Every Saturday night my mom made us breakfast for dinner.
Pancakes were my favorite.
Especially when she made them with chocolate chips,
and let us have Cool Whip.
It wasn’t a big deal, but I never forgot.
Now my kids get breakfast for dinner on Saturday. Sometimes they get chocolate chips and Cool Whip, too.
It’s not a big deal. But maybe they won’t forget, and maybe someday their kids will get pancakes on Saturday too.
A few months ago, when the weather was mild and our kids were playing together at a park, Janelle and I chatted about writing a few mothering posts for the blog.
“I don’t know,” she hesitated, when I pitched the idea. “I am very aware of my sins and shortcomings as a mom.”
“Me too!” I agreed. “But maybe that’s why we should write about it. If nothing else it will challenge us to be more faithful mothers.”
“I guess so,” she agreed, before calling to our children that it was time to go. A chorus of complaints met this announcement and we both looked at each other and laughed. “Yep, we’ve got a lot of work to do!”
We aren’t perfect mothers and we don’t pretend to be.
But that doesn’t mean we are content with imperfect. The mothering bar we’re aiming for is high. It has been set in place by God himself: “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt. 5:48).
As moms we must be humble and admit we fall short of the bar of mothering perfection. Very. Far. Short. We are not always patient with our children. We are not always faithful to teach and train and discipline. We give in to selfishness, anger, laziness, and grumbling.
That’s why a mother who is grounded in the gospel looks two ways. She really does have eyes in the back of her head.
A gospel-centered mom first looks back to her justification in Christ. She remembers that all of her mothering sins and shortcomings have been nailed to the cross of Jesus Christ. That he became sin for her that in him she might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21).
But she doesn’t stop there. The gospel-centered mom looks forward too. She strives with the Holy Spirit’s power that works within her to be perfect as her heavenly Father is perfect. She stands on the ground of forgiveness and accesses grace—through God’s Word, through counsel from godly women, and through prayer—to grow as a mom. To be more patient, more joyful, more consistent, more loving. To be perfect.
Moms need grace. We need grace to admit that we are weak and grace to not settle into those weaknesses. We need grace that frees and forgives and grace that gives power to grow.
~from the archives
Debbie has a cute funny for us this week. See y’all Monday! Nicole for the girltalkers
I was early in my fourth pregnancy feeling quite tired and green. Needless to say, the house had not had much attention in a while. I walked into the living room to find my three year old daughter walking on the sofa. She knew that was not allowed in our home. So with the little energy I had I managed to gently remind her “Honey, you know you are not allowed to walk on the furniture.” Her sweet reply was simply, “Mommy I am not walking on the sofa…I am wiping the crumbs off my feet!” True Story!
Flight
Are you a Christian who is tempted to doubt God and his good purposes in the midst of your suffering? Listen to this sermon (or watch below) and receive pastoral counsel from the book of Jude.
“When Someone Doubts” | Jude 22-25 | C.J. Mahaney from SGCLouisville on Vimeo.
Goodbye training wheels!
Guess who slept 12 hours last night???
”The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.” (Psalm 121:7-8, ESV)
“To be kept from all evil does not imply a cushioned life, but a well-armed one. The psalm ends with a pledge which could hardly be stronger or more sweeping. Your going out and your coming in is not only a way of saying ‘everything’; it draws attention to one’s ventures and enterprises and the home which remains one’s base; to pilgrimage and return; to the dawn and sunset of one’s days. But the last line takes good care of this journey. It would be hard to decide which half of it is the more encouraging: the fact that it starts from now, or that it runs on, not to the end of time but to time without end; like God Himself who is my portion for ever.” ~Derek Kidner
The first wedding with our new church and they got to be flower girls!
“In a few moments, everything will change,” he told the bride and groom. “When you walk back up that aisle, you will never be the same again. You will be husband and wife.”
It was a gorgeous Saturday evening as we celebrated the marriage ceremony of the happy couple under a splendid summer sky.
“From this moment on, you will face the changes of life together, as one flesh,” said my father, who was officiating the wedding, “And so, let me remind you of the Changeless One.”
“The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.” Psalm 121:7-8
Going out and coming in. Together. He will keep you.
In change, kept by the Changeless One.
From the back, where I am keeping watch over my two bouncy flower girls, I contemplate the wedding witnesses who nod knowingly of the life-changes of which he speaks. They understand just how much these two will need to lean on the Changeless One.
Twenty-six years ago, when I was not much older than my daughters, I watched my dad marry the groom’s parents. Since then, I have watched the parents of both the bride and the groom trust God through many goings out and comings in. They have walked steadily, in faithfulness to God and each other, lighting a path through change for their children to follow.
He will keep you.
After what seems like an eternity, the moment of change finally arrives for the happy couple. With their parents behind them, man and wife walk back up the aisle, into a changing future held by the Changeless One.
We sang, “Great is Thy Faithfulness” under the vast Kentucky sky, the bride, the groom, and us.
“Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not.”
