Mom, a.k.a.”The Fun Factory”

 

This image has come up on my Facebook feed a few times over the years. I bought into it HARD for a long time. I struggle with it, still! Since I teach and have summers off, I do tend to plan something fun for every available day I can. I am a FUN-SEEKER.  I am also a kid-lover. My kids lie high on my priority list, but hear me out, maybe too high some days.  

Almost to the point of letting everything else fall to the wayside, I delight in my kids. June is usually the most accelerated, fast-paced month for us.  It’s like I have been granted freedom and I don’t know how to behave! 

That’s not a crime, I know.  Other working moms would love the chance to fun-seek and love on their children every day of their summer break. But, it’s tiring. It’s too much when I look around and feel drowned in the home responsibilities, as well. (Also, not top priority. 😜)

My laundry room, my bedroom, the garage—— okay, like every room— has a mess. More accurately, an explosion of sorts can be found in multiple spots. Our kids have a way of working on Legos, Kinetic sand, Barbies, and watercolor in a span of 3 hours— all on the dining room table!

More notable than the house,  it’s when I start to feel depleted mentally, physically, and spiritually, that I know I need to reel back and lean into God, and recalibrate the priorities of this life.  When I am too tired in the morning to wake and do my devotions or pray for those on my list, some adjustments are necessary.  

Mamas, it’s a lie to believe that our time with the kids at home must be made to be exciting or memorable 24 hours a day. Read it again. 

Isn’t that wonderful? Isn’t that freedom?  

I just read another blog post about doing the dishes, and forgetting the guilt…. the author wrote, “Work must be done. We can’t live in disarray. Or, at least, my personality struggles there. And it, again, is teaching our kids the value of order, chores, responsibility and stewardship when we take care of things around us.”  She is so spot-on! Her words resonated with me. I don’t have to pay attention to my kids every waking hour, other jobs have to be taken care of, which allows me to teach by example.

And if my kids have a slew of fun memories of a pool, play dates, a theme park, and campfires, that is super… but in my book, it’s not everything.

The search for fun is not what the 18-year timeline is about.  

What matters to me is that they walk out of the house and into the world knowing a mom and dad who instilled faith in Jesus and demonstrated love to others consistently.  I would love mine to remember their mom getting into God’s word and making THAT time a priority over anything else before the day began. 

I would also have to assume that social media does us NO favors as moms in this topic. You see all of your mom friends and acquaintances going here and there, and feel that your highlight reel should be just as adventurous. 

Really, the notion that you have your kids for 18 years may be true, but for their 19th, or 25th, or 40th year, they are still your kids... 

Lord willing, you will have more memories to make in the many years beyond.   The pressure to believe that you must accomplish memory-making daily is false. I certainly don’t remember every fun moment of my childhood, and there were plenty. 

So yes, relish the years. 

But for me, I have to make the main the MAIN thing….. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.  And all of these things shall be added unto you.”  Matthew 6:33

The June party train is slowing to a halt, and I can crave more of what matters in this life. I am so grateful to grandparents who have sleepovers and camping trips so that the kids make their memories elsewhere! Mom,  a.k.a “the fun-factory”, does not resign, I just need to reevaluate our schedules and my well-being!  The turn of the July calendar brings vacation for us, but I hope for more balance in this thing called motherhood. 

Can I get an ‘Amen’?!!!

The Incredible Mother

 

Happy Mother’s Day! What an incredible creation a mother is!

She is the heart and hub of the home. Without her, the wheels would fall off, and all schedules would come unglued. She is the cheerleader, the busy bee, packer of lunches, and so much more! Some moms do all of this even as other factors work against them, like an absent father, or no grandparents nearby, or working full-time.

As time passes by and my years of motherhood gain a bit more experience, I forgive myself for the things I don’t do well—- I don’t balance the checkbook (although my husband does). I don’t remove laundry promptly from the dryer. I hardly can stand to organize our kitchen junk drawer or take both of my kids shopping often. There is freedom in knowing: There are several ways to be an incredible mom, and often, no two are alike.  But each one is gifted, valued, and appreciated— even if it’s a thankless job some days. 🙃

All moms, young and old are vast resources for a variety of tasks, and this weekend, I hope you are celebrated for what you do WELL!

We take inventory of how much ketchup or toothpaste is on hand. 

We tend to the gift-buying for birthday parties. 

We help with homework and crusade for screen time limits.

We cook (some of us better than others) and arrange for groceries.

We taxi the kids to activities and practice, and sometimes there in the car, we find ourselves in deep counseling-type conversations… while also picking up cold French fries and lost wrappers.

We read and pray at bedtime.

We fold laundry and help with changing the sheets.

Are you tired, yet? This is just a fraction of what our days look like!

Yes, we are true servants in our homes, and if we were not, our children would not know the joys of a loving mother. Our sacrifice is everyone else’s gain.

God gifted each one of us with a skill set that just cannot be rivaled. We each shoulder the responsibility of providing happy, wholesome childhoods, and hope to live up to expectations we sometimes create ourselves. 

You, mother, are amazing indeed. You are the nurturer of the home. The one who sets the “temperature” of the emotional thermostat of all who share life with you. You have the potential to build a lasting, firm foundation in your child’s faith and emotional stability, all the while working on your own. 

May you see your own motherhood as a constant opportunity to show selfless love and may your children be blessed because YOU are their mom. 

Proverbs 31:28–29 reads, "Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: 'Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.'"

Today, put your feet up, and rest. 🥰

Happy Mother’s Day, you amazing creation!

The Gift of a Rescue

Recently, I saw an image of a weary man, fallen on the sand, hand outstretched, as if to give his last effort to reach for help… and from that one image, I envisioned the whole of humanity, since time dawned on Earth, collectively aching and reaching out for a Savior.  

In the last few years, we have been through a lot. The world is tired.  One doesn’t have to look far to acknowledge our need for help… I would say it has likely been this way since the Garden of Eden.

For as quickly as the Creator created, His creations denied His love. It only took until Genesis chapter 3 for the trajectory to change dramatically. Instead of intimately living with God, following His will, and abundantly abiding in a perfect world, Adam and Eve’s fall was ours as well. 

Since then, God has repeatedly proven faithful in pursuing us with His love (see whole Bible).  And, seemingly, just as faithfully, humans of all time have remained steeped in selfishness, saturated in sin. All of us, to varying degrees, have “fallen short and sinned” (Romans 3:23).

We are so pathetic, really.

It moved me to think how human, how lowly, how needy we all are.

The worst of us all can be played out nightly on the news, and had Lester Holt’s Nightly News been around in the B.C. era, the same stories would have been reported. In analogy, we are crawling desperately, like that man in the sand, marred with the choices we make as we live according to the flesh. 

For all the crimes and misdeeds committed over and over on this spinning Earth, we should hardly be able to lift our chins to see our Rescuer. Sadly, many people won’t. Many missed Him and even walked this Earth with Him.

However…

Our God possesses a staggering love. 

Rescue was His plan all along.  And Jesus was the only way to see us out of our darkness. 

He entered and lifted our chins for us so that we can accept these truths:

We are darkness, He is light. (1 John 1:5)

We are lowly, He is exalted. (Psalm 46:10)

We are filthy, He is pure. (Hebrews 4:15)

We are bound, He is freedom. (2 Corinthians 3:17)

We are parched, He is living water.  (John 4:14)

As soon as Jesus bridged the canyon between man and God, darkness is now only an option. We don’t have to live steeped in selfishness, saturated in sin. His life sacrifice removed all the misdeeds from Eve’s first bite to Earth’s last sin.

God is so holy and so righteous but we are so fallen and foul. Only the cost of Jesus’ life could remedy the pain of centuries and the guilt of all. As if this was not wonderful enough, the even better news is that we don’t have to earn it!  It is free for the taking, if you only accept it.

And when you do, you are no longer just a weary wanderer of this Earth, but a new creation!

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20

May you be reminded this Holy Week of God’s plan for your redemption.  

May you ponder the wealth of love God has for us all in the gift of a rescue that was so very necessary. 

May you feel hopeful.

Just like that first image of the man in the sand, there is one of another Man hanging on a cross. This Man, however, is giving His last effort to extend all the help we need. ❤️