How did that just happen? How did my youngest just turn eighteen years of age and now suddenly all my babies are adults? Some of you are probably raising your wise eyebrows and nodding slowly because you’ve been there, and some of you are changing diapers and feel a million years away from being in my stilettos. No one warns you it’s a thing, but you guys—it is!
Forgive the melodramatics but I have no children left! Oh, I know, they’ll always be my babies and motherhood is forever, but this past weekend we had the absolute joy of ALL being together (no easy feat) and it hit me like a ton of bricks—my three kids are now all grown up. For real.
“The days are long, but the years are short.” (Gretchen Rubin) When it comes to motherhood, that pretty much hits the nail on the head, don’t you think? When you’re in the trenches it seems like there is NO LIGHT at the end of the tunnel—ever, and then suddenly you realize your time’s up and you hope to goodness you’ve done enough…
“What you really want, desperately, wildly, in spite of everything — is for them to remember the good…What every mother wants, her most unspoken need — is a truckload of Grace.” Ann Voskamp
Yes and Amen. We have a tendency to beat ourselves about the head with a broom and wish we had done the whole parenting/ mothering thing better. Spent more time listening and less time nagging. More down-time and less uptight. More laughs and less tears. More hugs and less shrugs… and yet, GRACE.
Why is it so hard to give ourselves a little grace? We have a Heavenly Father who lavishes grace upon us as a beautiful gift daily… perhaps we need to take His lead. Perhaps we need to stop striving for the impossibility of perfection and quit trying to measure ourselves against the next mom/ wife/ writer/ businesswoman/ grandma in line. Perhaps we need to make the most of being in THIS VERY MOMENT with our families rather than feeling guilty about missed opportunities and messed up pasts.
Do you need to give yourself a little grace right now, whatever season you’re in?
“Today, let’s set our minds and hearts on feeling more thankful for what we are than guilty for what we’re not. Let’s cut the threads of guilt with grace.” Lysa TerKeurst
Yes, I choose gratitude. For all the moments and memories of parenting. We’ve made huge mistakes along the way for sure, but you can only do so much and then you put them into God’s hands— knowing that’s the very best place for them to be. I love the candid way The Message puts Proverbs 22:6: “Point your kids in the right direction— when they’re old they won’t be lost.”
At the end of the day, the most important thing we can do for our kids is to show them Jesus. Isn’t that what really counts? Not the number of instruments our kids played, or sports they excelled in, or how many A’s they received on their report cards. I hope they will remember how much we loved Jesus and how we tried (even though we often failed horribly) to put Him first. This quote gives me the chills, friends:
“You may speak but a word to a child, and in that child there may be slumbering a noble heart which shall stir the Christian Church in years to come.” Charles Spurgeon
Right? We have the privilege of pouring into our kids, no matter how old they are. And that doesn’t stop when they hit eighteen… it’s just a new, different season. Let’s ditch the guilt and keep moving forward with our babies, toddlers, children, teens, and even our very own “adult-kids”— with grace and gratitude!
…Mother of three young adults! 🙂
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