Thursday, January 08, 2009

On Mothering

To Mother
is to learn the art of self-sacrifice
To give of yourself when you feel it least within you
To deny yourself when those cravings come
And with thanksgiving for the privilege,
serve.
Not for notoriety
Or fame
Or fortune
And often at the cost of such things.
One does not mother with the intent of greatness
But simply because it is what we do.
The fibers of our being start to change,
and we learn the beauty of giving, of sacrifice, of love.
Love, to a child calling when it is night
And sleep calls to your weary body
Love, to a child angry with circumstance
when your patience threatens to cut and run
Love, to those eyes, ready to learn and watch
when your desire is to be alone.
It is the art of sacrifice we get to learn first.
Laying down our most treasured strongholds for something so much greater.
Oh Lord, let me learn to love like You do.
For your ways are not my ways, and my bones ache to do less than justice to this calling.
Give me grace for a new day, for each precious moment I am given here.
Give me eyes to see those hearts, ears to hear those words, wisdom to guide those souls.
And thank you for giving me the blessing of this beautiful name,
Mom.
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Thoughts as I am pulled from that sweet moment between the waking and sleeping world by my wonderful children- thankful that God meets me even here, at midnight, weary though I may be.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Motherhood - I really believe that God uses it as an opportunity to "die to self". The world will tell you that is wrong, an injustice to women, something to battle against. Being on the other side of the mountain, I would say no, its something to embrace. It's the one thing in my life that has taught me so much about following Christ and becoming more like Him. Is it any wonder the "spin of the world" would like to snatch that opportunity from women?

Anonymous said...

Tracy, this is so beautiful, and vividly catches both the stress and joy of mothering little ones. Only Moms can fully appreciate the sacrifices we make as well as the rewards and bliss that it brings in return.

Michael / Tifani said...

Thanks for sharing those thoughts, Tracy. I have been realizing more and more of these truths every day since Elijah was born. It's so amazing how God shapes us as mothers and shows us just a small glimpse of his great love for us as we learn to put our children first.