The Invaluable Lesson of Mothering

Being a mother never gets easier.

It starts out rough with sleepless nights and infants literally sucking the life out of you.

Then you graduate to temper tantrums and potty training (bleh!). You get the bejeebers scared out of you witnessing falls and accidents and nursing them through illnesses. You spend a third of your life waiting for them, to get out of school, done with piano lessons, finished with soccer practice, through with their homework.

They become teenagers and treat you like an idiot and argue with you about your ridiculous rules and push your buttons and bleed your bank account.

And after all that investment, they have the audacity to leave. They live in your home long enough to drive you crazy and make you certain you can't live without them, and then they move out.

What is the point of it all? Why did God choose this vehicle to reproduce the earth? Why must He insist on ripping the hearts out of His tender creations called mothers?

I hurt for and with my kids. I lay awake at night, worrying, praying over them, wanting their best. I would do anything in my power for them and yet I haven't come close to experiencing the pain God did as He turned His back on His only Son hanging on a cross.

I can't even wrap my head around that. It makes me realize what I consider pain in mothering is nothing. The sadness I feel thinking of Drama Queen leaving for college pales in comparison. Every rough parenting moment--the fevers, the power struggles, the expenses, the loss of sleep, the constant demands on time--all seem so minor when viewed in light of that cross.

Being a mom is tough, the hardest thing God has ever asked me to do, but He doesn't ask me to do what He hasn't far exceeded. He loved. He gave. He sacrificed. FAR more than I could ever imagine.

Perhaps mothers have the privilege of feeling a glimpse of His pain, a privilege because it helps us identify with Him. Does motherhood provide some tiny bit of understanding into how much He gave?

I have no reason to complain about my hard role as a mother for He loved much harder. We love because He first loved us. We CAN love because He loved best. Praise God for the gift of motherhood, for the unique opportunity to know the mind and heart of God. May His love inspire, sustain and strengthen us.