The Most Important Thing

Parenting is both an incredibly exciting and a little terrifying. When we first become parents we enter into this time of life that is so welcomed, and anticipated, yet so unknown. We are given a responsibility that we aren’t sure we can live up to. Once we become a parent the weight of that responsibility becomes so real.

The moment I became a mother is when a whole new set of weaknesses and fears arose that I didn’t even know I had. Fears of failing. Fears of not doing enough, being enough, praying enough… I fear that my weaknesses will push my child away from the Lord. That I will yell too much, lose my patience, discipline too much or not enough.. and so on the list goes…

And I know that as we enter into new stages of parenting, adding children to our home and our children growing into new seasons in their own little lives, new fears will continue to arise and threaten us as moms.

For myself, during this time of great hormone changes in my own body, being 6 months pregnant, and having  my own set of unexpected emotions, my little girl has turned 3... Along with this wonderful age has come a new flood of emotions (and when I mean flood, think of Noah’s Ark, LOTS of emotions!) And here I have a precious little girl without the understanding of how to handle these new set emotions. (And a mommy that doesn't know how to deal with them either). As scary and unexpected as these emotions are to me, I’m sure they are just the same to her. There are days when we both find ourselves in a timeout for outbursts of anger and over-emotional breakdowns (parenting fail by me), followed by lots of Hugs and us asking each other for forgiveness…. and sometimes we just both melt into a puddle of tears and let it all out...
And all this brings me to wonder how I am going to handle this season and all these emotions when our new baby arrives in September... And what about when we bring our child home from Ethiopia within the next year and a half or so??? Will I be able to do this!? Do i have what it takes to be the mommy that I need to be to all three children that I know will all be very different?

Well, as these new fears that tried to push their way in (and they have) this incredible verse has been ringing in the back of my head and heart.

 

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:9–10

There is so much I want to say about these two verses. And as it has been playing over in my mind I have been gleaning so much from it. I'll probably share a lot over the next few days on this verse. Hopefully it will be as helpful to you moms out there as it has been to me! I love the Word of God and how alive it is in my life. Psalm 119:14 "In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches." Psalm 119:24 "Your testimonies are my delight; they are my counselors." (That was just a side note, lol)

So the first thing I want to point out in this verse and discuss in this post is what I believe is the most impactful part of the verse, the first few words... "My grace is sufficient for you..." From this I have one point that I want to make of it...

- As moms, we must Preach the Gospel to ourselves every day -

Paul has asked the Lord to remove the burden that he is dealing with, God does not remove it but comforts  Paul with this phrase … “my grace is sufficient for you”…

His Grace is Sufficient which means enough. It’s all we need. It’s enough. So if Grace is all we need, then what exactly is this Grace?

Grace is His outpour of Mercy on us because of the Work of Christ on the Cross. Grace is what we are covered in, day in and day out as we continue to fail miserably as human beings.

We are sinners. Romans 3:23 “all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God”

As parents, our children often help us to realize the extent of our own sin. As we are constantly correcting them for their misbehavior and disciplining them for the wrong they do it helps us to become more and more aware of all that we fall short. And often it doesn’t even take parenthood to show us our sin, we all know that there are parts of our own hearts that aren’t good. We might think we are “pretty good” people, but we all know that we are pretty bad at times too. 

Romans 3:10"None is righteous, no, not one;”

BUT… there is good news!

2 Cor. 5:21 says “For our sake he (God) made him (Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  

That is Grace. 

We are sinners. God hates sin. We cannot know God because of sin. BUT GOD sent Jesus, who was perfect in every way, without sin, to be sin and take on the full wrath and punishment of God so that we can be righteous. 

Grace. 

The grace of God is poured out on us because of this Work of Christ. 

And it is ENOUGH. It’s all we need to remember in times of trouble. In times of stress. In the middle of a sleepless night. When fear starts to grip us. The Lord has died for our sins and I am His. We can rest always in that. 

We MUST think about this amazing thing every day because even if we are Christ followers, we often forget that we still need this truth constantly. And as parents we need this truth to be the central focus of our everyday lives. 

Because as we bask in HIS grace, then we can therefore pour out this same Grace on our children. And that, I believe is the best way our Children will be able to truly see and know the Work of Christ. 

When they see that we, as moms, recognize our own desperate need for a Saviour, then they too will be much more likely to realize their own need. 

So, in the midst of my fears, the shortcomings, the failures that I feel every day, and the many many emotions. I remember that Christ died for me and my sin, and he died for my precious little girl. And that is all that matters. I realize that I need to take every opportunity to turn these tough moments into gospel moments where I can share the love of Christ with her. And I pray that through my own weakness, she will see the power of Christ at work and that one day my little girl can see Christ for herself.

And man I need to see Him too. Today and tomorrow and every day of my life. 

And if you too need to see Christ desperately in this way I pray for you, that you will cry out to Him in your need. That you will believe in Him and be covered in His grace...

Romans 10:9 "if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."

Many more thoughts to come... 

Good night!

Stephenie

"May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence" 2 Peter 1:2-3