“What does it mean to mother?”
“What does it mean to mother well?”
“What does it mean to mother in a Biblical way?”
These are some questions that I have been wrestling with for quite some time and I want to talk about it with you today. If you head to Google and type in “how to be a good mother”, you will get 5 million different answers. Society provides us so much information which, at times, can be a blessing. However, most times, it is just overwhelming! How easy is it to see a mother online and think the way she is mothering is “the standard”? So, I have been asking the Lord to quiet the noise and show me what He has already said about mothers and motherhood.
As I was looking for the answers to the questions above, I asked myself “Why did God choose the womb to bring His Son into the world?“. Of course, this is where life comes from. However, He could have brought Jesus out of the dust, like He did with Adam. As I have thought about this, it is clear how much love and compassion He has for mothers. It also shows how much grace and wisdom he gives to mothers, when we seek His face first. With our fourth child, there was a time where he wasn’t experiencing colic but I couldn’t figure out what was going on. I was asking my midwife and friends for help…but one night, God spoke so clearly to me and said “you have asked everyone but me”. It was such a humbling moment “of course, I should’ve asked you! My baby can’t talk to me but you know exactly what my baby needs”, I said to God. Seeking the Lord first has been a big approach I have taken with all of this!
As I wrestled through the questions about motherhood with the Lord, He continuously led me back to His Word to read about Hannah. Hannah, who was the mother to the prophet, Samuel (you can read about her in 1 Samuel 1-2). What continued to stand out to me, as I read her story, was how faithful she was to God in prayer. Hannah, for many years, was barren yet her life was dedicated to prayer. As mothers, our prayers are the foundation of our children’s lives! As I walked through a miscarriage, the Lord highlighted to me just how I, too, needed to commit myself to prayer, specifically through writing all of my prayers down. For the last two years, I have been keeping note of everything I have been walking through, what the Lord has been teaching me and how he has answered my prayers. It has changed my walk with the Lord – forever! As I have been doing this, I have been using really dinky, stained journals but one day I thought to myself, “my prayers deserve a more beautiful journal than this”. From then on, God really put on my heart to make beautiful prayer journals! I have been able to partner with Mr. Pen, a Christian company (this was really important to me), to present you these wonderful prayer journals that I know you will love!
These are slightly guided journals that you can use for personal prayers or you can use to specifically pray for your son or daughter! Each page allows you to write the date, verses on your heart, prayer, and how the Lord provided. I wanted to include a section for verses as I want Scripture to be what guides you. I also wanted to have a place where you could write down how God moved as He may show up in ways than we hadn’t originally thought. Overall, I wanted these to allow you to be open to wherever the Spirit is leading you that day, rather than being constrained to follow a text or guided prayer.
When designing the journals for our sons and daughters, I created them with the intention of mothers or fathers using these a year at a time. So, each year, we would start a new journal for our children with daily prayers for them. This is something I am even doing for my child that is in my womb right now! How beautiful would it be when our children turn 18 years old or when they get married, we gifted them with all of these journals that essentially laid the foundation of their lives through all of our prayers as well as detailing their lives!
If you have multiple kids or are looking to purchase a handful of journals, you can bundle and save! This allows you to get one journal free, when you purchase 3! While you cannot bundle over on Amazon, the journals are still available for you over there too for just $9.75 ! I pray these journals are where you pour your heart out to the Lord and you bring it all to Him!
I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
2 Timothy 1:3-7
This verse, specifically, verse 7 is one of the very first verses I teach my children. However, recently, a Mama friend of mine reached out about something she was going through. Her family nor her husband are saved. I struggled to know how to encourage her or what Scripture to send her way. I ended up just asking God for wisdom and he led me to this verse. I have read these passages so many times but verse 5 really stood out . . .
I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.
This goes to show the power and influence mothers have! We have the opportunity to have a direct relationship and therefore a direct impact on yes, our children, but also those around us too. Look at Timothy, he was able to experience first-hand the generational fruit from his grandmother and mother! It is so easy to be short sighted in motherhood. It can be so easy when we change a hundred poopy diapers to think it won’t lead to anything beneficial. However, we forget that the work we put in has the ability to impact thousands of lives. The faith of Timothy’s grandmother and mother did not only impact him- here we are today, reading about him!
Mothers, we need to be in the Word, daily! I know for me that my flesh is very weak and therefore I need to make a conscious effort to fill my heart and mind with truth every single day. We also need to know what God’s word says and the only way we can do that is by reading it. It’s not enough to just read a sentence or two. I know seasons of motherhood are ever changing but I would encourage you to make the effort to get a full understanding of the Bible. Seek to fully understand the Gospels. Take time to read the Torah (the first 5 books of the Bible). When we read the New Testament, sometimes we don’t get the full picture because we haven’t read through the Old Testament. Lambs… sacrifices… and many other things can be confusing and easy to skim by when we don’t have the full context. There is so much beauty when we know and understand the Bible in its entirety, as God designed.
Of course, it is important to seek God above all else and to seek understanding for ourselves but it is also important for when we go to teach our children! Mothers, it is not enough to send our children to church for an hour, once a week, and expect them to teach our kids everything they need to know. It is OUR job and responsibility to teach them. We need to be making an effort to live out Deuteronomy 6:7
You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
We were given the gift of being our children’s mothers. I pray you do not take that lightly. However, we were not given the responsibility to be their Savior. How freeing is this?! They, too, like us, will have to work out their salvation with fear and trembling. Yet, as mothers, we can guide, teach, and instruct them in the way they should go! Each day we have the opportunity to show them Jesus. Whether that be how we speak, how we clean up the home, how we smile and change a stinky diaper. It can be so easy to think to ourselves “I don’t have to do this for them” etc. however, may we remember that Jesus came to serve, not to be served. Our children are such a blessing and gift. May this be the lens in which we look through every single day. Ask the Lord to renew your mind. Ask Him to help your mind be obedient to Christ! Our tongues are sharp and our hearts are wicked so let us be diligent to seek Him and His word daily!
