In honour of all the perfectly imperfect Mothers around the world, who celebrated Mothers Day on Sunday, like South Africa, I hope that these musings will leave you feeling encouraged and proud to be a Mom…
I woke up on Sunday to a beautifully, heartfelt digitally made e-card from my teenage daughter. It made me smile knowing that only a few days before, we were each other’s worst enemy. Although I didn’t get any breakfast in bed, her expressions of love and gratefulness meant a lot.
The truth is that loving a teenager can often be hard, and although it is suppose to be unconditional, there are still days when she pushes my buttons a bit too deep, that I fantasise about running away or God forbid, strangling her.
Thankfully, it is with God’s grace that I get a new opportunity each morning to try and be a better Mother, and on days when I fail miserably, He also gives me the strength and courage to apologise and to make amends. Note that I said better and not best, as I don’t believe we could ever do this job perfectly, because in reality, we are only human.
And whilst there may be many Super-moms out their raising their team of kids, who make the job look easy and effortless, there are just as many of us who struggle and sometimes even question God’s wisdom in making us Mothers in the first place, or giving us the children He did. To those moms, I urge you not to compare yourself or allow guilt and condemnation to down play the amazing job that God has entrusted you with.
We can only set ourselves free from these negative feelings, when we realise that Gods’s plan for Motherhood was for it to refine us and make us a little bit more like Jesus, and our specific child or children were carefully chosen just for us, for this very purpose.
One of the fears I have as a Mother, is that I have not raised my daughter well enough to be a well-adjusted, functional, responsible, good person adult. That how she turns out will be a reflection of all my failed moments that will come back to haunt me with blame and shame, But God is so good at offering me hope every now and again, giving me a glimpse of her unique, specialness that shines into my heart, to melt these fears.
So as we continue this tug of war between independence and support, I am learning to trust God in the process. I seek ways to rejoice in my daughters strengths, build her confidence, character and integrity, whilst ensuring she is well fed and holistically healthy. I accept the fact that I don’t always get it right, and that one day she may end up on a therapist’s couch and moan about all the mistakes we made raising her. Or she may one day remember our good bonding moments like this Lockdown Mothers Day, of snuggling together on the couch, enjoying delicious snacks, whist crying hopelessly through our binge watching of our favourite TV show, Greys Anatomy, and feeling strangely unified in our mask-wearing…
Sharings from Sam... 
