You Are Enough
Dear Mom,
You are enough.
I grew up with confidence in myself. My parents were incredible encouragers, and they really pushed me to achieve goals academically and in sports that set a tone of excellence for my upbringing. As a team captain, and one of the top in my class, I learned to lead by example and model perseverance and hard work.
Fast forward to the moment I found out I was going to be a mom. It was just weeks after I had become a wife. It felt so sudden, and yet God had spoken to Ricky and I before marriage about children. The minute my son was born, I didn't have all of the "mom" feelings. I had just endured a cesarean, and was whisked away to recover. I didn't know how to hold a newborn, or change a diaper. I watched Ricky do it so effortlessly, while I wondered how they would allow me to leave the hospital with a baby I didn't know how to take care of.
Over the next 2 years, I would have 2 more babies. It was one of the most difficult and vulnerable seasons of my life. Yes, it had many moments of incredible joy. But I felt like I was not excelling. I was struggling. I was not good at being selfless. I was not good at waking up in the middle of the night. I was not good at dishes, and cleaning up, and watching kid tv shows on repeat. I was not confident in being a mom.
I went to sleep crying many nights. I would pray and cry out to God. He really met me. He began to teach me how to be His. I couldn't be a better mom if I didn't know who I was in Him. Who I was TO Him. He encouraged me to stop reading the mom blogs that left me feeling "less than". He encouraged me to celebrate every moment. The moment that I chose to hear my child tell a story for the 15th time during my favorite movie. The moment I chose to hug my child when he was acting out. The moment I said yes to yet another invitation to play hide and seek.
God also encouraged me that there was immense grace for this new journey. I needed to extend grace to myself when I made mistakes. He taught me how to apologize to my children, to model forgiveness.
He also encouraged me to be myself. He reminded me that He had given me my children to raise, because I was uniquely equipped to call out their purpose and destiny. Ultimately, He brought me nearer to Himself, and showed me that my identity was found in being His girl FIRST.
So let me encourage you mamas. Don't compare yourself to each other, or partner with inadequacy. You are His girl before any other title. And HE TRULY BELIEVES IN YOU. You are enough, because He is enough in you. 2 Corinthians 12:9 says "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me".
You are enough.
In love,