I suppose I was naive in my understanding of motherhood. After all, I was the "queen" of babysitting/nannying, so I had it down...I knew everything, or so I thought. I expected motherhood to be easy, I mean how hard could it really be to love on a cute little baby all day?! Well, 4 months into this (actually 13 if you count those 40 weeks of pregnancy) and it is very different then what I had expected...absolutely amazing...but different.
I remember growing up, and watching my mom be a mom to both me and my brother. I'd mimic her with my dolls and pretend I had a couple kids of my own. I'd push my little dolls around in the stroller, change their diapers and their clothes, feed them, and hold them close. Even at four or five I remember dreaming of being a mommy one day, I couldn't wait! As I watched my mom "mother", I only saw one aspect of motherhood. It wasn't as if she hid the "hard" parts, but rather that the joy of the Lord, and the love she had for her family, was so tangible, and so great, that that was all that I could see. I never realized how many sacrifices she really did make, in fact what I didn't see was that she had heeded the call to sacrifice herself for us, as unto the Lord.
Being a mother is a high calling, I would venture to say, that apart from being called to being a wife, it is the highest calling a woman can have. And like with any calling, the Lord uses motherhood to reveal more of Himself to us as He refines us more into the image of His Son.
It all begins with pregnancy. Again, I was naive. I imagined myself with a cute little bump and that was it. Well I was very wrong. Being pregnant is HARD, at least it was for me. There are physical and emotional changes that continually plague our bodies as pregnant women, and lets just say I was unprepared. The call to sacrifice begins with pregnancy, as you are asked to lay down your body for the life of another....literally. The Lord began to prepare me for motherhood the moment that the lines turned pink. I was in for 9 months of sanctification in ways I had never experienced it before.
And then childbirth comes along, and no matter what people say to prepare you, how many books you read, or how you might imagine it; it is an experience that you have to go through to understand. It probably is one of the most incredible things I have ever experienced, but lets be real, it is hard. Painful contractions, pushing until you think you can't push anymore, and then the recovery....yet again, a call to sacrifice.
( On a side note: The moment you see that little face, your world changes, and you are more in love then you thought possible. That moment, and that little bundle of joy is God's reward for those nine months of pain and sacrifice, and all the pushing and pain. But it's not over...your call to sacrifice has just begun.)
In the past four months I have learned more about what it means to sacrifice than ever before: physically, emotionally, spiritually. Motherhood is A CALL TO SACRIFICE, a call that continues on until you meet your Maker. But the reality is that being a Christian is a call to sacrifice. Jesus Himself spoke of the denial of one self, the taking up of our cross, and following Him. He exemplified sacrifice in everything he did and in His ultimate love gift on the cross, and His call AND command is the same for us, SACRIFICE! As a mom, the sacrifice may look different then others; it is that of our bodies during pregnancy, the sleepless nights, the endless diaper changes, the discipline, the messes, the homework...and the list goes on.
In Romans, Paul describes the Christian's command to sacrifice in chapter 12:1 “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” So whether we are a mommy or not, as a CHRISTIAN, we will be called to sacrifice in various forms. The question is not will we have to sacrifice, but how.
I remember growing up, and watching my mom be a mom to both me and my brother. I'd mimic her with my dolls and pretend I had a couple kids of my own. I'd push my little dolls around in the stroller, change their diapers and their clothes, feed them, and hold them close. Even at four or five I remember dreaming of being a mommy one day, I couldn't wait! As I watched my mom "mother", I only saw one aspect of motherhood. It wasn't as if she hid the "hard" parts, but rather that the joy of the Lord, and the love she had for her family, was so tangible, and so great, that that was all that I could see. I never realized how many sacrifices she really did make, in fact what I didn't see was that she had heeded the call to sacrifice herself for us, as unto the Lord.
Being a mother is a high calling, I would venture to say, that apart from being called to being a wife, it is the highest calling a woman can have. And like with any calling, the Lord uses motherhood to reveal more of Himself to us as He refines us more into the image of His Son.
It all begins with pregnancy. Again, I was naive. I imagined myself with a cute little bump and that was it. Well I was very wrong. Being pregnant is HARD, at least it was for me. There are physical and emotional changes that continually plague our bodies as pregnant women, and lets just say I was unprepared. The call to sacrifice begins with pregnancy, as you are asked to lay down your body for the life of another....literally. The Lord began to prepare me for motherhood the moment that the lines turned pink. I was in for 9 months of sanctification in ways I had never experienced it before.
And then childbirth comes along, and no matter what people say to prepare you, how many books you read, or how you might imagine it; it is an experience that you have to go through to understand. It probably is one of the most incredible things I have ever experienced, but lets be real, it is hard. Painful contractions, pushing until you think you can't push anymore, and then the recovery....yet again, a call to sacrifice.
( On a side note: The moment you see that little face, your world changes, and you are more in love then you thought possible. That moment, and that little bundle of joy is God's reward for those nine months of pain and sacrifice, and all the pushing and pain. But it's not over...your call to sacrifice has just begun.)
In the past four months I have learned more about what it means to sacrifice than ever before: physically, emotionally, spiritually. Motherhood is A CALL TO SACRIFICE, a call that continues on until you meet your Maker. But the reality is that being a Christian is a call to sacrifice. Jesus Himself spoke of the denial of one self, the taking up of our cross, and following Him. He exemplified sacrifice in everything he did and in His ultimate love gift on the cross, and His call AND command is the same for us, SACRIFICE! As a mom, the sacrifice may look different then others; it is that of our bodies during pregnancy, the sleepless nights, the endless diaper changes, the discipline, the messes, the homework...and the list goes on.
In Romans, Paul describes the Christian's command to sacrifice in chapter 12:1 “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” So whether we are a mommy or not, as a CHRISTIAN, we will be called to sacrifice in various forms. The question is not will we have to sacrifice, but how.
Whatever your call to sacrifice may be, may we heed Paul's exhortation to present our bodies, OUR WHOLE SELF, as a sacrifice unto the Lord, knowing that our labor will not be in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58).
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