“No one can truly prepare you for this.”
The most poignant truth bomb a client made to me this year. She was a new mom and overwhelmed by the start to her journey. A truth I’ve realized applies to pretty much all of us mothers…on more days than not. We are all pretty equally scared to death at countless points throughout our journey and there are very few Johnson & Johnson style commercials to give voice to that. We imagine all the other moms have this figured out and are flooded with joy, confidence and tender moments far more often than self doubt, confusion and frustration. What I’ve learned is that some moms just do a better job of hiding their unsuredness then others, giving the illusion that they have it ‘figured out’. When in reality, nothing could be further from the truth.
How does one truly prepare your heart for the explosions, of the wondrous and devastating kind, it will experience as a mother. Well, the brutal truth is, you can’t. So instead, we desperately hold onto all the tenderness we want so desperately to remember in our journey, hoping to replace the fear that flooded in at times. We long to know we are ‘doing it right’ by our kids and that they realize the depth and breadth of our love for them, even when we seem to have lost our minds.
So, I resolved a while ago to be the voice that speaks encouragement, kindness and grace into the moms in my life. None of us have this thing ‘in the bag’, instead we will mess up daily, proving all our need for grace from a loving Father God who is abundant in lavishing it on His kids who err daily in more ways than we will ever be able to count. Thankfully, He doesn’t keep count, He just pours grace out all over us. What better lesson for our children to learn in their homes, the absolute necessity for grace, laughter, and kindness to cover a multitude of missteps along the way in this crazy journey! Happy Mother’s Day–enjoy these tender moments! Be the voice that speaks life and hold on to the tender moments tightly for they are fleeting but more precious than gold!
