Whether a stay-at-home, work-from-home or work-outside-the-home mum, I'm sure there are times when you've wondered if you're doing a good job with your child. There are days when you see her perform a random act of kindness and you think you have this parenting thing down to a pat – but let's face it, those days can seem few and far in between especially when you're dealing with a tantrum in a public venue.
You're doing a good job with your child, but immediately you start comparing yourself with someone else, you start doubting your work, and ultimately your worth, as a mum. Suddenly, your child's good grades, active involvement in your church's youth group and her tidying up her room without needing to be told, are no longer enough. You push her to outshine everyone in all that she does and with every accolade you she receives, you lose your eternal perspective on your calling as a mother.
It's easy to be hard on yourself during the bad days; to think of yourself as a failure when you compare your child's behaviour with your neighbour's bible-verse-quoting, always-does-what-mummy-says child. Yap, the grass will always be greener as soon as you introduce the 'C' word.
You're doing a good job with your child, but immediately you start comparing yourself with someone else, you start doubting your work, and ultimately your worth, as a mum. Suddenly, your child's good grades, active involvement in your church's youth group and her tidying up her room without needing to be told, are no longer enough. You push her to outshine everyone in all that she does and with every accolade He took a little child and set him in the midst of them. And when He had taken him in His arms, He said to them, “Whoever receives one of this little children in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me, receives not Me but Him who sent Me.”
Mark 9:36-37 NKJV
When I read this verse, I found myself asking this question: “If the babe I'm nursing at 2 a.m. / the toddler colouring my wall/ the teen who seems to have locked me out of her life was JC, would I still treat her the same way?”
Nooooooo... then, I would be ministering to my Saviour so I'd clean up my act (probably attend a parenting class and read a number of Dr. Dobson's books while at it).
“But isn't motherhood just that, a ministry?” He gently chided me.
“Yes it is.”
Then it follows that my chief role as a mum is to prepare my child's soul for eternity. This is done every time I love my child as she is, and NOT as she should be. I minister to my child’s soul and spirit every time I raise my voice to praise God for the blessing that she is, as opposed to yelling out my frustrations at her. Indeed, I am nurturing my child's soul if I'm able to lay down godly rules for her to abide by, and to discipline her when she fails to do so.
If at the end of my life I have taught my daughter nothing but to lean on God, then indeed I'll have successfully lived out my purpose as a mum.
