The other day I had lunch with a friend of mine. We were exchanging some ideas about ministry, writing, speaking and leadership. Mid-conversation she looked at me and said, “Nicki, so how do you do it all?”
Immediately, I felt sick to my stomach…did she really think I was “doing it all”?
Just that morning I had to cut a giant blob of dried ketchup out of one of my daughter’s hair. Another daughter had gone to school with a pair of dirty socks on [where on earth do all the socks go]. No one’s beds had been made. Dinner was going to be something through the drive-thru [there goes our 100 days of Real Food Challenge] and I reached an all time low a few days prior when I FORGOT to pick up my girls from school.
Seriously.
I am “that” mom. The mom on the teacher’s list to send multiple reminders about projects, the mom who forgets to send her kids lunches and the mom who needs…grace.
I don’t do it all.
I can’t do it all.
I’ve accepted “all” is not going to be done.
So I looked at my friend and said, “I don’t do it all but I’m doing my best.” She suddenly had a sense of relief on her face.
Maybe today you are a mom who needs to hear this…you are doing better than you think you are.
I know sites like Pinterest make us think that everyone’s house is spotless and beautiful. Mommy blogs may make us feel like we aren’t doing enough creative projects with our kids. And many parenting books make us feel inadequate and hopeless as we gaze into the future.
My kids misbehave. We don’t eat perfect meals. My husband and I argue… and approximately one hour a week my house is totally clean.
Each day I am finding a greater need to camp my heart out under the scandalous grace of God.
Hebrews 13:9 tells us we need to strengthen our hearts with God’s grace. Grace is defined as something we have yet don’t deserve. I am learning to accept God’s grace in our chaotic life. As moms we can fret over all the things we are doing wrong or we can trust in this Truth from God.
I will never be able to do it all but when we give God our soul’s best, He gives us a spirit of rest. Learning this is hard and I still struggle…
After lunch with my friend that day, I headed to pick my girls up from school. When my youngest got into the car, I immediately noticed a HORRIFC smell coming from her. I sniffed her from head to toe and realized the smell was coming from her book bag. Fumbling through the bag, I looked at the side pocket and noticed this…
Gross, gross, gross…a banana peel from a week ago. I was mortified and couldn’t believe I hadn’t noticed this as I shooed her off to the bus that morning. But instead of writing a formal note of apology to the entire Kindergarten for my foul-smelling child…I just sighed and took a hearty dose of God’s grace. So humbling yet so freeing at the same time.
Grace, for the moms who don’t do it all…
4 Comments
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Yes, oh goodness, I needed to see this post today! Thanks so much!! 🙂 I’m gonna email you sometime soon!
Hugs friend. Would love to hear from you. 🙂
Oh I love this. Just yesterday I looked up every reference to grace in the Bible that I could find. Thanks for the confirmation that God’s telling me to cut myself some slack! I’m completely convinced the only reason I’ve never forgotten to pick my kids up from school is because we homeschool. ha! Of course I forget to do plenty of other things…..
Oh thank you thank you thank you.
So much guilt attached to being a mother and then when I try to step out in faith to do something else with my time as well I see all the things that I ‘should’ be doing if I were a ‘proper’ mum. I want to get it all right, but I can’t do everything. There’s a constant feeling of inadequacy that I’m trying to get past.
CS Lewis said that friendship is born at the moment when you think, ‘Oh, I thought it was just me!’ if that’s the case, I’ve found a friend!
Thankyou.
Bless you.
Helenx
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