I'm Turning my Back on my Job as a Mom...

"So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective. Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life—even though invisible to spectators—is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you’ll show up, too—the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ...So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it." -Colossians 3:1-4, 12-14, MSG

With Mother's Day approaching, I felt led to write something to encourage and uplift my fellow mommas, but then God gave me so much more of a word (as He tends to do because He's simply awesome like that). And this very passage spoke to me in a whole new way that it never has before, especially through the MSG translation which I absolutely love. This illustrious passage speaks to us as believers of course, but as I studied it, I experienced revelation about motherhood that shook me to the core.

You see, I've not only heard this publicly but I have also been personally told that motherhood isn't a calling, rather it's a job, a role, or even a duty women can choose to take on. Well, I absolutely and wholeheartedly DISAGREE with this. And today, I'm turning my back on my "job" as a mother because it's not a job, a role, or a duty. It is a CALLING, which entails much more—it encompasses our entire being. And this Mother's Day, I choose to now and forevermore clothe myself in my calling as a mom.

Motherhood, just like the calling of being a wife, is to me one of the highest callings a woman can be given. And not every woman is called to be a mom or a wife. We are CHOSEN for this calling (see verse 12).

So on this Mother's Day, I want to challenge my fellow Christ-following mommas to lay down the notion of motherhood as your choice, job, duty, or role and embrace it as your calling. When we do this, we are so much more free to be who Christ intended us to be through His death and resurrection. Just like the scripture states, if we are serious about living the resurrected life with Christ, we need to act like it! This calling pushes us to so much action.

Motherhood, is such an easy thing to just "get through". We can easily keep our eyes down and shuffle along, letting others and other things raise our kids and what we end up doing is just "babysitting" them. Therefore, we let our children grow up to also just shuffle, eyes down through life. We can mess it all up for us and for them...

OR, we can look up ladies! We can be where the action is and see motherhood, our calling, through His perspective. We can raise children who know, love, and serve our Lord wholeheartedly! We can raise world changers, mountain movers, and prayer warriors. We can raise children who are grounded in the Savior and love and serve others.

I know there are going to be some critics who completely disagree with me, but I'll let God's word and Holy Spirit move in you. All I'm concerned about is walking out my calling and hopefully uplifting and encouraging other moms to walk out theirs as well. He's tugged on some deep heartstrings in me as of late and I won't dare tuck away the incredible words He has spoken to me.

What He showed me through this passage is a beautifully broken down list of what we should clothe ourselves in as believers, but it's also spot on for motherhood.

Compassion Motherhood takes complete compassion—a deep awareness of the other's situations, sufferings, and wanting to do something about it. My awareness of my children's situations and needs as they grow up (especially in their teenage and young adult lives as I've been told) takes compassion like none other.

Lord, prepare me to now and for as long as I live, show my children compassion; therefore, teaching them how to relay compassion toward others.

Kindness Emarosa is only 1 1/2 years old, but it takes kindness day in and day out to raise her. She's learning the word "no", comprehending what right from wrong is, and testing me...so, kindness it is! She's learning. And just as when I've had to learn anything in life, a kind mother did much more than a frustrated and loud one. My mom has taught me this lesson so amazingly. She's so kind and loving in every situation with me even though I know I've given her every reason to be frustrated as all get out ;)

Lord, help me to remain kind in all situations with my children just as You've been so kind to me. 

Humility As every parent can testify to, we are not always right. And the only One who can teach us how to raise our children right is our Heavenly Father. Which, takes a whole lot of humility. As we walk in humility, we are teachable.

Lord, help me to be humble in all-things so that I can be teachable, learning how to raise my children correctly. And let that humility be an example to them as well. 

Quiet strength I can't tell you how many times I have to just sit and breathe quietly, say a quick prayer, and regain even the littlest of strength day-to-day. And all my fellow stay-at-home mommas said "Amen!" Haha! Quiet strength is a learned art. It's much easier to just blow up, get stressed out, and let our anxiety show. I've learned from amazing women in my family on how to retain and display quiet strength. My Lita is the perfect example. She's such a prayer warrior and holds so much of the familia together through her meek and silent strength. Sometimes the greatest strength we can be for our children is the quiet kind. Silently sitting back and trusting God in the situation, going to our prayer closet and fervently lifting them up, or just quietly taking them by the hand to talk with them about what they've done or not done.

Lord, continue to grant me this quiet strength. Your son is the perfect example of it. His walk toward and endurement of the cross displayed quiet strength like no other. Help me to have even a fraction of this with my children. 

Discipline Quiet strength leads so perfectly to discipline when it comes to motherhood. As we get to know the children God has blessed us with, their temperaments and love languages, we can start to see how we should discipline them and what discipline works best. All we have to do is simply look at how God disciplines us, His children. God knows me better than I know myself. He knows how He needs to discipline me; and every time He does, it's horrible and sucks to be honest, but it WORKS. In the same way, I'm learning what discipline works best for Emarosa. In the end, discipline needs to happen. Discipline displays love. If we love our children, just as The Lord loves us, we will discipline them. Lord, teach me how to discipline my children in love just as you do with me.

Even-tempered *sigh* This one is a tough one because it takes so much self control. I also come from a line of men and women in my family that have temper issues. God has had to work in the deepest parts of me so much to help me become more even-tempered; and motherhood, is the hardest area to be even-tempered in at times. But, it's possible and can be a huge example for our children as well as a blessing in our home. If I "lose it" all of the time, how can there be peace and joy in our home? But as I deal with every curve ball thrown at me with a Christ-like disposition, then how much more blessed and full of love our home will be. Now, Jesus did overturn tables in the temple out of righteous anger. Sometimes, though it's rare cause Christ only did that once we should note, we will need to get up in our children's faces out of love. I'm so thankful for the times my mom did with me because I certainly wouldn't be the woman I am today without that righteous anger and love.

Lord, place in me an even-temperedness that can only come from You. Calm the rage that stirs within me when something bad happens, and place a peace that surpasses all understanding and flows out of me onto my children. 

Content with second place If there's ever a calling that takes constantly coming in second place, it's motherhood! Whether it be that we never get to sit down and get a hot meal ourselves because we are feeding our families, whether it be that nap has to go today because otherwise the laundry won't get done, whether it be that we take our kids to the park instead of doing what we want to do, whether it be watching lots of Disney movies and shows instead of our novellas (oh wait, I actually love disney and do not mind that one bit haha), or whatever it may be...coming in second is just something that comes with motherhood. And the examples I just listed are quite simple, first-world problem ones. There are far harsher second place positions that can come with motherhood. But what the Word of God states is not just being okay with second place, but rather being content. What?! I'm supposed to be content with coming in second place? Yes, we are! You see, when we are content in letting others go before us, it not only glorifies God but builds us up so much more. God puts us first. He put us first before His son when He led Him to the cross. Christ put us first when He died on that cross for us. And look what came of it—we get to be with Him for all eternity and have a relationship with Him.

Oh Lord, may I be content in every situation with coming in second place and putting my spouse and my children first.

Here's a video of something that moved me to so many tears about how being content in coming in second with our children can shape that very child, our family, ourselves and others. It's also why I'm now rooting for OKC ;) hehe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdcu3oHUNik

Quick to forgive Let's face it, we have to forgive our children A LOT. Mine's not even 2 and I'm having to daily! Haha! I know it'll get harder because as she grows, the things to forgive will be much more larger in scale to what they are now. But how much more amazing and stress-free is life when we are quick to forgive just as the Father is quick to forgive us?

Lord, teach me to quickly forgive my children as you have forgiven me. Remind me of specific situations where you quickly forgave me so that I may display the same towards my children. 

LOVE What can be said of love that hasn't been already? We all know that motherhood takes love and that's the "easy" one because, well, we absolutely love our child from the moment we first hear their heartbeat to every moment after. But let us also remind ourselves of the moments when it's hardest to love our children—when they disobey us, hurt us, do something terrible and so forth. Let us love our children just as God so perfectly loves us when we mess up. He loves us the same no matter what we do. I want to love each of my children just the same through all things we venture through, which I know will be some doozies.

Lord, let Your love transcend from me. May Your love always exude from me onto my children. Let me love as you have loved. 

Because regardless of what we put on as mothers, wearing God's love, the only true love, will provoke all of the fruits to be lived out as we walk in our calling as a mom.

Oh yes Lord, may Your love provoke the other fruits to be lived out! That is my prayer for us all as we walk forward our calling and move forward in it. 

So to wrap it up, I truly hope this encourages other mommas to ditch their "job" and embrace their calling. Oh how much more incredible our lives and our children's lives will be when we do. Now, enjoy your weekend mommies! We all deserve some TLC :)

Happy happy Mother's Day to every single momma out there, <3 Erica