This is For Those Moms

A gift just for you... this is for those moms.  What moms? Moms like I used to be.  The ones who, in the looking back, struggle the most, pick apart the most, question the most, play the “What if” game the most.  This is for you, Mom, if you ever looked back and felt like a failure, the worst mom ever.  This is for you, if you wrestle with doubt that you got any of this “mom thing” right.

I used to want to be anywhere but in church on Mother’s Day when they would pray over the moms, and somewhere in that sweet prayer they would thank God for moms and talk about how wonderful they were.  I did not think I fit that description at all, and I felt like a fraud.  It was crushing, the weight I carried, and that Mother’s Day prayer just reminded me of it.

I was so hard on myself, taking ownership of so much that was not mine.    

If I could talk to my younger mom self today, this is what I would say.  I wish someone had said this to me, so I will say this to you:

Gentle and easy does it.  No need to look back and see so much that you can’t believe you missed. No need to use what you see in hindsight (Hindsight is always a better view) to be down on yourself. 

No need to focus on yourself at all.  Self blame and sadness over fairy tale dreams ending only adds more fuel to the out of control fire of the nightmare… the nightmare that still rages in your heart though the embers are cold.  Don’t look back, don’t look down. 

Look out.  Look around.  Look up.

Oh, girl.  How I long to make you understand.  Do you have any idea of just how much you are loved?  So much.  By a great big God who sees every one of your shortcomings, yet loves you all the more in the midst of them.  Your mom mess-ups?  Forgiven. All of them. You need to forgive yourself. 

I know, easier said than done. But you can do this. 

Because I did. 

It took a very long time, and I would love to save you from that delay.  Look up, and see the grace freely given. It’s yours to receive and strive to live in light of.

So start now, this year, this moment, this Mother's Day.