“That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” – 2 Corinthians 12:10
Being a mom is fantastic. Nothing like having little tiny look-alikes who think you’re the best thing since sliced bread. And who need you constantly. I read these memes online that basically say: “If I were gone, would anyone miss me?”, and I’m thinking, “Yes! Way too much!” All three of them, often simultaneously need me, plus my husband needs me as well.
I regularly suffer from what I call “Mommy moments” -yes, I have a Facebook group that goes by that same name- where everything that can possible go wrong does, and everyone who can possibly be screaming at me, convinced of an imminent apocalypse should I not intervene, yells at the top of their lungs. This stresses me out, often resulting in me yelling back that I am only ONE person and there are THREE of them, as if my eighteen-month-old and three-year-old autistic son have any idea what that means.
Then it clicked all of a sudden. When I’m in the thick of it, whether it’s because I’ve been unsuccessful at cloning myself in seemingly necessary situations, or I just don’t have enough time to adequately care for my angels, my house, my worship ministry, and my work-from-home job, and things start spinning and I start thinking “I CAN’T DO THIS!”: that’s actually my moment to shine.
There is serious GLORY in being a mom. I don’t mean the dazzling, radiantly beautiful Shekinah glory that God inhabits. I mean glory as in greatness. As in supernatural strength in the midst of glaring weakness. In the midst of my “I CAN’T DO THIS” moment, I lift my gaze up to my Strength and do the same thing that I would do if I were freaking out that it was too much and I couldn’t handle it. I deal with it. But my heart is different. My attitude is changed. I relish the moment of difficulty, in confidence that God has my back and I glory in the fact that I’m going to soar through this.
I turn my Mommy Moments into Glory Moments. When I emerge from the bathroom to find that my tiniest toddler has found a way to climb the dining room table at the same time that my older toddler is naked AGAIN, and likely to pee all over the couch like last time, and my daughter is incessantly talking, trying to involve me in YET ANOTHER pretend game, instead of my heart racing, my face lights up in response to the challenge before me. Maybe not every time. Mommy Moments slip in here and there. But I am glorying in my position as a mom.
This is a different kind of glory. This is Motherhood Battlefield Glory. It’s not for the weak or faint of heart. This is the glory that comes from laying your life down (most moments of) every single day for little sentient creatures who can hardly do a thing in return besides render affection and adorable snuggles.
“The greatest among you will be your servant.” – Matthew 23:11
When I hear this, I think, I must be on the path to greatness! I serve little children all day long. The hard part is that this glory is largely invisible. I can’t always see it, the world sure can’t see it, and my kids for real don’t see it. But my heart’s desire is to please God and make an impact in the kingdom of God. It takes faith to believe in the moment that powering through the Mommy Moments with joy is actually glorious, but it is. I’m a glorious mom.