Having a mother’s heart is an amazing paradox. When we have children, God expands our capacity to love each one. We freely give away love to little bundles that have done nothing to earn it. We surrender our right to quiet, to sleep, to unhindered freedom, to hot meals, to a simple life, to selfishness.
We wrestle with diapers, spills, unidentifiable sticky things, catastrophes that “no one” is responsible for, impossible stains, crazy schedules, strenuous tasks (like lifting the 20-pound-baby in his 15-pound-car seat out of the car while holding onto the other kids to keep them from running through the parking lot of the store where we will try to buy groceries without taking home a multitude of items we didn’t intend to buy—or even worse—someone else’s children).
We spend years trusting God for the ability to accomplish feeding, grooming, clothing, talking, bandaging, correcting, praying, instructing, laughing, crying, playing, applauding, hugging, loving and… then we trust God for the ability to let go. We allow our kids to grow up, releasing them to become the men and women God intended for them to be. Do we ever quit being their mom? Of course not, God just continues to grow our capacity to love.
Is motherhood intense? Of course it is. Is it worth it? You bet. Can you imagine a better way for us to understand the heart of our heavenly Father than to access His type of love and then to give it away? Every day I wake up with the awareness that I don’t possess the ability to love my children on my own. But God has everything I need—all I have to do is run into His presence and ask, simply because I am His child and He loves me. He longs for me to grow up into Him and then He releases me to be a conduit of His love and grace. His love is the original paradox—undeserved, unconditional, freely given. Praise God.
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Cor. 5:21).
And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" (Rom. 5:5).
Join the Discussion