Mother’s Day Blues

So Mother’s Day is over.  Are you still suffering a week later with the Mother’s Day Blues?

Sometimes Mother’s Day is hard; harder than what we may want to admit.

Hard because we lost our mom years ago.
Hard because we were not able to ever become a mom
Hard because we wish our relationship with our mom was better.

Yet sometimes Mother’s Day is hard because, well, we just plain olè, feel like a lousy mom.

We go to church and hear this great example of what moms are. We see beautiful pictures of moms with their well-dressed, well-behaved kids. We hear the words people are saying about having the best mom. We hear words like sacrificial and loving. Words like giving and gentle. Words like wonderful and special. We hear about all the things that good moms do; even still we see (all over the internet) all the things that good moms do.

AND WE DONT MEASURE UP!!

We sit there and remember our mistakes from the past year. We remember the times we were NOT sacrificial. We remember the bad days. We remember the times we lost our cool. We remember the times we punished the wrong person without knowing the whole story first. We remember all our failures. And we don’t measure up.

We leave Mother’s Day feeling lousy. We leave Mother’s Day discouraged that we have another year of failures in front of us; another year of TRYING to do better, yet knowing we will fail again.

The beautiful quotes we seen Mother’s Day weekend, can we live up to all of them? Can we even live up to one of them? Do we leave Mother’s Day knowing we won’t even try, because we know we can’t?

Is that how we should leave the day? Is that what we should take away for the next year?

——————————****——————————

We need to leave Mother’s Day with the Truth– we need to be honest about ourselves and honest with each other.
We need to leave Mother’s Day with an Action– something we can work towards, encouraged to be the person we are suppose to be.
We need to leave Mother’s Day with a Prayer– a prayer for the year ahead.

——————————****——————————

So let’s dig in to the truth– Let’s be honest. Are we perfect? Are ANY of us the perfect moms? The pictures we see plastered on the internet, are the moms behind them perfect? The pictures might look perfect, but the people behind the pictures are just that– people. Just like you, just like me they are human, so like us, their lives can’t be perfect. Let’s remind ourselves of this truth: NO mom is always perfect.  And that’s the first truth we need to remember.
Here’s another one- God put us with the exact children for a reason. (hopefully it isn’t to tell them how NOT to be a mom lol) Really though, even the bad mom situations, the children can learn a lot from the situation and often are brought closer to Jesus through it. HOWEVER, if you are reading this to try to learn you are a GOOD mom!! If you are loving on your children, and they know you love them- SCORE you are a good mom. So going back to the second truth- God put us with the exact children for a reason. Now lets move on.
The third truth –God made us someone special. There is something special about us. There is. It is true. Lets move into the Action part.

——————————****——————————

Action– What does God want us to do with the Truth we just talked about? The truth that no one else is perfect, the truth that God put us with these exact children for a reason, and the truth that God made us special. What can we do with that truth? Well, we could look around at others and since we know they are not perfect, pick them all apart and see how we are all better than them. Ok, let’s not. 😉

Instead how about you answer three questions in your heart:

• What is one thing about each of your children that is special about why you are their mom? We just said, your exact children are with you for a reason, so why, why are YOU the perfect mom for each of your children? Your list might look like this:
  • Sammy- I’m the perfect mom for Sammy because we both love gardening so much and can spend that time talking.
  • Matthew- I’m the perfect mom for Matthew because we both hate to do the laundry and I can really feel for him when it’s his turn to do it.
  • Rysa- (Ok so if I was really going to write about her I might have to be generic and write I am STILL figuring this one out lol)

You get the picture right? Try it!! List why you are the perfect mom for each child you have. It might be harder to think of something for some of your children, take some time, I think you’ll think of something.

• Now for another hard question.  We just said that the Truth is NO mom is perfect, SO that means you aren’t either and I’m not either. So let’s discuss this, what about you could be changed with God’s help, in the next year? What could you do better? Write something specific. Write only ONE thing. You can NOT write any more than ONE. Seriously, you will regret it if you cheat. 🙂   
  • This might be something like: I could read more books to my children. I could give more hugs. I could listen with my eyes. (Don’t try ‘I could be a better mom! It does not count! LOL)

Ok, got it? Ready for the last question?

• What is one thing you are awesome at? When God made you, he made you special at at least one thing? You are aloud to list more, yet you must at least list one thing. It might be cooking supper. (not me!) It might be teaching your kids to do chores, it might be making cookies, it might be settling arguments, it might be cleaning toilets. There is something that your kids really like you to do. There is something that your kids love about you. Write it down.

——————————****——————————

Last thing is prayer- Write or say a prayer, Thank God you are a mom, Thank God for your children and plead with Him to help you in the coming year.

——————————****——————————

And let’s leave Mother’s Day, not as the lousy mom satan wants us to feel like; Let’s leave Mother’s Day remembering we are perfect for our children, we are honest about the areas we could do better in, and that God made us special!