Moms share with me often about how inadequate they feel as a parent.
Have you struggled with this? Laying in bed at night with every possible scenario playing out in your head? Feeling sick, just from the stress of wondering if you are making the best choices for your precious children?
You are in the right place today. Let me share some encouragement and truth, things you need to know. From one flawed, beautiful mother to another.
Mother has been my alter-name for 25 years now. If pregnancy is included, that equals roughly 9,000+ days of thinking about a child’s welfare.
I’ve anguished over these kids. Loved them with an intensity, a ferocity, that I couldn’t have imagined existed before they changed my world.
There are countless choices we make for and about our children. Each one considered carefully. Will we make wrong ones? Yes. That is hard, but it is TRUE.
If you are contemplating how to make the best moves for your kids, the one that keeps them safe and whole and protected?
Is it normal to feel overwhelmed as a mother?
It is impossible to make all the right choices in parenting. But our inadequacy is not a flaw!
All the love in the world isn’t enough to be the perfect mom. One that can foresee every future scenario and make the BEST decisions accordingly.
Who says perfect is what our kids need anyhow?
Feel like a bad mom? Don’t let the magazines and parenting books create an impossible model.
Now that our youngest just graduated, a new perspective is emerging on parenthood. On mothering.
I made a lot of mistakes, had those rotten mother moments of just reaching back to slap their legs out of desperation, and even been unable to protect them from life’s pain.
Just like you perhaps.
So what. Who cares.Yes, I am suggesting freedom to own your moments, as a beautifully imperfect mom too.
I loved intensely, devotedly, enthusiastically and gave it my very, very best.
Just like you.
Hope when you are overwhelmed as a mom
A little further down the road when your kids are grown, you’ll realize what a good job you did.
Every decision won’t be right, but so, so, so many of them will be better than you can imagine. And those good decisions? They will carry these beloved children of ours into their future.
They can and will grow into amazing, capable, sensitive adults because they know, they deeply understand, that they have a mother that loves them. That would do anything for them.
What a gift.
Prayer for the overwhelmed mom who needs strength
My girls are at the brink of their own adulthood. And you know what? In spite of, and because of, having me for a mother…they are really awesome people. They’ve hurt and loved and laughed and lived.
And they are more than okay. Stop beating yourself up! You are doing more than you know.
You are mom. A beautiful, imperfect gift.
Dear Lord,
Please be with the mama at the end of her rope reading this right now. You see her, and know her hurts as she struggles with trying to be a great mother, and feeling like she is falling short. Help her to let it all out and understand how compassionate you are for the overwhelmed mom. She is giving and giving and just isn’t feeling the restoration she needs.
Please overwhelm her in a new way…with hope, and confidence and an attitude that embraces imperfection.
Remind her of all she is doing RIGHT, and just how much you treasure the work she is investing in the life of your child, entrusted to her care. Guard her heart agaisn the lies of evil that whisper that she is a failure. That her efforts are just not enough. Those untruths stick in our hearts so easily Lord, please give this mama a fighting spirit and hope for today. And let her know her worth in simply being who she is created to be. In Jesus’ name, Amen
Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us… Hebrews 12:1
Disclosure: I only recommend products I do/would use myself. This post may contain affiliate links that at NO additional cost to you, may earn me a small commission to help support this blog. Read full privacy policy here.
I like your prospective. I realize I have felt guilty, but then when I look at how great my children are I know that by the grace of God, they turned out really well.
I like your prospective. I realize I have felt guilty, but then when I look at how great my children are I know that by the grace of God, they turned out really well.
Aww Betty, thanks for sharing. How sweet it is to turn the corner of guilt into grace ♥