How You Are Already Equipped for Motherhood

The echoing of, "Mommy, can you...", "Mommy, may I please have...", "Mommy, she took that away..." and "Ma Ma!" all ring in my head as 4 children all compete for my attention. The tension threatens to suffocate me and in an attempt to break out of it, I release it in a less than wise, "Everyone just stop!"

Who ever thought I could handle the needs of these beautiful lives; these little souls who beg to be shaped?

Do you ever feel like you just cannot do this thing called mothering? You wonder why God chose you to take on such an enormous task when you simply don't feel good enough or equipped for the job; when your patience has "run out" for the last time?

Sometimes we forget. Ann Voskamp calls it soul amnesia, and oh how I can relate.

But, you are equipped. Right now, right where you are. God has anointed you with everything you need to be a mother. Our dilemma isn't whether or not we can mother, nurture, and care for our children; it's whether or not we will.

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."

Not only is this Scripture true for training your children, it's true for training yourself.

God gave you the gift of motherhood, not to see if you could handle it, but knowing you could because He has equipped you. When what you need seems just out of reach, pray. He has equipped you with the ability to pray.

You do not have, because you do not ask God. James 4:2b

But check your motives. Be sure they are pure. Do you really need what you're asking?

When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. James 4:3

God will not leave us in need. Sometimes it's simply a matter of opening our eyes to a perspective we may not have considered. Sometimes we need to get creative with the resources we do have. Don't feel creative? That's something you can ask God for. He will give you the ideas you need. He's amazing like that!

What we need is at our fingertips; we just need to tap into it. Sometimes it's material items, sometimes it's spiritual growth. Sometimes, it may be knowledge or wisdom.

I remember asking God for patience when my first child became a toddler. Oooh those were tough times. Rather than "giving" me patience, He gave me 6 more children. He is equipping me in ways I never imagined! Each of my children is dear to me, and each of them has taught me something new and deeper about motherhood.

When I first began homeschooling, I wasn't sure how we were going to pay for all the things we needed. Some people are gifted with natural frugality. I wasn't. So I prayed for the means, and He provided.

God loves us and He loves our children. Picture a father wildly in love with his child. A father who doesn't want his child to lack in anything she needs and wants her to learn important lessons in life. Multiply that by a thousand, and that's God. Hard to imagine, isn't it?

Living in America, our culture relishes on being independent. We have grown into a place where if someone offers help we generally turn it down because we don't want people to think we don't have it all together (or is that just me)?

African villages are communities. They thrive and depend on one another. Even the Proverbs 31 woman had maidservants! She didn't do it all by herself.

You do not have to do this alone.

Are we lacking faith, believing God doesn't really care about these little "issues"? I assure you, He does.

If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! Matthew 7:11

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Romans 8:32

This is not a license to treat God like a genie in a bottle. (See above verse, James 4:3).

It's an opportunity to depend on God when you are in need, and to trust that He'll come through for you.

Remember to do your part, though. When you need strength, read His word and meditate on it. The armor of God is something we must put on everyday. Pray throughout the day and stay connected with Him.

Be a good steward of what He has given you.

"Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.

Mother as though you were equipped with what you need, because you are! Walk it out!

For His Glory,
Christin Slade