Children are a gift from the Lord;
they are a reward from him.
Psalms 127:3
(NLT)
My Gayle
and I were talking about the frustrations of motherhood this morning. It is a
popular theme among my friends. We are high achievers. We like to do things
well. We have spectacular mothers, and struggle with doing and being to our own
children what they are to us; despite our world being vastly different than
theirs…but we try.
 |
| we should treat our children (loved ones, friends, the world), like Jesus treats us. Motherhood is the ultimate expression of WWJD… TWEET SOME LOVE |
My Gayle finds
herself at the mercy and subject to the whims of an extremely busy three year-old boy, my godson, blissfully
unaware that he should be resting to recover from a childhood illness. He doesn’t
know from bed rest; he doesn’t know from be still. When I suggested (in my
infinite wisdom) that she try convincing him that the bed was an island and
sharks were in the water as a method of staying put, he promptly jumped OUT of
the bed to look for the sharks. That (among other reasons) is why I’m not the
mother of toddlers anymore. I am clearly out of my league.
We agreed after venting our frustrations that motherhood is a threshing floor. You can
become consumed or even defeated by it, or like iron sharpening iron, you become something new.
What I
said to my Gayle, and what I just said to my BFF, is that we should treat our
children (our loved ones, our friends, the world), like Jesus treats us. Motherhood is the ultimate expression of WWJD…
In my
corporate life, I appreciated that motherhood made me a better professional. I
did not often discuss it in the office, but things I learned during the toddler
years rendered me more patient, more creative, less volatile. As the parent of
a teen and a tween, I often crave Grace as a way to parent well. And I still refer to the toddler year lessons,
but don’t tell the teens, please…
Jesus
never yells. Jesus never wants to crack us in the head when we’re awful, petulant, or just
plain wrong (at least that’s not what I know of God…) Motherhood is the
ultimate expression of WWJD.
I want to be like Jesus…
On
Wednesdays, I pray and and play with friends here...
