invaluable not invisible...
It takes courage. Motherhood. It should come with a warning: for brave women! Because let's be honest, bravery is required from the start. Whether you're growing a human being inside your womb or filling out adoption papers, motherhood takes courage. It takes a great amount of courage to birth a child, but it takes even more courage to completely give your heart to someone you don't even know. That's the unusual thing about motherhood, you know. Never in my life have I instantly loved someone I just met except for my children. And with the exception of my children, I have never kissed someone the first time I laid eyes on them nor did I offer up my bare chest as a resting place for a stranger. But motherhood requires vulnerability and intimacy and sacrifice. Motherhood is a great calling, and motherhood is a great task.
I sat in MOPS a few weeks ago learning from the wisdom of a seasoned mother who had wonderful insight thanks to her 30+ years of experience with motherhood, and she made a statement that stuck with me. She said, "Moms, you may feel invisible but you're not. You are invaluable." Well I think every mother in the world knows she's not invisible. It's amazing how your children can't find a pair of shoes lying in the middle of their bedroom floor and yet have absolutely no trouble locating you anywhere in the house within a red hot minute. You can't hide from your babies! In fact, there are moments when we'd like to be invisible. Moments like when we use the bathroom or take showers or try to have a conversation on the phone. There are moments I'd like to throw on the Harry Potter cloak of invisibility so I can actually get a thing or two done around the house. But my people always know where and how to find me and if I'm gone for longer than a minute, they form a search party. I always wondered what it felt like to be popular, but my little family has helped me understand the feeling and even though it can be exhausting to be so popular, I'll admit that it's nice to be admired!
And so I don't think feeling invisible is a problem for moms of little ones (I'm sure moms of teens have a different take), but I think all moms can agree that we often feel the work we do goes unnoticed.
I don't know how many dishes I wash a day, but I know I have gone through more dish washing soap in the past 2 years than I ever did when I did in the 10 years between when I left home for college and had my first child. And laundry. Just when I think I've washed all the dirty clothes, I turn around and somehow the bins are full. I never thought a day would come where I spent more time dealing with and concerning myself with other peoples' bodily functions and fluids more than my own, but now I am outnumbered. I can't tell you the last time I used the bathroom but I can give you a detailed rundown of how many diapers I have changed and the contents of each one on a daily basis. I usually turn off the Keurig (which was only turned on but coffee wasn't made) and remember to each lunch around 2:30 each day after I've put my oldest child down for a nap and yet somehow, without checking the clock, my brain knows when 3 hours have passed and it's time for my baby to have her next bottle. And by the end of the day, I look around my house and you'd think the focus of our day was destroying it. Because no matter how many times I've washed bottles, they always seem to be dirty. And no matter how many times I've tried to pick up toys and shoes, clutter remains. And regardless of what I had planned for the day, hardly any of it was 100% accomplished. In fact, there are so many times I feel that my work is in vain. Occasions when I look around and think, "I really don't even know why I try." Or, "why did I think we could manage white carpet or having nice things?" Or, "is anything I'm doing really making a difference?" But I was reminded that if no one ever washed bottles or picked up messes or fed babies and changed diapers or moved the laundry from bin to washer to dryer and back to the bin again, everyone would quickly notice!
"Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward and that the master you are serving is Christ." (Colossians 3:23-24)
Our work does not go unnoticed, Mothers. Our work of growing little people into adults, although it seems very monotonous and certainly not glamorous, is seen. Do our children always notice and thank us? My child has yet to thank me for changing her diaper. Come to think of it, there isn't much she thanks me for without being prompted, but my service has yet to make the list of gratitude. Maybe it's expected because I'm a mom and that's what moms do. I'm not really doing anything extraordinary or spectacular. I am doing my job. And really, should I be praised and thanked for doing what's expected of me? Well, it'd be nice, but let's be honest, the answer is no and yet so often I find myself expecting applause as if anyone would really be impressed anyway. But the Lord gives me Mother's Day to pause and remember that my purpose and drive for serving my family is because I'm really serving Christ. My work might not be important to the world but I'm doing His work. Kingdom work. Raising little people in the way of the Lord is no small task. And little people can't become world changers if they don't know how to walk, talk, use the potty, properly eat with utensils, dress themselves, put on shoes... you get the idea. And if no one feeds them, washes their clothing, bathes them, changes their diapers, wipes their bottoms, or spend countless hours pouring into their lives and teaching them how to exist, well, how will they learn to? These small acts of service are vital and necessary and God notices every effort and act, both big and small. And the truth is, any act of service done unto the Lord is no small thing.
Thirty years from now, my girls will get it. (Well, maybe sooner than that but if not, then surely after three decades of life.) Maybe they'll have babies of their own and they'll say, "Wow, Mom! You did a lot for us and we are so very thankful!" Nothing makes you appreciate your own mother more than becoming a mother, am I right?! And I'll look at them and say the same words my own mother said to me, "I'd do it all again in a heartbeat." Because what we come to learn about motherhood is that, while we often feel as if we're giving and giving and giving, we realize that we've been given the best gift of all and it came in the form of that little person who, a million times a day, calls us Mommy!
I sat in MOPS a few weeks ago learning from the wisdom of a seasoned mother who had wonderful insight thanks to her 30+ years of experience with motherhood, and she made a statement that stuck with me. She said, "Moms, you may feel invisible but you're not. You are invaluable." Well I think every mother in the world knows she's not invisible. It's amazing how your children can't find a pair of shoes lying in the middle of their bedroom floor and yet have absolutely no trouble locating you anywhere in the house within a red hot minute. You can't hide from your babies! In fact, there are moments when we'd like to be invisible. Moments like when we use the bathroom or take showers or try to have a conversation on the phone. There are moments I'd like to throw on the Harry Potter cloak of invisibility so I can actually get a thing or two done around the house. But my people always know where and how to find me and if I'm gone for longer than a minute, they form a search party. I always wondered what it felt like to be popular, but my little family has helped me understand the feeling and even though it can be exhausting to be so popular, I'll admit that it's nice to be admired!
And so I don't think feeling invisible is a problem for moms of little ones (I'm sure moms of teens have a different take), but I think all moms can agree that we often feel the work we do goes unnoticed.
I don't know how many dishes I wash a day, but I know I have gone through more dish washing soap in the past 2 years than I ever did when I did in the 10 years between when I left home for college and had my first child. And laundry. Just when I think I've washed all the dirty clothes, I turn around and somehow the bins are full. I never thought a day would come where I spent more time dealing with and concerning myself with other peoples' bodily functions and fluids more than my own, but now I am outnumbered. I can't tell you the last time I used the bathroom but I can give you a detailed rundown of how many diapers I have changed and the contents of each one on a daily basis. I usually turn off the Keurig (which was only turned on but coffee wasn't made) and remember to each lunch around 2:30 each day after I've put my oldest child down for a nap and yet somehow, without checking the clock, my brain knows when 3 hours have passed and it's time for my baby to have her next bottle. And by the end of the day, I look around my house and you'd think the focus of our day was destroying it. Because no matter how many times I've washed bottles, they always seem to be dirty. And no matter how many times I've tried to pick up toys and shoes, clutter remains. And regardless of what I had planned for the day, hardly any of it was 100% accomplished. In fact, there are so many times I feel that my work is in vain. Occasions when I look around and think, "I really don't even know why I try." Or, "why did I think we could manage white carpet or having nice things?" Or, "is anything I'm doing really making a difference?" But I was reminded that if no one ever washed bottles or picked up messes or fed babies and changed diapers or moved the laundry from bin to washer to dryer and back to the bin again, everyone would quickly notice!
"Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward and that the master you are serving is Christ." (Colossians 3:23-24)
Our work does not go unnoticed, Mothers. Our work of growing little people into adults, although it seems very monotonous and certainly not glamorous, is seen. Do our children always notice and thank us? My child has yet to thank me for changing her diaper. Come to think of it, there isn't much she thanks me for without being prompted, but my service has yet to make the list of gratitude. Maybe it's expected because I'm a mom and that's what moms do. I'm not really doing anything extraordinary or spectacular. I am doing my job. And really, should I be praised and thanked for doing what's expected of me? Well, it'd be nice, but let's be honest, the answer is no and yet so often I find myself expecting applause as if anyone would really be impressed anyway. But the Lord gives me Mother's Day to pause and remember that my purpose and drive for serving my family is because I'm really serving Christ. My work might not be important to the world but I'm doing His work. Kingdom work. Raising little people in the way of the Lord is no small task. And little people can't become world changers if they don't know how to walk, talk, use the potty, properly eat with utensils, dress themselves, put on shoes... you get the idea. And if no one feeds them, washes their clothing, bathes them, changes their diapers, wipes their bottoms, or spend countless hours pouring into their lives and teaching them how to exist, well, how will they learn to? These small acts of service are vital and necessary and God notices every effort and act, both big and small. And the truth is, any act of service done unto the Lord is no small thing.
Thirty years from now, my girls will get it. (Well, maybe sooner than that but if not, then surely after three decades of life.) Maybe they'll have babies of their own and they'll say, "Wow, Mom! You did a lot for us and we are so very thankful!" Nothing makes you appreciate your own mother more than becoming a mother, am I right?! And I'll look at them and say the same words my own mother said to me, "I'd do it all again in a heartbeat." Because what we come to learn about motherhood is that, while we often feel as if we're giving and giving and giving, we realize that we've been given the best gift of all and it came in the form of that little person who, a million times a day, calls us Mommy!
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