To the Moms... — Carol McLeod Ministries
Happy Mother’s Day!
This is the single week of the year in which we celebrate the calling and the cause of motherhood.
We salute all types of moms this week … biological moms, adoptive moms, foster moms, grandmoms and empty nest moms.
We celebrate those who wear the badge of “other mothers” so well … aunts, stepmoms, teachers, caring neighbors, and beloved older sisters.
We take the time to pray for moms whose children are dealing with serious illnesses and those who have sent their little ones to heaven much too soon.
Our hearts go out – especially this week – in compassion and sensitivity to those women who are not moms yet but who ache to be moms.
We remember the moms who have no relationship with their grown children or grandchildren … and we cry with them.
I believe that part of my life’s call is to remind moms of the enormity of their call and the joy that it delivers.
Motherhood is not for the faint of heart!
Motherhood presents the challenge of a lifetime … this sacred call invites women to be uncommon in common surroundings and it exacts an exorbitant price from a woman.
I can assure you without wavering and with no apology that being a mom will be the most daunting test of your entire life.
If you were to be the first woman president of the United States of America … it wouldn’t hold the challenge or significance that raising a child for the cause of Christ entails.
If you were to write numerous best-selling books that sold for millions of dollars … it is just a pittance compared to having an impact on one child’s life.
If you were to be an entertainer that thousands flocked to hear on stages from Los Angeles to London to New York City … it wouldn’t mean as much as singing a simple lullaby to an infant child in your lap.
If you were to become a world-famous doctor who was renowned for intricate, exacting surgeries and for brilliant scientific discoveries … it would pale in comparison to putting a little band-aid on a tiny finger and consoling the miniature person who depends on you for daily care and consolation.
God has placed you in a situation where every ounce of creative, spiritual, mental, and emotional energy is being squeezed out of you every day from dawn to dark.
This is the season in life when you need Him most.
It is during the years of hands-on motherhood when you will die to self as never before.
It is also the season of life in which you will realize a delight and a fulfillment that you have never before experienced … nor will you ever experience this particular delight and fulfillment again.
The only way you will make it through this monumental test of motherhood is to discover the joy!
You are the chief joy-bringer to your child’s life so stir up the joy in you!
If joy is not abundant in you, it will not be abundant in the home.
If joy is scarce in you, it will be scarce in the home.
Take some time today to cultivate deep joy in your heart, and as you do, you will find yourself discovering a strength that you never knew before.
“God chooses the moment in history into which an ordinary woman is born.”
It was the plan of my good, good Father that I would be born in the middle part of the 20th century when women were beginning to roar.
The battle of the sexes was being fought in the boardroom, in the courtroom and in the classroom.
The feminists of my generation were burning their bras while I sat nursing and rocking in the early 1980’s.
Women were shattering the glass ceiling while I was wiping up spilled milk from my kitchen floor in the 1990’s.
Women were infiltrating the network news while I was reading “The Little Engine that Could” to toddlers who listened to my every word.
Now we are well into the days of the 21st. Century and more than ever the identity and the call of women is being fought for.
I certainly believe that a woman is as capable as a man to accomplish great things in life.
I believe that a woman should be well educated and that her pay should be commensurate with the male counterparts in her profession.
But I also believe, even though it might seem politically incorrect to you, that God created men and women with certain inherent differences.
I am not ashamed nor am I embarrassed by these differences … but I choose to celebrate those determining factors!
Do you want to know what I believe at the very core of my being?
I believe that the words “maternal” and “powerful” are not mutually exclusive, but they create a glorious harmony that the world is waiting to hear!
I was born at this time in history for a divine reason and I won’t keep silent!
I will call the women under my watch to fulfill their destiny in Christ and to shun the call of the culture.
The culture in which you live should have no determinate and no deciding voice in your destiny!
Every drop of purpose and circumstance that you choose to walk in should be actuated by the principles found in the Word of God.
“There is no higher height to which humanity can attain than that occupied by a converted, heaven-inspired, praying mother.” – Anonymous
You are a world changer, dear mother! You, with baby spit- up on your shoulder and circles under your eyes … you are a world-changer!
You are a history maker, sweet mama. You, with a pile of dishes in the kitchen sink and a mountain of laundry waiting to be folded … you are a history maker!
You are a woman of unmatched influence, dear mother!
You, with the cry of a colicky baby in the air and the tantrums of a two-year-old as daily reality…you are a woman of unmatched influence!
And so … I challenge you today to enjoy the journey.
Enjoy every moment of outrageous Godliness and sweet strength that this job requires.
“She opens her mouth in wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children rise up and bless her!” Proverbs 31:26-28a
Thanks for listening to my heart this week. As you know by now, my heart is truly not a perfect heart but it is a heart that is filled to overflowing with gratitude for the life I have been given and for the people who walk with me. And, it continues to be a heart that is relentlessly chasing after God and all that He is!
