Guest Post with Jada Smothers: The Hard and High Call of Mommyhood

Mommyhood is hard. In fact, it is very hard and has an enormous potential to be an ugly mess. However, it is also the best, most worthwhile, hard thing I have ever done. I am a mom to 4 amazing children: Titus-age 8, Maylie Grace-5, Jude-2 and Karis-3 months. I can’t even begin to describe just how much I love them and how I am so glad and grateful that I get to be their Momma!!!! God has truly blessed my husband and me with these 4 awesome little people! Though I do have to say these little people can be very trying to care for. I want so bad to be that soft spoken, calm, cool, collected mom who never raises her voice, whose children always obey after the first time and never whine or pitch fits but is always on their best behavior. However, that is not me or my children! Sometimes I feel like the total opposite of that. I struggle to have self-control when my children do something like dump out a whole bottle of glue onto the carpet (which happened yesterday). I struggle to calmly tell my children to please just stop aggravating each other for the one millionth time! I struggle to have patience with the child who wants to complain and refuse to do their math work because they have 10 extra problems. I struggle to calmly teach my toddler that we are not going to have a total melt down EVERY SINGLE time he is told no. So in a nutshell I struggle DAILY to be this mom that I want to be. And here is what I have concluded…I just can’t do it!!!

First of all, I can never be the perfect mom that I sometimes expect myself to be, but moreover, I cannot be the Mom God has called me to be…ON MY OWN STRENGTH. I cannot shepherd and train my children toward God without the grace and help of the Lord! These hard “momma moments” have taught me that my greatest need in mommying is for Christ to give me His strength to show His love and grace to my children. I have to have the grace of God to show my children that yes, Jesus is real and yes, He can change mommy’s sinful heart into a heart that can show love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control even in the trying times. God has used my children to reveal to me sin in my life. Through them I have been humbled and I realize my GREAT need for Christ and that is a good thing. My children have taught me that I need God’s grace not just for salvation but for the EVERY day, every moments of my life! And when I lose it and my flesh takes over to sin, I can admit my sin and seek forgiveness from God and from them. And what is the why to all of this? Why do I want to have this joyful, self-controlled etc, disposition? So that my children won’t be scarred by having a crazy mom? So that others will say what a great mother I am with such obedient children? NO and NO. It is all about a bigger picture…

We must preach the gospel to our children with our words and with our actions so that they will hopefully and prayerfully one day know God and then in turn make Him known! We are called to be ambassadors for Christ-to be a representation of Him! We get so focused on the here and now and this day, this moment, that we forget to look at the big picture. We are raising the next generation, who will raise the next generation, who will raise the next generation and so on. We have such a great influence on the world around us and on the generations to come. What a blessing that God has chosen to use us in our ministry as mothers to make a difference for His kingdom, for His glory. Being the moms that God has called us to be could be the very avenue that God uses to raise up many mighty warriors for Him. Notice I said the moms GOD has called us to be.

We must not get caught up in this world’s notion of what a Mom is called to do and be. I think sometimes we try to be more than what God has called us to be! God has not called us to be at every event, to have our children playing and doing every single sport or activity that they so desire. God hasn’t called us to do everything and anything that is ever asked of us. God has not called us to have an impeccable house that looks like it came off the boards of Pinterest. God has not called us to raise children who never make mistakes. God has not called us to raise children who fit in with every one and are never thought of as different. On the contrary, we have been called to raise children who ARE different from the rest of the world!! We are called to primarily, diligently teach our children the ways of God, not the ways of the vain things of this world. We are called to do our best to raise children who KNOW HIM AND MAKE HIM KNOWN!

Therefore Let us daily “come boldly to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help” us as we minister, serve, shepherd and teach our children about the God who changes lives all for His glory! To attempt it on our own strength is an ugly mess!

1If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 12Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Colossians 3:1-3, 12-17

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Guest Post with Jada Smothers: The Hard and High Call of Mommyhood