I hope your Mother's Day was blessed like mine. My husband knows I'm not a fan of large gestures that are all money and no thought, so he and all my babies took me to get some flowers and coordinated a handmade card effort that I want to leave out on display forever and also put away immediately so Devon doesn't grab it and accidentally ruin it.
Doesn't it feel sweet to be recognized?
Mothers spend so much time behind the scenes working really hard, and a lot of their affirmation comes vicariously. A perfect day is not when I can sit down and rest, but when my family is healthy and happy and well behaved and I can smile at them from the kitchen and enjoy them. A life lived in service to people that mean so much to me is truly blessed.
Sometimes on my crazier days the inner dialogue kicks up in my head. They have no idea all the things I do... If they just thought for a moment about all I do... All I do... All I do...
Have you ever lost your temper and stopped your husband and kids to spit out an exhaustive list of what you've done for them? I have a few times.
Did it make you feel better? Not me.
If you struggle sometimes with feeling that all you do goes unseen and unappreciated, here's a verse for you from the book of Genesis. It was given first to a mother, and I don't think that was an accident. Mothers need to hear it sometimes:
God sees.
This message was first given to a woman named Hagar and recorded in Genesis 16. Hagar's story is definitely tougher than most of ours. She was forced by her master Abraham to produce a child for Sarah, his wife. Ironically, Hagar's resulting pregnancy didn't placate Sarah (who cooked up the whole stupid scheme in the first place) so Hagar ran away before giving birth to her son.
Just as Hagar was sitting by herself in the desert, pregnant and tired and blameless and thinking that she and her child would die, God comforted her and promised to care for her future. In gratitude she gave a special name back to her God: "You are the God who sees me!" (vs. 13)
Let's face it, our kids will grow up and our husbands leave for work every morning pretty clueless as to the laundry, cleaning, nursing, singing, reading, supervising, shopping, driving, scheduling, planning, budgeting, worrying, praying, and working that it takes to keep their lives running as smoothly as they do. One day of thanks can't sufficiently reward us for it. A magazine once totaled up a year's worth of motherhood and learned that moms would get six-figure salaries if they received payment for all they did at home if they did it in the workplace.
Sometimes we fixate on thinking that they really don't see, and we're right. They don't. It's not their job. All the myriad tasks we do for our families we do as unto the Lord, and God is the one who sees.
God sees when your ex-husband calls at the last minute and you make some cookies and watch a movie with your disappointed kids instead of having the only four hours of me-time you were expecting this week.
God sees when your toddler screams loud enough to cause hearing damage and instead of yelling back you take a deep breath and whisper "inside voices, please!"
God sees when you've finally got the last child down for the night and are just about to make some tea and run the bath water when your husband sits you down to listen to him vent about problems at work for two more hours.
God sees when you get up early to clean the floors, and then wonder why you bothered ten minutes after the kids wake up.
God sees when you get the pink sleepers down from storage and prepare to joyfully welcome a fourth little girl even though deep down you were hoping for a boy this time.
God sees when you finally empty the dishwasher, only to refill it and turn it on again.
God sees when you mother other people's children when their parents are too busy to enjoy them and your heart cries because you feel like you deserve to have some of your own.
God sees when you let your three-year-old do her own hair before you go to the grocery store even though you know people will stare.
God sees when you go through the buffet line and get only shredded pork and corn-on-the-cob, giving up twenty more fabulous dishes because you're breastfeeding a baby who cries for hours after you've had dairy to eat and you have to be sure.
God sees when you wear clothes that don't fit anymore because if you had money to buy new clothes you'd just buy them for your kids.
God sees when you miss your babies who never grew big enough for you to hold.
God sees when you drink a big glass of water before bedtime because getting up in the middle of the night will remind you to go check on your kids and your elderly mother-in-law who now lives with you.
God sees when you have to go to work to provide for your kids even though all you really want to do is stay home and be with your kids.
God sees when I type a blog post standing up with the laptop on the kitchen counter and a fussy baby strapped to my chest, or when I just decide to skip posting this week because my kids need me more than I need two hours to use my brain.
I used to think of God watching me all the time in terms of what I was doing wrong, but now I think of him smiling at the good I do every day. Every sacrifice that mothers make is being written down in God's book. Matthew 25 says that we will be rewarded for what we do for others:
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
When your babies were first given to you, whether in the delivery room or walking off a plane, didn't you stare at the little stranger that was going to monopolize your time from then on? Then you got down to business: feeding the hungry and clothing the naked and nurturing the sick just as God would have you do. Years later, you're still doing those simple and sometimes endless tasks for the little ones you love so much.
And God sees.
No comments:
Post a Comment