A Thought About Motherhood.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wkc9-SvqfDM

Do you ever feel as though you have nothing left to give? That so many demands are made of you that you've become depleted..empty...exhausted?

Does it so happen that every time your posterior hits the bottom of a chair, immediately a voice from the farthest room in the house yells MOTHER!!!!!.........as if the whole house were on fire?

If you answered a yes to all of the above, congratulations. You are a bonafide member of twentieth century motherhood. One of the conditions of membership is that you exchange your calm and orderly life for upheaval, busyness and whirlwind activity.

Do you remember, those of you who are mothers, how wonderful it was going to be to have your first child. Heavenly bliss. You were going to do everything right. Give them everything you could and of course they were going to be the best behaved kids ever born. I remember looking at other peoples kids and thinking 'My child is never going to behave like that'. I was going to be a natural born mother.

Ya know the funny thing about mother hood (this very important job) is that there is really no preparation or training for it, and of course if you're anything like me there were many misconceptions. Sure they prep you for the birth through prenatal classes and of course the physical changes are monitored each month. etc. But once that baby comes, you're on your own. We enter motherhood so eagerly and bright eyed. The excitement and joy of these cute little cuddly bundles take hold of our hearts and our lives. When you first come home it's sort of deceiving because your precious little package sleeps a lot (if your lucky). But then it starts. How many of us honestly understood what the whole word 'MOTHER' entailed. Well your life is never the same. It's go, go, go from there on in. We carry and clean and wash and feed. In between this of course there is the 50 loads of laundry every week. The dinners, the lunches, diaper changes, bath time, bottle sterilizing, picking up and cleaning up, and you're constantly battling the physical draining it has on your body. Eventually, we get more mobile and start to pick up here and drop off there our miniature ballerinas our baseball players and future famous pianists. But it never really seems to slow down, in fact over the years it just seems to pick up more speed as you go along. More and more and more until pretty soon life is little more than a blur. There have been times when I didn't even know what year it was never mind what day. So you can also imagine my anxiety when my own mother had said to me:

"Enjoy this time dear, these are the best years of your life!" Oh my goodness, if these were the joy years then I didn't even want to know what teen years would bring.  Little did I even imagine!

Anxiety is another aspect of Motherhood
Along with being a Mother you automatically come equipped with an internal anxiety meter. It's right in the middle of your heart and has each child's name deeply etched and engraved on it and there are certain phrases in the English language that cause it to jump up and spin...

"Mom, my teacher wants a conference with you right away!"

"Mom, remember how long my bangs used to be? We've been playing beauty parlor and..."

"Hello, This is the school nurse, Mrs Maccarone, there's been a little accident. "

"Mom, Karen's mother is on her way over and she looks real mad!"

"Mom, remember the pretty flowers that used to be in front of Mr. Robinson's house? Well here, these are for you!"

This sort of thing on a continual basis is totally nerve racking and completely exhausting, at times I had thought I was losing my sanity.

If you had been around my house over passed years, in the right place at the wrong time, you may have heard me yelling out questions, in a hands on hip sort of way, things like:

"All right who put the doll in the toilet." (apparently she was thirsty)

"Who put the bread crust behind the couch?" (the ants found it first)

The 500,000 dollars in monopoly money in my purse (I discovered it during the offering);

The lemon pudding in the waiting pool (it was gelling around the sides.)

"Why is the toothpaste all over the mirror?" (it looked like a fluoridated piccaso)

The toy animal in the oven (the flames were leaping out the vent)

The pine cones in the dishwasher and the list goes on.

Actually parents should be taught not to ask questions, because either no one did it, or the other guy did it. And if you ever do manage to pin the culprit down, you tend to ask stupid questions like, why?
"Why did you put the rock in the refrigerator?"  Well then you get the answer;
"Because I wanted a cold rock!"

These are the standard meter spinners. We also have our family's encounters with each other, interaction with the neighbours, school friends, an occasional part time refereeing job, and others, not to mention the physical dangers our children are exposed to each day, the daily up keep of the house, jobs, husbands, the list is endless and tiring to even think about. There is no doubt that being a mother requires carloads of patience and at times it's completely nerve racking.

The biggest and most tragic thing about motherhood is, we can get so caught up in the scheme of things, the routine of what we have to get done and stressed out by the anxiety of everyday events, that sometimes we forget to enjoy the whole reason we do them, and why we had our children in the first place. We get so busy we're more like work horses equipped with our burdensome yoke and we continue to harness it on every day.

One day when I was feeling particularly tired and stressed out, I decided to look up the word 'weariness' in Webster's Dictionary. The definition read: "Worn out in strength, endurance, vigor or freshness. Having one's patience, tolerance, or pleasure exhausted" Then I looked up 'burdened' and it said that it's whatever renders the body or mind uneasy. It sure sounds as if Websters is describing a busy mother, doesn't it? I fit right into the mold weary and burdened. Can any of you relate to what I was going through?

Well there is no doubt in my mind that if anyone needs rest, it's today's mother.
A Bible verse that has particularly helped me over the years has been Matthew 11: 28-30
'Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light'.

This verse seemed to call me by name!!!!That was me weary and burdened.
How do we find rest, joy and peace as a mother in today's world?

First of all I see that God is calling us to a partnership with him. To 'come to Him', and 'to take His yoke upon you'.

A yoke is a long wooden bar used to bind or secure two oxen together side by side, and it is attached to a plow, wagon or heavy load. The oxen cannot separate from the load or each other, and the yoke ensures that the weight is evenly distributed on both animals. Where one goes the other must follow. They work as a team.  God has called us to parent our children, with Him by our side. To be yoked with Him. We have each been given a calling and being a mother is a high honour, even though sometimes it doesn't seem quite so.

I finish the laundry and he insists on carrying the piles of clean clothes up the stairs for me
I suppose in a hundred years I won't care that they started the trip folded.

I sweep the floor and she insists on helping me empty the dust pan.
I guess it doesn't take that long to redo the floor again.

I begin mixing ingredients for the birthday cake for Daddy and she insists on adding the flour.
If I look at the situation optimistically, unbleached white is a good colour on me.

I do know they're trying and I know they need to be taught, but how much easier it would be to do it myself.

I watch filled with apprehension as she teeters toward me, chubby hands cupping the fragile eggs and then suddenly.... Suddenly I'm aware that God has entrusted me with the fragile lives of these children. WHAT AN HONOUR!

I truly believe God has given Mothers the highest calling on earth. Molding His future workers into men and women of God. (God's very own son was entrusted to a woman.)
God has hand chosen each of you as mothers to mold His future servants for Him. It is no accident. He could have given your child to absolutely anyone but He chose you. God has called us to work or yoke together with Him in raising our children. What a great honour this is. An appointment ordained by God, and we as His partners need to look for every opportunity to show our kids a Christlike example of faith and righteousness.

It is our responsibility to ensure that while they are young, we "instruct them in the way they should go and when they are old they will not depart from it." We need to teach them to walk with the Lord. This is our job, our obligation in this partnership. As the mother, you will be, in those first years, the biggest influence on your child. They look to you as the authority on everything.

Do you remember being young and thinking that your parents knew everything there was to know?
I remember Michelle being little and having to tell her numerous times "Don't touch the stove or you'll get hurt. I mean it you'll be sorry don't ever touch it while Mommy is cooking". Of coarse her curious little mind got the best of her and while my back was turned one time she reached out. I turned just in time to see her quickly hide her hand behind her back, tears in her eyes, with the most puzzled look on her face that asked UHHHH!!  "How did you ever know?"

At young ages they are very moldable and they love to imitate. They believe anything you tell them. This is when we need to start to mold them and show them the importance of following the Lord and above all we need to be living examples of Him; walking with Him in all we do. But He has not called you to such a high position to abandon you. You are His partner and He will help you as you learn to trust and depend on Him.

One of the things I've learned is that children retain little of what they hear, a little more of what they see and more of what they do. So if we can have them seeing, hearing and doing they will learn and retain a greater amount of knowledge. So let them hear God in your words. Let them see Him in the things you do and they will imitate you in the way they live, and make sure you point them to the Lord's ways in all you do. Have you ever watched your kid's and seen your negative traits coming out in them. I overheard Amy telling Thomas, "Why do I always have to ask you to do something 2 or 3 times before you do it, now just sit up and be good". (Amy is 4 yrs younger than Thomas) It's very humbling. We must be careful to show them the Lord's ways, and in order to do that we must be living Him in our own lives.

We lived near the rouge valley and often took outings down by the river. One day when Michelle was very small we went for a nature walk, to see the new signs of fall. This particular day, she got really busy making a rock collection. All different colours, sizes and shapes of pretty little stones. Each one hand picked and closely examined. Our progress back to the car was very slow because we had to stop every few feet or so to retrieve dropped treasures. The capacity of her two hands just wasn't enough to accommodate the desires of her curious, greedy little mind. She had no time to stop and notice the birds, flowers or fish etc. But with grim determination she tended solely to the safe passage of her wonderful new collection. I couldn't understand why each stone was so special nor why she needed so many, but she guarded them with great care and knew instantly if she had dropped one. Upon reaching home we were both exhausted. She carefully made her way up the driveway, struggling up the step and in through the front door.
Then, all of a sudden, she lets go of all her precious treasure and they go flying all over the front hall floor. Her look of determination melted into the widest grin and she runs off as if the treasure she had so carefully brought home had lost all its value.  If I hadn't been in such shock over all the stones everywhere I would have sooner understood that Michelle had seen something far more precious and important, and her immediate focus changed to a new centre of attention....DADDY was home!

I often think of that picture of my little girl dropping her burdensome treasure to run to her father.
How often we get bogged down to our own treasures and possessions, whether that be material or routine activities, makes little difference.  We hold so tight to the load that we carry. All these things we have spent so much time organizing, acquiring, preparing seem to take us over. We tend to their care with an almost overwhelming singlemindedness.

We need to drop everything and run to just spend time with Him. We need to fill our lives with the eternal treasure that can only come through knowing God personally. Yes we will always have our routines and material things and that's fine, but we need to set our priorities on Him first.
Great news ladies, when we do our part, even though we make mistakes there is a great promise waiting for us. A promise of wonderful rest. A rest more rejuvenating than a long and leisurely nap, more soothing to frayed nerves than Brahm's lullaby. This rest reaches into the depths of our souls and claims us from within.

Matt 11:28-29 tells us to "Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls."

St. Augustine once said that our hearts will never be at rest away from the One who made us. This is so true.

It is only God that strengthens our souls, who can fulfill our every need, and calms life's storms.  He never has an appointment elsewhere. He never replaces us with a partner He likes better, and He promises never to leave us or forsake us. He is permanently yoked to us. He is the only one who wants to be and always can be our unfailing partner on life's journey. And He is the only one who can supply you with this true rest. 

So ladies rise to the great calling God has placed on each of you as Mothers and although 90% of the time you won't feel like anyone special, you'll sure be incredibly important in their little eyes, and Gods. You are His partner. You are the hand through which God is molding them, and you don't realize the huge impact you will have on them for the rest of their lives! 

That's about all I'm going to say about that......for now.