Mommy Thoughts

Last week, Scott and I went on a church bus trip to Sight & Sound's, Abraham and Sarah. (If you go to our church and haven't been on a bus trip, you really should, they are so much fun!) This was the first time we had been to the Living Waters Theater and it was wonderful...the quality was the same as the larger Millennium theater but everything was closer and more "real." Plus the story followed a few basic characters, which I prefer...by the end of the show, you feel like you truly know them. I especially enjoyed our Sunday School lessons several months ago on the life of Abraham, so this show was a special treat.

The main theme of our SS lessons was Abraham and Sarah's faithfulness to God. Their obvious and costly mistakes are plainly recorded for us in Scripture, but the Lord remembers them in the NT by their walk of faith.

The "finale" of the show carried the same theme and was marked by the song, "Find Us Faithful" which incidentally, we sang, as a graduating class, almost twelve years ago. It's funny because as poignant as the words of that song are, they hold almost a totally different meaning to me over a decade later. (Thankfully, the maturation process continued despite what I thought about myself at that time. LOL!)


Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful
May the fire of our devotion light their way
May the footprints that we leave
Lead them to believe
And the lives we live inspire them to obey
Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful


Now when I read those words, I think of my children and the daily walk. What kind of a mother am I on a daily basis? Do my children see firey devotion every day? Or a snappy, tired Mommy who is just trying to make it through that day?

The last two years of homeschooling have taught me one thing crystal clear, and that is: homeschooling with babies and preschoolers is an exceptionally hard task! Mothering, in general, is exceedingly taxing. There is not one day that goes by that I am not tempted to flounder in exasperated exhaustion from one more question, one more spill to clean up, one more "Mommmieeeeeee!", one more phone call, one more nose to wipe, one more direction my brain is pulled while trying to keep on task! :)

The other day as I was "listening" my way through I Samuel and sweating on my treadmill, the Lord encouraged me with a great truth about these preschool years.

Hannah.

Hannah raised Samuel and then turned him over to Eli, probably when Samuel was a preschooler. Eli, though a man of God, was not a great father, but somehow Samuel "turned out" well, as opposed to Eli's wicked sons.

Why?

Because of his faithful mother's training in the preschool years, perhaps? Do you think she was a bit nervous to hand her precious, only son over to a priest whose own boys already had a bad reputation? Yet, faithful Hannah trusted God and worked diligently in those few, crucial years that she had. I am sure she continued praying for Samuel and influencing him as she could in the following years. But her greatest impact was made in the dawn of his life.

What an encouragement to me as a mother of little ones! On days when I'm trying to get through a reading lesson, while the baby spills puzzle pieces all over the floor, the couch cushions resemble a fort in the living room, the countertop is an explosion of paperwork, Mt. Dishmore resides in my sink, there is a mysterious substance on my bathroom floor, and someone has just had a collision with a brother's forehead and has a bleeding lip...Hannah comes to mind. How I handle those tense moments and seemingly endless days does matter. I am making a difference, even if it doesn't seem like it.

The lack of verbal affirmation in motherhood is something that I didn't notice in the early days, or years, really. But over time, I'm realizing that not hearing positive feedback really has an adverse affect on a mommy. It's hard to be home all day long, without another adult telling you that you are doing a good job, or encouraging your efforts.

However, we mommies are "surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses." We have Hannah and Sarah, and others to remember. Ladies, just like you and me, who trusted God and saw results after many years of steadfast loyalty and service. They had frustrating and tiring days, too. And now they are up in heaven as the Mother's Cheerleading Section, inspiring us on, and emboldening our walk and service for Him!

It is the desire of my heart that my children are able to look back and see a testimony of faithfulness in their mother's life. It is only going to come from daily sacrificing myself to the will of the Lord and the needs of those around me. May I find encouagement in those who "have gone on before me...who have left a heritage of faithfulness and stirring testament to God's sustaining grace!"